In Maddie & Tae‘s heartbreak ballad, “Die from a Broken Heart,” the protagonist asks her mom not to tell her dad what she’s going through, adding he should “keep that pistol in the drawer.”
For Maddie Marlow, that line’s more than a sly moment of comic relief in the song, it’s autobiographical.
“My dad does have a pistol in his drawer,” she reveals. “So it’s like, it’s very real. And I just feel like even when I got my heart broken — the many times that I’ve had my heart broken — my Texas dad, like that is such a thing, you know.”
“So I just felt like with that second verse,” she continues, “we felt like it elevated the song a little bit where it just feels like, ‘Please don’t tell Dad, but like, also keep the pistol handy.'”
For Tae Dye, it’s the next line that rings especially true: “Mama, please don’t say I’m gonna laugh about this some day.”
“Don’t tell me I’m gonna laugh it off, ” Tae reflects, “because right now the last thing I want to do is laugh. So, it’s just so real.”
“Something my parents always say,” Maddie chimes in, “is like, ‘Maddie, you won’t even remember his name five years from now!’ And I’m like, ‘I know, but I really know his that right now, and I’m so sad!'”
“You know, that’s not the right thing to say,” Maddie explains. “So I’m glad that we put that line in there.”
For the record, broken hearts don’t seem to be much of a concern for Maddie or Tae these days, since they’ve both recently tied the knot.
“Die from a Broken Heart” is the second single from the duo’s sophomore album, The Way It Feels, and their first top-ten hit in nearly five years.
By Stephen Hubbard
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