Long Black Train

Turner's first hit, he debuted the song at the Grand Ole Opry in 2001, and released it as a single from his debut album, Long Black Train, two years later. It reached #13 on the Billboard Country charts and achieved gold status. When asked what his inspiration for the song was, Turner said he had envisioned a long, black train that was running down a track with people standing around watching it. It occurred to him that the train was a metaphor for temptation, with the engineer symbolizing Satan, and the train and whistle representing how we are always tempted to do evil, but we must resist. At the time, Turner was trying to discover who he was as an individual; he believes it's a song God delivered to him.

This was inspired by the Hank Williams' song "The Devil's Train." Josh Turner was asked by USA Weekend magazine (November 4, 2007) how he came up with this song: "It's probably the most spiritual experience I've ever had writing a song. I've always been a fan of Hank Williams. I've been mystified by his life. Then a box set of his came out. I couldn't afford to buy it at the time, so I'd just go over to the library. Late at night, I'd be in a cubbyhole there, just listening to his songs. I loved how his guitar would be a little out of tune, and sometimes he'd mess up on a song, and he'd just start over instead of recording over it. I'd walk out of the library with my mind racing with images of a train running in the middle of nowhere, with all of these people just standing, watching it go by and trying to contemplate whether to get on or not. I went to my bedroom, shut the door and just started strumming that rhythm and writing the verses. It never occurred to me that it would be a hit. I didn't even have a record contract at the time."

This won the award for Song of the Year at the 2004 Inspirational Country Music Awards.