"23" lyrics
"23"
Half as drunk as I thought I'd be by now, that's good
I can still see the people around me change shape
Speak their minds and pretend they were misunderstood
Preachin' 'bout sin over lines of cocaine
Even when you're not here, it becomes about you
They all want me to tell them your story
You broke in and stole china from our living room
Kinda makes all the other parts boring
You stand over half a foot taller than me
Your marks on the wall of the weight room
Naive to believe you would come back and see
If I could finally take you
Oh I'll beat your ass 'til the morning
You know I've been running all this time
Sprinting my way past your bedroom
Lifting the weight of you off my mind
'Cause if I never see you again
You could be anything I want
23, clean in the engine heat
Teachin' me how the thing runs
Stay gone, won't you stay gone
Stay gone, stay gone
Tattooed your initials into my right arm
So I'd see your name when I lift up a drink
There ain't nothing else here worth catching up on
So I hope that it's warm wherever you sleep
And I've got a feeling that won't go away
The doctors are calling it just moving on
I still ball up my fists when they mention your name
No one gets to talk shit but the ones you've shit on
Oh I'll beat your ass in the morning
You know I've been running all this time
Sprinting my way past your bedroom
Lifting the weight of you off my mind
'Cause if I never see you again
You could be anything I want
23, clean in the engine heat
Teachin' me how the thing runs
Stay gone, stay gone, won't you stay gone
Stay gone, stay gone
Yeah I'll beat your ass 'til the morning
You know I've been running all this time
Sprinting my way past your bedroom
Lifting the weight of you off my mind
'Cause if I never see you again
And you could be anything I want
23, clean in the engine heat
Teachin' me how the thing runs
23, clean in the engine heat
It can all be the way that it was
If you stay gone, stay gone
Won't you stay gone, stay gone
Writer(s): Noah Kahan
Noah Kahan said the following story about "23", "The song itself is not based on a story of my life, but based on a lot of friendships I have with people who have family members who are struggling with addiction or who have siblings who they can't connect to. It's that feeling of 'I want you back, but I don't want this version of you back' and 'I want that moment when we were sitting over the car hood and you were showing me how the engine worked and everything was normal'. And so seeing who you are now betrays this version of you that I really want you to be in this memory I have of you. It's a little selfish, because it's like you're asking someone to change for you, but it's that kind of childlike innocent hope that somebody we'll just be exactly where we are."
- AZLyrics
- N
- Noah Kahan Lyrics
album:
"The Great Divide" (2026)
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