Brinn Black Shares the Family Drama Behind Powerful ‘Daddy’s Medicine’ [Exclusive Premiere]
Brinn Black's new single "Daddy's Medicine" is a powerful ballad that tells the all-too-real tale of living with a father who struggles with alcohol. In a video interview premiering exclusively with Taste of Country, Black explains the story behind the song.
"Since I was a kid, my dad has really struggled with alcohol addiction and it's torn my family apart," she says. "A couple years ago, he decided he was going to come to a rehab facility here in Nashville, which ended up bringing us a lot closer together. Through that recovery process over the next month I was broken open and the idea of 'Daddy's Medicine' came out one day, and it's been a big part of my healing process and his healing process and our whole family's."
Black admits that she didn't want to write the song and was trying her best to deal with the situation herself. When her father found himself back at another rehab center six months after he got out, she and her sisters were talking to the counselor, who asked them to write a letter to him. Unable to write a letter, she said she had a song instead and sang the words to the counselor.
"She played it for him and read him the lyrics and he called me and was so proud. He said, 'Brinn, I can't promise you I'll never stop drinking but I can promise you I'll never stop trying not to.' He said he felt 'Daddy's Medicine' made him feel like his story is bigger and our family's story is bigger than the ins and outs and all the heartache we've all been through and the shame and the guilt he felt," Black explains.
Black says her father urged her to put the song out, hoping that other families will hear it and be able to talk about the issue at hand when their family couldn't. Since releasing the song and playing it live frequently in writers rounds, Black says she knows "Daddy's Medicine" is making a difference.
"The coolest part of this song is seeing how people respond to it," she says as she recalls a grown man crying while she performed it. "[He put] down his beer bottle and then [took] me aside afterwards, saying, 'I spend a lot of time away from my little girl in the bars and your song made me think twice about that, so I'm going to go hug her a little bit more and tell her I love her.'"
Watch Brinn Black's "Daddy's Medicine" Video