Songfacts®:

• Maren Morris holds progressive views that sometimes conflict with the ingrained culture not just of her home state of Texas, but of country music in general. In this song, she expresses this tension, likening these institutions to a tree.
  
  "I wrote it about a toxic family tree," she explained on CMT Crossroads, where she debuted the song in a duet with the Irish singer Hozier. "The lens I was writing from was my reckoning with the music industry in Nashville and the mainstream country music industry. Sometimes it can feel like a family and sometimes it can feel like an institution."
• In the song, Morris sets out to chop down the tree, but realizes there's no sense in doing that because it's already on fire. It's a metaphor for a broken system, but Morris doesn't see it as hopeless. At the end of the song, she sings:
  
  I'll never stop growing
  Wherever I'm going
  Hope I'm not the only one
  
  "It's ultimately an optimistic song coming out of something that's traumatic," she said.
• Morris released this song on an EP called The Bridge in advance of her fourth major-label album. The other song on the EP is "Get The Hell Out Of Here," where Morris explains that she's leaving the country music scene behind.
• Greg Kurstin produced this track. He helmed Morris' 2022 album Humble Quest and has also worked with Foo Fighters, Gorillaz, and Kelly Clarkson.
• The Nashville songwriters Laura Veltz and Jimmy Robbins teamed with Morris to write this song and "Get The Hell Out Of Here." Veltz and Robbins are her go-to collaborators; among Morris' other songs they wrote together are "The Bones" and "I Could Use a Love Song."
• In the music video, directed by Jason Lester, Morris inhabits a miniature model of a small town in decay. As she makes her way through the empty streets, the tree that is the centerpiece of the town catches fire. As it burns, Morris leaves the town.