Lee Brice, 'Drinking Class' - Lyrics Uncovered

Country music has a new working class anthem burning up the charts. Lee Brice's 'Drinking Class' lyrics were essentially ripped from the headlines, inspired by a conversation between three old friends.

Josh Kear, David Frasier and Ed Hill are longtime collaborators who work together on a regular basis. They didn't set out to write a song with Lee Brice in mind when they got together more than two years ago. The song came about after Kear threw out the title to his co-writers.

"We know each other so well, any time we get together, we talk about life," Hill tells Taste of Country. The friends were discussing current events when they landed on the song's theme of working class struggle.

"There's hardly any middle class anymore," he laments. "You have super-rich people, the half-percent, that when they make a billion dollars they just can't seem to think that that's enough. They go and make another billion dollars, and then you have this big Grand Canyon, and you have everybody on the other side. And that's all of us, trying to scrap out a living."

It's not really a drinking song. It's about people. It just happens to have drinking in the title.

The song lays out the pride of the working class, just trying to struggle through and celebrate life through the good times and the hard times -- perhaps with some occasional help from a little liquid refreshment: "We belong to the drinking class / Monday through Friday, man we bust our backs / If you're one of us, raise your glass / We belong to the drinking class."

"It's not really a drinking song," Hill points out. "It's about people. It just happens to have drinking in the title."

The song made its way to Brice, who performed it in his live shows for quite some time before cutting it.

"Lee Brice just connected with it," Hill says of the 'Drinking Class' lyrics. "He's a great writer, and that's what he loves, is great songs. You get a cut, that's a miracle. You get a single, that's a miracle ... I'd take it on anybody, but what a great representative of our song. He's a great singer, and I dig what he does. If you write something and you throw it up against the wall, you hope to God that that happens once in a while."

NEXT: Listen to 'Drinking Class'

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