The True Meaning Behind Easy On Me (With Chris Stapleton) By Adele

Adele released her full "30" album on November 19, and if you are well, you are the only one. Fans have been breathless with anticipation since she released the album's first single, "Easy On Me," with its heartbreaking, more mature lyrics and, of course, that perfect voice.

"Go easy on me, baby / I was still a child / Didn't get the chance to / Feel the world around me / I had no time to choose what I chose to do," the iconic songstress croons on the track. It is the first new music Adele has released in the better part of a decade, and the first album since she's gotten divorced and had her first child, her son Angelo.

The meaning behind some of the lyrics may, on the surface, seem obvious, but in interviews, Adele has indicated that there's also a deeper meaning involved. And does the meaning of the song change in the version she's collaborated on with country music star Chris Stapleton?

In "Easy On Me," the first single off of her new album "30," Adele sings, "There ain't no room for our things to change / When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways / You can't deny how hard I've tried / I changed who I was to put you both first." As you may have intuited, a lot of these lyrics are about her ex-husband, Simon Konecki, who she divorced earlier in 2021.

Speaking on the "BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show" (via Mashable), Adele explained that she wrote it while she was "making decisions in my life which have been well documented over the last few years," i.e., the divorce. "Normally I'm very not confrontational but you can just initiate something and be like, 'Well hang on a minute, go easy on me.' Just like, bear with me while I try and find my feet in a situation," she continued.

But Adele has also said that the song, as well as the album as a whole, is dedicated in part for her son, Angelo. "I just felt like I wanted to explain to him, through this record, when he's in his twenties or thirties, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness," she said in a British Vogue profile.

Because she just can't stop won't stop, Adele has also recorded a duet version of the song with country music star Chris Stapleton. She had actually hinted at the collab in Vogue's "73 Questions" interview with the singer, saying that Chris Stapleton was her dream duet partner. Then Stapleton got in on the fun by commenting on the video with the eyeballs emoji. Cute!

Seeing as Stapleton is still happily married, one can assume that the song's lyrics are slightly less personal for the country star than they are for Adele, who penned them. The duet is debuting on Country Radio, via Billboard, and she has announced that it will feature on the Deluxe edition of the album.

We do know that Stapleton has long been an Adele fan, telling Howard Stern (via Rolling Stone), "I love her as a singer and as an artist." He also told the radio host the first time he really heard of Adele was when she was going viral for covering one of his songs at the start of her career. And now how the tables have turned!