If the shoe fits, right?
Today, Riley Green released his new album That’s Just Me, which features a pretty lengthy 19-song tracklist and features collaborations with Hannah McFarland, Jake Worthington, Alabama’s Randy Owen and my personal favorites, Brooks & Dunn.
And it also includes the highly-anticipated studio cut of “P.O.S.”, which fans have been speculating for months now is about Megan Moroney.
There’s a ton of history to it, but basically, Megan and Riley were spotted out together on several occasions, and while it appeared to be nothing serious, fans think Moroney was upset over whatever might have happened, and they also think she aired out all the drama on her song “Who Hurt You?”, which was included on her third studio album Cloud 9 that was released in February.
Moroney previously explained that writing it was a cathartic moment, which finds her being incredible honest about this elusive situation. She explained that she tried to include “every possible detail” so she never has to talk about it again:
“I remember coming up with that song and trying to include every possible detail that rhymes, so that I could put it out into the world and never have to talk about that situation again.
Songwriting is always therapeutic for me—but with ‘Who Hurt You?’ in particular I released so many emotions, and it feels really great not to have that all pent-up inside me anymore.”
That she did… it’s pretty ruthless, opening with a line that seemingly gets straight to the point about who it’s about, and while I’m sure she’ll never say for sure, it’s one of those “read between the lines” moments. Where she sings “the devil went down to Georgia, then he crossed the Bama line” says a LOT about who the subject of this song might be.
She goes onto reference “hometown happy hours” and “hand-delivered flowers,” explaining that she “tried to run” while it was still a fun fling, alleging it was the man who “cosplayed someone with feelings” and convinced her to stay:
The last verse is really the most scathing, where she calls this person out for dating 21-year-olds and constantly needing his ego fed… she admits that even though she fell for it, she knows she’ll eventually move on, and he won’t. He’ll “stay the same forever”:
“You said you needed less flashy, more fun
Oh, of course she’s 21
On your arm through the bar
God, I hate how gross you are
And how did I not see it?
Your ego, it needs feeding
Endlessly, relentlessly
At the cost of me
And I’ll move on and
I’ll find better But you’ll stay the same forever”
Ultimately, she boils it down to the fact that this guy has a lot of unresolved issues from someone who hurt him before, and honestly, scathing doesn’t feel like nearly a harsh enough word to describe this song.
And the day that song was released, Riley teased “P.O.S.” which seemingly tells his side of this supposed breakup story, where he admits that he definitely has his flaws in terms of his part in the relationship (though I think there’s a lot of sarcasm there), and he even points out that this girl “hated his dog,” which a lot of fans in the comments took offense to because Carl, his corgi, is a staple on the road.
The chorus has a line about how the girl will never find another “P.O.S. like me,” which I thought could have been a direct response to Megan’s aforementioned lines about how she’ll move on and find better, and of course he didn’t name her outright, but it seemed like one of those “read between the lines” and “timing is everything” kind of things:
“With a guy that drives too fast
Spends too much time chasin’ largemouth bass
He’s hooked on cussin’, hooked on snuff
And we both know you love that
I drink a little cold beer
Around huntin’ season, I disappear
You hated my dogs, you hated my songs
I guess you hated it way out here
But one day you’re gonna try
But you ain’t ever gonna find
Another low down, no good, rusted truck drivin’
P-O-S like me”
For me, the most convincing evidence is his pretty obvious reference to her song “Hair Salon,” which was her breakout single from her debut EP, Pistol Made of Roses, that remains a fan-favorite to this day. I feel like that line makes it pretty obvious what this song is about:
“I bet right now you’re runnin’ me down at the hair salon
Sayin’, ‘Yeah, I’m glad he’s gone’
But we both know you’re a mile or so
From even bein’ close to barely movin’ on”
Riley has said in several interviews that “P.O.S.” had nothing to do with Moroney, explaining that he was simply playing a song he’d written for his fans, and that he’d written it six months before Moroney’s song came out. He told Billboard that it “just happened” to be posted on the same day as Moroney’s album was released, and that’s why it got talked about a lot:
“What I was doing was I was playing this song that I’d written, you know, for my fans. And I wrote ‘POS’ like six months before that. It just happened to be that day I was at home and I was wanting to post a song, and it got talked about a lot.”
He also told sports personality Pat McAfee in an interview for Spotify recently that he wasn’t “smart enough” to pull something like that off:
“That’s a fun song. It’s a very self-deprecating song. Me and Randy Montana, a guy I write with quite a bit, I love when we’re writing. We always saw, I like that guy. That’s a phrase he always uses wen we’re describing something, telling a story. He’ll go, ‘Man, I like the guy that would say that or do that.’
So we’re always trying to write that. This was a song that, it was thinking that maybe some people would look down on, but a guy that grew up where I grew up was proud of it. So I love that it had that spin on it. Really fun song. It got a lot of traction, too, so I’m excited about people hearing it…
Yeah, I mean I don’t think I’m smart enough to pull something like that off.”
Even if he had written the song that long before “Who Hurt You?” came out and it wasn’t about Moroney (which I’m convinced it is, full disclosure), I can’t imagine he didn’t think people would at least wonder if it was about her, because no one knew that at the time, but I don’t think there’s any question her song is about him.
Considering the context and the actual lyrics, I just don’t think “P.O.S.” could be about anyone or anything else, and I don’t blame him for wanting to respond. I think if any of us had a song written about us like “Who Hurt You?”, which Megan has all but said explicitly is about Riley, we’d have something to say about it too.
You can be the judge for yourself, though…
“P.O.S.”
“Who Hurt You?”
That’s Just Me Tracklist
- “My Way”
- “That’s Just Me”
- “Don’t Come Any Closer”
- “Go Again” (feat. Hannah McFarland)
- “Imagine That”
- “Got That From You”
- “Bartender In Destin”
- “Beach Happy”
- “Think As You Drunk”
- “Well Well Whiskey” (feat. Jake Worthington)
- “P.O.S.”
- “Runs in the Family”
- “Pave All Them Dirt Roads” (feat. Brooks & Dunn)
- “Lookout Mountain” (feat. Randy Owen)
- “Seven Second Ride
- “Radio Road”
- “Ol’ Stray Dog”
- “More of a Man Than Me”
- “Ten Pairs of Boots”