Warrant Covers Haggard For New Professional Bull Riders Party Anthem: Listen
2/10/2017 by Andy Gensle
'I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink' is PBR's new party anthem.
Warrant, the L.A. glam metal band of "Cherry Pie" and "Heaven" fame, have formed a new partnership with the Professional Bull Riders that includes a remake of the classic Merle Haggard song, "I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink" as the organization's new "party anthem (below). The venture will include a new video, concerts and band appearances at various PRB events. The song will also appear on Warrant's next album Louder Harder Faster (Frontier Records) due out in April.
"During the 2016 PBR World Finals, we were fortunate to have Warrant headline Saturday night in Toshiba Plaza, and they put on an incredible show for our fans, said Sean Gleason, the CEO of PBR in a statement. "When we found out the band are PBR fans, we jumped at the chance to work together on a custom music project and to make them a featured act during the 2017 season.”
As part of the partnership, “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink" (a No. 1 hit in Oct. 1980 for Haggard) will be played every night at midnight in the seven (soon to be nine) PBR bars across the country. PBR has branded bars in Baltimore, Hampton, VA, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Louisville, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. Additional PBR Bars will open soon in Atlanta and Norfolk, VA.
Warrant nas sold more than 10 million albums and had nine charting singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including the No. 2-peaking power ballad “Heaven" and will roll out the video for “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” at an official kickoff party at PBR St Louis in Ballpark Village on Feb. 25, accompanied by a live performance. The video was shot on location in Anaheim, prior to the PBR Built Ford Tough Series at the Honda Center last week.
[Back in the Saddle: Steven Tyler with PBR Riders (L to R) Nevada Newman, Jess Lockwood, Cooper Davis and Ryan Dirteater. Front row: songwriters Jared Gutstadt and Poo Bear]
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"Creating a party anthem is what Warrant loves to do and getting a chance to create one for the 'toughest sport on dirt' is a bonus," stated Erik Turner, Warrant’s rhythm guitarist and co-founder. "We’re pumped up to rock PBR Bars and events all year long."
In addition to concerts in St. Louis and Kansas City, Warrant will perform at other stops of the Built Ford Tough Series Tour, including Nashville, Sioux Falls, and twice in Las Vegas, including at the 2017 PBR World Finals in November with additional dates to be announced soon.
In July, Steven Tyler's song “Hold On (Won’t Let Go)," was named the new anthem for the Colorado-based bull riding organization's CBS television broadcasts and live events and was featured on his debut solo album We're All Somebody From Somewhere (Dot Records/Big Machine Label Group). The song reached an average of 1.2 million viewers for each Built Ford Tough Series event on CBS and Tyler's Everybody Comes from Somewhere debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.[ Warrant began promoting its PBR partnership on Jose Mangin’s Liquid Metal show on SiriusXM with PBR CEO Sean Gleason, a self-admitted glam metal head who orchestrated this unique music partnership.]
Andrew Giangola
Warrant began promoting its PBR partnership on Jose Mangin’s Liquid Metal show on SiriusXM with PBR CEO Sean Gleason, a self-admitted glam metal head who orchestrated this unique music partnership.
Professional Bull Riders began in 1992 and has seen its popularity grow in recent years facilitated by WME IMG's purchase of the organization in April 2015. According to an ESPN Sports Poll, the league now has some 61 million fans. In 2016 PBR saw record attendance which was 7.4% higher on the year and set 13 local event attendance records. TV viewership on CBS Sports rose 12% while drawing more viewers than any sport outside the NFL. The 2016 World Finals at the new Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena was the most successful in PBR history with 70,000 attending. The PBR Touring Pro Division and the PBR’s international circuits in Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico have paid more than $150 million in earnings to its athletes with the league's top earner J.B Mauney receiving more than $7 million.
All of which begs the question, what's metal doing at a bull riding competition? "Fans at a PBR event expecting to hear country music accompanying cowboy hat wearing athletes riding bulls are more likely to get a dose of AC/DC or Metallica than traditional country music," says PBR's Gleason. "Music makes the event more exciting to fans and helps us make it more contemporary and familiar for attendees who may not have a point of reference with cowboys or bull riding."