Learned To Lie

Album: The Devil I Know (2023)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this confessional song, Ashley McBryde sings about her parents' dysfunctional marriage, and how that shaped her life. Her mother was always very supportive, but her father, the subject of her breakout song "Bible And A .44," could be very cold. In "Learned To Lie," Ashley reveals that her dad cheated on her mother, saying he was working late when he was really with another woman. Her mother learned to live with this lie and Ashley did too, carrying that weight into adulthood and mangling some of her relationships. She learned a lot from her father, including how to pray and how to shoot, but she also learned to lie. And he didn't teach her how to love.
  • McBryde played this song to her mother before she released it. "Being blindsided by that song would have been very painful," she told Taste Of Country. "It would have seemed like I was coming at her. But I'm proud of the way I was raised, even though some of that wasn't beautiful. But I talked her through the lyrics, and she said, 'Yep, none of it's untrue.'"
  • Two Nashville scribes co-wrote this song with McBryde: Nicolette Hayford and Sean McConnell. Hayford, who sometimes records under the name Pillbox Patti, worked on most of the song from McBryde's 2022 album Lindeville. McConnell's credits include "When You Love Someone" by Jake Owen and "Wine, Beer, Whiskey" by Little Big Town.
  • The song is part of McBryde's fourth album, The Devil I Know. This was a transitional time for McBryde, who had been through lots of therapy and was working to get healthier. This kind of song is very personal, but McBryde thinks that's all the more reason to get it out there. "If I feel this way, there are other people who feel this way that may be having a harder time putting a finger on it, so here it is," she explained.

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