There’s a very good chance that Jessica Simpson’s ex-husband Eric Johnson is a having an “Is this fucking play about us?” moment right now, assuming he’s heard the lyrics to the pop singer’s latest single, “Fade.” Because they do seem rather pointed.
The song begins with a bit of a body blow, with Simpson singing in the first verse, “You can always say you love me. / That doesn’t mean that I feel loved. / There’s a green light in the distance / And all your words become too much.”
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She goes on to reference, well, us, when she sings in another verse, “They’re gonna talk, but it’s not their business. / The stars align and sometimes burn,” which seems to indicate that the track is autobiographical. And that makes this part—“I want my heart to feel held safe. / I know that home is a feeling / And not a place. / Oh, there won’t be a next time / Cause I won’t break”—feel especially emotional because it seems to hint at what caused the split.
On Instagram, Simpson wrote of writing the song, “I was in a rough place when the day came around for this writing session, however I was not going to crawl under my sheets, hide, and cry. Instead, I chose to rise and shine. It immediately encouraged confrontation to heal a layer of pain.” And in a press release, per Us Weekly, Simpson said, “This song came straight from my heart.” She continued, “I walked into the studio with tears still on my cheeks, and what came out was a prayer. ‘Fade’ is about watching someone you love slip away in real time, while trying to hold on to something that’s already gone.”
