Michael Ray Mines His Romantic Past on ‘Her World or Mine’
Now engaged to fellow country star Carly Pearce, his "world" has been turned upside down.
“One That Got Away” hit maker Michael Ray digs deep into the emotional fallout of a bad breakup in his next single, “Her World or Mine.” But in reality, that’s not his world at all anymore.
Marking Ray’s fourth single overall and the second from his sophomore album, Amos, the track centers on a breakup that set one person free, and locked the other in a prison of regret. Speaking with Sounds Like Nashville earlier this year, Ray revealed that the tune perfectly captured what he was going through at the time he recorded it – but surprisingly, he didn’t write it. In fact, he said he couldn’t.
“I wasn’t getting close to it,” he said of the heartbreak “Her World or Mine” conveys, adding that he was also navigating intense pressure from his career while the relationship was ending. “I don’t know if it was one of those things where it’s too close to home, I was too far into it. I think my mind was real cluttered in a lot of ways, but the songwriters in Nashville were writing my story better than I could write it at the time.”
“Her World or Mine” was written by Brett Beavers, Jamie Paulin and Travis Denning, then produced by Scott Hendricks. And while Ray definitely leans on his past for inspiration while singing it, that’s not where his head is anymore. Just before Christmas of last year, he and fellow hit maker Carly Pearce announced that they were engaged to be married.
“Her World or Mine” is set to hit radio playlists on May 13th, and Ray is already confident it will connect. He’s seen it strike a chord with fans at live shows – and just like him, it doesn’t matter if they’re living the song out or not.
“I think it has resonated so strongly with fans because no matter which side you are on … the one who has moved on or the one who is hanging on … everyone has been there at some point in their life, they see themselves in this song,” he explains. “I certainly do.”
Ray will be on the road for fair and festival dates into August, then joining Brantley Gilbert’s Not Like Us Tour through October 11th in Charlotte, NC.
