‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ by Morgan Wallen - Lyrics & Meaning

During a private Nashville writers’ round alongside his good buddies HARDY, ERNEST and Larry Fleet towards the end of February, as well as treating the intimate audience to a flurry of hits, Morgan Wallen debuted a brand new song, ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’.

The clips of the sinuous, heartfelt offering quickly went viral across TikTok in a similar fashion to Morgan's other recently teased fan-favourite, ‘I Guess’, with both expected to feature on his upcoming album. Although listeners had resigned themselves to the likelihood of having to wait for the project to drop before they'd get to hear the entirety of ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’, to their surprise, the ‘Last Night’ hitmaker treated them to the full version of the track as part of his Abbey Road Sessions.

On June 8th, Morgan gave us the news we'd all been looking forward to, teasing during a tour-stop in Virginia Beach that ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ would be released on July 4th, but it was later confirmed that the track would actually be dropping the day after his blockbuster BST Hyde Park set across The Pond, on July 5th. A couple of days before the song's arrival, we got the brooding, grayscale cover art for ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’, which features a close-up of Morgan's left eye with the titular lyrics cascading down his cheek, mirroring the appearance of teardrops.

Recorded while in the UK for his blockbuster O2 Arena performance in December 2023 and released on the one year anniversary of One Thing At A Time, ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ was joined on the Abbey Road project by hits such as ‘Everything I Love’, ‘I Wrote The Book’, ‘I Deserve A Drink’, ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Thinkin’ Bout Me’, as well as an unexpected cover of Nothing But Thieves’ ‘Graveyard Whistling’.

Although ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ has not been given the full production treatment we've grown accustomed to across Morgan Wallen's Joey-Moi-helmed studio albums, the Abbey Road version features accompaniment from Morgan's band-members that takes it beyond the usual sparseness of an acoustic session.

The stormy, brooding electric guitar coalesces with Morgan Wallen's distinctive, charismatic drawl for the opening verses, with the ‘Thought You Should Know’ singer-songwriter injecting a sense of tenderness and vulnerability into his delivery.

Mark ‘Taco’ Annino’s drums hesitantly enter the fray throughout the latter part of the introduction, before the launch of the hook is met with the fiery crash of the cymbal.

The gritty gravitas that underpins Morgan Wallen's unmistakable voice helps to bring ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ to life, with the country chart-topper showcasing the formidable vocal dexterity he possesses. Rather then giving the hook an additional dose of venom through the snarling delivery he employs on the likes of ‘Broadway Girls’ and ‘Wasted On You’, Morgan maintains an intricacy throughout, which helps to build a sense of empathy with the listener as he laments his heartbreak.

“I don’t come down with the sun

I won’t hate myself when the morning comes

No thoughts of your body running through my head

No bottle of bourbon beside the bed”

Morgan Wallen kicks off ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ with a series of affirmations that seemingly tell the listener that he's been doing A-OK since his girlfriend left him in the dust.

However, before too long it becomes apparent that each of these statements is an example of the ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ he keeps telling himself as he struggles to get over her.

He implies that he always ‘comes down’ emotionally once the night creeps in, as well as suggesting that he wakes up to a crushing sense of self-loathing each morning. This hints that he blames himself for the demise of the break-up - interestingly, the exact opposite approach to that taken on the other two unreleased teasers he's shared in the lead-up to his 2024 album, ‘I Had Some Help’ and ‘I Guess’.

In addition, through these false statements, Morgan reveals that he can't get the thought of his ex-flame out of his head, before admitting to keeping a bottle of bourbon by his bed in an attempt to drown his sorrows and numb himself from the pain.

“‘Cause it wasn’t no thing to give you up

I never reach for you in another touch

Don’t ever think about you with him

And girl tonight I won’t call again and again

Ain’t nothin’ but”

He continues in the same vein as the opening verse, as the protagonist rattles off a series of proclamations about his current state of mind, before sharing that the opposite is true.

Despite professing that it ‘wasn't no thing’ to give up her love, that he never thinks about his ex-partner being intimate with her new lover (with a possible link here to the story of ‘Devil Don't Know’) and that he won't try calling tonight (perhaps a nod to ‘Tennessee Numbers’), in the hook, we find out these are all mistruths.

“Lies, lies, lies

Look into my eyes, eyes, eyes

I’m still a fool for you

Nothing I wouldn’t do for you

Lies, lies, lies

Girl I’m on a downhill dive

Habits and hard heartbreaks are hard to break

So I just tell the same old lies, lies, lies

Yeah, baby I can try, try, try”

In the candid chorus, Morgan Wallen makes the revelation he's been leading up to, as he addresses his ex and confesses that everything he's said about being fine is untrue.

He still misses her dearly and emphasises that there's ‘Nothin’ I wouldn't do for you’, before opening up about how he's spiralling dramatically. He draws a comparison between the way both ‘habits’ and ‘hard heartbreaks’ are tough to break - a clever play on the phrases ‘break a habit’ and ‘break-up’. The only way he can find his way through this relentless turmoil is by telling himself and those around him the same ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ he laid out throughout the opening two verses.

“To act like I don’t give a damn but I do

Bet you’re missing me bad as I miss you

Snowballs to a phone call

Sounding something stupid

Baby ‘cause the truth is

The ninety proof is tellin’ me”

In this verse, Morgan resumes the Hip Hop-inspired cadence he utilises to great effect on the likes of ‘180 (Lifestyle)’, ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Ain't That Some’. Via the cascading flow, Morgan explains how he's doing his best to pretend he doesn't miss his ex, before tentatively hazarding a guess that she's reciprocating his feelings.

This sudden assurance ‘snowballs’ into him picking up the phone and attempting to rekindle the romance - however, it seems his cries fall on deaf ears, as he then bemoans his ‘stupid’ words. We then learn that this assumption that his old flame was yearning to return to his arms arose as a result of the 90 proof bourbon he'd been drinking, which had given him a false confidence.

Here we get a satisfying juxtaposition between the lyric ‘Baby ‘cause the truth is’ and the ‘lies’ that permeate the hook, reenforcing the contrast between Morgan's desire to appear as though he's happy and the inner torment he still experiences.

“Lies, lies, lying to myself

Why, why, why in the hell

Do I keep sayin’ I can get you back

That’s about as honest as sayin’ that

I don’t come down with the sun

I won’t hate myself when the morning comes

Them ain’t nothing but”

As the song draws to a close, Morgan Wallen rebukes himself for continuing to believe the fantasy that he can win back his ex, equating this to the falsities he lays out in the first verse.

Ahead of the release of his Abbey Road Sessions, Morgan Wallen underlined how special it was getting to make music in the same room where the likes of The Beatles and Adele crafted some of their most cherished songs, “Playing the O2 in London last fall and getting to record at Abbey Road, where so much iconic music has been made, was legendary for me and my band. We will never forget it”.

He went on to express his gratitude for the loyal listeners that have helped to propel him to this point, “I'm so excited to release these Abbey Road Sessions for my fans on the one-year anniversary of One Thing At A Time. They make all this possible.”

“I don’t come down with the sun

I won’t hate myself when the morning comes

No thoughts of your body running through my head

No bottle of bourbon beside the bed

‘Cause it wasn’t no thing to give you up

I never reach for you in another touch

Don’t ever think about you with him

And girl tonight I won’t call again and again

Ain’t nothin’ but

Lies, lies, lies

Look into my eyes, eyes, eyes

I’m still a fool for you

Nothing I wouldn’t do for you

Lies, lies, lies

Girl I’m on a downhill dive

Habits and hard heartbreaks are hard to break

So I just tell the same old lies, lies, lies

Yeah, baby I can try, try, try

To act like I don’t give a damn but I do

Bet you’re missing me bad as I miss you

Snowballs to a phone call

Sounding something stupid

Baby ‘cause the truth is

The ninety proof is tellin’ me

Lies, lies, lies

Look into my eyes, eyes, eyes

I’m still a fool for you

Nothing I wouldn’t do for you

Lies, lies, lies

Girl I’m on a downhill dive

Habits and hard heartbreaks are hard to break

So I just tell the same old

Lies, lies, lying to myself

Why, why, why in the hell

Do I keep sayin’ I can get you back

That’s about as honest as sayin’ that

I don’t come down with the sun

I won’t hate myself when the morning comes

Them ain’t nothing but

Lies, lies, lies

Look into my eyes, eyes, eyes

I’m still a fool for you

Nothing I wouldn’t do for you

Lies, lies, lies

Girl I’m on a downhill dive

Habits and hard heartbreaks are hard to break

So I just tell the same old lies, lies, lies

Lies, lies, lies”

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