I’ve known my friend Mario for literally my entire life.
Actually, that’s not completely accurate.
Mario knew me before I knew him.
He was already one of my dad’s friends while I was still in my mom’s belly, before I knew anything about the world or anybody in it. So when I say Mario and I go back a long way, I’m not exaggerating.
Many years later, Mario and I were driving to pick up a car when he started muttering something under his breath.
I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. I finally said, “Mario, spit it out. What are you saying? What are you saying to me?”
He mumbled something like, “Never mind.”
I said, “No. Just say it. Say it to me.”
That’s when Mario gave me the real reason he didn’t want to say anything:
“No, you’ll just write another song about something I say.”
I didn’t tell him this at the time, but the wheels were already spinning.
He had just given me the next song.
“Say It To Me.”
Underneath the story that inspired it, there’s something pretty universal in the song. How many times do we misunderstand each other because we talk around what we’re really trying to say?
We hint. We mumble. We assume the other person understands. We read between lines that sometimes aren’t even there.
Sometimes it would be a whole lot easier if we’d simply say what we mean.
So I took that little moment between two lifelong friends and turned it into a song about communication, honesty, confusion, and wanting someone to stop making you guess.
Eventually I played the finished song for Mario. He loved it. In fact, he liked it enough to share it with his whole family.
Apparently some of them didn’t believe I actually wrote it.
Well...
Joke’s on them. I did.
And Mario? He learned a valuable lesson that day.
Never mumble around a songwriter.
Because you never know when something you say is going to become the next song.
Sorry, Mario.
You called this one before I even wrote it.