'If I Can't Have You' by Gavin Adcock – Lyrics & Meaning

We're less than a month away from the release of Gavin Adcock's upcoming studio album, Own Worst Enemy, and still, the songs just keep on coming.

By now, we've gotten a good taste of what's to come from the impending 24-track collection, set to arrive on Aug. 15, and we've just received one more by way of 'If I Can't Have You'.

"I’ve let out over a song a month for 4 years," the artist shared when announcing the arrival of this new song. "This will be my 50th."

'If I Can't Have You' is one heck of a 50th song release, the promissory number detailing the unfortunate ends he would happily meet just to keep on loving his one and only.

'If I Can't Have You' is a mostly sombre number, filled with lax strums and a ho-hum beat. The song is resigned, darkened by its lack of energy and made to feel desolate by its sparse instrumentation.

The chorus comes fitted with the whine of an electric guitar, the drums suddenly quaking awake to punctuate the artist's passion. 'If I Can't Have You' is certainly one of Adcock's more subdued offerings, but the solemn arrangement suits its equally earnest message.

"I'll probably start some hard drugs
And get me a new tattoo
I'll find me a fake love
That holds me without a clue
That you're hard up on my mind
While she's stirred up on my lap
You're a thought that I just can't undo"

'If I Can't Have You' finds Adcock contemplating a broken heart.

Whether it's already happened or he's just anticipating the fracture, listeners aren't really made aware, but he's assessing the damage anyway. He's making sure he has a game plan for when the heartbreak hits the fan.

Hard drugs, fresh ink, a new lover altogether–he'll do anything to keep from feeling the pain of losing his one and only.

"If I can't have you
Lock me up and throw away the key
'Cause free ain't a place where I need to be
I'll be out stealing and killing
Trying to chase this old thrill I knew
If I can't have you"

It seems like, to him, life isn't worth living without them. He's willing to risk his freedom if he can't have them in his life.

He's even killing to die. In a verse, he sings, "Toss me in a pine box / And cover me with old red dirt / Put a bullet in my head / Couldn't be much worse than this hurt."

It appears to be hell on earth without their love, and Adcock doesn't seem willing to go on if he has to do so without this person. It's a dramatic view of life and love, but it's a feeling many can commiserate with, seeing heartbreak as the end of the world.

"If I can't have you
Lock me up and throw away the key
'Cause free ain't a place where I need to be
I'll be out stealing and killing
Trying to chase this old thrill I knew
If I can't have you"

I'll probably start some hard drugs
And get me a new tattoo
I'll find me a fake love
That holds me without a clue
That you're hard up on my mind
While she's stirred up on my lap
You're a thought that I just can't undo

If I can't have you
Lock me up and throw away the key
'Cause free ain't a place where I need to be
I'll be out stealing and killing
Trying to chase this old thrill I knew
If I can't have you

Toss me in a pine box
And cover me with old red dirt
Put a bullet in my head
Couldn't be much worse than this hurt

If I can't have you
Lock me up and throw away the key
'Cause free ain't a place where I need to be
I'll be out stealing and killing
Trying to chase this old thrill I knew
If I can't have you

I'd be riding around in a ghost town
On the outskirts of hell
Don't think I could even live with myself

If I can't have you
Lock me up and throw away the key
'Cause free ain't a place where I need to be
I'll be out stealing and killing
Trying to chase this old thrill I knew
If I can't have you

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For more on Gavin Adcock, see below: