This song tells the story of a young woman with a lot on her mind who hits a sheet of black ice while driving to see her parents for Christmas. When she goes into a skid and fears for her life, she throws her hands up and says, "Jesus, take the wheel." Guided by Jesus, the car comes to a safe stop with her baby still asleep in the back seat. At this point she vows to give her life to Christ.
The woman in the song did the right thing by not slamming on the brakes, but simply asking Jesus for help is not the recommended way to get out of a skid. Instead, take your foot off the gas and steer in the direction you want the car to go.
Underwood was the 2005 American Idol winner. As the show progressed, she was positioned as a country singer and became the first winner of the show who was considered country. The album Some Hearts, which includes "Jesus, Take The Wheel," established her reputation as a pop-friendly country artist, debuting at #2 on the US albums chart and #1 on the Country chart.
The song was written by Brett James, Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson. Brett James told Roughstock in a 2013 interview that the cut has personal meaning to the three writers, and is a tune they are all proud to have been part of penning. "'Jesus, Take the Wheel' was written at Hillary's house on her living room floor," he recalled. "It was done like any other rainy day in Nashville. We walked in, started drinking coffee and talking about what we wanted to write that day. As writers, you kill about a half an hour just shooting the bull, and then it's like, 'OK what do you want to write today?' Gordie says, 'Man, I've got this title... 'When Jesus Takes the Wheel.'' Now, we're kind of used to that phrase, but that was the first time I'd ever heard it, and I kind of laughed it off.
"We talked about some other ideas, and fortunately after we went through about three or four other ideas, that one kept coming up," continued James. "So I was like, 'What about that 'When Jesus Takes the Wheel' idea. What would we write that one about?' We came up with a little girl driving through Cincinnati. There are some personal stories involved. My wife almost had that experience. She had a very miraculous car crash that she walked away from. Since then, a lot of people have. You hear those stories all the time where they say I don't know what happen, I just know that it was a miracle that I got out of there.
"We write all kinds of songs," reflected James. "We write fun songs and songs you can dance to, and songs that are stupid and silly that sound good on the radio. Occasionally you need to write something that means something to people. Those are the most fun songs to be part of, and this one was definitely one of those."
Underwood told
Entertainment Weekly in 2012 that this is the song for which she'd like to be remembered. "I would pick an important one. Not '
Before He Cheats' or '
Good Girl,' none of that," she said. "Something that somebody can hear and it would make them feel better or help them through an important time or a tough time in their life."
This won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Underwood also won Best New Artist at the ceremony, beating James Blunt, Chris Brown, Imogen Heap, and Corinne Bailey Rae.
This also won Single of the Year at the 2006 Academy Of Country Music Awards, where Underwood was also named Top New Female Vocalist.
The music video, directed by Roman White, features Underwood singing against the backdrop of three domestic scenes, including a young mother trying to soothe her crying baby, an elderly man attempting to spoon-feed his unresponsive wife, and a couple arguing over finances. By the end, each conflict is resolved.
The video won Breakthrough Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year at the 2006 CMT Awards.
This has inspired several memes, including a 2010 image macro of Underwood telling Jesus to take the wheel, with Jesus replying, "I can't drive, LOL!" Another popular parody came from a 2013 Vine video where Jesus literally reaches in the driver's window and takes the wheel of a car while the song plays.
Hillary Scott had a development deal with a label in Nashville during her pre-Lady A days, and "Jesus, Take the Wheel" was pitched to her when she was listening to songs to potentially record.
Scott ended up not releasing any material from her development deal and went on to form Lady A with Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood in 2006.
Underwood was on
American Idol at the time, and the song really spoke to her.
"She goes on to take it and it's a huge hit and the message of the song is so beautiful,"
Scott noted to Taste Of Country. "It's neat to have watched the journey - the journey of that song - because they all have their own."
Brett James, Hillary Lindsey, and Gordie Sampson were initially skeptical about the song's potential. It was nearly scrapped during the demo selection process, with concerns about its unconventional title and religious theme.
"I remember ['Jesus'] was fifth,"
James told The Tennessean. "It was the last [song] that was going to make the session. I think we weren't sure if people were really going to [connect with] a phrase that you haven't heard. Are people really gonna get this?"
The songwriters decided to go through with recording "Jesus, Take the Wheel" with Lindsey on lead vocals. But when the time came to shop the song around, some artists shared the group's initial trepidations, including Sara Evans, who reportedly dismissed it as "stupid." Yet, despite the early criticisms, the song found its way into the hands of Carrie Underwood, who turned it into a massive hit.
The song's co-writer Brett James died on September 18, 2025 when the small plane he owned crashed, killing him, his wife Melody Wilson, and her daughter Meryl Maxwell Wilson. Carrie Underwood
posted a moving tribute in response, which read in part:
"Brett loved the Lord. Which is the only comfort we can hold on to now. We even had the pleasure of singing together at church. My favorite songs to sing of ours are the ones that he or we wrote about Jesus because the thoughts and feelings behind them are so genuine and pure. I won't ever sing one note of them again without thinking of him."
