Songfacts®:

• "Lee Ann Womack did backflips over this song," says songwriter Billy Montana. "It's not a young song, it's an old song, too. It's probably, I don't know, 13 years old or something. But it still holds up. I did a little independent project, and I put it on there, because it's one of my favorite songs that I've ever been a part of. Blackhawk were making an album and pared their list of songs down to 15. And 'Preacher Won't Have To Lie' was in that pile of 15. They only recorded 12, and 'Preacher Won't Have To Lie' was in that pile of 3 that didn't make it.
  So we went from there to just a couple weeks later, Frank Lidell, who is Lee Ann Womack's husband, and was A&R at Decca at the time, tells me the story where he and Lee Ann were driving across New Mexico, and he was playing songs for her in the car to see what she'd like. And he said he put in 'Preacher Won't Have To Lie,' the demo, and he said she just flipped out and just loved it. So she ended up recording it."
• Recalling the moment when the seed for this song took root, Billy says, "This is a really special song. We joke about how at our church we have a pastor that said, 'Well, you know the saying,' he says, 'you want to live your life so when you die the preacher won't have to lie at your funeral.' And I wrote down on the bulletin, 'Song: "The Preacher Won't Have To Lie."' And Steve Dean is one of my best friends in town, and he and I have been writing for a long time. And so that one was one that we really felt like we were just holding the pen and the Lord was helping us put that one together."
• Another very cool thing about this song is that after 9/11, "the Country music community did a benefit at CMT, a benefit for the survivors and for the victims and all that of 9/11, they did a concert. Every artist got to do two songs. And for the most part they were doing kind of career songs. And Lee Ann chose 'I Hope You Dance,' and 'Preacher Won't Have To Lie' for her two on that concert." (Read more in our interview with Billy Montana.)