Lyrics Uncovered: Tyler Farr, 'A Guy Walks Into a Bar'

Tyler Farr's "A Guy Walks Into a Bar" lyrics are taking country radio back to one of its most important and enduring themes.

The song came about practically by accident, as songwriter Brad Tursi recalls. Tursi is a member of Old Dominion, but also writes for other artists. He collaborated with Jonathan Singleton and Melissa Peirce on the track.

"I remember pulling up to our co-writer's house, and I didn't have any ideas," Tursi tells Taste of Country with a laugh. "I just thought of that title before we walked in, and then I asked if anyone had written that."

Ironically, his Old Dominion bandmate, Matt Ramsey, had already written that title.

"I have a song called 'A Guy Walks Into a Bar' that's nowhere near as good as theirs," Ramsey admits.

Fortunately, that didn't stop them. The resulting song takes the old joke-opener and turns it into a very cleverly-written, concise take on relationships, incorporating the classic country themes of heartbreak and alcohol. The "A Guy Walks Into a Bar" lyrics are essentially about the circle of life, country style: "A guy walks into a bar, orders a drink / Sees a girl that catches his eye / Asks her if she wants another / They fall for each other and end up lovers / They laugh, cry, hold on tight, make it work for a little while / Then one night her taillights fade out into the dark / And a guy walks into a bar."

I hadn't really heard that song, either, and when they played it and hit that chorus, the whole place sort of erupted.

Farr cut the song and released it as the lead single from his highly-anticipated upcoming sophomore album, Suffer in Peace. That cut came about in an unusual fashion.

"We did this thing in Nashville, they call it a pub crawl, where the publishers open their doors and the artists come through, and they pitch songs, and at the end of it, we had a little get-together where it was just an acoustic round, and we all played some, and they also invited the artists to come to that," Old Dominion's Trevor Rosen recalls. "So I was up there with Jonathan Singleton, who Brad co-wrote the song with, and then he called Brad up to sing 'A Guy Walks Into a Bar,' and Tyler Farr was one of the only artists that actually came to watch the round."

It turned out to be a perfect storm of events. "I remember I hadn't really heard that song, either, and when they played it and hit that chorus, the whole place sort of erupted," Rosen recounts. "I think that's when Tyler saw it and put it on hold. So it's funny — the way that 'A Guy Walks Into a Bar' got cut was, a guy walked into a bar! And saw the song."

NEXT: Listen to 'A Guy Walks Into a Bar'

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