‘Sandpaper’ by Zach Bryan & Bruce Springsteen - Lyrics & Meaning

In January, Zach Bryan took to his socials to tease a brand new song snippet, seemingly titled ‘Sandpaper’. As any Zach fan - or rather, ‘Zacholyte’ - knows, the ‘Something in the Orange’ hitmaker shares a lot of demos when he's working on a studio album, and many of these never end up making the cut and seeing the light of day.

Just as we were beginning to fear ‘Sandpaper’ was destined to be cast aside onto Zach Bryan's mountainous heap of unreleased songs, Zach started to incorporate it into his setlist in March 2024, laying the foundation for a momentous live performance of the track during his Brooklyn show at the Barclays Center.

Not only did attendees hear ‘Sandpaper’ live in New York, they also got to witness Zach Bryan performing it with Rock n’ Roll legend, Bruce Springsteen, before ‘The Boss’, Bryan and Maggie Rogers teamed up for a raucous rendition of ‘Revival’.

When Zach announced his fourth studio album, The Great American Bar Scene, one of the first songs listeners were clamouring for was, unsurprisingly, his new duet featuring The Boss. As a longstanding fan of The Boss, with Zach Bryan often wearing a ‘United States vs Bruce Springsteen’ cap while performing, this appears to be a dream come true for both Zach himself and fans of the two artists.

Although the original snippet of ‘Sandpaper’ was very raw and stripped-back, the introduction of Bruce Springsteen into the mix inevitably meant it was going to be given a more electric, rockier edge, which helps to accentuate the emotion of the track.

Springsteen's vocal feels gentle and weathered as he summons up bittersweet memories and nostalgia of the pines.

The rousing instrumental that arrives ahead of the final chorus dials up the intensity another notch, with the now-iconic Brooklyn performance capturing the euphoria both Zach and Bruce experience whenever they jam out on this one together.

Bryan is renowned for his authenticity, sincerity and his refusal to shy away from what he's feeling at any given moment, which is what makes his music so visceral, evocative and widely accessible. When putting together The Great American Bar Scene, Zach has been in a happy relationship with Brianna LaPaglia, who presumably serves as the muse for the sweet, lovestruck ‘Sandpaper’ lyrics.

“The shape you take when you lay like that
Reminds me of a love I've never had
If loving's wrong, what's a boy to do?
I ain't scared of death, I'm scared of losing you
You ain't out of my league, you're out of this planet
But dammit if you ain't drilled into my skull”

Bryan lays out his feelings in front of his lover, with the Oklahoma singer-songwriter endearingly confessing that he harbours worries she'll one day leave him, simply because she's too good for him. He blames his anxieties on the fact that he's never experienced a love like this before, with Zach dismissing the common fear of death, instead citing the fear of losing his love as far more pertinent.

He modestly describes her as being further than out of his league - rather, she's “out of this planet”, before employing a satisfying internal rhyme as he transitions from ‘planet’ to ‘dammit’. Zach finds himself in a tricky spot, as he's plagued by these deep-seated concerns, yet can't find any way to shake his lover from his mind.

There are interesting pieces of juxtaposition peppered throughout ‘Sandpaper’, with Zach Bryan using tender, intimate language in some instances, before contrasting these with harsher, more aggressive phrasing, such as portraying his lover as “drilled into my skull” and, in the titular lyric, likening Brianna's affection to “sandpaper”.

It seems this coarser imagery is a medium through which Zach can highlight his frustration with himself, as he cannot allow himself to be content with the woman he loves, and instead creates obstacles by worrying constantly about whether he deserves her.

“Take a trip uptown to clear you out of my mind
You're like sandpaper, the more I try, you bind
Winter was a drag and spring was a friend
I'll love you 'til the sun comes back again
They've been tryin' to smooth me out
For twenty-seven seasons now
For twenty-seven seasons now”

In the chorus, Zach Bryan outlines how he attempts to get her off his mind with a change in scenery, before promptly admitting defeat. He vividly uses the simile of sandpaper to portray how his lover binds him tighter the more he tries to remove himself.

He recalls the challenge of making it through Winter together, before looking more fondly back on Spring, with Zach then stirringly pledging his undying love for his partner.

Zach completes the powerful sandpaper image by musing about how people around him have been attempting to ‘smooth’ him out - in the same way we might use sandpaper to level out rough and uneven surfaces - ‘for twenty-seven seasons now’, suggesting that nobody has been able to tame him or file down his edges until now. Even though Zach Bryan is now 28, he was 27 when he shared the first snippet of ‘Sandpaper’, hence the reference to ‘twenty-seven seasons’.

When I close my eyes, I think of times
I could smell and hear that northern thunder
Every pine has its time
To outgrow the rings of days a-younger
I'll be still at the cutting mill
Just makin' me a roof that you can hide under

Bruce Springsteen's verse carries a similar sentiment to Zach's, but with additional undertones of nostalgia. He reveals how, whenever he closes his eyes, he remembers the distinct scent of the trees that hold special memories for him.

He keeps things relatively cryptic, but it feels as though this is a farm where he spent a lot of time with his lover, with the protagonist then building on the pine metaphor to wistfully reflect on how every tree reaches a point where it has to mature. The phrase ‘outgrow the rings of days a-younger’ refers to how, when you cut down a tree, the number of rings in the cross-section serve as an indicator as to its age.

The protagonist then references a job at a ‘cutting mill’, which perhaps explains why his penchant for tree-inspired imagery, with Bruce promising he'll always be here for her, attempting to craft “a roof that you can hide under”. It's a heartwarming means of emphasising how he cares for his lover and wishes to protect her, and it's because she's this valuable to him that he worries so much about losing her.

Bryan has yet to delve into the specific creative process behind ‘Sandpaper’ just yet, but he has taken to his preferred method of communication - X - to underline how much he's looking forward to sharing The Great American Bar Scene with fans, “I cannot express the beauty in making ‘The Great American Bar Scene’ with my friends and family and with you guys, I cannot wait for everyone to hear it”.

(Zach Bryan, Bruce Springsteen, Both)

The shape you take when you lay like that
Reminds me of a love I've never had
If loving's wrong, what's a boy to do?
I ain't scared of death, I'm scared of losing you
You ain't out of my league, you're out of this planet
But dammit if you ain't drilled into my skull

I'll take a trip uptown to clear you out of my mind
You're like sandpaper, the more I try, you bind
Winter was a drag and spring was a friend
I'll love you 'til the sun comes back again
They've been tryin' to smooth me out
For twenty-seven seasons now
For twenty-seven seasons

When I close my eyes, I think of times
I could smell and hear that northern thunder
Every pine has its time
To outgrow the rings of days a-younger
I'll be still at the cutting mill
Just makin' me a roof that you can hide under

Take a trip uptown to clear you out of my mind
You're like sandpaper, the more I try, you bind
Winter was a drag and spring was a friend
I'll love you 'til the sun comes back again
They've been tryin' to smooth me out
For twenty-seven seasons now
For twenty-seven seasons now

I'll take a trip uptown to clear you out of my mind
You're like sandpaper, the more I try, you bind
Winter was a drag but spring was a friend
I'll love you 'til the summer comes back again
They've been tryin' to smooth me out
For twenty-seven seasons now
For twenty-seven seasons now
For twenty-seven seasons now

For more on Zach Bryan, see below: