LISTEN: Brett Young’s New Breakup Song Was Inspired by His Wife
April 20, 2022
Brett Young is happily married with two young children but he just revealed his new breakup song was inspired by his wife.
Brett says, “Me and Taylor, my wife, were broken up for two years and then got back together. The most painful breakup I ever went through was when I broke up with her, and so that’s where I went when we wrote this one.”
The country singer says he had to revive those memories in order to write the new song. “It was after Presley was born, before Rowan was born,” explains Brett, “and I certainly wasn’t in a heartbreak headspace. And in fact, the other three writers on the song are happily married as well.”
Brett knew they would all have to look to their past to be able to draw on the emotions they wrote about in “You Didn’t.” He says, “When we had the idea and we all were excited about writing this concept, we all needed to take kind of a moment of silence and go back somewhere. I never stopped and asked the guys where they went.”
“I’ve written breakup songs about my wife when we were broken up,” he added, “but this is the first time I’ve written a breakup song about my wife when we’re back together and everything’s good.”
Brett requested that his wife play the role in the video as well.
Brett said in a conversation on YouTube with the video’s director, Seth Kupersmith, that he requested Taylor to be cast because he was too uncomfortable working with anyone else.
“The first video Seth and I did together was ‘Mercy,’” Young said. “We had an incredibly talented actress. She killed it. The video was beautiful. And I walked away feeling uncomfortable. I’m not an actor. I’m a singer-songwriter and a musician, and I didn’t like how it felt. I went to Seth, and I said, ‘Dude, from now on, if I’m going to be the lead actor, which I’m not even an actor, but if I’m going to be that, it’s always going to be my wife. Otherwise, we have to hire another couple.’
“It’s really fun to act with Taylor,” Young said. “Neither of us are actors. She did a good job. She did a really good job. I watched that back, and I was like, ‘Dang!’”
