Josh Turner didn’t think his spiritual song “Me and God,” which is nominated for an Academy of Country Music award, would ever be recorded.
“I never thought it had any commercial value,” the 29-year-old Turner said recently. “It was a song I wrote for myself, almost like a journal entry.”
“Me and God,” recorded as a duet with bluegrass great Ralph Stanley, is among the nominees for vocal event of the year at the 42nd annual ACM awards, to air Tuesday on CBS (8 p.m. ET).
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Turner wrote the song about five years ago. He played it for Stanley backstage at the Grand Ole Opry one night and asked him to sing on it. He said the veteran gave the song an added dimension.
“It’s a song about my relationship with God, but then you have this guy over here who just turned 80 and has such a history in the world of bluegrass and country and roots music and who also has a relationship with God,” Turner said.
Stanley sings: “I am weak, and he is strong. Me and God. He forgives me when I’m wrong. Me and God. He’s the one I lean on when life gets hard. Me and God.”
Stanley, who began performing in the 1940s with his brother, Carter, in the Stanley Brothers, was recovering from heart surgery when he recorded it.
“The verse he sang was perfect for the time period. It was really reflective of what was going on in his life at the time,” Turner said.
Turner’s nominations also include single record of the year for “Would You Go With Me.”
Reba McEntire will again host the awards show, which is held in Las Vegas.