Hey y’all this is Brantley Gilbert. This is my new album So Help Me God.

Hey y’all this is Brantley Gilbert and my new album So Help Me God is out now.

So, "Heaven By Then", we were actually on a writing retreat in Texas that we do every year. It’s usually like, me, HARDY, Hunter Phelps, Randy Montana, Brock Berryhill, the Phillips cousins Josh and Taylor, and the Brent’s and we always have a great time. That night in particular, it was like three in the morning, four in the morning, and it was like everybody was out on the porch and song starts, you know, its one of those things where it’s like, man, I don’t remember who threw a word in here or there, or who didn’t so, it’s like, we ended up with a bunch of writers on it, but I love songs like that because it was literally everybody writing in the middle of the night. It was a song that kind of came out of a conversation. The guitar ended up in HARDY’s lap, and that’s usually a good sign that something is about to turn into something special, you know. To have Blake and Vince on it is, kind of a bucket list thing that I didn’t know was on my bucket list. These are two guys that, you know, I look up to and they’re also two legends in country music. To have them on this song in particular, I just feel like they gave it a voice that I didn’t have, and you know, just made it that much more special, so. I can’t wait for folks to hear it. I’m excited to play it with ‘em.

"Rolex On A Redneck" came from Taylor Phillips. Taylor is a rambunctious- good hearted, but he’s a wild child, man. I love Taylor to death, and I have to be completely honest with you and own my sh**, and tell you that the first time he brought it to the table, I kind of passed on the idea, just ‘cause I wasn’t hearing it like he was. They called me to the bus, said “man, you gotta hear this thing we started, we’re working on something and it’s sick,” and I show up and sure enough it’s that hook, but they’re starting to put the track together and it was killer, everything I heard was awesome. So, I was wrong. Taylor, I was wrong, you were right (you ba****d). But yeah, that song, it was a lot of fun, man and I feel like the message behind it, you know, it was cool. You read the title and you’re like ehhh, this could be… this could go a cheesy route, but I don’t feel like it did. Basically, the moral of the song was, hey man, you want cool sh**, you gotta work hard for it. This cool sh** ain’t cheap and cheap sh** ain’t cool.

"Miles Of Memories", you know, that song was something that Brock Berryhill and Josh Phillips brought to me, and man, I loved everything that I heard when they sent it over and you know, there was some things from my hometown that fit in perfectly and I felt like I could bring some things to the table on the song, but yeah, I have to say it’s more of a tribute to my hometown than anything. It’s like, you know, and basically what the song says is don’t close your eyes on 85 you just might miss that southbound Georgia exit- I mean, that’s literally our exit where we still live today, you get off the same exit to go to our house that you get off to go to the house that I grew up in, and, you know it’s just about how that town to anybody else is probably mostly just something you see you know, in your windshield or your rearview, but to us, man, it’s everything. You know, there’s more memories there and you know, it really is a part, you know, it’s engrained into who you are and no matter where I go, I always have a way of coming back home. You know, it’s like if I were to ride around your hometown I’d see a church, you know, or I’d see a little hole in the wall bar, but to you it ain’t just a church, it ain’t just a hole in the wall bar, and this is a version of that.

The conversation before the song was about like, old school love, like about how our grandparents loved. We’re talking about people that were married 50 years and still holdin’ hands and just the way they loved each other and the relationship they had was so different than most of what you see these days, you know. I mean, I feel like somebody’s blessed to make it 10 years in a marriage, but I just feel like it was a different kind of love back then. You know, even in my vows to my wife, it was one of the things that was important to me, I wanted to love my wife like people used to love, you know, and I wanted to raise a family with my wife like people used to raise a family. It was just kind of a song, I like songs that remind people that, “hey, there was a generation of people that loved each other like no other.” I feel like that’s the honest to God truth. When I think about my grandparents, that’s, when I think about marriage and love, that’s who I think about. It’s kinda what that song’s about, it’s just being inspired by people who you respect who were in love until the day they died, like my grandparents, eventually they had to, my mom had both of them eventually in a nursing home, and they literally had to keep them, their beds set up facing each other the whole time. If they ever took my grandmother out of the room for whatever reason, my grandfather would like, his health would decline on the spot, like, just seeing that and just seeing the way my pawpaw loved my nana, I’ll never forget that and that’ll always be, you know, in the back of my mind when I screw up and we get in petty little arguments and stuff or you know, I’m not being the husband I should be, you know, it’s always, you know, songs like this are good reminders that, “hey dude,” like, “if you want that kind of love you gotta do your part in it.”

