RECORDS/Arista Nashville
Newcomer Matt Stell is a co-writer on his top-fifteen debut single, “Prayed for You.” But it was actually his collaborator, Allison Veltz, who came up with the idea for the hit song.
“She came in and… a week before [had just met the man] who turned out to be her husband,” Matt tells ABC Radio. “And she was riding high from that, and had this title, just ‘I Prayed for You.'”
“I think she said, you know, ‘Bigger than I can fathom/Didn’t know you from Adam/But I prayed for you,'” Matt recalls, quoting lines from the song. “And we just immediately started thinking about our own not only relationships, but just any time that you kind of fight the good fight and give an opportunity for good things to happen.”
For him, Matt says the semi-religious sentiment is really about being grateful for all the breakthroughs that come your way.
“The character in the song is a lot like me in that he’s way, way luckier than he deserves,” the Arkansas native says humbly. “And in terms of the religious component of that, I owe a big debt of gratitude to everyone around me and a higher power because the cards have fallen in my favor in such a way that I don’t deserve it at all.”
“It’s really a gratitude thing, and a perseverance thing,” he adds. “And to me those are lessons I took from the church house.”
You’ll find “Prayed for You” on Matt’s EP, Everywhere But On.
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