‘Losers’ by Post Malone & Jelly Roll - Lyrics & Meaning

In May 2023, after a decade's worth of rumblings about a Post Malone country album were once again reignited by a new red carpet interview, Jelly Roll took to Twitter (now X) to make no bones about his hopes of one day collaborating with Posty.

Jelly Roll shared, “Yo yo yo @PostMalone when you finally make that country album and come to Nashville holler at me bubba, much love”. Back then, the prospect of Post Malone venturing into the country music world seemed somewhat fanciful.

Fast-forward 12 months, Jelly Roll has cemented his status as one of the most popular artists in modern country music, while Post Malone is in the thick of his debut country album rollout, having cut collaborations with the likes of Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Blake Shelton, Dolly Parton, Lainey Wilson, Sierra Ferrell, Tim McGraw and more.

The first snippet of ‘Losers’ arrived via Post Malone's official social media pages at the start of August, with a longer clip surfacing the following week courtesy of a fan who attended one of the many F-1Trillion listening events across the USA on August 10, ahead of the full album's hotly anticipated release on August 16.

‘Losers’ feels like the perfect intersection between Post Malone's atmospheric, vibrato-fuelled sonics and Jelly Roll's inspiring yet brooding, lost-soul-being-found ambience.

The composition is dramatically stripped away ahead of the emphatic hook, with Posty and Jelly's raspy, charismatic vocals fusing for the electric, feel-good earworm. Jelly Roll adds a flurry of stirring backing vocals, which injects an extra sense of gravitas and emotion into the chorus, while the undulating, low-key instrumentation helps to give ’Losers’ the bittersweet, happy-sad ambience that makes it feel fitting as the soundtrack for a dimly lit, beer-soaked safe haven.

“Last callers, last chancers

9-to-5ers, truckers, dancers

Couple Chucks, Erns and Chandlers

With a whole lot of prayers unanswered

Whiskey by noon and beer before that

Southbound train on a hell-bound track

Might just put two middle fingers up

And throw one back for all the

People who ain't ever felt at home

Just spinnin' on a rock and gettin' stoned

Yeah, this one's for the”

Post Malone begins by listing some of the folks that he's singing to, whether they're ‘truckers’ or ‘dancers’ or anything in-between, he underlines to them that they all have a safe haven they can come to for a sense of community.

Endearingly, Posty names a few people that might consider themselves ‘Losers’, including ‘Chandlers’ and ‘Erns’, which is made all the more amusing by the fact that ERNEST and Chandler Walters co-wrote the song. ‘Chuck’, another name referenced in ‘Losers’, could be pointed at another co-writer and producer, Charlie Handsome. In the end of this verse, there's a satisfying play on words that pivots around ‘getting stoned’ and spinning aimlessly ‘on a rock’.

“Come kick it with the losers

The outcasts and the sinners

The ain't-never-been-no-winners

Let's hear it for the losers

Ain't got nowhere to fit in

There's a place you can always get in”

As well as representing a warm, accepting hypothetical space for those who feel left out, the title of this track also serves as a nod to Nashville's much-loved Losers Bar & Grill.

In a conversation with The New York Times, Post Malone touched on how he spent a lot of time in Losers with his producer, Charlie Handsome, as he immersed himself in the Music City scene and got acquainted with artists such as ERNEST.

Post Malone and Jelly Roll sweetly emphasise that, even if you've never been able to ‘fit in’, their bar serves as a place they can always ‘get in’ and feel comfortable. Both Posty and Jelly have spoken at length about their own experiences with loneliness and feeling out-of-place before moving into country music, making this long-awaited collaboration all the more apt and heartwarming.

“Oh, you might be lonely but you're never alone

You're where you're supposed to be

Right here with all the losers

The ones like you, and the ones like me”

Post Malone addresses the listener directly, assuring them that although they may feel lonely and isolated right now, they should know they're “never alone” because of their community of outcasts and ‘losers’. This place is portrayed as a physical bar - likely based on Losers - but in reality, it's just about creating a sense of community that transcends any single place between those who see themselves as misfits.

Post Malone makes this personal, by highlighting that both he and Jelly are in this group. Posty has explained in numerous interviews how he always makes a conscious effort to let his fans know they're loved and appreciated whenever he's up on-stage, and ‘Losers’ offers another prime opportunity for him to do this through his setlist.

“My therapist is a good bartender

Heartbreakers and two-month benders

Bad times that we can't forget and

Good times that we won't remember

Raise ‘em up when we hear a sad song

Love the cry of the steel guitar

No way to change the way we are”

In Jelly Roll's verse, he explains how this friendly dive bar provides him with a place to talk through his troubles, treating the bartender as a therapist, as well as getting through heartbreak with the help of a few drawn-out drinking binges. It's not all happiness in this spot, though, as is reflected by the poignant feel of the instrumental, with Jelly outlining how there have been both good times and bad.

Regardless of whether you're drinking to celebrate or to commiserate, one thing is for sure - the people frequenting their bar love their country music, just like Jelly Roll and Post Malone. Jelly lovingly describes the cry of the steel guitar - which can be heard in ‘Losers’ - and the catharsis of singing along to a sad country song.

“If you're livin' like you got nothin' to lose

There's a spot for you beside me on this stool”

Post Malone flips the titular lyric by framing the ‘losers’ he refers to as living their life as though they don't have anything to lose. Rather than being ‘losers’ in the sense of feeling down-and-out and beat-up by life's challenges, Posty and Jelly spin this derogatory label into a positive. They toast those who have been called losers, weirdos and outcasts as people that live their lives the way they want to. They underline that these folks are always welcome to share a drink with them.

During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Jelly Roll announced he was a guest on F-1Trillion and shed some light on how ‘Losers’ came about, “I'll be on Post Malone's album. Big week for the boy! It's called ’Losers’. I love this song, this song is one of the coolest songs. ERNEST wrote it with Post, they sent it to me, I thought it was one of the greatest songs ever. I think what Post is doing is magical. I'm not like one of these purists, that is weird. I'm like, the more eyes on what we do, the better”.

During a discussion with Anthony Mason for CBS, Post Malone delved into his ongoing mission to help ease any loneliness or isolation being experienced by his fans, “Four years ago, I was on a rough path...[wrestling with] loneliness...Getting up, having a good cry, drinking, and then going living your life, and then whenever you go lay down, drinking some more and having a good cry. Just like, ‘I gotta wake up tomorrow and do this again’. And I don't feel like that anymore, and it's the most amazing thing...It's important [to tell fans they're loved] because not everyone knows it, you know, there's a lot of very lonely people...”

Posty stressed how he strives to use his own experience with loneliness as a way of empathising and easing the pain felt by some of his listeners, “I don't want people to feel how I felt, and I know they do. I'm here and I'm on-stage and I just want everyone to feel welcome and to feel loved, and that's the most important thing to me”.

(Post Malone, Jelly Roll, Both)

“Last callers, last chancers

9-to-5ers, truckers, dancers

Couple Chucks, Erns and Chandlers

With a whole lot of prayers unanswered

Whiskey by noon and beer before that

Southbound train on a hell-bound track

Might just put two middle fingers up

And throw one back for all the

People who ain't ever felt at home

Just spinnin' on a rock and gettin' stoned

Yeah this one's for the

-

Losers

The outcasts and the sinners

The ain't-never-been-no-winners

Let's hear it for the losers

Ain't got nowhere to fit in

There's a place you can always get in

-

Oh, you might be lonely but you're never alone

You're where you're supposed to be

Right here with all the losers

The ones like you, and the ones like me

-

My therapist is a good bartender

Heartbreakers and two-month benders

Bad times that we can't forget and

Good times that we won't remember

Raise ‘em up when we hear a sad song

Love the cry of the steel guitar

No way to change the way we are

This one's for the

-

Losers

The outcasts and the sinners

The ain't-never-been-no-winners

Let's hear it for the losers

Ain't got nowhere to fit in

There's a place you can always get in

-

Oh, you might be lonely but you're never alone

You're where you're supposed to be

Right here with all the losers

The ones like you, and the ones like me

-

If you're livin' like you got nothin' to lose

There's a spot for you beside me on this stool

-

Come kick it with the losers

The outcasts and the sinners

The ain't-never-been-no-winners

Let's hear it for the losers

Ain't got nowhere to fit in

There's a place you can always get in

-

Oh, you might be lonely but you're never alone

You're where you're supposed to be

Right here with all the losers

The ones like you, and the ones like me”

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