Maddie & Tae Open Up About The Mean Girl Who Inspired New Single 'Sierra'

If you’ve heard Maddie & Tae‘s “Sierra”, you know it’s just about the best getting-back-at-a-bully song ever.

The country duo spoke with Billboard earlier this month about the girl who inspired the track.

“Sierra was this real girl who was just not nice. She was very belittling to myself and many other people,” Maddie Marlow shared. “Everyone was kind of scared to stand up to her. She was that person that was so beautiful, and you know, everyone just kind of bowed down to her.”

Maddie and Sierra were once friends, but during high school, the hierarchy took over. “She had gotten all these girls to gang up against me, and so I went home crying that Friday,” Maddie remembered.

Taylor Dye added, “Maddie and I had been talking about Sierra for maybe like a year, and he knew of her. So when it was finally time for us to write the song, he [Aaron Scherz] and me were just like, ‘OK, let’s do this. Let’s help Maddie heal.’”

“I was really scared, honestly, to release it because it’s basically airing your dirty laundry,” Maddie added. “It’s a very vulnerable song for me, and a very personal song, and I was really nervous about it.”

“Sierra” is out on iTunes now.