Podcast Summary:

“Anyway, I’ll Drink to That” is a Boozn Sam’s production, exploring the fun, quirky, and fascinating tales of drinks (Tequila Sunrise in this episode) that define culture, history and the world. Every drink has a story to tell, and I’m going to tell it…as true as I can. Hosted by Sam, from Boozn Sam’s. Saddle up with a good cocktail and give me a few minutes of your time for a mystery surrounding a drink that changed the world.

Episode 35 Notes: Tequila Sunrise and Courage

The mostly true story of how a sunrise, a lonely cowboy, and a bottle of liquor turned a cocktail famous, and reinvented a musical act that would skyrocket them through the charts and history.

Transcript of Podcast:

*Note – This is the full episode and containers spoilers. You can always listen to the podcast above.

Glenn was on the couch in the hotel room. The room was dimly lit and empty. It was late at night, or early in the morning, and he couldn’t sleep. He was strumming his guitar lightly, quietly, so as to not wake anyone else up. It was late but he had things in his head that needed to get out. The drink helped too, he thought, as he grabbed the full shot glass, tipped it back and downed in with a gulp. 

It was high quality, but it burned all the way down, as it should, with this type of drink. From there, Glenn went on to work out the rift that was ripping through his head. It was a rift desperately seeking to escape. Something that had a southern feel about it. A far southern, like across the border type of feel about it. 

He wasn’t sure he liked it, but something about it was growing on him. Still, Glenn wasn’t convinced. He would need a few more hours to be sure. His mind began to wander, finding synergies as it always did during his creative process, and he ended up in a small town in Texas. He was watching the tequila sunrise stirring slowly across the sky. It was the sort of sunrise he’d seen many times before. There was nothing particularly special about it. 

But, what was special was the way he felt. The hollow feeling he felt, added to by a numbing buzz of drunkenness. The loneliness deep inside of him that the sunrise seemed to drag out of him. Because he was certainly not hoping to see the sunrise alone. He had tried hard not to see the sunrise alone.

He had been out the night before The bar was a small town, Texas bar. Music blaring on the jukebox. The wood floor scuffed from cowboy boots and sticky from spilt beer. Glenn was saddled up at the far end of the bar. The place was mostly empty and the windows were thrown open, but, it was Texas in summertime, and there was no air moving. The only thing coming through the windows was the sound of crickets chirping in the fields. The door creaked open and then slammed shut. He heard boots on the floor and turned to get a quick glance. He paused. He glanced longer. He had to look away and pick his jaw up off the floor.   

She was beautiful, the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. She carried herself with such grace and energy that the room itself seemed to diminish in comparison. The smell of her was flowers and it overpowered the scent of beer in the bar. Her face was flushed and her eyes had an excited, slightly watery quality about them.

She was a magnet and every man in the bar was iron shavings, drawn to her energy and life with such force that none of them could resist. The only question was, how did one win over a girl that wasn’t like any other girl? What did a girl like this want? What should he say to her? He watched the men begin to flock like they were surrounding a sheep at a petting zoo. Would he even have a chance to say anything to her? 

After all, he was a blue collar boy working the fields as a hired hand. He was nothing special. What could he offer a woman like this? He made to get up and speak to her, then lost his courage. He planted himself back in the bar stool and sighed, slumping his shoulders slightly, as he tried to find the courage to ask her for a dance, ask what her name was, tell her she was beautiful…. To do anything. 

“Bartender, another shot.”

The bartender nodded. The bartender reached down behind the bar with one hand and grabbed a shot glass with the other. He dropped the shot glass on the bar in front of Glenn with a clatter. Then he poured the shot to the brim and pulled a few bucks out of the stack of dollars Glenn had sitting in front of him. 

Glenn grabbed the shot glass as gingerly as he could. But, he still spilled it, leaving a wet streak on the chipped, old bar top. He downed the shot in one drink. It burned as it went down his throat and into his belly. Then he felt better. He felt more alive. He felt ready to approach this girl.

