Songfacts®:

• This ode to pot is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American Country music singer Eric Church. It is the third single from his second album, Carolina and the eighth single of his career. Church penned the tune with bandmates Driver Williams and Jeff Hyde.
• The song's music video was directed by Peter Zavadil and shot at the Clarksville Speedway near Nashville. Church is seen driving vintage cars and both NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne and ESPN's NASCAR insider Marty Smith make cameo appearances.
• According to People magazine, the song was inspired by a conversation Church had with guitar player Driver Williams on his tour bus after a 2008 show. "What's the rest of your evening look like?" Church asked him. Williams replied: "I'm just going to drink a little drink and smoke a little smoke." Church added that suddenly the football he'd been watching no longer held his attention. "I wanted to lie there and watch the game, but I kept hearing those words in my head," he recalled to People. "The longer I stayed there, I thought, 'Turn the quiet up, turn the noise down...' I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was interesting." So Church asked Williams and bandmate Jeff Hyde to see what else they could come up with and less than 30 minutes later, "Smoke" was born. It's an anthem to "escapism," said Church. "It's about getting away from your life and everything that's going on in your world. It's a party song."
• Church told People magazine: "The line 'kick back, give the blues a spin, break out the wine and forget again,' that's very personal. To me there's nothing better on a Sunday evening than a glass of wine, turning the blues on and sitting back in a rocking chair."
• Despite chart success with "Love Your Love The Most" and "Hell on the Heart," Church felt disconnected from his songs and his career momentum. While his label wanted safer hits, he was watching fans go wild every night for "Smoke a Little Smoke," a song the label didn't want to release.
  
  He finally issued an ultimatum: Either the label would release that song, or he was done. "I'm never going to cut another song," he said. The executive tossed his reading glasses at Church and replied, "Okay, but it's your funeral."
  
  Church released the song anyway, and everything changed. That moment of defiance helped secure him the creative freedom that's defined his career since.