Songfacts®:

• "Plastic Cigarette" is Zach Bryan's bittersweet recollection of a summer romance that didn't last long enough to turn into a lifetime but lasted just long enough to leave a mark.
• It's likely the song is about Bryan's brief relationship with Australian model Hannah Duncan, which followed his very public breakup with Brianna "Chickenfry" LaPaglia in October 2024. Bryan and Duncan spent time together in Australia during the summer of 2025.
  
  Did you ever make it back to Byron Bay?
  
  Duncan is from Newrybar, a historic village near Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia. Her social media frequently shows her on beaches and in the coastal hinterland around Byron Bay.
• The chorus delivers the image that gives the song its name.
  
  So let it go, I saw you on the river's edge
  Draggin' on a plastic cigarette
  With your swim top still wet
  
  This vivid, sensory imagery connects thematically to an earlier Bryan song, "River Washed Hair," both capturing moments frozen by water and impermanence.
• The third verse is widely interpreted as a reference to Bryan's relationship with LaPaglia.
  
  You were collectin' shells out on the Bay Shore, you know I was a shell before?
  Deep in the hands of another, my brother
  Had told me to leave, but I didn't believe
  That evil would mean some people you meet out in Queens
  
  The mention of Queens, where Bryan and LaPaglia met at a concert in June 2023, and the use of the word "evil" line up uncomfortably with her later allegations of emotional abuse. The verse suggests Bryan was emotionally damaged from the LaPaglia relationship when Duncan entered his life.
• "Plastic Cigarette" isn't a revenge song or a scorched-earth confession. The woman at the center of the song is remembered as someone who helped Bryan through a dark stretch, even if she couldn't stay. The final verse lands softly but painfully:
  
  The way the rain came down the other day in Byron Bay
  Made me feel so alone, so I just went home
  And scribbled some poem
  That I know that you'll never read
• Bryan first teased "Plastic Cigarette" during his summer 2025 run of shows in Dublin, Ireland, casually introducing it with, "Not to bore you guys, I wrote this new song. It might suck. If it does it's on you," before playing it live. The song popped up sporadically in setlists afterward, gaining momentum through fan recordings and word-of-mouth long before its official release.
• The studio version appears as the 15th track on With Heaven On Top, Bryan's sixth album. Built on confident percussion and acoustic guitar, it uses subtle vocal harmonies to underline key emotional moments. Bryan's phrasing feels conversational, thoughts tumbling into one another before an abrupt ending that leaves us reflecting on the story we've just heard.