Don't

There are some songs we write because we want to express something, and then there are the ones we write because we have no choice. This song belongs to the latter. It took monumental strength for me to write it, and even longer for me to find the courage to record it and share the truth behind it.

I wrote this song for my late stepfather—a man whose presence in my life was complicated, messy, redemptive, and ultimately life-changing. He fought me tooth and nail on everything from how much eyeliner I wore to how vocal I was when I didn’t agree with him. But he also believed in my music like no one else, not even my own mother. He stood up for me when it mattered most.

And when cancer claimed him, I held his hand until his very last breath.

This song came from that place—from grief, from love, from the desperate ache of begging someone you love not to slip away just when you finally recognize the part of him that lives in you… And the part of you that lives in him.

And when I recorded “Don't,” hours after learning of the murder of a precious uncle—a man I’d spent countless family gatherings with, singing along as he drummed—the grief of loss doubled inside me. The shock. The horror. The helplessness. The ache of losing two men who'd shaped the grandest pieces of my musical identity. That pain bled into every breath of this recording. It fueled my vocals and carved something raw into my soul that has never fully recovered. These are the lyrics to the song that poured out of me that night:

Take my hand, I'll lace my fingers in

We'll swell with that

Which we know all too soon we'll no longer have

Long-lost hope has trailed off into smoke

To the place where dreams

Have been beaten, burned, and cremated by this disease

I'm breaking, you're shaking

It's taking all of you

I'm angry, you're hurting

And I'm on my knees

Begging for you to hold on

Hold on for me

Don't you let go, no, no

Don't you dare let go

Don't, don't, don't

Blow by blow, the ghost of you here grows

Hear the whispering

Sound of death taking life by the grace of her key

Your heart beats cold; its center fills with stone

You're to hang your cloak

Skin you are, but you're not, for your soul has outgrown

I'm breaking, you're shaking

It's taking all of you

I'm angry, you're hurting

And I'm on my knees

Begging for you to hold on

Hold on for me

Don't you let go, no, no

Don't you dare let go

Don't, don't, don't

All I know has gone south

Where do we go from here

From here

I'm breaking, you're shaking

It's taking all of you

I'm angry, you're hurting

And I'm on my knees

Begging for you to

I'm breaking, you're shaking

It's taking all of you

I'm angry, you're hurting

And I'm on my knees

Begging for you to

Hold on, hold on for me

Don't you let go, no, no

Don't you dare let go

Don't, don't you let go

No, no, don't you dare let go

Don't, don't, don't, don't

Don't you let go

Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't

Don't

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Lowvee's LyricsLowvee ColeNovember 20, 2025