Behind the Meaning of “Forget About Georgia” by Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real

One of Willie Nelson’s most famous efforts is a cover of “Georgia On My Mind.” The classic track, famously sung by Ray Charles, has been an inspiration for songwriters for generations. Love songs rarely get more poignant than that song.

In “Forget About Georgia,” Lukas Nelson delivers a play on that famous track. From references to his father and nods to Charles, uncover the meaning behind this track, below.

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Behind the Meaning of “Forget About Georgia” by Lukas Nelson

Well I sure as hell didn’t love her this much when I met her
Much as I was just captured again and again
She could turn her eyes away and still hold me under
A river of beauty and mystery pulling me in

Nelson opens the song by letting the listener know that he’s in love with a complicated woman. A river of beauty and mystery pulling me in, he sings. In the next breath, he learns her name and is hit hard with the realization that he his doomed to a life of longing for her. Her name, Georgia, is inescapable, given that “Georgia On My Mind” is a staple in his father’s discography.

For each night I stand with my father, playing our music / We cry out her name and her memory under the lights, he sings, referencing the song.

And each night I pray I’ll forget about Georgia
‘Cause she’ll never love me like I know a love’s supposed to be
Each night I pray I’ll forget about Georgia
But a part of me hopes that she’ll never forget about me
A part of me hopes that she’ll never forget about me

“A little while back, I went out with this girl, her name was Georgia,” Nelson once explained. “And that proved to be difficult, ‘cuz I’d be out with Dad, we’d be singin’ ‘George On My Mind’ every night. And so eventually, I had to write this song, ‘Forget About Georgia.’”

In order to escape his fate of being in love with her forever, he dreams of forgetting about Georgia. Despite wishing to keep her out of his mind, he hopes he’s somewhere in hers.

Revisit this track, below.

(Photo by Keith Griner/Getty Images)