Larry Fleet’s Hit “Where I Find God” Was Almost A Luke Bryan Song

Can you imagine anyone else singing "Where I Find God" other than Larry Fleet ? Now that country music fans have heard it sung by the Tennessee native, it might be hard to think that the track almost ended up in the hands of a different country artist. In fact, it was in the hands of someone else for quite some time, until Larry Fleet eventually grabbed it right back so it could eventually be released as a single of his own. The Whiskey Riff Raff podcast sat down with Fleet recently to talk about anything and everything music, and obviously some of Fleet's best songs came up in conversation. At one point, the country singer revealed that he actually wrote "Man Made A Bar" and "Where I Find God" on the same day. Fleet laughingly said that he "could use 13 more days like that one," and something tells me he wasn't joking. We asked Fleet how he goes about deciding if a song he writes is his to sing or someone else's, and he happily explained his songwriting and subsequent song-choosing process. Specifically, he discussed how he wrote "Man Made A Bar" and how it eventually ended up being cut by Morgan Wallen and Eric Church: "Most songs are for me because I write them that way. 'Man Made A Bar' was going to be mine too, but Morgan can take a song and... he needed two songs to finish his record and he hit me up and said, 'Hey, you got anything?' and I said, 'Yeah, I got one.' I sent him 'Man Made A Bar' and he was like, 'This is great.' I said, 'If you want it, you can have it. If not, I'm gonna do it.' A week later, he called me and said, 'Hey I cut that song."... then Morgan called me a day or two later, 'Hey, I got Eric Church to sing it with me too.'" Fleet was obviously okay with how "Man Made A Bar" went, considering it was his first number one that he had ever written. He went on to explain that the song went to Wallen basically because it fit with him, and that's a big driving force in how Larry Fleet allows for his own work to be cut by other artists: "It worked and it fit him and that's what he liked. He thought it was great and Eric loved it too. At the time, I didn't realize how good it was. Then hearing them on it, I was like, 'That makes sense.' It ended up where it needed to be. I feel like songs will end up where they need to be, and everything happens the way it's supposed to happen... I'm not good at writing songs for people. I just write songs and if it ends up with somebody (else), it ends up with them. I've been lucky enough to have a few end up with different people." And speaking of songs ending up with other people... The Whiskey Riff Raff podcast piggybacked off of that anecdote and moved to one of Fleet's other well-known songs: "Where I Find God." The singer-songwriter revealed that when he penned that song, he wasn't even with a label, and it eventually got picked up and put on hold by one of the biggest country artists in the business: "I didn't have a record deal when I wrote it. There was another really big artist, and he wanted it. So he took it and had it on hold for a year. And then I messed around and got a record deal and I was like, 'Hey, I kind of want this song.' If he's not going to do it, I feel like there's something there." Fleet went on to say that enough close friends that listened to the demo of the song he cut convinced him that it was one he should take back. So when he eventually signed on with Big Loud Records, he got back the rights to cut "Where I Find God" so that it could be included in the album. But then it got shelved: "I get the song back and we recorded it, and they shelved it. It didn't go out. They just put the eight songs on it and said, 'Well we'll figure out something to do with it.' So I said, 'Why don't we put this song out on Good Friday?' In 2020, didn't know that the world was going to shut down. I had already done a video for it, and whenever it dropped, boom, COVID hit. So everybody was... I guess at home watching YouTube and it kind of blew up. Then radio stations started playing it and that ended up being my first song on the radio. And it has grown and still grows." What a journey for that song, huh? Larry Fleet is proud that many fans associate him with "Where I Find God," and stated that it's a good song to be known for and have a foundation built upon. That's what makes the next part so crazy, because Fleet revealed who had it on hold for so long but never pulled the trigger on it: "Luke Bryan had it on hold. And it's one of those things... I've got songs on hold that I've never even heard before. So I don't know if he ever even heard the song or not. And there was a couple other people that was wanting it at the time too. And he ended up with it. At the time, I was like, 'Man that'd be great, cause I could use some tires on my truck.'" I'm sure he ended up getting those new tires anyways... You can hear more about Larry Fleet's signature song, as well as how Fleet has juggled being a dad and a country artist, in the most recent episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so6w9qOmX_8