Some of the best things in life are the things that didn’t happen to us. Country star Garth Brooks explores this theme in his 1991 No. 1 hit, “Unanswered Prayers”.
The song, which appears on Brooks’ album No Fences, is the “truest song” that Brooks has ever written as a writer. At least, that’s what he said in the liner notes for his 1994 compilation The Hits. That’s because the song stems from a real event that actually happened to him.
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The inspiration for “Unanswered Prayers” came when Brooks was back in his home state of Oklahoma with his first wife, Sandy Mahl. It was October of 1989, and Brooks and Mahl happened to run into his ex-girlfriend from high school.
It was then that Brooks had the realization that he truly didn’t feel that kind of love for her anymore. Although a life with her was something that he likely would have prayed for at the time.
“For the first two years of my married life, I really thought the girl that was for me was still that girl that was in high school,” Brooks admitted in The Garth Brooks Story. “And now, man, just the realization that what you have is the best for you, and the best you could ever do in your lifetime. It sure makes you sleep well at night.”
How the Title of “Unanswered Prayers” Came About
“Unanswered Prayers” was written by Brooks, Pat Alger, and Larry Bastian. For a while, Brooks and Alger had been working on the song, not knowing how to tie it all together. Then, Bastian contributed the title.
“Pat Alger and I worked on this song quite a long time without a hook, without the line,” he told The Hits liner notes. “We passed it by Larry Bastian, and it was as if it was meant to be.”
“Larry, his wife Myrna, and I were taking a walk down 18th Avenue, and he looked at me and said, ‘Oh, that’s simple. This song should be called ‘Unanswered Prayers’ because some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.’”
To this day, “Unanswered Prayers” is one of Brooks’ most popular recordings.
Photo by: James Schnepf/Getty Images
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