Staying's Worse Than Leaving

Album: Concrete (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Texan Country artist Sunny Sweeney's second single from her sophomore album tells the story of a relationship at its end. She knows it's time to call it quits, but the thought of goodbye has whipped her into a tailspin:

    Leaving's hard
    Trust me it's really bad


    However, the pain of staying overwhelms the fears of walking away as she acknowledges:

    Even though this freedom feels a lot like treason
    I know staying's worse than leaving
  • Sweeney co-wrote this tune with the singer-songwriter Radney Foster, who has also penned songs for the likes of Dixie Chicks, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban and Brooks and Dunn. The other co-writer was Jay Clementi, whose previous collaborations with Foster include Darius Rucker's track, "Might Get Lucky." Their partnership goes back to 2002 when the veteran hitmaker produced an album that Clementi recorded with his father.
  • Sweeney told Billboard magazine the song is about her divorce. She said: "I had a marriage that dissolved over the course of the last couple of years and it's really hard. When I sing that song, people come up to me and tell me their stories, saying, 'Girl, your song gave me the strength to leave,' or, 'Your song made me want to work it out.' I cannot believe that a song that is going to be on my record can affect people like that. It's pretty flattering."
  • Sweeney explained the significance of the album title to The Boot: "I don't really like self-titled records, because it's not very original. Using one of the songs as the title track is a little iffy, because it doesn't really encompass the whole record. I wanted one word, tough and solid. My opinions on music are concrete, the lyrics are heavy like concrete and the melodies are solid like concrete."

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