Learning to Lose
by Margo Price (featuring Willie Nelson)

Album: All American Made (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • After writing this song, Margo Price and her husband (and frequent collaborator) Jeremy Ivey felt it had a very Willie Nelson-like quality. On a whim, they suggested to their record label that he could sing on it. After a few strings were pulled they found themselves with Nelson laying the tune down in the country legend's studio.

    "It's the best thing that's ever happened in our lives," Ivey told American Songwriter. "He looked at both of us and said, 'You wrote a great song.' I said, 'We're just ripping off you.' And he responded, 'But I never wrote that song. You didn't rip me off, you wrote something else.' That meant so much."
  • Margo Price told Uncut how Willie Nelson came to be on the track: "We wrote this song, and we always had it in mind. I've hung out with him and shared a joint, and had a great conversation with him when we first met. He does a lot of his tracking at his studio in Texas, out in Spicewood. We want up there around New Year and we got to go in the studio and listen to him sing and play all the guitar on it and cut the whole thing. It was amazing to see the way he works."
  • Speaking to UK newspaper The Sun about collaborating with Nelson, Price said:

    "Willie Nelson has a Buddhist-like quality about him. He never seems to get stressed out. He always has a new joke to tell me and a big smile on his face. He took a lot of time and care into laying down the vocals and guitar parts on Trigger, of course (his legendary guitar)."
  • Uncut magazine asked Margo Price what it was like spending "the day before the day before the new year" with Willie Nelson. She replied: "They told me that he really only ever does one or two takes, but he did it probably four times and it was so hard to pick which one we were going to keep because they all had such a different brilliance to them.

    When we got done, he came out and shook my hand and Jeremy's hand and Jeremy said, 'That is a well written song. We were stealing from you, Willy!' And he goes, 'Yep, but I didn't write that song - you wrote that song and it's a good one.' And that means more to me than any awards or accolades I could ever get."

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