When you're pals with, and neighbor to, one of Nashville's top country music stars, you get more than the occasional free concert ticket.

In the case of John Reese -- a car chief and jack man for Baker Curb Racing's No. 27 Ford driven by Greg Biffle -- you get to be a songwriter for a day.

“

There we were walking around in the woods shooting the bull and before we knew it we had came up with a song about drinking champagne.

”

-- ANDY GRIGGS

"Actually, how it happened was kind of by accident, a happy accident," said Andy Griggs, country music artist known best for his hit song, You Won't Ever Be Lonely.

Both Reese and Griggs live on the same road in Mt. Juliet, Tenn. While Reese is a NASCAR guy and most often found underneath the hood of a car somewhere, both he and spend time together deer hunting.

Well, Griggs says he hunts while Reese tags along.

Nevertheless, the two recently spent a day on Griggs' property checking corn feeders and looking for signs of deer. During the trip, Reese told Griggs he wanted to write a song, a NASCAR song to be exact.

Usually quick to dismiss any so-called new ideas from outsiders, Griggs was actually open to Reese's idea but admitted he knew nothing about the sport or stock cars.

Griggs grew up in Louisiana, played stick-and-ball sports and sang in the church choir. Reese, on the other hand, grew up 15 minutes from the Nashville Superspeedway and raced mini Cups and front-runners as a teenager at the county fairgrounds.

How would a song of any quality come from this combination?

"Pretty easy to be honest with you," Reese said. "I just started educating Andy on the sport of NASCAR, telling him how things were back in the bootlegging days. He already had the beat in his head." (Continued)