He wasn’t sure what he’d say to her. He’d let the liquid courage do the talking. Something smooth would come out. 

Unfortunately for Glenn, nothing smooth came out. Instead, he came on a bit too strong. He couldn’t find the right words. He was bumbling it. She, was not impressed. She was not reciprocating. She was turning away and he was walking away. He sighed. Maybe the courage in his shot glass had done nothing but make him numb. He watched her leave that night with another man and a bit of his heart left him too. 

It wasn’t that he’d loved her, or anything. It was that he’d felt the sting of rejection and was left with nothing more than the hollowness inside of him. So, he ordered up another shot, left a tip, and stumbled out of the place and back home. 

But, back home, his mind was still running circles. He couldn’t go to bed. So, he stayed up. He drank more, straight from the bottle this time. Pull by pull. Until he greeted the sunrise and stared at it as it crawled slowly across the sky 

He wondered if he was growing wiser with every mistake he made in life, learning and become better, or if he was lying to himself. If he was holding out false hope that he’d reach his dreams one day. Because, right now, drunk and exhausted, watching the sunrise he wasn’t sure. 

This hesitation made him wonder if he should go somewhere else. Maybe leave the country. He was in Texas, and that was pretty damn close to Mexico. The way of life was slower down there. He didn’t have baggage there either. People that knew him and women that he wanted. He could start over. Forget the work here, the small Texas water holes, the woman, who he’d made a fool of himself in front of tonight. He looked back at the sunrise and watched the sun climb higher into the sky. He didn’t know if all this life he was living was bringing him closer or further to where he wanted to be. Hell, he didn’t even know half the time where he wanted to be. And maybe that was part of the problem.  

Then Glenn returned from the past and was in his hotel room once more, strumming his guitar. The rift had grown on him. Don had shown up now too. Don liked the rift and Don had some lyrics that just might fit that Mexican, southern sort of feel Glenn was creating. 

As it turns out, they were on to something. The song they wrote would end up being the first released single on their new album. This was their second album together as a band and the first time they decided to collaborate on writing music. For their first album they did not write songs together. But, in their first week writing together for this album, they wrote this song, and another song, the title song for their second album, that would go on to become one of the Top 500 greatest songs of all time, according to Rolling Stone. 

That song was “Desperado.” 

This song was named after a drink, but it was never about the drink that they named the song after. It was about something else all together. 

It was about the story, I just told, because the story I told are the lyrics to the song. It’s the story of a lonely Texas hired hand who is into a gorgeous woman and uses a few shots of something strong to get the motivation to talk to her. It’s the story of finding the courage to survive harsh conditions and a hard life, and it’s a story about finding the courage to talk to a beautiful person that seems out of your league.    

The song would climb the charts to number 64 on Billboard’s top 100 after it was released. It would also go on to solidify the drink that it’s named after and create a brand new buzz about his cocktail, even though it was forty years old at this point. 

The song ends with the night turning to early morning and the sun rising. Our lonely Texas Cowboy is watching the sunrise alone, with his bottle of liquor, after a long night of drinking. The song, is about the sunrise. The moment that led him here. The liquor he tried to use to find courage, but that only left him empty. And the song ends like this: 

“It’s another tequila sunrise

Wondering if I’m goin’ wise

Or tell a lie”

Tequila Sunrise, the name to the first song released on the Desperado album, cowrote by Glenn Frey and Don Henley, who were better known by the band they were in. A band that racked up five number one singles, six number one albums, six grammy awards, and five American Music Awards. 

The Eagles, one of the world’s best selling bands, clearing more than 200 million record sales worldwide. 

And the drink they weren’t actually talking about – The Tequila Sunrise – made with Tequila, Orange Juice, and a splash of Grenadine- when they were trying to capture that feeling of drinking straight tequila all night and then catching the sun coming up.

Anyway… I’ll drink to that.