Story Behind the Song: Chris Young, ‘If That Ain’t God’

Chris Young‘s 2020 single “If That Ain’t God” is a reminder to stop and enjoy the innate beauty and miracles big and small in the world. Fans took an immediate liking to the tune when the singer teased it on social media about a month before officially releasing it as a single.

Matt Roy, Mitchell Oglesby and Greylan James co-wrote “If That Ain’t God,” but Young also has a writer credit due to a few tweaks he made to personalize the song a bit. Below, the country star shares the story behind the track, in his own words.

So here’s what’s interesting about this song: This is actually the first time that I’ve been added as a writer. Greylan, Matt and Mitchell, the three of those guys wrote this song, and it made its way to me through some people at Sony, and I had heard of most of them through either friends who are writers or just the community in Nashville, and had heard a lot about the song.

So I listened to it, fell in love with it, and I kind of went to them and was like, “Hey, do you guys mind if I make some changes to the song, if I change some stuff in the chorus? I don’t want to mess up your baby; you just tell me if it’s okay,” and they were really, really gracious and let me do it — overly gracious by being like, “Hey, we’re gonna add you as a writer.” It meant a whole lot to me that they did that.

I had already cut the song, and we had already tracked it; I just had to go sing the vocal on it. I was already in love with it. And I don’t think they knew that at the time, either — I had to tell them that …

I changed about half of the chorus, and then one line in the second verse that I wanted to say something different. It was something that I did, and I was just like, “As long as you guys are cool with me doing this, I appreciate it. It’s something that I wanted to change” … It was getting cut no matter what, and I told the guys that … So it was a really cool way for that to work out.

And then, just actually hearing it for the first time, I think the thing that stuck with me — and this is something I did not mess with at all — was that first verse of the song … That’s something that I do so often in my house … So, to me, it was like, “Okay, this is pre-written for exactly what I do every morning,” and it’s just been so cool seeing the reaction from other people …

But it’s just an incredible song: It’s really uplifting and positive and powerful, and it’s one of those things that I think people need to hear right now, and that we need more, ’cause there is — it’s been a crazy, crazy year … and a lot of people are not necessarily getting that uplifting, positive moment, and to be able to give something like that out of music, I think it’s cool.