“Somehow I have dodged injury, and I can’t predict when it will happen again,” said the country star in an interview on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’
Just because Luke Bryan tends to fall on stage doesn’t mean he’s performing while drunk.
In a new interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the “One Margarita” singer reflected on several recent onstage falls and jokingly blamed the accidents on his height, shutting down rumors he’s intoxicated during concerts.
After host Jimmy Kimmel played a compilation video of Bryan, 47, falling mid-performances, the country star explained “somebody had gotten some water” on stage. “I keep my water bottles right there,” he said on the Monday, May 6 episode. “Well, first of all, everybody — you check the comments on the fans talking about the fall, and there’s nine out of 10 comments that point to me being drunk.”
The “But I Got a Beer in My Hand” performer then took his “chance to clear the air on this drinking and falling” and spoke about why he continues to take tumbles on tour.
“I’m 6’2”. I’m up there trying to do Michael Jackson moves in too big of a frame, and when you add water to a stage and slick cowboy boots, you go down hard,” said Bryan. “It’s not alcohol, fans. People are assuming — you can’t just drink a bottle of vodka and go do a two-hour show.”
Another reason for the falls is that he’s “real active on stage,” said the “Drink a Beer” musician — again insisting the incidents have nothing to do with being drunk “or the content of my songs, even though the content of the songs alludes to drinking. It doesn’t mean I spend my whole life [drinking] while working.”
0 seconds of 1 minute, 16 secondsVolume 90%
Bryan then thought of a saying that sums up his struggle with staying upright. “If you’re gonna be stupid, you gotta be tough — I am that,” he said. “Somehow I have dodged injury, and I can’t predict when it will happen again. I got really — there was about four in a row, like it was North Carolina only, so people were assuming I was drinking moonshine, but that wasn’t it.”
Last month, the American Idol judge spoke to Entertainment Tonight about taking a fall during Coast City Country Festival in Vancouver, Canada.
“Ironically, last week, I was having back trouble to the point where I had to get a chiropractor to the room,” Bryan told the outlet. “[Anyway], so when I hit the ground, I was like, ‘Oh!’ The first thing [I thought] was, ‘Oh God, all the work I did to get my back feeling better is out!'”
He added to Extra, “What was funny was… when my feet went out from under me, I didn’t really know what happened, and when I landed, I thought it was a cell phone. Then, when I look back at the tapes… I keep my water bottles down there, and I think a water bottle may have spilled. But whatever, it was slicker than a banana peel. Thankfully, it’s a cheap way to get a viral moment going.”