Songfacts®:

• "Empty Words" is Corey Kent's regret song about a relationship ruined by repeated apologies and promises that no longer mean anything.
• The title works double duty. On one level, it refers to words that have lost their credibility, pleas and assurances that no longer convince the woman he's hurt. On another, it sets up the song's central bit of wordplay: because she's "over empty words," he's left staring at an "empty bed," transforming a moral failure into a physical absence.
  
  "As a songwriter, it feels like catching lightning in a bottle when you find that line or double entendre that carries more weight than expected," said Kent. "So 'Empty Words' is really special because it says something heavy yet simply."
• Corey Kent is married to Dayna Lou White, and he's a father, making this more of a fictional what-not-to-do guide than a diary entry. Still, it fits comfortably alongside his catalog of emotionally frayed country-rock songs, including "Something's Gonna Kill Me," which also leans into self-destructive or painful interior states.
• Corey Kent wrote the song with Austin Goodloe, Matt Roy, Joybeth Taylor and Lydia Vaughan. Production is credited to Kent and Austin Goodloe. Goodloe, Taylor, and Vaughan were already familiar writing partners, having also teamed with Kent on "Something's Gonna Kill Me," while Roy is a newer addition to the circle.
• Originally pegged as a potential deep cut, "Empty Words" was fast-tracked after a teaser clip racked up over 20 million views online. Released as a single on February 20, 2026, it became Kent's fourth Hot 100 hit, following "Wild As Her," "This Heart" and "Rocky Mountain Low."
• "Empty Words" was the final song written during Corey Kent's four-day songwriting retreat at La Rosa Ranch, a family property where the singer spent his days writing and still made it home each evening to see his children. The track came together on January 21, 2025, the retreat's last day, after two of the six invited writers had left early. Rather than splitting into smaller groups as they had for most of the trip, Kent spent the final session collaborating with Joybeth Taylor, Matt Roy, Lydia Vaughan, and writer-producer Austin Goodloe.
  
  The five writers had already completed "Motorbike" that morning and decided to squeeze in one final song before dinner. The breakthrough came when Goodloe played an unfinished musical idea he'd put together before the retreat. Although it didn't yet have a song attached to it, the track featured a moody verse in a minor key that opened into a brighter major-key chorus.
  
  "I basically had a session by myself for a song that didn't exist," Goodloe told Billboard. "But I knew that the vibe felt great."
  
  Kent had previously written an abandoned lyric built around the phrase "empty bed." When the writers paired it with "empty words," they found the song's central hook:
  
  I'm in this empty bed
  'Cause she's over empty words
  
  With the chorus in place, the verses quickly followed. The hook immediately revealed what the story needed to be.
  
  "Anytime you have a great hook, we know what to do with the song," Taylor explained. "Sometimes when you're searching, it just takes a minute, and you land on something, but with that one, I kind of feel like we all knew where to go with it."