Bryan Martin Reflects On Regret, Healing And Lessons In New Song ‘Take It From Me’

Bryan Martin continues the rollout of his next musical chapter with the release of “Take It From Me.” Out today (Friday, July 10) via Average Joes Entertainment, the reflective track serves as the follow-up to the Louisiana native’s previous releases, “Rather Be The Fire” and “Tug O’ War,” the latter of which is currently climbing at country radio.

Written by Martin alongside Ben Roberts and Steven Champion, “Take It From Me” finds the 38-year-old singer-songwriter pulling from a lifetime of hard-earned experience. A former bull rider, Army veteran, and oil rig worker, Martin confronts some of his deepest regrets while offering listeners the kind of advice that only comes from surviving life’s darkest moments. 

“Take it from me, you’ll take it too hard, take it too deep, take it too far / You’ll take that gun, you’ll take a knee / You’ll take that Bible and beg and plead / God please, I can’t take it anymore / Lord, just take it from me,” Martin sings throughout the chorus of the track.

For Martin, the song’s message is deeply personal, and he explained in an interview with Country Now that the lyrics were drawn from a time when the pressure to succeed professionally began overshadowing nearly everything else.

Looking back, he shares that he accepts responsibility for the end of a long-term relationship, acknowledging that years ago, his drive to succeed pushed loved ones aside. Rather than placing blame elsewhere, he says writing “Take It From Me” forced him to confront uncomfortable truths about himself.

“I was in a relationship for 14, almost 15 years, and it was just constant arguing and disagreements,” Martin told Country Now. “If there was a problem, I figured I could fix it. And there were just so many things that I skimmed over that internally, for me, and for everyone around me, I was in this constant chase for this music thing to work because my mom wanted me to make it. She wanted me to play the Grand Ole Opry. She gave up her career for me to do it when I was born. That’s what I was always told when I was a kid.”

“I’d been told so many times I couldn’t do it, or I wasn’t good enough for it. And so I think I just had a prove-them-wrong mentality. And I got so caught up in that that I lost track of everyone around me and what was really important. A lot of that’s on me,” he added. “But I feel like I put so much pressure on myself that when things would go wrong in any way, it was like… one minute I’m good, and next minute I’m low. ‘Take It From Me’ is telling you, ‘Hey man, it’s probably not all that bad. You’re just taking it too hard. You’re taking it too deep…’And it’s just self-explanatory…People who hear the song, I really want them to take away from it’…Don’t get so deep in the rabbit hole of how everything is going wrong. Try to find the beauty in it.”

That emotional honesty has become a defining characteristic of Martin’s latest music as someone who has remained transparent through his struggle with depression, alcohol and drug addiction. Martin is enjoying a new season of life, where he says, “I’m just happy. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to actually sit back and say that word and mean it.”

The father of four recently welcomed a baby boy, Pascal, with his fiancé, and he says those life changes have transformed not only his songwriting but also the way he approaches being onstage. For years, alcohol masked his insecurities as a performer, but today, his shows look a little different.

“Oh yeah, it’s crazy. It’s hard,” Martin acknowledges of how he has had to re-learn who he is onstage without leaning on the bottle. “I remember I used to think I was such a great performer because I was drunk. But it’s like nowadays I’m so aware of how awkward I am on stage. That’s why I used to drink, because I felt so awkward on stage…You take a guitar away from me for a split second on stage, I don’t know what to do with my hands.”

“I’m not Morgan Wallen. I’m not one of these guys who can go out there and put on a hat and put on a show. I’m me, and I’m always going to be,” he continued. “I think now more than ever, I’ve literally just had to tell myself like, ‘Hey man, this is who you are sober. And this is as good as it gets’…But I’m happy and excited and grateful for being able to actually connect with the crowd as much as I can sober… For the first time in my life, I don’t put any more pressure on myself than that.”

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After years of measuring success by how much he could give to everyone around him, Martin says he’s learned that protecting his sobriety means protecting his peace.

“I realized that when I get off the stage, I did my job,” he says. “I came, and I sang the songs… and then I beeline to the van. I get in the van, and I text my lady, and I text my kids, and I tell them, ‘Hey, I just finished the show. I’m headed home.’ For so long… people want you to drink with them… but for me, to protect my peace these days, it doesn’t look like it did a year and a half, two years ago… I’ve learned, ‘Hey, I love my fans more than anything in this world, but I love my family more.’ And that’s a first… I’m going home sober. I’m going home to my bed… I’ve just been really happy and really grateful to turn over a new leaf in my life. And I hope that I can show other people you can’t always satisfy everybody, but you have to start doing the internal work on loving yourself and finding that peace.”

That mindset also reflects the music Martin is creating now.

After years of writing thousands of songs, including his breakthrough hit “We Ride,” which reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, Martin says he only wrote about 10 songs this year, an intentional slowdown, indeed, but those songs will eventually make up his next album.

“‘Tug O’ War’ and these other songs, they really dive into personal battles that everybody deals with,” he shares. “I really believe that ‘Tug O’ War’ and ‘Rather Be the Fire,’ all these songs are telling my story and where I’m at now… I’m honestly at the point where I’m like, I’m ready to get this album out… and just release from the inside.”

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And, success, he says, no longer means chasing charts or awards.

“I’m honestly in a place where it’s like if this record sells a million records and we get another 10 gold records on the wall, great. If not, great, because to me it’s not about that anymore. It’s not about the number of sales. It’s about the number of souls that hear the music, and they can relate to it,” he says. “And if it saves one life… that’s all that matters to me. That’s what it started as, and that’s what it’s going to end as…”

As “Take It From Me” makes its way into the world, Martin hopes listeners hear more than just another country song. He hopes they hear proof that healing is possible.

“I really hope they take away from it that this is a journey and they’ve seen me up, they’ve seen me down, and they’ll see me up again,” he says. “Underneath all the success of ‘We Ride’ and all the bright lights and all these things, there’s a guy inside that was broken and didn’t know which direction to go. I was running to a bottle, I was running to a pill, I was running to everything except for what I needed to [run to.] Now, instead of running away from everything else, I’m running home. For the first time, I feel a sense of belonging. I’m getting my feet underneath me. I just hope somebody out there who thinks that there’s no possibility for them to have this peace of mind that I have now can hear the song and understand that if I can do it, I guarantee you anybody can do it because I’m crazy.”