Allan was born and raised in La Mirada, California, to Harley and Mary Herzberg. To ensure that the family would focus on music, Allan's mother insisted that the family's guitars would always remain visible in the home. At age thirteen, Allan began playing in honky tonks with his father. Two years later, he was offered his first recording contract, from A&M Records, but rejected the deal. His parents wanted him to finish his education and his father felt that Allan had yet to develop his own distinctive style. Despite his commitment to finishing school, Allan reflects that he was rarely alert in class. "I played the bars at night, I was half asleep when I got to school. I thought sleep was what you did when you got to school." After finishing school, he continued to play in the bars with his band, the Honky Tonk Wranglers. Many of the venues they played were packed, and promoters often tried to move them to larger clubs. The moves would have required him to stop playing some of the older country music, such as covers of George Jones songs, so Allan refused.
Allan was introduced to songwriter/producer Byron Hill on August 28, 1993 by a mutual friend and talent-scout Jim Seal at a bar called the Lion D'or in Downey, California, where Allan was already regularly performing. Seal and Hill had asked Allan if they could showcase an unsigned act that they were developing there. Hill had arranged to bring the head of A&R from a major label to the show to see this other act perform. Allan kindly let them use his stage for the event, giving the new act the opening performance slot that night. Hill promised Gary that they would make sure the A&R person remained there to see his portion of the show. Everyone was knocked out with Allan's performance, and very impressed with his voice. From that point on, Hill began sending Allan songs. Without any serious funding at the time, Hill arranged for Allan to go into Seal's small studio in California to try his vocals on some of existing demo tracks that Hill had sent to Allan from Nashville, Tennessee. Meanwhile, Hill became head of A&R at BNA Entertainment on October 29 of that same year and immediately wanted to sign Allan to BNA, but the then current roster conditions and other circumstances related to the planned restructuring of RCA/BNA Nashville stood in the way.
In the meantime, Allan took a job selling cars. He left a demo tape in the glove box of a car purchased by a wealthy couple. When the couple discovered that he was the singer, they wrote him a check for $12,000. This independent funding allowed Allan to go to Nashville to record some of the songs that were on that early demo tape with Hill as producer. On September 11, 1995, they worked at Javelina Studios for a couple of days on the four songs that Hill immediately showed to labels. Allan's recordings brought serious responses from several labels including Mercury, RCA, and Decca. A meeting was then held at a Nashville hotel among Hill, Allan, and friend of Allan's, who was a program director for a radio station in California, to arrange two showcases in Los Angeles, California, to put Allan on stage at two of the radio station's regular nights at a local club. Byron arranged for staffers at the Nashville office of Decca Records to attend the first showcase held on November 1, 1995. Decca immediately wanted to sign Allan, and knowing that Byron was lining up other labels to see Gary, Decca asked them to cancel the second showcase. A rep from RCA was already booked to see the second showcase the following week, but the "bird-in-hand" deal offer was too tempting for both Hill and Allan, so they committed to the Decca offer.
His first deal, with Decca Records Nashville, produced the 1996 album Used Heart for Sale. The album was named "Best of the Month" by Stereo Review. It advanced to the top 20 of the charts, and produced a Top 10 country hit with the track Her Man (previously recorded by Waylon Jennings). Other tracks from the album, however, proved less successful.
His second album, It Would Be You, was released in 1998. Although Allan had been writing songs since he was a teenager, he does not hesitate to bump his work from his albums in favor of those written by other songwriters he respects. For his second album, Allan replaced one of his songs with No Judgement Day, written by Allen Shamblin. Although the song was a hidden acoustic track, radio stations began giving it heavy airplay. The song tells the story of a shopkeeper in Texas, whose children killed him in search of money. The title track of the album became Allan's second top 10 hit of the year, remaining in the top 10 after 21 weeks of radio play, "way beyond the tenure of most disposable radio hits." At the beginning of 1999, Decca Records folded, and when Allan moved to the parent label, MCA Nashville, It Would Be You was left in limbo.
In 1999, Allan released Smoke Rings in the Dark, an album he recorded while in the midst of a divorce from his second wife, Versace model Danette Day, after only seven months of marriage. Unlike his first two albums, Smoke Rings in the Dark made fuller use of background singers and stringed instruments, "resulting in a lusher, fuller sound." The new album avoided the "devil-may-care brashness" of the first two, instead presenting a tone balanced between youthful optimism and "the knowledge that some of life's experiences exact a high toll." Smoke Rings in the Dark was certified platinum, and it included two successful singles.
In 2001 the album Alright Guy was released. It contained the singles The One, Man of Me, and Man to Man, the latter of which became his first Billboard No. 1 hit. The same year, Allan married for the third time, to Angela, a flight attendant he met on an airplane.
Despite his previous success and eight years in the music business, Allan was nominated for the Country Music Association's Horizon Award, typically given to newcomers, in 2003. The same year he released his fifth album, See If I Care. Allan had to fight to keep the title, which he felt epitomized his attitude towards the music business, that he would continue to make the music that he wanted to make regardless of whether the record label chose to back him or people chose to buy the album. See If I Care included his second and third Number One singles, Tough Little Boys and Nothing On but the Radio. Songs About Rain was a top 15 hit.
