‘Jack and Jill’ by Morgan Wallen - Lyrics and Meaning

Since 2021's release of Dangerous: The Double Album, Morgan Wallen has been on the fast track to country music superstardom.

Bolstered by 2023's standout record, One Thing At A Time, the Tennessee native has become the biggest name in the format, even infiltrating across genre lines and landing singles atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.

After a little over two years, the award-winning entertainer has finally arrived with a new batch of music in the form of his 37-track opus, I'm the Problem, arriving May 16 and sprawling with his next era of record-breaking hits and beloved fan-favorites.

‘Jack and Jill’ serves as one of the many stand-outs from I'm the Problem, with Morgan Wallen flipping the famous nursery rhyme on its head, giving it a tragic, non-fairytale ending.

‘Jack and Jill’ begins with a bright, optimistic guitar riff, with Morgan Wallen setting the scene as the story gets off on a positive note. As the tale grows darker, though, the instrumental mirrors this, with the introduction of stormy electric guitar flourishes.

“She was 18, had a California dream

Gettin’ out was just a matter of time

He just turned 20

Makin’ decent money

Drivin’ nails into railroad ties

Boy meets girl, girl’s plans changed

That summer into a hell of a fall

Nah they didn’t

Have it all together

But together they had it all

They had it all”

Wallen begins by outlining how the couple in this story, Jack and Jill, followed their dreams and set up their life in California. They didn't have much, but they had each other.

“Love did what it does

Wasn’t even six months

Ain’t ever leavin’ shinin’ on her left hand

But that worse or for better

Forever together

Started runnin’ out of sand

He was gone on the road

She was home all alone

That lonely took a toll on her heart

Came home early one night

To surprise her, to find her

Lost in someone else’s arms”

The story quickly sours, as in the space of just six months Jill suffered from loneliness, due to Jack's work keeping him out on the road so much. She ultimately turned to the comfort of someone else's arms, which left Jack devastated beyond repair.

“This is the story of Jack and Jill

How their whole world came tumblin’ down

Heartbreak kills

Jill got on the pills

And Jack couldn’t get off that Crown

They found their peace

Somewhere underneath

The roots of a Sycamore tree

Yeah Jack and Jill went downhill

And ended up on one in Tennessee

In Tennessee”

Morgan Wallen switches up the fairytale, in which Jack and Jill fall down the hill, by regaling the listener with the tale of a different Jack and Jill, who end up buried on a hill in Tennessee. Jack never got over Jill cheating on him and fell into alcoholism, while Jill contended with addiction to painkillers, leading to a sorrowful ending.

“Everybody knows that he couldn’t let go

Of that bottle or what she’d done

He took his last sip yeah he finally quit

That morning he didn’t wake up

She took the news

With the whites and the blues

Didn’t leave a note, there was no need

The preacher they used when they said “I do”

Is reading out of Psalm 23”

Wallen implies that Jack took his own life by drinking himself into the ground, with Jill then following suit by taking a mix of white and blue pills. The story takes on a tragically full-circle feel when the preacher that was present for their marriage ends up reading Psalm 23 - a common funeral passage - at Jack and Jill's funeral.

As is often the case of late, the ‘Thought You Should Know’ singer-songwriter has so far remained tight-lipped on how the song came about.

However, when revealing the release date for I'm the Problem, Wallen provided fans with an insight into the theme of introspection that courses through the project as a whole.

“I have been a problem, for sure, and I've got no problem admitting that. But there are other sides to me as well," he explained. "I've spent the last 11 months really trying to figure out, 'Do I still want to be the problem? Is it time to move past that phase in my life? I think it probably is, and this might be the last time I get a chance to honestly say it.”

“She was 18, had a California dream

Gettin’ out was just a matter of time

He just turned 20

Makin’ decent money

Drivin’ nails into railroad ties

Boy meets girl, girl’s plans changed

That summer into a hell of a fall

Nah they didn’t

Have it all together

But together they had it all

They had it all

-

Love did what it does

Wasn’t even six months

Ain’t ever leavin’ shinin’ on her left hand

But that worse or for better

Forever together

Started runnin’ out of sand

He was gone on the road

She was home all alone

That lonely took a toll on her heart

Came home early one night

To surprise her, to find her

Lost in someone else’s arms

-

This is the story of Jack and Jill

How their whole world came tumblin’ down

Heartbreak kills

Jill got on the pills

And Jack couldn’t get off that Crown

They found their peace

Somewhere underneath

The roots of a Sycamore tree

Yeah Jack and Jill went downhill

And ended up on one in Tennessee

In Tennessee

-

Everybody knows that he couldn’t let go

Of that bottle or what she’d done

He took his last sip yeah he finally quit

That morning he didn’t wake up

She took the news

With the whites and the blues

Didn’t leave a note, there was no need

The preacher they used when they said “I do”

Is reading out of Psalm 23

23

-

This is the story of Jack and Jill

How their whole world came tumblin’ down

Heartbreak kills

Jill got on the pills

And Jack couldn’t get off that Crown

They found their peace

Somewhere underneath

The roots of a Sycamore tree

Yeah Jack and Jill went downhill

And ended up on one in Tennessee

In Tennessee

In Tennessee”

--

For more on Morgan Wallen, see below: