Songfacts®:

• If country music has taught us anything over the years, it is that the most consequential decisions in life tend to occur somewhere between midnight and poor judgment, usually with a glass of something within easy reach. "If I Don't Leave I'm Gonna Stay," the duet between Carly Pearce and Riley Green, is a textbook example.
• The song's premise is two people, one room, a late hour, and an abundance of romantic tension. Leaving would be sensible, staying would be inevitable, and neither option comes with a particularly reassuring long-term forecast. As the title helpfully explains - lest anyone miss the point - if one of them doesn't leave, well... they're very much going to stay.
• Pearce and Green approach this emotional standoff with the air of two people who have been here before, possibly several times. They hover in that familiar territory between restraint and surrender: another drink, another song, and suddenly the evening has developed ambitions. The song is ultimately ambiguous about the outcome:
  
  We're getting close to losing clothes
  I should go look at the time
  It's getting late
  If I don't leave I'm gonna stay
  
  The YouTube description notes that the couple knows a wine-fueled reconciliation will likely end in heartbreak, but they can't quite give each other up.
• Devin Dawson, Seth Ennis, Jordan Minton, and Jordan Reynolds wrote the song with Pearce in mind. Reynolds has a strong history with Pearce, having previously co-written her songs "Should've Known Better," "Hummingbird" and "My Place" among others. He texted Pearce after the session, telling her, "This would be crazy with you and Riley."
• The song was produced by Ben West and Carly Pearce and recorded for her fifth album. Pearce described the album's sonic direction as "Appalachian, classic country; Loretta Lynn meets The Judds meets Alison Krauss."
• Ben West played the Hammond organ, bass, Wurlitzer piano, and arranged he strings. The other musicians are:
  
  Aaron Sterling: drums, percussion
  Bryan Sutton: acoustic guitar
  Nathan Dugger: electric guitar
  Josh Matheny: dobro
  Gideon Klein: cello
• Pearce and Green have been friends for years, and Pearce had already filled in for Ella Langley to perform Green's duet "Don't Mind If I Do" at Big Machine Label Group's 20th anniversary party.
  
  Pearce had been searching for the right collaboration for her album, and when she received the track, she texted it to Green. Within five minutes he replied that he was in, and about an hour later, he sent her a voice memo of himself singing the chorus. "It felt like one of those things that was meant to be," she said.
  
  They recorded their vocals together in January 2026.
• Pearce has an impressive track record with duets. She won a Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for her Ashley McBryde team-up "Never Wanted To Be That Girl," and her 2020 duet "I Hope You're Happy Now" with Lee Brice peaked at #27 on the Hot 100. Her 2023 collaboration with Chris Stapleton, "We Don't Fight Anymore," was also a chart hit.
  
  Notably, "If I Don't Leave I'm Gonna Stay" is Pearce's first radio duet to find her moving toward love rather than away from it, a significant shift from her earlier collaboration themes.
  
  Green has similarly thrived in duets. His collaborations with Ella Langley - "You Look Like You Love Me" and "Don't Mind If I Do" - both cracked the Billboard Hot 100's top 30, and "You Look Like You Love Me" won Single of the Year and Music Video of the Year at the 2025 CMA Awards.
• The video was directed by Wes Edwards and released on March 13, 2026, alongside the single. Rather than use actors, as is common in male-female collaboration videos, Pearce insisted that she and Green play the couple themselves, a deliberate nod to classic '90s country videos.
  
  "Call me a '90s kid at heart, I used to love when artists like Reba [McEntire], Tim [McGraw] or Faith [Hill], they would act in the videos," Pearce told Billboard. "I really wanted, if he was willing, to do something I feel is a bit of a lost art in our format."
  
  The result is a series of intimate scenes that manage to be both convincing and faintly intriguing, not least because viewers naturally begin to wonder whether they are watching acting or something more suspiciously authentic. (For the record, Pearce was in a relationship with Jordan Karcher at the time, while Green has maintained a diplomatic silence on such matters).
  
  Despite the natural awkwardness of filming an intimate video with a friend rather than a romantic partner, the shoot went smoothly. It was odd how not weird it was," Pearce recalled, adding that director Edwards allowed her and Green small creative liberties within his tightly plotted storyline. Pearce and Green could, for example, throw their leg over each other or kiss each other's hands or shoulders. The video intercuts the intimate couple scenes with shots of each artist alone, capturing the will-they-won't-they spirit of the song.