Brantley Gilbert Drops New Single, ‘Stone Cold Sober’ [LISTEN]

Brantley Gilbert's brand-new single, "Stone Cold Sober," gives fans a look into his life before he quit drinking.

Ten years ago, Gilbert called his now-wife, Amber Cochran, after having a few ... and the phone call didn't exactly end in proclamations of love (on her end, anyway). Gilbert helped songwriters Brett James and Dan Layus finish the song and says that it reminded him about that drunken phone call.

“Usually when it came to her, I wouldn’t do that,” he tells Taste of Country. “I wouldn’t talk to her unless I was straight as an arrow.”

But that time, Gilbert was definitely under the influence, and instead of talking to Cochran, the singer ended up speaking with a man whom his new bride considered a second father. The man told Gilbert what he needed to hear, but the words angered him.

“Yeah, I let the whiskey talk / Baby, it said too much / I got the feeling that / It didn’t say enough / Because I’m waking up alone / Missing that midnight kiss," Gilbert sings in the chorus of "Stone Cold Sober." "I can’t promise you forever / Oh, the news is, I still want you to come over / And I’m stone cold sober."

“I think everybody has drunk-dialed at one point in their life," Gilbert continues, "but looking back, it’s kind of crazy when you look back at the drunk dial that happened that night, and you’re telling somebody how much you love him, and it actually ends up being true."

The song's lyrics reflects that realization: “I guess I said some things last night / That usually, in the morning light, I regret / Like double shots and cigarettes / Said things like, ‘I love you, baby,' and, ‘I know I sound crazy, but let’s just work this out / Yeah, and maybe settle down' ... I woke up hungover / But still had to call you / 'Cause I just realized, girl / That maybe it was all true.”

Gilbert is gearing up to play a benefit concert to honor those killed in the tragic shootings in mid-July in Chattanooga, Tenn. The concert will take place on Sept. 16.

Listen to Brantley Gilbert, "Stone Cold Sober":

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