Chris Young Feels A Personal Connection To ‘If That Ain’t God’
His highly-anticipated new album should be out later this year....
Chris Young’s new single “If That Ain’t God” serves as a positive light in what has been a dark year for many people. The uplifting tune reminds listeners that in the midst of constant bad news, there are still good things happening in the world. The majority of the song was written by Matt Roy, Mitchell Oglesby and Greylan James with Young making a few changes. One thing the singer didn’t change, however, was the first verse, which seems like it was written just for him.
“That was exactly the way that they wrote it before I got involved with it,” Young told Sounds Like Nashville in an exclusive interview. “It’s talking about walking down your stairs every morning, grabbing a cup of coffee and turning on the news, and that’s something that I do every morning. I’m sure a lot of people do that, but it just hit me that that’s exactly the order that I do everything in and it really just made me lean into the song. I was like, ‘If it’s already making me do this, it’s going to do that for everyone.’”
In the second verse, Young specifically sings about a story on the news that details a boy beating cancer. Later, Young sings about a watercolor sunrise that brings him to tears. Then in the chorus, he brings all these beautiful experiences together and concludes that they must come straight from God Himself. Young believes this message of hope is necessary during these trying times, as the pandemic can cause people to lose sight of the good things in life.
“I think sometimes when you’re on your own and you are separated from everybody for a big long period of time, whether you’re an introvert, or an extrovert, or a little bit of both, you do miss that,” he says. “It can cause people to go inside themselves and maybe not look at all the positive things that are out there going on. Being able to have a song like this right now, I think, is highly important.”
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“If That Ain’t God” will appear on Young’s highly-anticipated eighth studio album, which he assures will include plenty of new music and will be released “probably this year.”
“Right now, we’ve got 15 songs that are done, and the thing that’s been kind of cool, even if it’s making people wait a little longer, is that I’m not cutting anything off. I’m adding more to it,” he says. “This isn’t the case of, ‘I cut 20 songs and we’re trying to narrow it down to 10.’ They’re going to get everything I’ve been doing.” Previously released songs “Raised On Country,” “Drowning,” and “Town Ain’t Big Enough” featuring Lauren Alaina will also appear on the forthcoming project.
