Lyric discussion by matthewg0w 

Cover art for The Preacher lyrics by Jamie N Commons

Why do people automatically assume that songs are metaphors? This song is literally about a preacher from Alabama who killed his wife and hid her body in a freezer.

“I saw a news article about a preacher who killed his wife and had hidden it and was still preaching to a large congregation,” Commons said of the inspiration for “The Preacher.”

Here's the news article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/31/preacher.freezer/index.html?_s=PM:CRIM.

Song Fact

@matthewg0w Hah, thank you. It always bugs me when people start reading tea leaves when there's a perfectly good literal interpretation right there.

I will say though, there I think there is an allusion to the story of Abraham and Isaac from the old testament. You know, the dude who god told to sacrifice his son on a mountaintop, was totally going to go through with it, then at the last minute an angel from god stopped him (earning him praise from god but probably a Worst Father of the Year mug next Fathers Day from his son). The...

@matthewg0w Thank you.

@matthewg0w I had the western dark romantic notion was it was a preacher who took vengeance upon the killing of his family - and lost jesus and his family - when he killed the murderers. And now he's hanging for their murders. (shrug) I liked my interpretation because when I was at a low point in my life, I drowned in the song, and was engulfed in the imagery of this dark tragic cowboy preacher.