Behind the Meaning of Travis Tritt’s “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)”

When in a confrontation with someone, we all dream of saying the exact right thing to put them in their place. In terms of Travis Tritt’s relationship drama, he came away with a one-liner that was sure to quiet the other person up. He wrote down that one-liner in “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares).” Uncover the meaning behind this song, below.

[RELATED: Travis Tritt Becomes the Third Big-Name Artist To Pull out of Bay City Music Festival]

Behind the Meaning of Travis Tritt’s “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)”

You say you were wrong to ever leave me alone
And now you’re sorry, you’re lonesome and scared
And you say you’d be happy if you could just come back home
Well, here’s a quarter, call someone who cares

Many of us know that feeling when someone tries to start crawling back into your life after doing you wrong. Tritt delivers maybe the only response anyone in that situation will ever need–at least by 1991 standards.

Though the titular kicker in this song may not make sense given the pervasive cellphone usage today, the sentiment behind it is as cutting as ever.

“I was at home one day,” Tritt once said of writing this song. “My wife had moved out in the middle of the day, while I was at work, and I came home to basically an empty house. I thought I had been robbed…I sat down, and I started reading through the divorce papers, and [as] I was reading through them, the phone rang, and it was my soon-to-be ex-wife, calling me to say, ‘You know, maybe I rushed into this too quickly. Maybe we need to think about working it out.’”

Naturally, that plea didn’t exactly sit right with Tritt. It was frustrating enough for him to knock out this song in 15 minutes.

“I wrote that song in about 15 minutes; it just came to me,” Tritt continued. “It’s a song I wrote never considering to release it. I wrote it because it was a personal song for me to pick me up whenever I would get depressed over my personal situation.”

Call someone who’ll listen, and might give a d***
Maybe one of your sordid affairs
But don’t you come around here handin’ me none of your lies
Here’s a quarter, call someone who cares

(Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for America Salutes You)