All it takes to turn around a bad mood? “Blame it all on my roots / I showed up in boots…”

As country music fans know, Garth Brooks’ 1990 smash hit “Friends in Low Places” is an uplifting jolt of communal misery, the end-all, be-all, last-call, howl-it-to-the-rafters at 1 a.m. on a Tuesday night tune. Simply put, there’s no song quite like it.

Now, as the music community mourns the death of the song’s co-writer, Dewayne Blackwell (songwriter Earl Bud Lee also shares writing credits with Blackwell), Brooks is sharing just how much of an impact Blackwell had on his life.

“Dewayne Blackwell changed my life because the first time I heard ‘I’m Gonna Hire a Wino to Decorate Our Home,’ I thought, ‘Holy cow, what a funny, fantastic song.’ I’m telling you, that’s every guy my dad grew up with or that we grew up around in Oklahoma,” Brooks began his tribute, as told to Melinda Newman on Billboard.com.

“What we lost when we lost Dewayne Blackwell was someone who truly was a craftsman, not a settler. He would not settle. If everything lined up, it would take you five minutes to write a song; if things didn’t, it could take you five years to write a song,” he later commented of Blackwell’s special songwriting ability.

Brooks also explained the origins of “Friends in Low Places,” sharing that the song was pitched to George Strait, but Brooks, who was singing demo tracks at the time, “couldn’t get [the song] out of my head for months.” Thankfully, Brooks was able to cut the official track — on one condition — and it landed on his 1990 album No Fences.

“I didn’t write ‘Nobody Gets Off in This Town’ with [Blackwell and Larry Bastian], but I was there when they were writing it. Dewayne Blackwell grew up in a town like ‘Nobody Gets Off in this Town’ and what he did was brought real-life America forward in music,” Brooks concluded. “Like some people did it in film, he did it in lyrics and music. Dewayne was just a real life portrayer of the arts, but he did it with lyrics instead of with paint.”

Well put, Mr. Brooks. Our deepest sympathies go out to Blackwell’s family, friends, and loved ones. We’re certain his legacy will live on every time we hear this song, whether blaring it at home in our living room or screeching it in the midnight hours over a karaoke mic with friends.