Brantley Gilbert Talks 'So Help Me God' and Working with Blake Shelton and Vince Gill

Three years ago, Brantley Gilbert released his record Fire & Brimstone. Since then, he released tracks like "Rolex On A Redneck," How To Talk To Girls," and "The Worst Country Song Of All Time." After continuously building up his repertoire with singles, he finally gave fans a full record titled So Help Me God.

The record features collaborations with artists like Toby Keith, HARDY, Jelly Roll, and Jason Aldean. The most striking, however, comes on the opener of the project, "Heaven By Then" which features contributions from Blake Shelton and Vince Gill. “Every now and then, you hear the feature as you’re writing it. This one, it sounded like Blake from the jump,” shares Gilbert enthusiastically. "Heaven By Then" was written by Gilbert alongside some of the most sought-after writers in Music City like Brock Berryhill, Randy Montana, HARDY, Hunter Phelps, Taylor Phillips, and Jake Mitchell. As a pleasant surprise to Gilbert, Vince Gill stepped in to record floaty background vocals. “It is a pinch-yourself moment," he adds.

One of the most personal standouts on the 10-song LP is "Miles Of Memories" which carries vivid imagery of Gilbert's rural Georgia upbringing. “It talks about some pretty specific things and it is a picture of my whole town,” he notes. The idea for the tune was brought to him by some of his co-writers when the track was first being unraveled. “I was able to put my fingerprints all over it,” Gilbert says. The lyrics mention the specific interstate by his hometown and one of the first bars he ever played. Even though the lyricism is deeply visceral for Gilbert, he thinks those are the lines that listeners will make the most personal for themselves as well. “Every time I hear that song, I see those places in my mind. Songs that are more personal, I feel like the emotion’s more raw and people relate more to the emotion than the exact name that we’re talking about. They make it their’s," he states.

Unlike most albums, Gilbert strategically placed the title track, "So Help Me God," as the closer of the record. Most of Gilbert's records have a spiritual, faith-based title and his latest is no different, but "So Help Me God" has a braver heaviness to it as he touches on his past struggle with addiction. He lays it all out on the line as soon as the first verse exclaiming, "She ain't never been a fan of whiskey / But she had to taste it every time she kissed me / Sid she wants forever with me / But if I don't quit, she's gonna quit me."

“We covered a lot of ground. That was part of touching base and reminding myself that, hey, this is a chapter of my life but I do recognize my addiction and alcoholism played a huge role in who I am now and the dad I am, and the husband I am, and the friend I am, the rebel that I still am," he openly shares. "It just loops everything at the end.”

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