I don’t have to hear it, if I don’t want to
I can drown this out, pull the curtains down on you
It’s a heavy world, it’s too much for me to care
If I close my eyes, it’s not there

With my headphones on, with my headphones on
With my headphones on, with my headphones on

We watch television...but the sound is something else
Just a song played against the drama, so the hurt is never felt
I take in the war-fires, and I’m chilled by the current events
It’s so hopeless, but there’s a pop song in my

Headphones on, in my headphones on
With my headphones on, with my headphones on

At the Tube Stop, you sit down across from me
(I can see you looking back at me)
I think I know you
By the sad eyes that I see
I want to tell you (It’s a heavy world)
Everything will be okay
You wouldn’t hear it (I don’t want to have to hear it)
So we go our separate ways…

With our headphones on, with our headphones on
With our headphones on, with our headphones on
I don’t wanna be the one who tries to figure it out
I don’t need another reason I should care about you
You don’t want to know my story
You don’t want to own my pain
Living in a heavy, heavy world
And there’s a pop song in my head
I don’t want to have to hear it


(Jars of Clay) © 2009 Bridge Building / Pogostick Music (BMI). All rights for the world on behalf of Pogostick Music administered by Bridge Building.

Behind the Song:
STEVE MASON: “‘Headphones’ is especially poignant to me, because it’s about how we all live together, alone. Even for those of us who live in community, our instinct is to try to maintain our own space within that community and to protect and to isolate ourselves. That's what ‘Headphones’ is about: trying to keep the music on and up loud enough that we don't have to embrace the harder truths about our lives and the world we live in. But the hope in the song is that we don’t enter into that journey alone. We all share that sense of isolation and the profound desire to connect.”

CHARLIE LOWELL: “The duet vocal on ‘Headphones’ is by Katie Herzig, an incredibly talented Nashville singer/songwriter we all know and love. We all felt that Katie’s vocals really opened the song up and made it more of a conversation. The vocal quality she brought to ‘Headphones’ gave it a whole new dimension and tenderly illustrates the idea of people almost connecting, but missing.”