The sadder, the better.
Sad country music has to be one of our favorite things in the world. Pair a sad country song with a beer, and I’m living my best life… while crying. Those who get it… get it, and Gabriel Iglesias perfectly sums up the hype surrounding sad country music on his 2022 specials, Stadium Fluffy. During one portion of the stand-up special, he slows down the pace and tells the audience about a tough time in his life.
Before filming his special, Iglesias endured a hard breakup from his long-time partner. He recalls that he has never felt heartbreak like that and wishes that he had experienced his first major heartbreak at a younger age. He tells fans all of this with a very serious note… this was real life and not part of a bit.
“I did not handle it well. You’re supposed to have your heart broken when you’re like 12. When you have your first crush, that’s when you are supposed to have your first heartache, not in your 40s. It’s supposed to be when you’re young when you’re little when you’re resilient when you realize things won’t work out.”
He goes on to say that when their split was finalized, he was at a gas station and realized he had to start over. When he wanted to go “home,” it hit him that what he called home was no longer there, and he would have to find a new place to call home and rebuild his life. While he was troubled about the relationship’s ending, figuring out what came next for him in the moments after the split was finalized was more heartbreaking.
The breakup even caused him to take a break from touring.
“It was the lowest point of my life. I had never felt so sad, weak, vulnerable, depressed, lonely, everything all rolled into one. It was at the lowest point of my life that I found… that’s right, country music.
Country music knows when you’re sad. Country music knows when you’re weak. Country music knows when you’re vulnerable and need something to fill the void. I used to fight off country music. I used to look country music in the face and tell country, ‘You can take your achy, breaky heart and keep on moving.’
But not today.”
Iglesias then tells his audience that after he pulled out of that gas station, he started crying. He was crying so much that his tears were mixing with his snot, and he was losing it. To take his mind off losing the love of his life, he turned on the radio and flipped to the country station.
“I knew immediately that it was country music that I was listening to, and I did not try to change the station. Because I figured, you know what? I deserve to suffer more for the mistakes I made and the people I hurt.
So, I let it play, and play and play. I listened to country music for over an hour, and I came to this conclusion. Country music has at least one song that will speak to your heart directly because you feel like the artist wrote that song specifically about you and your life because of how detailed the songs are.
Oh yeah, hats off to the country music singers and artists. You know how to do something very well, and it’s not until you experience a certain time in your life that it makes sense.”
After making the serious points, he lightens up the segment, performing a bit of a song and reacting like he was back in that car with snot and tears running down his face. He keeps the made-up lyrics going, but it serves the point that country music does have a way of connecting its lyrics to listeners better than any other genre.
I can’t be the only one who has been listening to a song and tilting my head, wondering if we experienced the same heartbreak. It’s sometimes eerily similar to how an artist can articulate their feelings to relate so much to a sector of their audience. While not all songs are sad within the genre, sad, sad country songs have a way of connecting deeper than joyful ones. Sad country music hits differently, and although this clip is two years old, it still highlights why we love it so much.
If you don’t understand the magic of sad country music, fire up this clip and follow it up with “Broken Window Serenade.”
It’ll make perfect sense…
“Broken Window Serenade”
