Nashville, TN (July 22, 2016) – It all starts with a couple notes on wah-wah guitar, a little bit of electric banjo and that signature growl. Welcome to “The Weekend,” the first single from the always hard-rocking Brantley Gilbert. The rowdy tune is available now and has already climbed into the iTunes Country Top 10. Dropping straight into the last moments before the work week ends, the twice platinum outsider offers, “heeyyyyyeeeeee…” as electric guitars burn and he gravels his way through the opening salvo: “Tick Tock, I’m on the clock / And I’m feelin’ like this job’s / just nine to fivin’ my life away.”
Today iHeartCountry World Premiered “The Weekend” across more than 140 radio stations throughout the country and on iHeartRadio, iHeartMedia’s digital music and streaming radio service. The premiere opens the next chapter of Gilbert’s hard-lived career ahead of its official August 8 impact date. Veering between the studio and TAKE IT OUTSIDE tour, the songwriter/rocker is working towards a new album.
With one massive downstroke, the drums crash, the guitars slash and Gilbert reprises the notion of his triple platinum certified #1 “Bottoms Up” with an industrial strength attack, courtesy of Dann Huff. Recognizing how hard working people need a hard unwind come the weekend, Gilbert wrote his upcoming album’s first single with first time collaborator Andrew DeRobert.
“When we hit the road this winter on the BLACKOUT TOUR,” Gilbert says of the song’s impetus, “we were rolling through the Midwest, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and you see how hard people work – and how much they need to let it go when they get to Friday! All those people coming out to the shows and rocking hard; they meant business. I wanted to write a song that matched that intensity to kick back even harder than you work. That’s where ‘The Weekend’ comes from: all those people who came out and threw it down with us.”
Like Hank Williams Jr. in his prime, the man whose JUST AS I AM album opened with 211,000 first week sales, understands taking the music to his fans where they are. “The Weekend” is not some blowing-it-up-in-the-club bottle-service proposition, but a DIY spring break caliber throwdown no matter where you find yourself.
“Backwoods lookin’ like Panama City / Bunch of jacked up trucks and bikinis,” Gilbert slink-sings in the party rocker’s final verse. “Got a YETI full of good ideas / Like I ain’t worried about drivin’, I’mma stay right here…”
“We’re out on the road, seeing the people,” says the man whose notched six #1s, including two as a writer for Jason Aldean’s “My Kind of Party” and “Dirt Road Anthem” of his inspiration. “There’s nothing better to write about than all those fans out there – except seeing the way they lean into a song when it hits them. And I know the BG Nation: they like big guitars, loud drums, something with a little attitude. When it was time to pick out the first single from my next album, ‘The Weekend’ was the only choice.”
The New York Times wrote of Gilbert and JUST AS I AM, “Mr. Gilbert comes on like a revving monster-truck engine, backed by heavy rock guitar, but there’s a slyness to his singing. Beneath his boxy exterior, there’s an active intelligence about melody and texture…In a country era where hardness isn’t valorized in the least, he’s unapologetically rough, singing with the tenderness of a chain saw.”
The TAKE IT OUTSIDE tour heads West this weekend. For tour dates and more visit www.BrantleyGilbert.com.