In 2003, Allan and his wife, Angela Herzberg, moved to Tennessee from California. On October 25, 2004, Angela Herzberg committed suicide after suffering from depression and migraines. Allan initially put his career on hold, but soon turned to music to deal with the loss of his wife. This resulted in 2005's "heart-wrenchingly personal album," Tough All Over. He included several songs which he wrote or cowrote, including Puttin' Memories Away and I Just Got Back from Hell, which dealt directly with his grief. Several years later, Gary discussed his wife's suicide on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Tough All Over sold over 99,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the magazine's Top Country Albums chart. It was subsequently certified gold by the RIAA as of December 20, 2006, and contained the top 10 singles Best I Ever Had (written by Vertical Horizon's Matt Scannell) and Life Ain't Always Beautiful, co-written by country singer Cyndi Thomson (under the name Cyndi Goodman).
Allan's first Greatest Hits collection was released on March 6, 2007. A Number One album on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts, the album reprised the greatest hits from his first six albums, as well as two new songs. One of these, titled A Feelin' Like That, was co-written by David Lee Murphy and Ira Dean (the latter a former member of Trick Pony); the single peaked at #12 on the country singles charts.
Allan's album titled Living Hard, was released on October 23, 2007. Serving as its lead-off single was the song Watching Airplanes, which spent more than thirty weeks on the country charts, where it reached a peak of #2 and went #1 on the Mediabase Chart. The song's music video was filmed during live concerts, including one at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. Second single Learning How to Bend – co-written by Allan – quickly became another hit song, peaking at #13. The video was filmed during a live performance at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Following this song is third single She's So California, which Allan co-wrote with Jaime Hanna (of Hanna-McEuen) and Jon Randall, and it peaked at #24, becoming his first single to miss the top 20 since Lovin' You Against My Will in 2000.
Today was released on June 12, 2009, serving as the lead-off single to Allan's studio album, Get Off on the Pain, which was released on March 9, 2010. Title track, Get Off on the Pain, was the album's second single. It debuted at #42 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the highest-debuting single of his career. Kiss Me When I'm Down the album's third single released to radio in 2010. It debuted at #52 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
http://www.garyallan.com/pain/
Runaway
Gary Allan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I wonder what went wrong,
With our love,
A love so rarin' strong.
And as I walk along,
I think of the things we've done
Together, while our hearts were young.
I'm walkin' in the rain,
Tears are fallin' and I feel the pain,
Wishin' you were here by me,
To end this misery.
And I wonder
I wonder,
Why
Why, why, why, why, why
She ran away.
And I wonder,
Where she will stay
My little runaway.
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
I'm walkin' in the rain,
Tears are fallin' and I feel the pain,
Wishin' you were here by me,
To end this misery
And I wonder
I wonder,
Why
Why, why, why, why, why
She ran away.
And I wonder,
Where she will stay
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
Gary Allan's "Runaway" is a heart-wrenching ballad about a man who learns that his lover has unexpectedly left him. As he walks along in the rain, he wonders what went wrong with their once strong and passionate love. He looks back on the memories they created together when they were young, and the pain of her absence becomes overwhelming. He sings about his desire for her to return to him and put an end to the misery he feels.
Throughout the song, the singer wonders why she left him and where she is now, using the repeated phrase "I wonder why, why, why, why, why." The chorus highlights his frustration and desperation, as he implores his lover to come back to him with the lines "My little runaway. Run, run, run, run, runaway."
The song uses simple yet poignant lyrics to evoke the intense emotions the singer is feeling. The rain serves as both a metaphor and sensory detail, emphasizing the singer's sadness and the somber mood of the song. Overall, "Runaway" is a powerful depiction of love lost and the pain of a broken heart.
Line by Line Meaning
As I walk along,
I am currently walking and reflecting on my past relationship
I wonder what went wrong,
I am questioning why our love did not work out
With our love,
The love I am referring to is the love between myself and my significant other
A love so rarin' strong.
This love was once very strong and energetic
And as I walk along,
I continue to walk and reminisce
I think of the things we've done
I am reflecting on the memories we shared while we were young
Together, while our hearts were young.
We were once in love and we shared a youthful energy
I'm walkin' in the rain,
It is currently raining as I walk
Tears are fallin' and I feel the pain,
I am crying and feeling emotional pain
Wishin' you were here by me,
I miss my significant other and wish they were with me
To end this misery.
I am hoping that being with my significant other will bring an end to my emotional pain
And I wonder
I am questioning and reflecting
I wonder,
I am questioning and reflecting
Why
I am asking why
Why, why, why, why, why
I am repeatedly asking why
She ran away.
My significant other left me without warning
And I wonder,
I am still questioning and reflecting
Where she will stay
I do not know where my significant other has gone
My little runaway.
I am referring to my significant other as my little runaway
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
I am telling my significant other to run away
I'm walkin' in the rain,
I am still walking in the rain
Tears are fallin' and I feel the pain,
I am still crying and feeling emotional pain
Wishin' you were here by me,
I am still missing my significant other
To end this misery
I still hope that being with my significant other will end my emotional pain
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
I am repeating my statement, telling my significant other to run away
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
I am still telling my significant other to run away
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
I am still telling my significant other to run away
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Del Shannon, Max D. Crook
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind