If you want to just stay here and drink, 5,095 shots should last you quite awhile.
The legendary Merle Haggard had plenty of accomplishments on his resume from his 50+ year music career. But as it turns out, it wasn’t his music that landed him a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records.
The outlaw country singer once held the Guinness World Record for buying the largest round of drinks ever bought by one person – and it’s a record that stood for more than three decades.
The Hag set the record at Billy Bob’s Texas back in 1983 when he ordered 5,095 “C.C. Waterbacks,” a shot of Canadian Club whiskey with a water chaser, for patrons at the bar. Merle bought the shots in honor of his 28th hit song, “C.C. Waterback,” from his 1982 duets album with George Jones, A Taste Of Yesterday’s Wine.
The bar used around 40 gallons of whiskey for the round of drinks, and the bar tab for Merle’s massive order came out to $12,737.50 – or $2.50 each. (If he had bought the same round of drinks today it would have cost him over $40k).
But when the bar owner, Billy Bob Barnett, presented Merle with the check, he offered to buy the Hag a drink on the house – and Merle took him up on it.
Merle’s record stood in the Guinness Book of World Records until 2016, when a U.K. brewery bought 412 beers at a pub to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday.
And I know what you’re thinking: Wait, only 412 beers? Merle Haggard bought over 5,000 shots.
Well the beer order amounted to over 42 gallons, while Merle’s was just under 40, so the brewery technically broke Merle’s record.
Sounds like some BS to me. I’d rather have 5,000 shots than 400 beers. But that’s just me.
Despite falling as the largest round of drinks, Merle’s record stood as the largest round of shots ever bought until last year, when Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves bought a round of 6,000 Jell-O shots during the College World Series.
But the question remains: Who’s going to break the record next? George Strait lives down near Billy Bob’s, and he has his own tequila line. So maybe it’s time for the King to step up and buy a few thousand rounds of Codigo to get himself yet another record for the books.
And there are plenty of artists with their own bars in Nashville. Dierks Bentley, Alan Jackson and Eric Church all have venues on Broadway, and their own whiskey brands to go with them, so it seems like an easy opportunity to set a new record. Let’s make it happen, guys.
I’ve just gotta make sure I’m there when it does.
