For the Love of God

Album: Punching Bag (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • Turner transforms the title phrase from one of frustration to one of jubilant intent on this Southern gospel song. This was one of eight cuts on Punching Bag that Turner penned at a newly built log cabin on the property behind his home just outside Nashville. "It's turned out to be quite an inspirational place," he said. "It's where I allow myself to think, be creative and make mistakes along the way."
  • The song features Ricky Skaggs. The bluegrass legend came to Turner's mind after he'd written the song and was in the studio recording the album. "I really got to thinking about Ricky and the album that he had done a few years ago called Solo, where it was basically him doing all the singing and all the playing," he recalled to The Boot. "Everything on the record was him and he used a lot of different kinds of instruments that a lot of people had never heard of. I really wanted him to come in and use one or more of those instruments. So he came in and played a couple different kinds of mandolins. He played a cello banjo ... a lot of people don't even know what that is. It's a really cool-sounding instrument and you get to hear it on this song. I'm excited for people to hear that extra little flare on that song because I didn't want it to be your standard bluegrass song. I wanted it to have some grit and soul to it, and I felt like having Ricky's voice on there singing the harmony vocal and his style of mandolin playing and the cello banjo would really kind of give it that color."

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