A Guy Walks Into a Bar

Album: Suffer in Peace (2014)
Charted: 51
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Songfacts®:

  • The first single from Tyler Farr's second studio album is a twist on the old bar joke:

    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


    The song starts out on a high note as it tells of a man whose entire life is changed after hitting a bar. However, as the track progresses, it turns unexpectedly into a heartbreak story.
  • The song was written by Nashville songwriters Melissa Peirce (David Nail's "Red Light") and Jonathan Singleton (Josh Turner's "Why Don't We Just Dance") with Old Dominion guitarist Brad Tursi (Kenny Chesney's "Save It for a Rainy Day"). It was Tursi who came up with the song's name. He recalled to Taste of Country; "I remember pulling up to our co-writer's house, and I didn't have any ideas. I just thought of that title before we walked in, and then I asked if anyone had written that."
  • Tyler Farr decided to lead his Suffer In Peace album with this song as he felt it wasn't typical of what's going on in country right now. He explained to The Boot: "You hear a lot of uptempo [songs], with the happy-go-lucky, sing-a-long thing, and it really separated itself from that to me, and I wanted to do that with this album, separate it from the rest. I think that song stands out when you hear it on the radio, and when I go to pick a song, if I didn't write it, I think, 'Sure, it sounds like me; I've either lived it, or could have lived it, or will live it in the future.'"

    "I wanted this album to be genuine and authentic and real, and 'A Guy Walks Into a Bar' went very well with my voice," Farr added, "and I think it stands out on the radio, and I think that's why it's connected so well with the audience."
  • Farr fittingly came across the song when he walked into a bar. Jonathan Singleton was playing an acoustic version of the song at a writers' round, a set-up where songwriters perform their new songs. "I'm at the bar maybe ordering a drink of whiskey," Farr recalled to Radio.com, "and he starts singing it and I turn around. I was blown away. Immediately after he was done I went up to him and said, 'Dude I got to cut that.' It really happened that easily."
  • Blake Shelton also had the song on hold, which concerned Farr's producer at the time. "I said we're going to cut it. I think Blake's alright with hits," the singer recalled. "We had documentation that showed I had it on hold first."

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