Brantley Gilbert has a hit single at radio again, this time a duet with Ashley Cooke. The two singers combined their talents for “Over When We’re Sober,” a song written by Gilbert, along with Jelly Roll, Justin Wilson and Brock Berryhill, for Gilbert’s latest album, Tattoos, released in September.
“Jelly Roll and I were working on the album, and I loved the song from the minute we wrote it,” Gilbert shares. “The next part of the process is finding who you’re going to collab with. Especially right now when that’s kind of the name of the game. A friend of mine, a very good friend of mine, and my producer, Brock Berryhill, had worked with Ashley and said, ‘Man, there is a girl that’s up and coming and is really setting things on fire right now, and is absolutely incredible.”
Gilbert immediately went to Apple Music and pulled up Cooke’s shot in the dark album, and was impressed with the 24 songs she included on the project.
“I hadn’t seen a female do that in a very, very long time,” Gilbert says. “I was just really impressed. As I listened down, her writing was amazing, her voice was amazing. And another cool aspect is, being new on the scene, I know [she’ll] work the song as hard as I will, and that’s a big part of putting a song out with somebody, is knowing they’re invested in it as well.”
Cooke, who celebrated her first No. 1 hit last year with “your place,” knew right away that she wanted to join Gilbert on the emotion-tinged track.
“We got off the phone and he was like ‘I’m gonna shoot it over to you right now. Give it a listen and see if it’s something that you’re into,'” Cooke recalls. “And I listened to it and I was like, ‘This is an absolute smash, This is so, so cool, and I love you and Jelly Roll, and everybody involved.’ I was like, ‘Man, this is really cool, and I could totally hear this being such a massive smash, and I’m just honored I get to be on it with your voice too. I think our voices are really complimentary in a really cool way.”
‘Which doesn’t happen often, cause this thing is like dirt roads, diesel fuel and cigarettes,” Gilbert adds.
“But it’s awesome,” continues Cooke. “I think it works really well. I loved the song and loved you …I’m very happy to be a part of it.”
Cooke was already a big fan of Gilbert, which is why she was especially thrilled to join him on “Over When We’re Sober.”
“When Brantley called me about this song, I listened to the demo and it was an immediate yes,” Cooke says (via Songfacts). “I’ve been a fan for truly so long – in fact, my Christmas present from a college boyfriend one year was a road trip to Atlanta just to see BG’s show.”
Find “Over When We’re Sober” and all of Gilbert’s music and upcoming shows at BrantleyGilbert.com.
Photo Credit: Alexa Campbell