Why Ashe has Billie Eilish to thank for her favorite lyric in “Moral of the Story”
Kanya IwanaSinger/songwriter Ashe is climbing the charts with her hit “Moral of the Story,” a collaboration with Niall Horan. Fun act: One word in the song was suggested by Billie Eilish, but it’s uncredited. Still, Ashe says it’s her fav…
By ABC Audio on October 9, 2020
Singer/songwriter Ashe is climbing the charts with her hit “Moral of the Story,” a collaboration with Niall Horan. Fun act: One word in the song was suggested by Billie Eilish, but it’s uncredited. Still, Ashe says it’s her favorite one in the whole song.
“Moral of the Story” was written after Ashe filed for divorce from her husband, and originally, the line went, “You can think that you’re in love/When you’re really just in pain.” But because Ashe was working on the song with her friend Finneas — who’s Billie Eilish’s brother — Billie decided to throw her two cents in and suggested the line be “when you’re really just engaged.”
“Finn told me that she was like, ‘You should switch this word out’ and I was like, ‘This is sick!'” Ashe tells ABC Audio. “And then we were like, ‘This is just not a thing, right?'”
“Like it was such a small one-word change, and so it was sort of all very like mutually agreed on that it just was an unnecessary credit,” Ashe continues, explaining why Billie’s name isn’t on the official list of songwriters on the track.
But that doesn’t mean Ashe is downplaying Billie’s contribution.
“Y’know, I always thought it was so cool to be like, ‘Billie Eilish wrote a word in my song!’ y’know?” she laughs. “And ironically it’s my favorite lyric of the song and I didn’t even write it. Like, I hate, I hate that! Like, freakin’ Billie!”
“So yeah…credit where credit’s due obviously but it was such not a thing,” she adds, “And you can ask them about it and they’d say the same thing.”
“Moral of the Story” is from Ash’s double EP of the same name. She’s currently working on her debut album.
(Video contains uncensored profanity.)
By Andrea Dresdale
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