You Can't Take the Honky Tonk Out Of The Girl

Album: Red Dirt Road (2003)
Charted: 39
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Songfacts®:

  • This was the second single released by country duo Brooks & Dunn from their 2003 album Red Dirt Road. The Bob DiPiero and Bart Allmand penned song reached #3 on Country Songs and #39 on the Hot 100.
  • A line in a movie that Del Piero walked out of was the inspiration for the song. He explained to The Boot that he loves movies, but didn't appreciate the Reese Witherspoon-starring Sweet Home Alabama, as it "seemed to be every kind of country cliché and redneck cliché." Taking offense to the film, he began to walk out when a character in the film said the line, "Well you can take the girl out of the honky tonk, but you can't take the honky tonk out of the girl."

    The line of dialogue piqued his interest, and he came up with the story for the song with his co-writer, Bart Allmand. Said Del Piero: "I just invented this story about this girl. The model for this story lives in Branson, Missouri, and she's that girl in the song. We just took off on this story and came up with this song. It's got a got a cool Keith Richards/country/rockin' thing that Brooks & Dunn do so well. The song just grew its own wings and flew up the charts."

Comments: 1

  • Jennifur Sun from RamonaLove the sax player. And always kinda wondered who ran off with whom? The video is really funny.
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