Yeah, "The Worst Country Song Of All Time" I feel like is exactly what it says it is. It was a fun one to write, and it was hilarious. We were laughing the entire time. Did I think it would be a country radio single? Absolutely not. Should it have been? Mmm, probably absolutely not, but we had fun with it. We put it out at a time too where I feel like, just in society in general we were really incapable of having conversations about certain things without being heated. I’ll say, it was a hell of a lot of fun to cut, and having Toby Keith and HARDY on it, you know, HARDY co-wrote it too. It was just a fun song, man, and it was meant to be lighthearted, not meant to be taken seriously in any form or fashion, and it was like man, dude let’s just take a break and have a little fun.

Honestly, "Son Of The Dirty South", it didn’t have anything to do with "Son Of A Sinner", and there was almost a little hesitation to dive into "Son Of The Dirty South" because of "Son Of A Sinner", you know, but, he was game. We sat down and, I’d been a Jelly Roll fan for a long time. I like the circles he runs in and the music those guys make, but him in particular, I feel like, he mixed the rap and the singing part of that world genius-ly, and I feel like when we met we just hit it off immediately. That’s a real dude, and “what you see is what you get” people recognize each other and I saw it immediately, and he’s the real deal, man. That what he says in his songs, what he talks about, that’s real, you know what I mean, this dude will tell you what his faults are, what his qualities are unapologetically, and I feel like that’s to be valued. Anybody that’s not afraid to say what they think or what they feel or just lay it all on the table, and it, dude, it inspired me, you know, so when we sat down to write that song I was like, look guys, no rules, no holds barred,” I’m talkin’ ‘bout let’s take "Kick It In The Sticks" up a notch and freakin’ go hard, but, it’s exactly what we intended it to be, and what’s cool about that song too, is that we started writing it on acoustic guitar. Like literally, that song started, I was playing a little riff in this kind of drop D thing that I had been fiddlin’ with, and it went from that to the freakin’ head-banging monster it is now and that song is blowing up still, I mean it’s just steady killin’ it, so, I’m proud of that one, man, and I feel safe in saying, I won’t blow anything or say anything I’m not supposed to, but, I don’t think it’s the last thing you’ll hear out of the two of us.

"How To Talk To Girls", it was actually a farm trip, it was a bunch of us that were dads, you know, started talking about, especially girl dads that were in the room, we were talking about parenting in general, but, just with girls it was like “man,” you know, and I was sharing with them some of my, I guess concerns about being a father of a daughter, you know, there are your obvious ones, it’s about like, you know, communicating different, you know. My son messes up, I don’t have any trouble whatsoever holding him accountable and disciplining him or whatever, but with her, my wife knows that if she does something wrong, most of the time, my wife’s probably going to have to correct her, ‘cause I have trouble with it, like, she gives me these little eyes, and there’s, there’s nothing that I can do, I mean, I ain’t got nothin’. She’s precious. But this song was really about my inability to communicate with girls at different times of my life, and you know, with my wife it was kind of, you know, one of the conversations was, I mean, you know, when we got engaged, there was no doubt in my mind, like we had talked about getting married and we talked about what kind of ring she liked and all that, so she knows it’s coming right, but you still have that thought in the back of your head like the day it’s going to happen, or you’re going to ask and it’s like … what if? You know, I say something wrong or what if she says no, but, kind of going from there in to my girl, my butterfly, as I call my daughter. Braylen is just, it’s a horse of a different color, man, and I’m still figuring it out, it’s a day to day thing. She’s a momma’s girl, she has daddy days, and those are few and far in between, but every now and then buddy when I get one, it’s the coolest thing in the world. But yeah, that song’s about you know, our inability as men sometimes to communicate with y’all. Y’all are hard to talk to sometimes! Intimidating…

