At Country Music Talk, we’ll be hosting a new country song of the day. As much as I love older country songs from the days of Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash, as well as some 80s and 90s songs, I cannot stand the newer stuff that everybody seems to be in love with—Lady Antebellum and Rascal Flatts and people saving horses to ride cowboys, or whatever. My mother, sister, aunt—okay, most women I know save for myself—love this stuff but I can’t stomach it, so if you have modern favorites, be sure to post them because I don’t have any and won’t be posting any as such!

I know the first country song that I liked was Garth Brooks’s “Friends in Low Places.” Oh, Garth. We go way back. I used to be his “#1 fan,” and it all started because a boy I liked in the fourth grade liked him, so I started listening to him, too. The boy and I didn’t work out but Garth and I sure did. I had his posters all over my bedroom, all of his albums, and even my own “Garth Brooks” hat that I wore to a lip-sych contest. I still have his fan mail address and birth date memorized; that’s how bad it was! I also had a little cousin who sang the song in his own hat with a toy guitar, which was beyond adorable.

As far as country songs go, this one is a perfect example of the old philosophy that whiskey and good friends are pretty much all one needs in life. We don’t need high and mighty friends; we don’t need people who feel like they’re too good for us; we just need the good stuff in life. And if you listen to the live version, which was always my favorite, people who think they are better than us can kiss our respective asses!

I’ve had some falling outs with Garth over the years. I was a very judgmental moralistic person in my youth and condemned him for leaving his wife, though I honestly A. don’t even know all of the details and B. am in no position to judge another human being when I, too, am in fact, human. Then when he did the whole “Chris Gaines” thing, I was confused; I tried to like it, I really did. I knew that rock was really his passion; it just didn’t work. (Maybe if he did a cover instead? You should hear him do “You May Be Right” or “Keep Your Hands to Yourself;” he is excellent at both.) Brooks has done amazing things, too—such as work for dozens of charities, sing about gay rights, and even try to donate part of his liver to a friend.

I’ll always love Garth, though, as well as this song, which is one of the most fun songs—country or not—in history.