Morgan Wallen has released a wide variety of songs, including happy songs, love songs, and party songs. But he has also released sad songs, including these four, with heartbreaking lyrics.
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“Sand In My Boots”
Few songs embody the pain of wondering what might have happened like “Sand In My Boots”. Out in 2021 on Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, the song is written by Hardy, Josh Osborne, and Ashley Gorley.
“Sand In My Boots” says, “I said, ‘Let’s go shoot tequila’ / So we walked back to that beach bar / She said, ‘Don’t cowboys drink whiskey? / So we drank bottom shelf / She said, ‘Damn, that sky looks perfect’ / I said, ‘Girl, you’ve never seen stars like the ones back home’ / And she said ‘Maybe I should see them for myself’ / Yeah but, now I’m dodging potholes in my sunburnt Silverado / Like a heart-broke desperado, headed right back to my roots / Somethin’ bout the way she kissed me tells me she’d love Eastern Tennessee / Yeah, but all I brought back with me was some sand in my boots.”
“Just In Case”
Wallen’s “Just In Case” appears on his latest I’m The Problem record. Out as a single in 2025, Wallen is a writer on the song, along with John Byron, Troy Matthew, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Ryan Vojtesak, Josh Thompson, Blake Pendergrass, and Alex Bak.
“Just In Case” is an emotional punch about trying to move on from a relationship, while keeping hope alive that the two may someday get back together again. The song says, “I never let my heart go all the way / Every time I try, I just hit the brakes / And there’s always a couple trying to take your place / But I never fall in love, baby, just in case / You wake up wantin’ me out of the blue / You lay down needin’ what I used to do / Yeah, every now and then, I go get a taste / But I never fall in love, baby, just in case.”
“More Than My Hometown”
Wallen paints a tragic, albeit honest, story in “More Than My Hometown“, the first single from Dangerous: The Double Album. The Tennessee native wrote the sad tune with Hardy, Ernest Keith Smith, and Vojtesak.
In “More Than My Hometown”, Wallen sings about loving someone, but not enough to move away from home. The song says, “I love you more than a California sunset / More than a beer when you ain’t 21 yet / More than a Sunday morning Lord / Turnin’ some poor lost souls ’round, and Hallelujah bound / Yeah, I love you more than the feeling when the bass hits the hook / When the guy gets the girl at the end of the book / But, baby, this might be the last time I get to lay you down / ‘Cause I can’t love you more than my hometown.”
“I had a vision for the song, and so did Morgan,” Hardy tells Billboard. “I was just being very picky because I could feel that the song was going somewhere and we really dug into that lyric.”
“Superman”
“Superman” isn’t inherently a sad song, even though the lyrics are disarmingly honest. Co-written by Wallen, along with Pendergrass, Vojtesak, James Maddocks, and Byron, “Superman” is Wallen’s honest reflection on what his son, Indigo, might think when he finds out about some of his father’s transgressions.
“Superman” begins with, “One day you’re gonna see my mugshot / From a night when I got a little too drunk / Hear a song about a girl that I lost / From the times when I just wouldn’t grow up / And when you ain’t a kid no more / I hope you don’t think less of me / I try to hide my fallin’ short / But you’re gonna see / Now and then, that bottle’s my kryptonite / Brings a man of steel down to his knees … No, I don’t always save the day / But you know for you I’ll always try / I do the best I can, but Superman’s / Still just a man sometimes.“
Photo by Christopher Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images
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