No. 1 Party: Farr, Ozier, LaRue Throw A “Whiskey” Celebration

Pictured (L-R): John Ozier, Tyler Farr, Phillip Larue. Photo: Frederick Breedon

A No. 1 Party was held at BMI’s Nashville office Wednesday (Aug. 13) to celebrate Tyler Farr, John Ozier and Phillip LaRue’s “Whiskey In My Water.” The song marks Farr’s second consecutive No. 1 as an artist, and first as a songwriter. Farr and Larue both described the song as if it “fell from the sky.” It fell into the right hands, because after 34 weeks, the song went to No. 1.

Razor and Tie (Nashville) VP of Creative Lisa Johnson relayed the story of listening to the newly minted song repeatedly while shopping in Las Vegas. She was so impressed with the tune that, according to Johnson, she “didn’t get much shopping done.” The plan was set to have Farr cut the song for his debut album, Redneck Crazy. As Ozier put it, “It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes five villages to get a song to No. 1.”

“Whiskey In My Water” is the first No. 1 for Larue, and marks the second No. 1 for Ozier.

Larue is a multi-genre artist and songwriter who says at one point, he felt he should run away from Country Music. But something pulled him back because he is a “California boy that is in love with Country music.”

Farr addressed the crowd and said he didn’t want to talk too much because he would start crying. But he spoke long enough to thank BMI, his co-writers, publishers, management and Columbia Records. “A year and half ago, I was begging for shows. And now I am swatting them away with a fly swatter.”

He addressed each person that helped his career and helped move his songs to No. 1 as friends and family. And as for writing again with Ozier and Larue, Farr said, “Anytime you want to get together and sit by a lake to write songs, I’m in.”

Also speaking at the event were team members from Max Music, Razor & Tie, Bill Mayne with the CRB, and more. Ron Cox was on hand from Avenue Bank to present a donation to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital on behalf of the songwriters.

Front row (L-R): John Ozier, Tyler Farr, Phillip Larue. Second row (L-R): Curb Music’s Colt Cameron, Sony ATV’s Tom Luteran, Curb Music’s Drew Alexander, Maxx Music Publishing’s Kristi Brazell, BMI’s Leslie Roberts, Razor & Tie’s Lisa Johnson, Ross Asher, Sharon Tapper, and Craig Balsam, BMI’s Jody Williams. Photo: Frederick Breedon.