This is a heartbreak ballad about drowning your sorrows in alcohol and the inability to get over your ex-partner.

A Song Inspired By Frustration

This song’s approach to its subject material is in part owed to what was happening in the world at the time: the COVID-19 pandemic. Since this global event was something that virtually everybody alive at the time experienced, the result musically was an easily relatable sentiment that emerged in his lyrics.

For Morgan Wallen personally, the result of this deep lyrical dive during lockdown was an emotional reawakening – or at least provocation. This ballad encapsulates the feeling of what Morgan went through in the wake of the heartbreaking end of a relationship that meant a lot to him.

“It just came from a pretty, almost like a pissed-off place, and just about being wasted time,” Wallen told American Songwriter. “I think we all can relate to that. We’ve all been through that.”

The feelings of anger and the regret of how you’ve spent your time are highly present throughout the lyrics. Morgan repeatedly expresses his wish that things had worked out better, which makes for a highly relatable sentiment since it’s something that so many people go through.

In a way, the lyrics were the byproduct of Wallen’s yearning desire to start touring again. But the year was 2020, and a tour just wasn’t in the cards. There was a pandemic happening, and this gave him ample time for reflection and writing.

He was doing much more writing than usual, and it was then that he started to pen these new words. Morgan has stated that he considers music the best way for him to tell his own story.

The fact that it’s a song about heartbreak makes it almost universally easy to relate to. Like the rest of this album, the song is largely about one man’s attempts to numb his pains with alcohol instead of dealing with them. The narrator focuses on all the time and money that he foolishly spent on this person whom he now deems undeserving. He laments the fact that he’s been left with nothing but a broken heart.

Layers of Meaning

“Wasted on You” is the fourth single from Dangerous, Wallen’s second album. The title itself is a double entendre. Beyond literal intoxication, Wallen refers to the time and money that he feels foolish for “wasting” on a person who isn’t special enough.

In yet a third meaning, Wallen is admitting that he’s the one who caused the end of the relationship and observes that it follows a pattern, indicating that he has sabotaged his own relationships before.

“My heart wouldn’t listen to my head and these boots on my feet / Looks like I’m learning the hard way again / That’s why I’ve been / Wasted on you”

In this case, Wallen considered the partner who he was with out of his league by his own standards. And so in that way, he felt that he was wasted on her.

Lyrics

I don’t always wake up in the mornin’
Pour myself a strong one
Ah, but when I get lonely I do
Your memory gets burnin’
Lean back on the bourbon
Sure as hell can’t keep leanin’ on you

Looks like I’m learnin’ the hard way again
It’s all my fault
Yeah, I dropped the ball
You’re gone and I’m gone three sheets to the wind
Thinking ’bout all I’ve wasted on you

All of this time and all of this money
All of these sorries I don’t owe you honey
All of these miles on this Chevy, and prayers in a pew
All them days I spent wasted on you
Wasted on you

Yeah, I swore this one’d be different
My heart wouldn’t listen to my head and these boots on my feet

Looks like I’m learning the hard way again
That’s why I’ve been
Wasted on you

All of this time, and all of this money
All of these sorries I don’t owe you, honey
All of these miles on this Chevy and prayers in a pew
All them days I spent wasted on you
Wasted on you

Like this pile of your stuff that’s packed up in the back
Right down to the flame of this match
Wasted on you
Wasted on you
Wasted on you
Wasted on you
Wasted on you

All of this time, and all of this money
All of these sorries I don’t owe you, honey
All of these miles on this Chevy and prayers in a pew
All them days I spent wasted on you
Wasted on you
Wasted on you
Wasted on you

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Ernest Keith Smith / Josh Thompson / Morgan Wallen / Ryan Vojtesak

Wasted on You lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

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