Songfacts®:

• Drinking is a common topic in country music, but rarely is it considered from the perspective of the drink. Paisley remedies this in "Alcohol," where he tells a very sympathetic story as the voice of the drink.
  
  The song reads as a bio of sorts, with the drink explaining how he left Milwaukee and has spent his career helping others by making money for bar owners, getting white people to dance, and even making new babies. He's responsible for "some of the best times you'll never remember."
• This is one of the few popular songs with a one-word chorus: "alcohol." Another is "The One I Love" by R.E.M., whose chorus is just the word "fire."
• Predictably, this song is very popular in bars and other establishments where alcohol is served, particularly late at night after the drinks have worked their magic.
• Jim Shea directed the music video, which uses compositing to present various alcohol users behind Paisley as he performs the song. The older gentleman is Little Jimmy Dickens, a diminutive country singer who recorded lots of comedic songs that were popular in the '50s and '60s. Dickens, who died in 2015 at age 94, was a huge influence on Paisley.
• Paisley is actually a teetotaler. Instead of downing alcoholic beverages, he prefers imbibing chocolate drinks like Yoo-Hoo.
• This lighthearted drinking song stands in stark contrast to Paisley's most famous song, "Whiskey Lullaby," his 2003 duet with Alison Krauss about two people who drink themselves to death.