The world apparently understood Kenny Chesney’s “Beer in Mexico” all wrong.
No Shoes Nation’s leader, Mr. Kenny Chesney, recently sat down with The Rich Eisen Show and discussed how his hit song, “Beer in Mexico,” came to be. The country music star described it as an autobiographical song that was inspired by a rather unique gig he played in Cabo San Lucas.
If you are wondering what the special concert was… Chesney was asked to play Sammy Hagar’s birthday party.
And it was while he was fulfilling the duty of Sammy Hagar’s birthday entertainer that he came up with the idea for an introspective song. The night inspired a tune that everyone just assumed was a party and drinking song:
“I wrote ‘Beer in Mexico’ and everybody thought that song was a party song. But it wasn’t. It was a true reflection of my soul. I was 36-years-old when I wrote it. I was playing Sammy Hagar’s birthday party in Cabo. The band and I played for almost four hours at his party.
And then we went to a bar called Squid Row right next to it. Sammy had us a house. I don’t know. I felt like there was this unfamiliar feeling inside of me. I didn’t really know what it was. I didn’t know it was a song. I didn’t know… I just knew I had to go start writing something down. So I left the bar. I went back to the house that Sammy got us. I started writing on a note pad and pulled my guitar out of the case.”
Kenny Chesney couldn’t help but feel like he was somewhat out of place.
Why? Because as he looked around in the bar, everyone else there had families, and kids. He was 36-years-old at the time, and suddenly felt a little left behind in life as he stood up on stage in Cabo playing for the rock and roll legend:
“I think what I was thinking about in the bar, I was looking at all my friends and people that were working with me and they all had families, all had kids. Here I was, 36-years-old, I didn’t have that stuff. But I was building what I was building.
And so I went, ‘Wow, maybe I don’t have to figure it all out right now. It’s okay enough to be playing Sammy Hagar’s birthday party.’ I don’t have to figure out all of that stuff out at the moment. I went back to the house that night and wrote ‘Beer in Mexico.’ I thank Sammy Hagar for that. That was a true, autobiographical song.”
Shoutout to Sammy Hagar for asking Kenny Chesney to play his birthday party, and unintentionally inspiring the “Summertime” singer to churn out one of his many hit, beach autobiographical songs.
You can hear Chesney talk more about it in the interview below:
And while you are here, it’d be silly not to cue up the song that this entire, entertaining, Sammy Hagar-adjacent story is all about:
“Beer In Mexico”
