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The old line about country music is that it’s all about trucks, women, and dogs. And like most jokes, although it overstates the situation, it does include a nugget of truth.

Take, for instance, country newcomer Brantley Gilbert. His latest single, ‘Country Must Be Country Wide,’ is currently shooting up the charts, giving him his first hit — but that isn’t as important to him as his relationship with Alley, his pet pit bull.

Gilbert shared the story of how he found Alley during a recent interview with Taste of Country, recalling that, the first time he saw her, he thought she belonged to someone in the audience at a show. “There were some guys feeding her beer and bar food and stuff from the bar,” he remembered, “and kinda trying to get her drunk, and I thought it was that guy’s dog. And it got time for show time and I was out back doing a meet and greet, and they got ready to come inside for the show and he threw a beer bottle at her.”

Naturally, Gilbert stepped in. “At that point he was done with her,” he said. “I didn’t like that a bit so he and I had a little … conversation, I guess you could call it [laughs], and I called her to me. She came straight to me, and they fed her for me and kept her outside the bar, and when I was done with the show I took her to the hotel and had a friend of mine come pick her up in Alabama, and when I got home off the road she was mine.”

Gilbert will head back on the road to promote his latest album, ‘Halfway to Heaven,’ when he joins the Taste of Country Christmas Tour in November.

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