Songfacts®:

• This comedy song with an underlying serious side was written by The Swirling Eddies frontman Terry Taylor, who used the pseudonym Camarillo Eddy on the album. Taylor tells us that he does write some comedy songs that are just silly fun, but others, like this one, have a message beneath the surface. In this song, the redneck churchgoer behaves like a true Christian only in the presence of the pastor, which is an extreme example of how many Christians can lapse in their actions. Says Taylor: "there are songs like 'Hide the Beer, the Pastor's Here' which are funny on the surface - it doesn't matter if you're a Christian or not, it's funny to you. People identify with that idea: the pastor's showing up, we need to get rid of our booze and whatever else. But there's a very serious theological side to that song. And it's funny, because Steve Hindalong and Quincy Newcomb both hate funny songs. So when Steve came in to Lost Dogs, there were a couple of my songs that were in that vein, and he kind of dismissed them. And I said, 'I'm not trying to win you over, but you realize that song's really about this?' And then as he actually reads the lyrics and goes, 'Oh, wow. I didn't realize that.'"