Songfacts®:

• "Cowboys Cry Too" is a fiddle-led heartfelt ballad that challenges traditional masculinity and celebrates emotional vulnerability in men. Kelsea Ballerini sings about a tough cowboy who hides his pain and avoids showing weakness. She sees through his facade and acknowledges the hurt beneath the surface.
  
  "In our world and culture and echo chamber of highlight reels and pretty things, sometimes real feelings start to feel like something you just set aside or push down to keep up," Ballerini said of the song. "Especially the way so many men grow up, that kind of toxic masculinity mindset of 'saddle up, brush it off.'"
• The tender duet features Noah Kahan, who adds a relatable male perspective to the story. His verse reflects on societal pressures and the difficulty men face in expressing their emotions.
  
  "I wanted to write my perspective and essentially celebrate the vulnerable men in my life, and Noah adding his really unfiltered perspective into it just brought it to life in a more meaningful and beautiful way," said Ballerini.
• Ballerini and Kahan first met at the 2024 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. "He was like, 'Kelsea, how long ago did you put out 'Peter Pan?'" she recalled to Taste of Country Nights. "Immediately, I'm like 'Oh my God, he knows me!'"
• Ballerini wrote the chorus on her back porch in November 2023. "I love the idea of writing the song from a female perspective, kind of tackling toxic masculinity," she shared.
  
  Ballerini knew a male voice was crucial to fully capture the message. Enter a well-timed DM. Following the success of her late-night text to Kenny Chesney asking if he'd join her on "Half of My Hometown," Ballerini took another shot and messaged Kahan directly. Again, it paid off.
  
  Kahan wrote his part while on tour, and the two came together in the studio shortly after their performance of "Stick Season" and "Mountain With a View" at the 2024 ACM Awards.
• With "Cowboys Cry Too," Kahan dips his toes into classic country territory. The folk-pop star has collaborated with artists like Kacey Musgraves and Zach Bryan in the past, but here he sounds completely at ease donning a cowboy hat.
• Ballerini and Kahan wrote the song alongside Alysa Vanderheym. Ballerini and Vanderheym also produced the track. The Nashville-based songwriter Vanderheym co-wrote eight tracks on Ballerini's 2022 Subject to Change album and the two women made her 2023 Rolling Up the Welcome Mat EP together.
• "Cowboys Cry Too" is the lead single from Kelsea Ballerini's fifth album, Patterns, which marks a new era for the country star. The album showcases her more mature and candid side, complete with some colorful language.
  
  "I started so young," she reminded Taste of Country Nights host Evan Paul, "and while 'Love Me Like You Mean It' it and 'Dibs' were played on country radio, they were also on, like, Radio Disney. And so I just, I was really - not calculated in that - but, like, protective of that."
  
  "I just want to write like I talk," she added. Consequently, listeners will find the S-word in the album version of "Cowboys Cry Too," and the F-word in another Patterns track, "Wait!"
  
  Ballerini also credits Taylor Swift as an influence on her NSFW talk on Patterns.
  
  "I think when she started, like, cursing on her records, I think she kind of gave everyone permission to just talk... write like they talk and write the full truth," Ballerini said. "And so, yeah, I was very careful to not say anything on this record just for shock and awe, but if it felt like it was the right thing to say, I would say it."