| "Beer for My Horses" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byToby Keith andWillie Nelson | ||||
| from the albumUnleashed | ||||
| B-side | "Rock You Baby" | |||
| Released | April 7, 2003 | |||
| Recorded | 2002 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:24(album version) 3:31 (Greatest Hits 2 version) | |||
| Label | DreamWorks Records 450785 | |||
| Songwriters | Scotty Emerick Toby Keith | |||
| Producers | James Stroud Toby Keith | |||
| Toby Keith singles chronology | ||||
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| Willie Nelson singles chronology | ||||
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"Beer for My Horses" is a song recorded by Americancountry music artistsToby Keith andWillie Nelson. It was written by Keith andScotty Emerick for Keith's seventh studio album,Unleashed. The song was released as the album's fourth and final single on April 7, 2003.
"Beer for My Horses" was extremely popular but received mixed reviews frommusic critics. The single reached #22 on theBillboard Hot 100, making it Keith's highest charting song of his career at the time. The song also peaked at number one for six weeks in the USBillboardHot Country Songs (one of two songs to stay that long at the top for Keith), becoming Keith's eleventh number one single and Nelson's twenty-third, and his first since "Nothing I Can Do About It Now" in 1989. "Beer for My Horses" was certified Platinum once by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The accompanying music video was directed byMichael Salomon and premiered on CMT on April 9, 2003, duringCMT Smash Hits of Country.[2]
"Beer for My Horses" also made Willie Nelson the oldest artist to top the country charts at age 70.
The phrase, "Whisky for me beer for my horse" is said in the 1975 film,Bite the Bullet, byJan-Michael Vincent.
The music video for the song features Keith, Nelson, andCorin Nemec, as detectives hunting a serial killer, played by Gregg Gilmore. The detectives eventually convince Nemec to dress up as a woman to lure the serial killer and they end up capturing him. The video, directed by Michael Salomon, was shot in downtown Los Angeles and at the nearbyGolden Oak Ranch, inNewhall, California. It is also the first video in which Keith is not singing on screen. On March 4, 2004, the video was nominated for Video of the Year for theAcademy of Country Music Awards.
The 2008 filmBeer for My Horses was based on the song, which was featured in the film. The film starred Keith and Nelson, among others. The song was also used in an episode ofLethal Weapon in 2016.[3] It won the award for Video of the Year in May later that year.[4]
In 2021, U.S. RepresentativeChip Roy of Texas caused controversy by unknowingly quoting a lyric from the song that seemed to invoke frontier justice while he was serving on a committee concerned about an increase in hate crimes towards Asian-Americans.[5] At the time Roy claimed the line was "an old saying in Texas" but later admitted it was from the Keith song.[6]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine ofAllMusic found the song to be "absurdly anthemic".[7]
"Beer for My Horses" entered theHot Country Singles & Tracks charts dated for the week ending August 3, 2002, spending three weeks on the charts as an album cut and peaking at number 54.[8] It re-entered at #60 on the chart dated February 1, 2003. On theBillboard Hot 100, it ended up peaking at number 22. Along with "Who's Your Daddy?", it was tied for Keith's highest peaking single on the chart until it was surpassed by "Red Solo Cup" in 2012. The song reached over a million in sales in April 2014.[9] As of January 2017, the song has sold 1,178,000 copies in the United States.[10]
| Chart (2003) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| USHot Country Songs (Billboard)[11] | 1 |
| USBillboard Hot 100[12] | 22 |
| Chart (2003) | Position |
|---|---|
| USCountry Songs (Billboard)[13] | 2 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[14] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
Afilm adaptation of the song entered production in mid-2008,[15] and was released on August 8, 2008.[16]
The song is available as downloadable content for the gameRock Band.
