About The Song
“Let Somebody Else Drive” is a song written by Merle Kilgore and Mack Vickery. It was recorded by American country music artist John Anderson and released on January 14, 1984, as the second single from his album All the People Are Talkin’. The album was issued by Warner Bros. Nashville. John Anderson and Lou Bradley co-produced the recording. The track runs 2 minutes and 33 seconds.
The single was issued under Warner Bros. catalog number 7-29385, with “Old Mexico” as the B-side. On the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the song reached a peak of number 10. It also peaked at number 10 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart. The peak date on the Billboard chart was March 24, 1984. The parent album All the People Are Talkin’ followed Anderson’s earlier 1980s releases on Warner Bros., including Wild & Blue and the number-one single “Black Sheep.”
Session credits associated with the recording include Larry Emmons and X. Lincoln on bass, James Wolfe on drums, Tom Morley on fiddle and mandolin, Buck Reid and Vernon Pilder on guitar, Mike Jordan on organ, Bill Puett on saxophone, and background vocals by Deanna Anderson Walls and Donna Kay Anderson. The production pairing of Anderson and Lou Bradley continued from prior Warner Bros. projects.
The song’s chart performance led to Anderson’s involvement in public awareness efforts related to drinking and driving through the Florida State Highway Safety Department. Anderson later re-recorded the song for the 1996 multi-artist compilation NFL Country, a project pairing country artists with National Football League players; that version featured guest vocals from Mike Young. A further version was recorded by John Rich featuring Hank Williams Jr. on Rich’s 2010 extended play Rich Rocks.
All the People Are Talkin’ was released in 1983 and continued Anderson’s sequence of Warner Bros. albums that produced multiple Top 10 country singles in the early to mid-1980s. The singles sequence from the project included “Black Sheep” (number 1) prior to “Let Somebody Else Drive,” followed by “I Wish I Could Write You a Song.” The track has appeared on later compilation releases, including Greatest Hits 2 (1990) and Black Sheep: The Complete Warner Albums (2020).
Primary sources document consistent songwriting credits to Merle Kilgore and Mack Vickery, production by John Anderson and Lou Bradley, the January 1984 single release date, and the number 10 peaks on both the Billboard Hot Country Songs and RPM Country Tracks charts. Official audio is available through the John Anderson YouTube channel and Warner catalog reissues.
The combination of songwriting credits, production details, chart performance as a Top 10 single from the 1983 album, and subsequent re-recordings and covers places the recording within Anderson’s mid-1980s Warner Bros. catalog period.
Video
Lyric
I heard it on the radio and 6 o’clock news
Said, “You’d better not drive when you get on the booze”
The sheriff was on TV and a-shakin’ his hand
Said, “We’re really crackin’ down, you better understand”When you get on to whiskey
(When you get on to whiskey)
When you get on to whiskey
(When you get on to whiskey)
When you get on to whiskey
Let somebody else driveStarted drinkin’ on Friday and by Saturday night
They had me blowin’ through a tube charged with DUI
Cuffed and booked and thrown in a cell
I was tryin’ to sober up and tellin’ myselfWhen you get on to whiskey
(When you get on to whiskey)
When you get on to whiskey
(When you get on to whiskey)
When you get on to whiskey
Just let somebody else driveForty-eight hours is a long time to kill
In a room full of drunks surrounded by steel
Hell’s all they serve in a Metro bar
So don’t be drinkin’ when you’re drivin’ your carWhen you get on to whiskey
(When you get on to whiskey)
When you get on to whiskey
(When you get on to whiskey)
When you get on to whiskey
Let somebody else driveWhen you get on to whiskey
(When you get on to whiskey)
When you get on to whiskey
(When you get on to whiskey)
When you get on to whiskey
Let somebody else drive