Songfacts®:

• Tucked into Joe Nichols' 2007 album Real Things, known for the tender love song "Another Side Of You" and the lighthearted romp "It Ain't No Crime," is "My Whiskey Years," a melancholy tune about a man who has ruined his life by drinking. The album was released that August, and just two months later, Nichols checked into rehab.
  
  Reflecting on the song in 2008, he told The Boot: "It's one of the most personal songs of my career. It's one of those songs that I know helps me. It's great therapy, and it's great to have a song like this acknowledge the pain that sometimes a person can go through. That's what makes that song unique, is that it may not be for everybody, but for some people it's everything."
• Nichols didn't write this song; it was written by Tom Hambridge and Jeffrey Steele. Hambridge has written a lot of songs for Susan Tedeschi and Buddy Guy; Steele's credits include "What Hurts The Most" by Rascal Flatts and "Stick That In Your Country Song" by Eric Church.