Hear Butch Walker and Johnny Depp’s Bummed-Out ’21+’
As one of the 10 people who contributed production to Keith Urban’s Fuse, Butch Walker was recently nominated for his second CMA award. Still, the 44-year-old singer-songwriter insists that his new tune – despite its title – isn’t typical Nashville fare. “I wrote a song called ’21+,'” he tells Rolling Stone, “and no, it’s not a Florida Georgia Line song about trying to get into a bar with a fake ID, cooler full of cold beer, pickup truck, girl, babe, angel, tight jeans, yada yada yada.”
Instead, with Johnny Depp on guitar, Walker sings from the perspective of a bar employee who hangs around after work, drinking free beer while he remains trapped in a small town. “It’s actually just a sad song with a total bummer of a lyric,” says Walker.
Besides featuring Depp, “21+” was produced by Walker’s tourmate, Ryan Adams, and recorded at Adams’ Pax Am studios. It will appear on the back half of the singer’s seventh LP, Afraid of Ghosts, which will be released February 3rd on Dangerbird Records. The track can be streamed below, and the record can be pre-ordered here.