Josh Turner is the writer on several of his songs, including "Long Black Train," "Me and God," and more. But perhaps surprisingly, one of the most biographical songs is one he actually didn't write. "Down in Georgia," on his latest This Country Music Thing album, was written by Tyler Booth, Anthony Olympia and Brent Rupard, although it could have been written by Turner.
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"I've been trying to run down the story on this song," Turner tells Country Stars Central. "Because the three guys that I don't even know wrote this song. And I kind of heard through the grapevine just recently that they specifically wrote it for me, which was the first that I'd heard of that."
Turner admits he was surprised at how much "Down in Georgia" is parallel to his own life.
"When I first heard it, I'm like,' Man somebody's been reading my mail," the South Carolina native says. "Because when I first heard it, we were actually in the process of moving to Georgia. My wife [Jennifer] is from Georgia, and so it was just kind of like, whoa, this is like interesting timing here."
Josh Turner Talks Nashville and Georgia
Turner has 11 songs on This Country Music Thing, penning three of the tracks on the project. But he knew as soon as he heard "Down in Georgia" that it was perfect for his recent record.
"Obviously it was an easy choice for the record," Turner explains. "And musically it's very different from anything that I've ever done. A lot of people really liked that song early on, so it was kind of an easy choice. I met my wife when we were in school together at Belmont University in Nashville and we've been married now 21 years."
Turner spent 25 years in Nashville, before relocating to Georgia, a bittersweet decision for the singer.
"Nashville's been really good to me," Turner admits. "Tennessee's been really good to me. That's where I spent most of my married life. We had four boys. They were all born in Nashville, and they were all raised there in Tennessee. So, like I say, we made a lot of great memories there. But I think moving to Georgia has been good for all of us. It's been a good change of scenery and good to kind of get out of the Nashville rat race."
