Ashley McBryde‘s new album, The Devil I Know, is a return to the singer/songwriter’s honest and confessional lyrics about her own life, following her album Lindeville, which was a collection of fictional stories.
One of McBryde’s new songs, “Learned To Lie,” is a look at the singer’s childhood, and its searing lyrics could have been a difficult listen for the people who shaped it.
“Learned To Lie”
Written by McBryde with Nicolette Hayford and Sean McConnell, McBryde uses “Learned To Lie” to reflect on her behavior in her own adult relationships and how she learned to act in that way, attributing it to the communication style she observed between her parents.
“I, I learned to cry / Quietly, I learned to pray,” she sings in the chorus. “Silently, inside a house where the Devil played / And I, hate that it runs in my blood / I hate how easy it comes / I wish I’d learned how to love the same way I learned to lie.”
Parents Reaction To “Learned To Lie”
Speaking to Taste of Country Nights, McBryde was asked about her parents’ reactions to the song, and she shared that she thinks only one of them has heard it.
“I don’t know that my dad’s ever heard it. Or that he owns a radio. He’s just that kinda guy,” she said. “[He] lives under a rock and it’s beautiful there.”
As for her mom, who listens to all of her daughter’s songs, McBryde made sure to share the song with her before it was released.
“I FaceTimed her and talked her through the lyrics. Because being blindsided by that song would have been really painful,” the singer explained. “It would have seemed like I was coming at her. But I’m proud of the way I was raised, even though some of that wasn’t beautiful. I talked her through the lyrics and she was like, ‘Yeah, none of it’s untrue.’”
Admitted It Was A “Tough” Song To Play Her Mom
McBryde further discussed the track with Variety, admitting that the FaceTime with her mom was “tough.”
“I said, ‘This one’s gonna sting quite a bit, but there’s nothing that’s untrue in the song,’” she recalled. “And she kind of put her chin down a little bit — not in defeat, but like, ‘OK. OK.’ When I said, ‘He said he was working late, but he was working late fogging up the windows of an ‘89 Sable,’ Mom was like, ‘Yeah, that son of a b—.’”
The singer also praised her stepfather, who she called “such a hilarious guy.”
“He’s been the most wonderful example of what a man should be like in your life since I was about 19,” she shared. “And as Mom is feeling very heavy and breathing very deeply, I looked over at him, and he just kind of smiles and nods or does some sort of hilarious gesture. And he just says things like, ‘That’s good, baby.’ Which I didn’t have a lot of in my life. My father never really referred to me as his daughter or his baby or his princess or anything even remotely close to that. And my stepdad has always done that.”
The Devil I Know was released on September 8 as McBryde’s fourth studio album on Warner Music Nashville.
Additionally, the Arkansas native will support the project with her 30-date The Devil I Know Tour, which begins in October. The Devil I Know Tour features support from Corey Kent, Bella White, Will Jones, Harper O’Neill, Kasey Tyndall, Zach Top and JD Clayton.
