What does What Hurts the Most mean?

Rascal Flatts: What Hurts the Most Meaning

Album cover for What Hurts the Most album cover

Song Released: 2006


What Hurts the Most Lyrics

I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house
That don't bother me
I can take a few tears now and then and just let them out
I'm not afraid to cry every once in a while
Even though going on with you gone still upsets me
There are days...

  1. anonymous
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    Feb 9th 2009 !⃝

    so i just watched the music video with a bunch of friends.. and i think i finally understand it. The couple is obviously in love, but the father forces them apart. When they are in the truck and she asks him what he sees in his future, she is asking because she knows she is pregnant. when the corus says having so much to say, and watching you walk away, they mean that she needed to and wanted to tell him she was pregnant, but he left, and now its to late, after he dies, she realizes that she really did love him, so she went to the place that he died and said i saw you, because she could finally admit it.

  2. anonymous
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    Jan 26th 2009 !⃝

    A girl likes/loves a boy, but she was unable to voice how she felt and lost who she cared about. One day she managed to get close to saying how she felt but before she could tell him, he left. Not necessarily dead but merely unable to tell that one guy how much she felt about him, and he was gone before she could see him, leaving he with merely the memories of her feelings and the sadness of losing him.

    Sometime later she is *alone* or feeling *alone*. She feels regret and trapped within herself unable to express herself and she is now all alone with only the thoughts of what she could have been, about what couldn't have been if she could just tell him. She looks at his friends and is reminded of the guy that she cared for. Since she never could tell him she is now alone and only the lie of being strong exists. She doesn't cry in front of everyone, smiles when people are around her, doesn't allow her sadness to show because it would destroy the lie she has made. But when she is alone she can allow herself to break slightly and regret what she has let go that she didn't want to let go.

    I agree with all the interpretation, all of them are valid in my book. This is just my interpretation.

  3. anonymous
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    Dec 11th 2008 !⃝

    I think it means that someone close to him or a friend died and he regrets not telling that person how he felt. i relate it to my grandpa when he died because i wanted to say that i loved him but i couldn't so every time i hear this song i cry and regret not saying i loved him. So granpa i know you're here so i will finally say this. I LOVE YOU!!!

  4. twlight_dawn
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    Nov 24th 2008 !⃝

    Well i think this song talks about having regrets and wishing you could go back and wanting to have someone in your life who is etheir dead or your relationship ended this song makes me cry all the time.

  5. anonymous
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    Sep 6th 2008 !⃝

    At the beginning when she's yelling "It's not true" its because the parents just came to tell her that her boyfriend is dead. She's in shock, then she gets mad at her father saying "You made him leave!" because she thinks its her father's fault for kicking him out. The scene where she's in the car asking him about the future, its probably because her father wanted her to break up with him because the relationship was getting too intense or something. And the part where she's getting sick is because of the grief and shock of him dying.

  6. anonymous
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    Sep 3rd 2008 !⃝

    The song and the video do have a connection, but the video basically implies a teenage relationship which is not approved of by the girl's father. The video starts of with the girl having a break down, while blaming her father for "making him leave". In the middle of the video, there is a clip of the girl having morning sickness. Her mother was outside the bathroom, crying. I think the mother thought that the girl was pregnant, and told her father. This probably made the father ask the boy to leave, which leads on to the car accident the boy has while driving away. In the end, it probably turned out that the girl wasn't pregnant, which is why she shouts at her father "it's not true!" in the beginning of the video.

    this is my opinion, and I don't mind if you beg to differ. I have to say, this video was amazing.

  7. Rafiti
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    Aug 1st 2008 !⃝

    The song is very meaningful, and though the video is slow at the start, it is relatively easy to understand. The song adn video both show how a young couple were in love, and how quickly it can be taken away. The young girl blamed her father for the accident at first, but later realized that it was just an accident, and it wasn't his fault. The girl asked her boyfriend what he saw in the future, she replied with "you, I see you" even after asking, the girl didn't share her response, but realized that she too, saw him in her future.

