Some song ideas pop in your head, and you feel like you have to get somewhere and write them before they disappear forever. Writing “Lillian” wasn’t like this at all. It started with a street I used to pass every day on my way to work while living in East Nashville. I saw so many street signs on that trip, but “Lillian” was the only one that consistently stood out to me. I kept it in the notes section of my phone for years. One afternoon I sat down and found this really cool strum patterned rhythmic guitar part I was having fun playing. The words came next, “She said she never wears underwear, I said I never wear shorts.” Maybe the most “me” line I have ever written. Lines with personality are great, but when you can correctly project yourself into your art, I feel it says something about your growth and comfortability as far as who you’ve become as an artist. The rest of the song came flooding out and spoke to me and where I was in my life. I was very lost before making this music, and if not for someone seeing through that mess and giving me a pure form of love, who knows where I would have ended up. It’s a factually fictional story about the high times of low points in life. We live so we can create, and I’m so glad to have manifested this song through my experience. I hope y’all enjoy it as much as I enjoy playing it.
Lyrics
She said she never wears underwear
I said I never wear shorts
She said she don’t believe in life after death
I said we’re all just a rotting corpse
She said let’s just try to run away
I said nah let’s go for a walk
She said I’ve never been one for words
So we set up all night and we talked
She was lost when I found her
Born and raised here looking like an out of Towner
She’s a down when they’re up
Gets high when she’s low
Ask her what she wants she’ll say she don’t know
She's an on again off again
Oh yeah Lillian
Has a job that she loves to hate
But still she never quits
She really likes to use the word blasé
Compares herself to a car on bricks
Oh she was lost when I found her
Born and raised here looking like an out of Towner
She’s a down when they’re up
Gets high when she’s low
Ask her what she wants she’ll say she don’t know
She's an on again off again
Oh yeah Lillian
Yeah I guess the self-degradation
Was what I connected with the most
It feels kind of messed up to say it
But it’s nice to know you’re not alone
I was lost when you found me
Raising hell trying so hard to push my boundaries
I was up to get down
High Rolling Stoned
Didn’t know what I needed
Didn’t care anymore
Till I met you and let you in
Oh yeah Lillian
Oh yeah Lillian
Oh yeah Lillian
She said she never wears underwear
I said I never wear shorts