Jason Isbell Sings About His Divorce in New Song ‘True Believer’

Jason Isbell released his new solo album, Foxes in the Snow, on Friday, a record that finds the Americana songwriter jettisoning his band, the 400 Unit, for just his voice and acoustic guitar. It’s a vulnerable record, full of candid, diaristic lyrics that nod to a new romance and a former marriage. The song “True Believer” seems fully rooted in the latter.

With lyrical clues about hearing “God in the Ryman” and the wine “stain on your teeth,” the song suggests it’s about Isbell’s divorce from Amanda Shires, his wife of nearly 11 years and former bandmate in the 400 Unit. In the chorus, Isbell raises his pained voice to declare, “All your girlfriends say I broke your fucking heart/and I don’t like it.”

In a new interview with WSJ Magazine, Isbell says the marriage’s dissolution — the couple filed for divorce in 2023 — wasn’t prompted by infidelity. He says Shires “didn’t cheat, I didn’t cheat” and that “we weren’t plate-throwers, and we weren’t yelling in front of the kid.” (The couple share a daughter.) Rather, according to the article, their union ended because of tension in their work and married life.

Foxes in the Snow, recorded in October 2024 at Electric Lady Studios in New York, is Isbell’s first studio album since 2023’s Weathervanes. He’s been previewing songs from the album on his current solo tour, which hits Nashville this month for four nights at the new Pinnacle venue downtown. At nearly every show, he’s been playing “True Believer” as the closer.

“When we pass on the highway I’ll smile and wave,” Isbell sings. “I’ll always be a true believer, babe.”