Blake Shelton, ‘God Gave Me You’ – Lyrics Uncovered

The lyrics of Blake Shelton's newest hit, 'God Gave Me You,' were much more of a struggle for songwriter Dave Barnes to write than they were an assembled gift from God. Barnes, who also turned the song into a solo hit on Christian radio stations, says writing the song was a series of starts and stops.

He tells Taste of Country that he had the melody and chord changes for over a year before coming up with the 'God Gave Me You' concept during a vacation in London. He was forced to pocket the idea until he returned, but remembered it in time for a songwriting session with fellow musician Matt Wertz.

"He was like, 'Man I love that,' but he had a friend that was over and we didn't end up having as much time as we thought so we kind of cut it short," Barnes says. They'd planned on picking it back up, but Barnes was so excited by the process that he finished it on his own.

"Now it's become this huge joke. He wishes, obviously, that he could have had more time that day to write it," Barnes adds.

"I’ve been a walking heartache / I’ve made a mess of me / The person that I’ve been lately / Ain’t who I wanna be / But you stay here right beside me / Watch as the storm goes through / And I need you," he wrote in the song's lyrics.

While Barnes' wife was the inspiration for the song, there wasn't some grand moment in which he presented his romantic overture to her. She actually helped him through the process by suggesting rhymes or offering constructive criticism. "Now it's turned that different corner," he says. "I think now she loves to hear it 'cause it's fun to think, 'Dave wrote this about me.'"

"God gave me you for the ups and downs / God gave me you for the days of doubt / For when I think I’ve lost my way / There are no words here left to say, it’s true / God gave me you," Barnes wrote in the song's chorus.

Recently, he had a good laugh when a friend asked, "How does it feel to know that Blake [Shelton] is now singing about Annie [Barnes' wife]?"

Barnes was ecstatic when he learned Shelton was touched by the song, and he has nothing but praise for the country version of the hit. He was surprised that 'God Gave Me You' was his first hit, however (aside from an album cut by Billy Currington).

He describes the lyrics as quirky and complicated, especially the lyric that goes: "You’ll always be love’s great martyr / I'll be the flattered fool / And I need you."

"That's like the weirdest lyric," Barnes admits.

For more information on Dave Barnes, visit his official website.