Almost all of the interpretations here are wrong so far. This song is about a young couple in love. They live in a small town in the Southwestern United States (Arizona or Utah, probably). They are middle class to lower middle, but are filled with happiness and love. They truly are happy together. But she wants more. She wants to leave and become a music star.

Watch the official music video. She starts off being prepared for a concert by a huge staff. She does not seem happy. And yet she remembers her true love, this young guy she once loved. She feels happiness from these memories and yet she is then reminded that she has a lot of guilt for this love to have ended:

"Ooh, and I wished you had hurt me harder than I hurt you". And she still feels that the man still loves her, but she knows there will be no turning back "Ooh, and I wish you wouldn't wait for me for me but you always do!".

She feels that he still loves her and she wishes he stopped loving her. But then, FL-GA Line clarifies that he does not:

" It's been some time with us, but this time ain't even" (he is still hurting from the break-up because he was the one she left for fame/stardom. He seems hurt by her deprature. She made it big and he stayed behind and lost his beloved.).

"I can leave it in the past but you're holding on to what you never had!" (she had him, and the memories she had are not really real, as he is still hurt from this and she thinks he still loves her, but he does not. He has moved on. He forgives her and has moved on).

"It's good on paper, picture perfect...Chased the high too far, too fast; Picket white fence, but we paint it black". (They had a perfect life if they had married and stayed together. A "basic" life, but a happy one. But they ruined it, because she chose to leave. She left so her "picture perfect" memories are not the memories he has. She became a star, however, she "chased the high too far too fast". And he stayed. Clearly, some hurt on his part still exists.)

The scene then shifts and shows her going to high-end parties and hangs out with rich stars. She is happy only on the surface. Because she is conttsanly thinking of her hometown love when she is hanging out with others. She remembers the fun she had riding in her hometown love's crappy truck. Then she was really happy.

And yet, she wants him, her hometown love, to be happy and not continue to be in love with her, the way she could not: "I've been hoping somebody loves you in the ways I couldn't."

She then hopes for his happiness and that someone will love her and heal him: "Somebody's taking care of all... of the mess I've made...Someone you don't have to change...I've been hoping...Someone will love you, let me go".

And yet she thinks he is still in love with her. Maybe he still is? And is he still kinda bitter as FL-GA Line sang his part?

Look at end of music video. She is surrounded by contracts, publicists, etc. Does she look happy? No.

Then she remembers last time she saw him. She is at a bus stop leaving her hometown for fame. He comes to say good-bye at bus stop and she is hardened against him. So he walks away from her.

And in the end, she is on stage, crying at the end. Deep inside, she is not really happy, as I surmised already.

There is a cost to fame. Everything in life is cost-benefit. Fame, financial/professional success may come at the cost of marriage, love, happiness. That is how life works. There is a cost-benefit tradeoff to everything in life. Everything!

Great song!