Dying In LA

Album: Pray For the Wicked (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • In 2015 Brendon Urie wrote The Death of a Bachelor track "LA Devotee," which is a love letter to the City of Angels. The Panic! At The Disco frontman flips the coin on this solemn piano ballad, which concludes Pray For the Wicked. "Dying In LA" paints the picture of someone who arrives in the California city excited by its glamour and opportunities only to be broken when success eludes them.

    Nights at the chateau, trapped in your sunset bungalow
    You couldn't escape it, yeah
    Drink of paradise, they told you "Put your blood on ice"
    You're not gonna make it


    Urie wrote the song with his friend, Los Angeles singer-songwriter Morgan Kibby, who showed up with the lyrics. "It was that thing when you're not one of the top 3 artists on your label, nobody give a f--- so at times it feels like you could be dying in LA and nobody would care, but who gives a s---?" the Panic! At The Disco mainman explained to The Independent. "It doesn't matter, everything relies on you. So that's a little sombre note to the end of the album which I love, because the rest of the album is so high energy, and it's good to have that juxtaposition."

    "LA is the best and also the worst f---ing place in the world," he added. "It has given me the most opportunities I've ever had, and has amazing networks and people to hang out with, and great weather, but also the worst people: selfish, out to get you, f--- you over, don't give a s--t, don't-have-any-real emotions people. It's a very seductive town, you get here with hopes and dreams, see the stars on the boulevard... But I don't want to rely on a town. I want to bring something to the table that actually matters."
  • The song concludes with the sound of birds chirping, which were recorded outside Urie's home studio.

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