There's a notable difference between 2020's "Beers and Sunshine" and Darius Rucker's nine prior No. 1s— it was his first completely written over Zoom. During an Oct. 26, 2022 industry event celebrating not just a 10th country chart-topper but also "Wagon Wheel's" multi-diamond certification, co-writers Rucker, Josh Osborne, Ross Copperman and JT Harding discussed what it was like to collaborate on the future hit early in the COVID-19 shutdown.
First things first, the initial idea for the song needed a major tweak.
"The [original] title was 'The Only BS I Need is Bikinis and Sunshine,' but smarter heads prevailed," Harding said at the event. "Ten minutes into the writing, I'll never forget... Darius was like, 'Let's make this more universal.' Someone said, 'What about 'Beers and Sunshine'?' I was like, 'They're geniuses!'"
Though adjusting to digital co-writes was a challenge for some, Rucker and his collaborators adapted quickly.
"There's no nonsense on Zoom. In the [writer] room, you sit around and talk about your kids. You tell them what's going on and it takes 20 minutes to get started. Not on Zoom," Rucker explained. "When we finished it, I thought it was something special. Ross went out of his way [as the producer] to record this whole record on Zoom. Nobody was ever in the same room together ever. Ross would get the drummer to play, then he'd get the bass player to play and when everything was done, he got my vocals over Zoom."
During their speeches at the event, Copperman and Osborne speculated that it was the first No. 1 country song completely written and recorded over video chat.
The single and its music video's positive vibes were meant to bring comfort to listeners during a public health crisis.
"It's certainly been a challenging year. Like a lot of people, when I got home from being on the road last March and we parked the tour bus for the foreseeable future, we had no idea what our future would actually look like," Rucker shared on his website in Feb. 2021. "I don't have the answers for how we fix the complex issues that we're facing in our country or in country music, however while we work through this time I think it's important that we balance the heaviness by finding the silver lining, where we can really enjoy the simple joys this song talks about like time spent together with friends and family."
Rucker's first country single, 2008's "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," topped the charts. He replicated that feat with "It Won't Be Like This For Long" (2008), "Alright" (2009), "Come Back Song" (2010), "This" (2020), "Wagon Wheel" (2013), "If I Told You" (2016) and "For the First Time" (2017).
"Beers and Sunshine" Lyrics
Well, I ain't gonna work today
Just wanna sit around and play
Gonna hit balls off the dock
Kick back in my flip-flops
Don't owe nothing to the lender
Nothing spinning in the blender
The only thing on my agenda is
Beers and sunshine
Bonfires and summertime
Back porch nights in South Carolina
Ain't nothing finer than me and my girl striking up a little lighter
'Cause everybody's down in a world gone crazy
Don't know how to fix it but I think maybe
Turn on the good times, turn off the TV
Yeah, the only BS I need is beers and sunshine
Gonna call my girl and say
Let's get our friends and hit the lake
Grab a boat and get to floating
A little buzzed and a little toasted
We're gonna hang and have a little fun now (oh yeah)
Flying high like we'll never come down
We're gonna go until we run out of
