When Craig Campbell realized he would need to make a video for his current single, “All My Friends Drink Beer,” during the coronavirus pandemic, he knew exactly what he needed to do. The Georgia native called on several of his famous friends, including Michael Ray, Granger Smith, Randy Houser, Adam Sanders, Canaan Smith and more, to join him, virtually, for the video.
“I said, ‘Hey guys, I’ve got a great idea for this video,'” Craig told Everything Nash. “The idea behind the video is that all my friends are drinking beer, but they’re all drinking in quarantine. I said, ‘Shoot me a quick video of you pounding a cold beer, and we’ll just splice it up and put it into a video form. Luckily I got some good friends in the business, and almost everybody that I asked shot a video over. It turned out pretty awesome, I think.”
“All My Friends Drink Beer” follows the romantic ballad, “It’s About Time,” which also marked a departure for him as well, in an entirely different way.
“It’s a special song,” Craig said. “I’ve had that song for probably seven years. I wasn’t able to do anything with it until after me and Broken Bow split up, but I’ve always been passionate about that song. I finally got the opportunity to record it again, and release it and do it the way I wanted to do it. It’s a little different than what I’ve done in the past, but I felt like we crushed it in the studio. It’s just an awesome song.”
Craig was on both Bigger Picture and Broken Bow record labels, before he decided to go out on his own for his next project, and he’s never looked back.
“Honestly at first, it was like, ‘Oh my God. What do I do now?'” Craig acknowledged. “But I’ve made a lot of changes in a short amount of time after all that went down. I got a team around me now, and we believe we can do everything we need to do without having to team up with a record label and have them take ownership of everything. At this moment, for me and my family, having ownership of everything that I do is very important.
“Now we don’t have to ask permission for anything,” he added. “We can do it the way we want to do it, how we want when we want to do it. I didn’t know how awesome it was until we started doing it.”
The 41-year-old isn’t opposed to another record deal, but only if makes sense for him and his family.
“I would say the desire to have one, so I’m on the radio and have them have a big No. 1 hit song on the radio is still strong, but at this juncture, it’s gotta be the right thing,” Craig explained. “It’s gotta be the right deal. It’s gotta be the right setup. It’s gotta be the right partner, because at the end of the day, I just want to be able to play music and provide for my family and live a good life.”
Craig plans on hitting the road again later this year. Find dates, and download or stream “All My Friends Drink Beer,” by visiting his website.