‘Superman’ by Morgan Wallen - Lyrics & Meaning

On Monday, February 24th 2025, Morgan Wallen took to socials for a rare post, with the ‘Love Somebody’ hitmaker uploading a snippet of a brand new song, titled ‘Superman’.

The vulnerable, evocative offering finds the Sneedville megastar singing candidly to his four-year-old son, Indigo Wilder, with ‘Superman’ marking the first time Morgan Wallen has penned a song for Indie, who he shares with his ex-fiancée, KT Smith.

It finds Morgan Wallen movingly reflecting on the day his son finds out about his past arrests, as he wonders whether his chequered past will taint Indie's perception of him.

In the caption, Wallen touched on how he's been aspiring to write a song for Indie for a while now, outlining that he's always felt the pressure for it to live up to his high expectations.

He explained, “Been trying for a long time to write a song I loved to my son. None of them ever feel good enough because of how perfect I want something like this to be. And not saying this is perfect, but I am very proud of it. Here is a clip, It’s called “Superman””.

More recently, Morgan Wallen stressed to Theo Von how much ‘Superman’ means to him, and how the track came about, “I've tried with so many songs to write a song like that for him, and it always fell flat. So I'd listen to it on the way home or whatever after we wrote it, and I'd be like, ‘It's good, you know, but it's not how I want it’. And I also didn't want to write a song to him that was all, I don't know, sappy and slow, you know? What you would expect a dad-son song to be...‘Oh, I wish you wouldn't grow up’, all of that. Like I didn't want it to be that. I didn't want that song at all - that song's been written plenty enough, and I wanted to have a little bit of my sound and my swag, and to be honest. So it was a hard thing to try to get all those things wrapped up into one song. It's called ‘Superman’”.

When announcing the release date for ‘Superman’, Wallen shared that he was keen to give the introspective offering a chance to bask in the spotlight before his full album, I'm the Problem, arrived the following week, “It’s special to me for obvious reasons. I wanted it to have its own moment, and hopefully that’s what this will accomplish”.

‘Superman’ is the first song Morgan Wallen has written for Indie, but the ‘Thought You Should Know’ singer-songwriter revealed during his March 3rd, 2023 album release show in honour of One Thing At A Time that he views ‘Dying Man’ as being about his son saving him, even though he's singing to a lover in that song's narrative.

‘Superman’ continues the raw, soul-bearing ambience that has pervaded a number of the singles released from I'm the Problem, including the title-track, ‘Smile’ and ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’.

‘Superman’ rightfully lets the focus fall on Morgan Wallen's sincere drawl, with the honest lyrics serving as the centrepiece of the track. While Wallen croons across a relatively sparse, guitar-led instrumental for the opening verse, an emphatic drum pattern enters the fray during the hook, accentuating the gravitas of Wallen's musings.

The composition is kept low-key and minimalist, as is the case with much of I'm the Problem. Gone are the cushioning backings and layered vocals, with Morgan Wallen scrapping his traditional production style for a more direct, intimate style.

This matches the ambience of ‘Superman’ perfectly, as it finds Wallen at his most candid, with the pared-down accompaniment mirroring the revealing, open feel of the lyrics.

“One day you're gonna see my mugshot
From a night when I got a little too drunk
Hear a song about a girl that I lost
From the times when I just wouldn't grow up”

Morgan Wallen isn't usually one to delve into his personal life, with the country chart titan famously reluctant share too much on social media. However, here, Wallen lays it all out, as he admits to worrying about what Indie will think of him when he sees his mugshot.

Wallen could be referencing his 2020 arrest for public intoxication and disorderly conduct at Kid Rock's Honky Tonk in Nashville, or his 2024 chair-throwing incident. On both occasions, his mugshots was circulated across social media.

Then, Morgan Wallen touches on his anxiety about Indie finding out about his past relationships, with the genre-blending artist confessing that he was at fault for refusing to “grow up”.

It's impossible to know which romance Wallen is referring to, but inevitably, many social media users have suggested he's singing about his long-term relationship with Indie's mother, KT Smith. The couple were briefly engaged, before splitting in 2019.

“And when you ain't a kid no more
I hope you don't think less of me
I try to hide my falling short
But you're gonna see”

Morgan Wallen expresses his fears about what Indie will think of his ‘wilder’ - no pun intended - days, with Wallen outlining how he tries to conceal that part of his life from his son.

“Now and then, that bottle’s my kryptonite
Brings a Man of Steel down to his knees
Don't always know my wrong from right
Sometimes, I'm my own worst enemy
No, I don't always save the day
But you know, for you, I'll always try
I do the best I can
But Superman's still just a man sometimes (Oh, sometimes)”

Throughout the hook, Morgan Wallen drops a flurry of Superman-themed lyrics, such as referring to alcohol as his ‘kryptonite’, implying it's his biggest weakness.

This echoes the messaging of ‘Born With a Beer in My Hand’ and ‘I Wrote The Book’ from One Thing At A Time, with the ‘Superman’ line also harking back to the title-track from that project, in which Wallen sings, “I ain't no Superman, I'm just the way I am”.

He references how he attempts to put on a brave face, depicting himself as a ‘Man of Steel’ - the nickname for Superman - before contrasting this portrayal with the weakness he feels when it comes to drinking. The recurring ‘Superman’ theme is a nod to how sons often see their fathers through rose-tinted glasses, believing them to be superheroes, with Wallen emphasising that he's only human.

Even so, Morgan Wallen concludes the hook by endearingly stressing that he'll always do everything in his power to be the best father he possibly can be, and to keep Indie safe.

“One day the weight of this cold world's
Gonna find its way down onto your back
One night the wolves will get closer
And you're will be the one they're running straight at

Don't you back down, don't you run
Stand your ground, stick to your guns
You ain't gonna dodge every punch, but
Just know you ain't the only one”

The ‘wolves’ line feels like foreshadowing for the final track on I'm the Problem, ‘I'm a Little Crazy’, in which Morgan Wallen croons, “Oh, once you get to know me / I'm a coyote in a field of wolves”. Here, he again frames those who try to drag him down as ‘the wolves’, with Wallen warning his son that they'll eventually turn on him too.

This could be a metaphor for the media, which has often portrayed Morgan Wallen negatively, or perhaps his detractors more generally. He advises Indie to stand firm and keep his head held high, before using his own shortcomings as encouragement.

Wallen explains that, even though Indie sees him as this invincible ‘Superman’, he has made mistakes throughout his life because he is only human. It seems the reason he pours his heart out in this way is so that Indie knows, if he makes some wrong-turns, it doesn't mean it's a dead-end, because his father has been in the same situation. The song's cri-de-coeur is if ‘Superman’ can fall short, then anyone can.

“I can't stop the bullet, but I take one
I can't move a mountain, but I face one
One day we'll say, ‘Where'd the years go?’
But I hope I'm always, your hero”

We get some sage wisdom here from Morgan Wallen, as he outlines that he won't ever be able to prevent other people from attacking him, but he can control his response.

He knows he can't “stop the bullet”, but he'll take it and survive it nonetheless, before similarly outlining how he “can't move a mountain”, but he'll still attempt to climb it.

Morgan Wallen movingly concludes by casting his gaze into the future, wistfully admitting he's aware that, one day, he'll look back at their time together as going too fast, before expressing his deep-seated hope that Indie always thinks of him as his “hero”.

Alongside the snippet, Morgan Wallen revealed how he's always wanted to to pen a song for Indie, but until ‘Superman’, he didn't feel his attempts were up to scratch, “Been trying for a long time to write a song I loved to my son. None of them ever feel good enough because of how perfect I want something like this to be. And not saying this is perfect, but I am very proud of it. Here is a clip, It’s called “Superman”.

While chatting with Theo Von for his This Past Weekend Podcast, Morgan Wallen expanded on the origin of ‘Superman’, “I've tried with so many songs to write a song like that for him, and it always fell flat. So I'd listen to it on the way home or whatever after we wrote it, and I'd be like, ‘It's good, you know, but it's not how I want it’. And I also didn't want to write a song to him that was all, I don't know, sappy and slow, you know? What you would expect a dad-son song to be...‘Oh, I wish you wouldn't grow up’, all of that. Like I didn't want it to be that. I didn't want that song at all - that song's been written plenty enough, and I wanted to have a little bit of my sound and my swag, and to be honest. So it was a hard thing to try to get all those things wrapped up into one song. It's called ‘Superman’”.

“One day you're gonna see my mugshot
From a night when I got a little too drunk
Hear a song about a girl that I lost
From the times when I just wouldn't grow up

-

And when you ain't a kid no more
I hope you don't think less of me
I try to hide my falling short
But you're gonna see

-

Now and then, that bottle’s my kryptonite
Brings a Man of Steel down to his knees
Don't always know my wrong from right
Sometimes, I'm my own worst enemy
No, I don't always save the day
But you know, for you, I'll always try
I do the best I can
But Superman's still just a man sometimes (Oh, sometimes)

-

One day the weight of this cold world's
Gonna find its way down onto your back
One night the wolves will get closer
And you're will be the one they're running straight at

-

Don't you back down, don't you run
Stand your ground, stick to your guns
You ain't gonna dodge every punch, but
Just know you ain't the only one

-

Now and then, that bottle’s my kryptonite
Brings a Man of Steel down to his knees
Don't always know my wrong from right
Sometimes, I'm my own worst enemy
No, I don't always save the day
But you know, for you, I'll always try
I do the best I can
But Superman's still just a man sometimes (Oh, sometimes)

-

I can't stop the bullet, but I take one
I can't move a mountain, but I face one
One day we'll say, ‘Where'd the years go?’
But I hope I'm always your hero

-

‘Cause now and then, that bottle’s my kryptonite
Brings a Man of Steel down to his knees
Don't always know my wrong from right
Sometimes, I'm my own worst enemy
No, I don't always save the day
But you know, for you, I'll always try
I do the best I can
But Superman's still just a man sometimes (Oh, sometimes)”

For more on Morgan Wallen, see below: