Chris Janson’s ‘Drunk Girl’ Inspired by His Own Children

Chris Janson has two children and two step-children, but he counts all four as his own. So when he was writing his current CMA Award-nominated hit, “Drunk Girl,” he thought of them while he was penning the thought-provoking lyrics.

“If our daughters get into a ‘Drunk Girl’ situation, we want them to be treated with great reverence and respect,” Janson tells PopCulture.com. “As far as our boys, it’s almost more importantly, for our boys, and I have two of each. We want them to be the difference in the boy and a man. There is no exception to the rule. There is no room for error in that matter. And so, that’s what we wrote into it and that’s the hearts we put behind it.

“To have a Top 10 single on the radio and to have the nominations and all the great praise it’s been getting, that’s validation of how something’s working,” he adds. “You just write stuff from your heart, and usually it works.”

In an era where songs about drinking and partying dominate the airwaves, the 32-year-old hopes “Drunk Girl” inspires fans, both male and female, to take a different approach.

“We just believe a certain way,” says Janson. “We believe you should take care of your fellow human, and certainly guys take of girls, and girls take care of guys, and just respect one another. It’s really the bottom line.”

Janson earned three CMA Awards nominations, for New Artist of the Year, and both Song of the Year and Music Video of the Year, for “Drunk Girl.” Although Janson is grateful to be nominated for any industry accolade, he admits Song of the Year is the one that means the most to him.

“Song of the Year is always the thing that people watch on award shows every year. It’s like the thing that people look at and they go, ‘Man, I wonder what’s gonna win that,’” he tells PopCulture.com. “And it’s usually those kind of songs that win, for the most part, and stand the test of time. They’re iconic kind of songs. ‘The House That Built Me,’ for instance.

“I wrote ‘Drunk Girl’ with Tom Douglas, who also wrote ‘The House That Built Me,’ so we have high hopes but we have normal expectations,” he adds. “What will happen will happen. To be nominated was a big enough deal for me and I just always hope for the best.”

Download “Drunk Girl” on iTunes.

The 2018 CMA Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, November 14, at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Matt Winkelmeyer