Song Snapshots is a column featuring the stories behind new and classic Southern Gospel songs.
“Even from your earliest years,” Neil Enloe observes, “the identity of your gender is very strong. And it struck me one day that we are going to be the bride of Christ. Men will be part of the bride! So I began to joke in our services about it. Dave would talk about my songs, and I would say, ‘Oh, I got another one; I already got the title. And it’s called the next time I get married, I’m gonna be the bride.'”
“That happened almost two years,” he continues. “Finally, one day, I said, ‘You know, I’m baiting this hook, but I’m not catching anything. I really should just go ahead and try to put a song together.’ And that’s what I came up with. But I established myself in the first two verses, without any question, that I am a male species. I am married, I have children, I have grandchildren. However, in the next time I get married, I’m gonna be the bride!”
The Couriers recorded the song on their most recent release, Changing World.
People ask if he has received criticism for a song. “We never got any flak,” he replies. “One time we were singing out in California at a Bible School. A friend of ours who was there said it was a good thing we didn’t sing that song for the chapel, because we would have gotten some flak. But I never have actually gotten any, to this day. I was very careful to not point a finger of accusation at anybody. The song specifically talks about me, not you. Not shame on you for anything, nothing like that. So I’m prepared to defend it because I do not put a downer on anybody for any reason in it.”