About the song
Willie Nelson’s It Always Will Be is a song that embodies the quiet, undying endurance of love—love that doesn’t clamor for attention, but instead settles deep into the bones, unwavering through the passage of time. Featured as the title track of Nelson’s 2004 album, the song is a tender meditation on devotion, memory, and the inevitability of feelings that refuse to fade.
At this stage in his career, Nelson was already a living legend, his voice weathered yet effortlessly expressive, carrying the weight of decades spent exploring every corner of the American songbook. By 2004, his outlaw country days had long since given way to a more reflective period, one that saw him blending traditional country with jazz-inflected phrasing, folk lyricism, and an understated kind of wisdom that can only come from a lifetime of love and loss. It Always Will Be is a perfect example of that later-career grace.
The song itself is deceptively simple—built around a gentle, lilting melody, soft acoustic instrumentation, and Nelson’s unmistakable voice, which delivers each line with the ease of a man who has nothing left to prove. There’s no urgency in his delivery, no dramatic flourishes or sweeping declarations. Instead, he sings with the quiet confidence of someone who understands that the truest emotions don’t need embellishment.
Lyrically, It Always Will Be speaks to a love that remains constant, no matter the circumstances. It’s not about passion in its fiery, youthful form, but rather the kind of love that lingers like an old, familiar song—always present, always true. The refrain, simple yet profound, carries the weight of something eternal: As long as there’s a breath in me, no matter where you are, you’re always in my heart, and it always will be. There’s something deeply reassuring in those words, a promise that love isn’t contingent on proximity or even time itself.
This song finds Nelson in a reflective mood, and while it may not be one of his most widely recognized hits, it is among his most heartfelt. It speaks to the soul in a way only he can—without pretense, without unnecessary ornamentation, just the plain, beautiful truth.
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Lyrics
Sometimes I think
That love is somewhere
Livin’ on an island all alone
I can see it in the darkness
I can feel it in the distance
And then it’s gone
And then I know that it is time
For me to go and find my favorite girl
‘Cause when I look into her eyes, I see
All the love there is in all the world
And it always will be
And it always will be
And it always will be
It always will be
There are some things I think about
And every time I do, it breaks my heart
And there is nothing I can do
About this loneliness I feel when we’re apart
I stop and curse the darkness and the distance
And then your face I see
And when I look into your eyes, I see
All the love there is inside of me
And it always will be
And it always will be
And it always will be
It always will be
And it always will be
And it always will be
And it always will be
And it always will be
