Bob Seger has just released a previously unheard track called "Finding Out," which was intended for 2006's Face the Promise album but didn't make the cut. Seger is offering the song, which has languished for a decade and a half, as a free download on his website.

According to Team Rock, the song was first started more than a dozen years ago but finally completed during the sessions for I Knew You When, Seger's most recent LP, which was released last year.

In an interview with the Detroit Free Press back in 2003, Seger noted that something like this wasn't so unusual. "I write a lot of songs that people don't hear," he explained. "I just try to take the ones that sound the best -- maybe have the best lyric, or the best melody. I really just enjoy the process. I fall in love with every single one of them. I finish 'em all, and I don't think there's a whole lot of difference between the bad ones and the good ones. But every now and then you hit something that you really like a lot. Every now and then you'll nail one that's really, really special. And that's what you live for."

He went on to say back then that "Finding Out" was a new track for his then-upcoming album. "I've got a ballad on the new album called 'Finding Out,' where I really nailed the lyric," he said at the time. "So that's real good. The whole process is a lot of fun. When I have time to do it."

The song begins with the chorus and features a backup singer that Segerfile.com suggests could be Laura Creamer, who worked with Seger quite a bit during that era. His lyrics seem applicable to both a romantic relationship and more religious and existential subjects when he sings, "If you put me in a boat in the middle of the sea / That’s where I will come alive / But if you put me in a city full of everything I need / I’m not sure I will survive / And I don’t know how and I don’t know when your solace will arrive." 

Last fall, Seger was forced to postpone his 19-date tour that was planned to precede to the November release of his 10th studio album due to back surgery. But he's already on the road to recovery, and hoping to get back on tour soon.

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