Back to God

Album: Anything Goes (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • Randy Houser co-wrote this country-rocker with Dallas Davidson (Blake Shelton's "All About Tonight") for his debut album, Anything Goes.

    We can't go on like this and live like this
    We can't love like this
    We gotta give this world back to God


    The song lifts up God as the only solution to our world's problems.
  • Reba McEntire covered the tune for her 2017 gospel collection Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope. "Back To God was my favorite song on Randy Houser's first album," the Oklahoma native recalled to ABC Radio. "When that song would come on, I would sit there and listen to it and I said, 'I'd love to record that someday.' But he did such a good job, I thought, 'Ew, I don't think I could beat him on that!'"

    It was only when McEntire's label suggested that they make the album a double set that she got round to recording the tune. She said: "We needed four more songs, and so I said, 'Oh my gosh, I forgot Randy's song.' And so that's when I recorded 'Back to God.'"
  • The song was released as the lead single from McEntire's gospel album. "I've been asked a lot lately about why now was the right time to release this song," The Country Hall of Famer explained in a press release. "I think it is always the right time to give it back to Him because we seem to mess things up on our own. We all need to just love each other more unconditionally, without judgement, because we can't do this on our own."
  • McEntire worked with director Mason Dixon for the video, shooting it at Nashville's Mount Olivet Cemetery and Tulip Street United Methodist Church. "It's not a church anymore," she said of the latter location, "and they don't know what they're gonna do with it. But it's on the historical register, so it's not gonna be torn down, thank the Lord… We went in and Mason Dixon shot the video and he did a great job and it just really does touch my heart."
  • McEntire released a duet version with Lauren Daigle on April 2, 2017. The pair performed the song the same day at the 2017 American Country Music Awards.
  • McEntire and Daigle's duet version reached #114 on the Hot 100 and also became McEntire's first Hot Christian Songs chart-topper and Daigle's second, following "Trust in You."
  • McEntire included her solo version of "Back To God" on the DVD version of her 2022 collection My Chains Are Gone: Hymns & Gospel Favorites. The CD version closes with an acoustic rendering of McEntire and Daigle's duet.

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