Listen to Michael Ray’s ‘Drink One for Me’ For July 4th Inspiration

Michael Ray has a new song, “Drink One for Me,” which is perfect as the country prepares to celebrate July 4th. The song, from his recent Amos album, speaks of the sacrifices those in the Armed Forces make for our freedom.

The song, which says, “Somewhere in a small town there’s a bag gettin’ packed / In a bedroom at the far end of a gravel cul de sac / Someone ridin’ shotgun there’s some Army green fatigues / On a pin drop quiet drive with a tear in every seat / At that empty airport gate, there’s a soldier sayin’, ‘Hey’ / Drink one for me, on Friday night / Throw ’em back and laugh and tip the band I like,” was written by Jon Nite, Jimmy Robbins and Josh Thompson. But although Ray didn’t write “Drink One for Me,” he has several friends serving overseas, which makes the song one of the most important ones he included on Amos.

“The biggest thing they wanted was just to make home stay the same,” Ray tells Rolling Stone Country of his friends. “So, no matter where they’re at in the world, they know that, ‘Hey, I know what my buddies are doing right now.’ It’s just celebrating our soldiers and our men and women in uniform. It’s us saying, ‘We’ll keep home the same for you. You just come home to us.’”

The 11 songs on Amos were each inspired by Ray’s grandfather, who the record is named after, and whose life impacted Ray the most.

Amos is my grandfather,” Ray tells PopCulture.com. “He was one of seven kids. Got out of the Army, married my grandmother. They were married 53 years. They had my dad and my uncle. He was a middle class, hardworking, honest, Christian man, that had a passion for music like nobody I’ve ever seen, even to this day.

“He passed that down to my dad’s generation and their cousins, that were all around that time,” continues Ray. “He was the hub of everybody learning, and wanting to be a part of that.”

“Drink One for Me” is the final song on Amos – an appropriate homage to his grandfather, who also served in the military.

“When it came time to name this record, this album, I feel like when people hear it in its entirety, they’re going to know me better,” notes Ray. “They’re going to know the last two years of my life. They’re going to know my story. I wanted them to know where it began, and it began with him.”

Download “Drink One for Me” on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Erika Goldring