"Little Piece Of Heaven", so, it’s kind of the, you know, when sh** goes bad in a relationship in a small town kind of thing, and it’s, I mean, I guess you could say it’s based on a true story, ‘cause it’s like kinda when stuff went south for Amber, my wife and I had an on and off thing for years, and we spent five years without seeing or speaking to each other, and it was just like how this place that I loved and grew up in had memories and just, “awww,” when things go sideways with a girl it just turns it in to hell on earth, you know, so, it’s just about kinda breaking up in a small town

"Gone But Not Forgotten", it’s been a special song, you know, from the jump. It’s about like bringing images that we usually pass every day without much thought comes to the forefront, like that little white cross sitting on the side of the highway, it’s like yeah, every time you pass it you’re like “oh, somebody died right there,” but, who was that? You know what I mean? That was somebody that was engrained in our community that we all knew or knew of, knew somebody that knew ‘em, somebody that had a story and a legacy. Songwriting to me, right, is the truest form of expression outside of prayer, but it's also therapeutic from time to time. Like, I write songs about things that I don’t like having conversations about, and loss is one of those things. With "Gone But NotForgotten", it’s definitely tribute to the military guys and girls that, you know, that sacrifice everything they do to go protect us, but it’s also about, you know, your buddy that you grew up with that passed away, you know, tippin’ our hat to them and remembering them more so than staying in a state of grievance or mourning, it’s like, the gone but not forgotten thing, you see that on bikers patches and that’s a big thing in the biker community, when somebody passes, gone but not forgotten, and you know, I feel like every walk of life has their versions of that, but it’s kind of just a reminder to me that hey man, these guys might not be in my world right now, but they’ll always be in here [pointing to heart] and I’ll see ‘em again.

"So Help Me God", you know, all my records have that spiritual, faith-based title, and I thought this one was perfect because you know, you hear people say, “I’m gonna do that, so help me God,” you know, and that’s how this all starts off, and I felt like what’s different about this song is, you know I don’t like to retrace steps and go back into, you know, addiction or recovery world in every song and every album, but, you know, it’s a huge part of my life, that change and making that decision to get that sh** out of my life was huge, and I feel like there are a lot of people these days that are, you know, they’re right in that spot, like, “do I have a problem?”, “do I not have a problem?”, you know.“I can fix this on my own, I don’t need help,” you know, most can. I feel like, you know, getting to that point where it’s like, “so help me God, I’m gonna do this and that,” to a point of “man, help me dude, like I don’t know what else to do.” It’s not just about drinking, or using, or whatever. It’s about situations that we can get ourselves into in life where we need to be reminded that, “hey man, they say God won’t put you through anything you can’t handle, and that’s bullsh**, He will. He does it on a regular basis.” Sometimes I put things on records that I need to remind myself of personally, and that song, to me, was more than being about drinking or having a drinking problem, or drug problem, or, which I had both of those, have both, I battle them on a daily basis, you know, I get to kick their a*s every day, but it’s more about acknowledging the fact that, “hey man, as tough as I may think I am, there’s things that are out of my hands that I need help with,” and I feel like we’re finally getting in to a place in society where people are not as hesitant, it’s not so taboo, you know, to get help, we’re not viewing it as a weakness as much as we used to, and I feel like that’s important but, you know, this song is kind of my contribution to that and also just a personal reminder, you know, every time I see this title track, it reminds me, “hey dude, you don’t have to tote everything yourself,” you know what I mean. Some of this is by design, over your head, and you know, troubled water you weren’t meant to swim in. Man, this kind of reminds me that I’m not by myself, I got somebody to help out.