Not all country artists write their own music, and not all country songs that artists do write are autobiographical. But then there are some songs that are not only true about an artist’s own life but unveil something surprising. These three country songs all have shocking confessions in the lyrics.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Run” by Miranda Lambert”
A collective gasp could be heard in country music when Miranda Lambert released “Run“. On her 2024 Postcards From Texas record, Lambert wrote the song by herself. She later revealed that it was written for her The Weight Of These Wings album, the one she released after her split from Blake Shelton, but she wasn’t ready to share that much of her story until years later.
“Run” says, “Oh, this freedom I found, babe, sure wasn’t free / I owe you a lifetime of apologies / I’m tellin’ the truth now / I loved you so much / I’m sorry for lying about who I was / I was gonna run / I was gonna run / Ooh, I always was gonna run.”
“That’s what songs are for,” Lambert reflects on Today’s Country Radio. “And you may not be ready at that one time to sing about something really raw or sing about alimony. You might be going through a divorce or whatever. At the time it might not be funny or at the time it might feel too raw, but then it can come back around.”
Out almost a decade after their divorce, Lambert says “Run” is “an admission of human error… It’s an apology. But it’s also a resolve.”
“As Far As You Could” by Charles Kelley
In 2022, Lady A announced that they were postponing their long-awaited Request Line Tour so Charles Kelley could go to rehab. He later released “As Far As You Could“, a song he wrote with Lady A’s Dave Haywood and Jimmy Robbins.
In “As Far As You Could”, Kelley details the pain his drinking caused those closest to him, especially his wife, Cassie. The song says, “You gave me the courage / The night I met my wife / You helped me make her laugh / ‘Til you helped me make her cry / You started out a friend / Turned into somethin’ else / Now I like who I am / With you sittin’ on the shelf.”
“Never Wanted To Be That Girl” by Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde
On Carly Pearce’s autobiographical 29: Written In Stone album is “Never Wanted To Be That Girl”. Sung as a duet with Ashley McBryde, the two wrote the sad song with Shane McAnally.
All of 29 is about Pearce’s divorce from Michael Ray. But in “Never Wanted To Be That Girl”, Pearce opens up about the pain she endured as their marriage was ending.
“Never Wanted To Be That Girl” says, “I never wanted to be that girl / I never wanted to hate myself / I thought this kind of lonely only happens to somebody else / Being the other one when there’s another one / God, this feels like hell / Thought I knew who I was, but it’s getting hard to tell / I never wanted to be that girl.”
Photo by Rich Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images
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