Heartless

Album: Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley Chapter 1: Snake Oil (2019)
Charted: 39
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Heartless" is a single released by DJ and producer Diplo as part of his country music project Thomas Wesley (his birth name is Thomas Wesley Pentz).
  • Wesley produced and created the instrumentation, over which singer Morgan Wallen laments a tumultuous relationship with an uncommitted woman.

    I know you think it's harmless
    But you're tearing me apart
    Girl, why you gotta be so heartless


    Diplo's sparse, lonely production echoes Wallen's headache over the girl who can't seem to make up her mind.
  • The collaboration came about when Diplo was looking for new material for his Thomas Wesley project. The DJ reached out to Nashville-based manager Seth England, whose clients include Wallen, along with better known names such as Florida Georgia Line and Chris Lane. England sent over several songs, including a tune Wallen worked on.

    "(Seth) was like, 'Oh, by the way, I also want to throw in this one with this kid' - me - which is a song that I had put my voice on," Wallen recalled to Billboard. "And they ended up liking that one the best."
  • Wallen and Diplo recorded their parts separately; they didn't actually meet until they filmed the music video.
  • Diplo dropped a remake featuring Julia Michaels on January 21, 2000. The pop vocalist trades verses with Morgan Wallen on the new version of the breakup ballad.
  • The Julia Michaels version of "Heartless" also gets a music video treatment. Directed by Brandon Dermer, the visual finds Wallen and Michaels portraying two people each embroiled in a fight with their significant others while staying in neighboring motel rooms.
  • Morgan Wallen recorded an "album mix" of the song for his 2021 record Dangerous. The new version features more standard country instruments than on Diplo's original.

Comments: 1

  • Bry from Kentucky this song speaks to me a lot ab a friend who keeps going back and forth over wanting to be my friend or dating my ex boyfriend that i’m in love with.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

P.F. Sloan

P.F. SloanSongwriter Interviews

P.F. was a teenager writing hits and playing on tracks for Jan & Dean when he wrote a #1 hit that got him blackballed.

Eric Clapton

Eric ClaptonFact or Fiction

Did Eric Clapton really write "Cocaine" while on cocaine? This question and more in the Clapton edition of Fact or Fiction.

Subversive Songs Used To Sell

Subversive Songs Used To SellSong Writing

Songs about drugs, revolution and greed that have been used in commercials for sneakers, jeans, fast food, cruises and cars.

Gary Numan

Gary NumanSongwriter Interviews

An Electronic music pioneer with Asperger's Syndrome. This could be interesting.

Don Brewer of Grand Funk

Don Brewer of Grand FunkSongwriter Interviews

The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.

Michael Schenker

Michael SchenkerSongwriter Interviews

The Scorpions and UFO guitarist is also a very prolific songwriter - he explains how he writes with his various groups, and why he was so keen to get out of Germany and into England.