Tim McGraw Explains Why He Was Instantly Drawn to ‘Neon Church’

Tim McGraw’s current single, “Neon Church,” is the debut song from an upcoming, still-untitled new album. The song, written by Ross Ellis, Ben Goldsmith and Ben Stennis drew McGraw in from the very first line.

“To me, it had a little bit of dirt on it,” McGraw said on the Ty, Kelly and Chuck Show. “I think when you hear an opening line like ‘I need Jesus or I need whiskey,’ that’s one of the great opening lines of all times of a country song, and I fell in love with that. And then every lyric that comes after that is so well-placed. Nothing’s out of place with that lyric. We wanted to go in and cut a record that had a little bit of a Journey/Prince vibe that’s leading more modern at the same time. So we wanted these really big Prince-sounding guitars on it.”

The Louisiana native was drawn to the comparison between bars and churches, having experienced both throughout various stages of his career.

“The lyric of course grabbed me,” McGraw explained. “Of course, spending a lot of time early in my life playing clubs. That’s what we did, playing clubs. You spend so much time playing the clubs, and it’s such a parallel, the whole ‘Neon Church’ vibe, it’s such a parallel to church in a lot of ways. It’s a different side of the same coin. You see people at different stages of their life. Happy, sad, falling apart, getting together – all these things from the pulpit I guess, when you’re up on stage and you’re the artist performing, you get to see a lot of life stories going on.

“And this song sort of reminded me of that,” he continued. “And the same thing with church. You go to church, they’re some of the happiest times of your life and some of the saddest times of your life at church.”

McGraw teased the new song earlier in the week, first tweeting out the lines, “I need Jesus or I need whiskey,” sparking concern among his fans, since McGraw is a recovering alcoholic. He later tweeted out a phone number, with the promise to text back anyone who texted the number.

McGraw also released “Thought About You,” promising that both songs are a good indication of what his next record will sound like.

“Both these songs were ready to be heard and will absolutely give a sense of where I’m going with my next project,” McGraw shared on social media. “They’re meaningful to me and show the diversity of what I’ve been working on musically, I hope you like em!”

Both songs are available for download on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Kevin Winter