Charlie Puth is ready to show his cards. The singer stopped by On Air With Ryan Seacrest on Tuesday, November 5, and admitted to Ryan Seacrest that he had a confession to make: he lied about the true meaning behind track âMother.â
âI donât really hide my cards too well,â Puth told Seacrest when he started to get visibly flustered. âIâm starting this promo tour off by telling what the song is actually about.â
In the track off his forthcoming third studio album, Puthâs fans assumed âMotherâ was a fun, upbeat song about his ability to deceive his girlfriend's mom into believing he is more gentlemanly than he actually is.
âEvery time I write a song â and rightfully so because itâs about very specific instances in my life â I tend to get linked to whoever its written about and I just wanted to, in my mind, calm it down and not have it be about that,â Puth explained, revealing that âMotherâ is actually about a toxic and âvery bummy relationship.â
âIt kind of changed me as a personality,â Puth continued while talking about the relationship that inspired the track. âAnd from the outside point of view, maybe the motherâs point of view, everything was pristine and perfect, but really what was happening was tumultuous and I was hanging out with different people and I abandoned all my friends and it really changed me for awhile. ... The reason I didnât want to bring this up originally at the very beginning stages of promoting this song is because I just wanted people to have fun and relate to it in their own way. But, as happy as this song is, as bright as this song is, itâs actually about a very interesting time in my life.â
Puth, who said his heart was racing while revealing the truth, concluded the track is really saying âif your mother knew it was actually the worst thing for both of us to be togetherâ and that originally the track âjust sounded so sad.â
âI knew what the true meaning of the song was and I didnât want to show all my cards,â he added. âI hear it on the radio and Iâm like, âIf people only knew.â ⊠[But] I feel so much better ⊠just saying the true sentiment behind it. ⊠I [was] disappointed in myself because when everyone originally asked me about it ⊠I was like, 'I just made it up about a time in high school!' [Like] 'Itâs just supposed to be like in the movies, like all good! Weâre sneaking out!' But I couldnât go to bed [knowing I lied].â
To be fair, Puth added, the relationship wasnât just one-sided either. âIt wasnât just me,â he said. âIt was two people just beating each other up.â
Watch and listen back the three-part interview in the video and audio above to learn more and to hear Puth perform the original version of âMother" live in-studio!Â