Three Feet of Water

Album: The Devil Don't Sleep (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Brantley Gilbert gives thanks to the mercy of God in washing away all his sins when he was baptized.

    And that sun is shinin' down
    On all my darker days
    They're comin' to me now
    As I hear the preacher say
    In the name of the Son and the Father
    Can I really leave it all
    In three feet of water?


    Gilbert expresses wonder that the simple act of going into three feet of water can cleanse him of all the dark thoughts, words and deeds he has done throughout his life.
  • Brantley Gilbert has recorded songs that express his faith before, and was keen to include one on The Devil Don't Sleep but had struggled to come up with one that he was happy with. That was until he was approached by Barry Poole, who records under the name Cledus T. Judd and is best known for his parodies of country music hit tunes.

    "I came in on the back end of that song, which is something that I typically don't make a habit of," Gilbert told Billboard magazine. "I like to be from the ground up on songs. If I had my pick, that would be the way to do it. All of my records have had a song about faith. I had three or four different ones for this record that I was working on, but I just couldn't get the end to the songs done."

    "I got a call from Cledus T. Judd about 8 a.m. one morning - which is about three in the morning to me," he continued. "He said he had a song he wanted me to listen to - I always get excited when he's got a song. They're usually funny. When I listened to it, the hair on my neck stood up.

    "That song is one where every person is going to have to speak for themselves on what it does for them," Gilbert added. "For me, what they had written before I even put the things I changed in it, there was something about it. I had a similar feeling to that song as I did [2014 single] 'One Hell Of An Amen.' I don't know if it's going to be a single, or what it's going to do. But, it's going to do something. I'm excited to see what that is."

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