Crying

“CRYING”
Question: “Crying” came out at a time when men were uncomfortable with their emotions. What is the story behind “Crying”?

Answer: “Crying was on the heels of Running Scared. It (Running Scared) was a number one and then the next record was Crying. On the other side of Crying was Candyman, and it was just a down home blues type thing. I was a bit afraid of Crying professionally because you didn’t in the industry follow a ballad with a ballad. But then I said ‘well I don’t care what that is all about.‘ Crying was about, it was a true story. I had seen a girlfriend of mine that I had broken up with and I waved to her. I should have driven the car right over to where she was, but I played it cool and drove on down the street about a block and started...big ol’ tears in my eyes you know. Then when I got old enough to relate the story, the thought was, it was all right, for a while, till you made the contact again. You either saw her or she called you on the phone or whatever, and in this case I saw her. So it was a feeling, it was not difficult to write, it was difficult to conjure that song up. It was a totally true song. When that song came out I don’t think that anyone had accepted the fact that a man should be able to cry when he wants to cry.”