Welcome to Music Friday, when we bring you songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, country superstar Tim McGraw revisits the painful end of a relationship in his 2015 hit “Diamond Rings and Old Barstools,” using a brilliant diamond ring and a battered barstool to represent two people who simply don't belong together.
The jewelry reference is central to the song's emotional punch. McGraw compares his former lover to a diamond ring, while casting himself as an old barstool. The diamond represents something precious, elegant and enduring — “for queens,” a symbol of the future and something meant to last forever. The barstool, by contrast, is associated with the past, regret and the lonely places where a heartbroken man might drown his sorrows.
It is an unusually effective country-music metaphor because the two objects could hardly be more different. One suggests commitment, permanence and a bright future; the other suggests wear, familiarity and a life rooted in yesterday. Ultimately, McGraw acknowledges that some things simply don't mix — including the two people at the center of the story.
Written by Jonathan Singleton, Barry Dean and Luke Laird, the song was released in January 2015 as the fourth and final single from McGraw's chart-topping Sundown Heaven Town. The mid-tempo ballad reached #11 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and #10 on the Canadian country chart, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song.
McGraw's own journey — both professionally and personally — was considerably more successful than the one portrayed in the song. Born in Delhi, LA, in 1967, McGraw learned to play the guitar while attending Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship. He left college in 1989, moved to Nashville with a guitar and demo tapes, and spent about two years performing in local clubs before signing with Curb Records in 1990. His recording career took off in the early 1990s, and he has since become one of country music's biggest stars.
McGraw has sold more than 80 million records worldwide and has amassed an extraordinary catalog of hits, including “Don't Take the Girl,” “I Like It, I Love It,” “It's Your Love,” “Live Like You Were Dying” and “Humble and Kind.”
And he's still going strong. McGraw is currently on his 2026 Pawn Shop Guitar Tour, a more than 30-date North American run that continues through September. In October, he'll take the stage at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace for his Live in Las Vegas residency. He's also still married to country star Faith Hill, and they will be celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary in October.
Please check out the video of McGraw performing "Diamond Rings and Old Barstools" at iHeart Live in 2015. The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...
“Diamond Rings and Old Barstools”
Written by Jonathan Singleton, Barry Dean and Luke Laird. Performed by Tim McGraw.
Diamond rings and old barstools
One’s for queens and one’s for fools
One’s the future and one’s the past
One’s forever and one won’t last
It ain’t like midnight and cigarette smoke
It ain’t like watered down whiskey and Coke
I guess some things just don’t mix like you hoped
Like me and you
Diamond rings and old barstools
The wrongs and rights, the highs and lows
The “I love you’s,” the “I told you so’s”
Past few miles to wherever’s home
Another morning waking up alone
It ain’t like midnight and cigarette smoke
It ain’t like watered down whiskey and Coke
I guess some things just don’t mix like you hoped
Like me and you
Diamond rings and old barstools
It ain’t like midnight and cigarette smoke
Nothing like watered down whiskey and Coke
I guess some things just don’t mix like you hoped
Like me and you
Diamond rings and old barstools
Credit: Photo by 1035 WEZL, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
