“Whiskey for me beer for my horse”, song written by Scotty Emerick & Toby Keith, was recorded by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson, was recorded along with the rest of the album, between fall of 2001 and the spring of 2002, in the studios from Ocean Way Nashville, 1200 17th Ave. South, Nashville 3, TN; Masterfonics Studios, 28 Music Sq. East, Nashville TN and Loud Recording, 50 Music Square West, Nashville TN. With the production of James Stroud and Toby Keith, was released on April 7, 2002, on June 14, 2002, reached # 1 on the US Hot Country Songs charts, remained at number one for 6 weeks in a row. The song reached over a million in sales in April 2014. As of January 2017, the song has sold 1,178,000 copies in the United States. The song was certified platinum. It was eleventh number one for Toby and the twenty-first for Willie.

The song was included in Toby’s seventh studio album, Unleashed (Dreamworks 2002), the album was released on July 23, 2002, on August 10, 2002, it reached number # 1 on the Top Country Albums charts, it remained seven weeks in a row in number one, and 104 weeks in lists. The album was certified quadruple platinum in the USA and platinum in Canada.

Toby, as a child, worked for a rodeo company, always listening to the old timers who worked in the back and the things in the back wore a pint of whiskey in their pockets, they were just old jeans. They took it out and said: ‘Here it is for me, here it is for you, they fucked us, so get up, here it is for me’. They always had some toasted bread. One of them was to hold the bottle for a drink and say: ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses’, I kept this phrase in my head for a long time thinking that I would write it some day. Finally, together with Scott Emerick, we wrote the song, when we finished writing the song, I thought, it would be great if we could convince Willie Nelson to sing the Texas verse about that. It was a great idea and a total success.”Beer for My Horses” also made Willie Nelson the oldest artist to top the country charts at age 70.

Toby Keith And Willie Nelson – Beer For My Horses lyrics

[Toby Keith:]
Willie man, come on, six o’clock news
Said somebody’s been shot, somebody’s been abused
Somebody blew up a building
Somebody stole a car
Somebody got away
Somebody didn’t get too far, yeah
They didn’t get too far

[Willie Nelson:]
Grandpappy told my pappy back in my day, “Son,
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done.”
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree,
Round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street
For all the people to see

[Toby Keith and Willie Nelson:]
That justice is the one thing you should always find
You gotta saddle up your boys
You gotta draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
And we’ll all meet back at the local saloon
We’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing, “Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.”

[Toby Keith and Willie Nelson:]
We got too many gangsters doing dirty deeds
Too much corruption and crime in the streets
It’s time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground
Send ’em all to their maker and he’ll settle ’em down
You can bet he’ll settle ’em down

‘Cause justice is the one thing you should always find
You gotta saddle up your boys
You gotta draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
And we’ll all meet back at the local saloon
And we’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing, “Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.”
“Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.”

Justice is the one thing you should always find
You gotta saddle up your boys
You gotta draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
And we’ll all meet back at the local saloon
And we’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing, “Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.”
Singing, “Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.”