  8. anonymous
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    Jun 9th 2008 !⃝

    In my opinion every song has a different meaning for each and every one of us. By that I mean that the general meaning of the song is still the same but just that we interpret it in our own unique way. I'm not the kind of girl who takes things for their literal meaning,ie I don't take things just at their face value :)

    To me this song is about any relationship whatsoever. It can be best friends, partner or any other that has become a habbit or an integral part of your life. The first verse:
    i can take the rain on the roof of this empty house, that don't bother me
    i can take a few tears now and then and just let em out,
    i'm not afraid to cry every once in a while even thought going on with you gone still upsets me...

    this basically shows how hard it is for a person to break a habbit. That we can cry, we can even be alone and we can try to move on but that's only true if we have no regrets from that relationship. So then the chorus starts. The corus tells us how our failure to express our emotions to someone makes us ponder over the possibility of a different outcome. we wonder that if we had been truthful we might have avoided this outcome and saved that relationship. but we weren't and now we have all these regrets of not saying what we felt and since we never tried we'll never know how it could have been had we tried. and then we complain to the one that we care for that even though we never said it, but they still couldn't see that we loved them so much and that all our actions and acts showed this love. everything that we were doing was to keep them by our side, but just coz we never said it out loud, they never realised it.
    The next stanza talks about how hard it is for that person to move on with his life and trying to break the habit of that person who was such an important part of the persons life that everything that they do somehow or the other brings memories attached to the other person. but that they're trying to move on, smile and move on, but as time passes each smile gets harder to forge and the regret piles up.
    Basically to me the analogy here could be that the song writer is saying that your my habit and so now not having you in my life feels like losing a limb, which hurts when it's cut off and then we try to put on a brave front and move on but then every time we step out of bed or go about doing our daily chores, in which we needed to use that limb, that's when it hurts the most. We're reminded of how painful it is to live without it and how impossible it'll be to replace it. It can be replicated, to a certain degree, but never replaced.
    So the feelings that one has for the loved one they lose might me replicated with someone else but they will never be the same as they were with that person.

    Hope I was able to convey my meaning well :)

  9. anonymous
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    May 18th 2008 !⃝

    For me it's about being so close to somebody and life tears you apart. Whether it be death or separation it's about going through the emotions of losing someone in your life. I went though that many times in my life like in second grade my best friend moved away and even though it's been 7 years I still feel so much love and pain. Love for her and pain because the times we missed I want her to know I love her still and not getting closure is what hurts the most.

  10. anonymous
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    Dec 17th 2007 !⃝

    This song is about a teenage couple. The girl got pregnant so the father made him leave. The girl told the father it was his fault because her boyfriend dies in a car crash.

  11. anonymous
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    Mar 31st 2007 !⃝

    I think this song is about two friends and they secretly like eachother.So one asks the other if they like them (or something along those lines)The other says no. So the 1st one walks away then possibly something happens to that person and they never see each other again. This is told from the second persons point of view. He/She is sad because they really loved the friend. And maybe if they hadnt said no, maybe the other person would still be with them. This is just my opinion and it is what I think about when I hear this song.

  12. StJimmyWantsMe
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    Mar 17th 2007 !⃝

    honestly, just watch the music video. you can probably find it anywhere.

    but I don't believe it's morning sickness. it could have just been because she was crying so much.

    definately a very powerful song, especially for country. no doubt a tear jerker no matter who you are.

    ~ryann

  13. anonymous
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    Mar 15th 2007 !⃝

    I think it's about two best friends whom had romantic feelings for one another, but they didn't want to risk the friendship. Or it could be just one-sided, and the one that he/or she loves is too young (Say three years younger) and their teenagers. When they have to watch their friend go out with other people, they know better than to say anything even if it hurts.

    This can stay true to adults too.

  14. anonymous
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    Mar 7th 2007 !⃝

    I think it can be seen as a song about a couple, whether they be young or old, that are so in love that all they think about is each other. But something forces them apart, but they still love each other very much. They have so much they want to say to each other, that they never get to because the other person dies or something. It tells you that you should tell the person you love how you feel about them, beacuse you never know what might happen to either of you and you'll regret not having that person know how much you care about them.

  15. anonymous
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    Feb 15th 2007 !⃝

    I think that this song is based on the video. The teenage couple is very much in love and they had an argument and then he left still angry and so was she and he gets into a crash and dies and she feels remorse for not telling him how much she really loved him




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