Riley Green Channels His Inner George Jones With Hilarious New Music Video For “Think As You Drunk”

Now that’s a music video.

Riley Green is gearing up to released his new album That’s Just Me will be out everywhere this fall, on September 18th, and the lead single is a humorous, heck of a good time called “Think As You Drunk.” In an interview with Billboard, he explained that he wanted to include a sample of Toby Keith’s 2005  hit, “As Good As I Once Was,” which Riley says his dad used to joke was about him.

The song was written with Riley’s frequent collaborators Erik Dylan, Wyatt McCubbin and Jessi Alexander, and Riley said it only took them 20 minutes to write. Riley covers Toby’s songs at every live show, particularly “Should’ve Been A Cowboy,” and he wanted this to be a tip of the cowboy hat the influence Keith has had on his songwriting:

“The best compliment I can give a song is ‘Man, this feels like a Toby Keith song. Especially as a songwriter, I don’t know if there was a bigger influence on me.”

Given the influence Keith had on this song in particular, Riley’s team played it for Keith’s manager and family, and he says they loved it and wanted his vocals on it:

“They completely thought it was a tip of the cap to Toby, so they wanted to have his vocal on it. So it’s really a full-circle moment for me to have Toby’s vocal on that song.”

Riley unfortunately never got to meet Keith, but he says he’s always admired how Keith has given back to the troops and he was scheduled to play military bases in Hawaii and Japan in March, though the conflict in Iran forced the shows to be postponed, though he will eventually get over there when it’s safe to do so:

“I remember how awesome a look that was to me, [for Keith] to perform for the brave men and women overseas that cannot be at home. Then I got on the road and away from home and realized how impressive it really was because I know how precious your time off is.

For [Keith] to travel halfway around the world and go perform like that shows how important it was to him. So it’s definitely something that I wanted to make a priority.”

“Think As You Drunk” has tons of that funny Toby Keith-influenced humor Riley does so well, and unlike Riley’s recent hits “My Way” and “Don’t Mind If I Do,” this one is a good old fashioned song about getting drunk… and trying to explain you’re not that drunk, only for it to end up proving that you actually are.

The chorus pretty much explains

“But I ain’t as think as you drunk I am
Don’t pay no mind to this mountain of crushed up cans
No, I can’t say my CBA’s
I can sing you every song that jukebox plays
And I know I can’t stand or sit
But if I was hammered, could I dance like this?
Might have a cold one in each hand
But I ain’t as think as you drunk I am”

There’s a ton of fiddle in the production, and while we all know Riley writes some of the best heartbreakers in mainstream country, but this one is really fun and I laughed several times each time I’ve listened to it.

And of course, he needed the perfect music video to go with it, and that’s exactly what he delivered in the just-released video.

It features his famous dog, Carl, and we see him walking int o his Midtown bar, Duck Blind, where he proceeds to get drunk… but of course, that leads to some bad decisions, and you eventually see him get pulled over on a lawn mower, George Jones-style. He also pays tribute to Toby in the video, and there are so many funny moments throughout the video that you really just have to see it for yourself.

I personally laughed out loud when he was flirting with a lovely woman, who might be old enough to be his mom, and when he did his field sobriety test with a lady who is very obviously not your typical cop.

I think it’s my favorite video he’s ever done (yes, even more than “Worst Way,” I know…), and it’s a really fun way to kick off this album. I can’t wait to hear all of the new stuff he has coming when it drops this fall, but until then, you can check out the video here:

“Think As You Drunk”