Larry Fleet‘s “Where I Find God” doesn’t ask listeners to be perfect in their religion, or to be at church every week; in fact, its message is pretty much the opposite of that. Its lyrics remind us that everyone notices the existence of a higher power in different ways and at different times.
Fleet co-wrote “Where I Find God,” his debut single, with Connie Harrington, a writer he’s quick to praise for her award-winning work (Lee Brice’s “I Drive Your Truck,” for example). It’s Fleet’s stunning voice, though, that carries the song’s message to a wider audience.
Below, Fleet shares the story behind “Where I Find God,” in his own words.
It comes from whenever I was just getting going and I started doing this thing called “Gospel Song Sunday,” and I started playing little gospel songs and I’d put it up on my social media stuff on on Sundays and give a little Bible quote or whatever inspirational thing from church that I learned that day. And after doing it for a few weeks, it started taking off, and people were looking forward to it.
Connie Harrington had actually seen that on Facebook, or whatever it was, and reached out to me … She said, “Hey, you know, I really love what you’re doing, and I’d like to write a song with you.” And this is early on, as I started to kind of write with bigger writers, and Connie Harrington is one of my favorites — I love Connie … So I was like, “Yeah.”
So I went and sat down in her office with her one day, and she said — you know, first time we ever met or anything — and she said, “Hey, I really love what you’re doing, and it kind of sparked up this idea that I got, and it’s a title called “Where I Find God.”” And I was like, “Love it.”
So we started just talking about all the different places that we find God, which, for me, it’s in a deer stand and a hayfield and fishing, or whatever it is — when I’m outside and by myself. And for her, it was on a boat and always driving to Nashville — and me too, because I live in Chattanooga and I drive Nashville. And that’s just where I, you know, talk to God, find God.
So we pretty much stockpiled all of our ideas in different places that we find God and wrote this song. It wrote itself, really. It’s the first song we ever wrote together, and the first time we ever met, we wrote that song. And as we wrote it, it played itself out. It took us a little while to write it, but once it started coming together, it was good.
I always joke around and say: You know you’re on a good one when Connie starts crying. And she started crying during it and I was like, “Well, we got a good one.”
So we did it and we did a demo, and everybody started hearing and people loved it. And you know, later on, I got my record deal and I recorded it, but it was a — I used to play it out before I had a deal or anything, and it always got a great response …
I’m a Christian, so I’ve been in the Baptist church for a long time, but my thing about that was, you know, I haven’t always been in church, but I always knew deep down there was a God … A lot of people are like that: They don’t they don’t necessarily know what God is or who God is, but they know something’s there, and they can go out in nature and see it … I wanted to write that — and Connie did, too — to to include everybody into that song, and wherever you’re at in your faith, anybody can relate to it.
Who Is Larry Fleet? 5 Things You Need to Know: