“Smokin’ in the Boys Room” Was Based on a Real Michigan Incident

One of the best songs to come out of Michigan is without a doubt Brownsville Station’s Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room.

Now the question: Was this song written based on a real-life incident? Yes.

Band member Cub Koda grew up in the Michigan town of Manchester. He says he got the idea for the song based on his memories of hanging out in an Ann Arbor movie theater with his buddies.

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Before they would head out for the theater – the Clinton Theatre, to be exact - they would swipe cigarettes from their parents. Once at the theater, either between shows or during, they’d congregate in the bathroom and smoke. Probably more fun than the actual smoking was eluding the theater owner who kept trying to catch them in the act.

He never did.

Years later, now in a band and looking for song ideas, this memory came to Cub's mind...except instead of using the theater, he changed it to the boys' bathroom at school – something that most boys would relate to better.

When Cub pitched the idea to his bandmates, they didn’t think much of it. But he prevailed, they recorded the song, and it became their biggest hit – reaching #3 in Billboard and #2 in Cashbox.

The band’s producer also hated Smokin' in the Boys Room and refused to release it as a single. Then, a station in Maine began playing the album track, the requests piled in, and the record company eventually received over 1000,000 orders for this “new single”.

The producer was forced to release it, and the rest you know.