Brendon Urie Once Cleared Up Panic! At the Disco ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ Lyric Confusion: ‘There Is No Answer’
Panic! At the Disco fans were surprised to find out a lyric in one of their classic music favorites, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” wasn’t quite what they thought. There was confusion over one small word, which Brendon Urie cleared up — but he also admitted he sings the line two different ways.
Panic! At the Disco ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ lyric caused some confusion
In a 2017 Twitter post, a fan shared a screenshot of the lyric book from the album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out and pointed out the line “a goddamn door” — not “the goddamn door” — in the song “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.”
Singer Halsey tweeted Urie, referencing the fan’s tweet, and simply requesting, “Explain.”
The Panic! At the Disco singer admitted, “Hahaha I can’t. That’s some Berenstein/Berenstain s**t right there.”
He clarified things only slightly when he tweeted the next day: “Btw, there is no answer. I’ve sung ‘Sins’ both ways. Doesn’t matter. Trust me, it’s all right.”
Urie reassured any fans who were trying to wrap their heads around it, “Don’t torture yourself.”
Brendon Urie explained why the ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ lyric doesn’t matter
In a 2017 ZM radio interview posted on YouTube, Urie shared some insight about the lyric confusion. “We’ve got a little bit of drama to address with you,” one of the hosts teased, referring to the “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” lyric debate.
“I know. It’s been on my radar for the last couple of days. I had no idea,” the singer said. “Now, let me say my piece and then I’ll let it be. I think there’s a Mandela Effect thing happening. I don’t know if it’s a Berenstein/Berenstain alternate universe happening.”
Urie continued, “I sing it both ways, which is so weird to think about. But I’ve done it both ways.”
The Panic! At the Disco singer noted, “It’s written in the lyrics … you know what, there’s a lot of typos on that first album too. If you go back. I don’t know if we really spent a lot of time proofreading, we were so done with school at that point.”
He added, “And [fans] didn’t like it that I was like, ‘It doesn’t matter’ … they got so mad.”
Urie said he generally performs the song with the lyric “the” more. “I’m not going to get bent out of shape about either one,” he said.
Brendon Urie explained the meaning behind ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ lyrics
Later that year, Urie was asked about the song lyric during an interview with Coup de Main magazine. Fans voted for their favorite Panic! At the Disco lyrics and the interviewer asked if Urie would shed some light on his “thoughts behind them.”
They chatted about “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” with the interviewer asking, “Is it ‘closing A goddamn door’ or ‘closing THE goddamn door?'”
Urie shared that either way is fine. “I say ‘the’ but if you say ‘a,’ it doesn’t really matter to me,” he explained. “I don’t really care but I know that they all got really mad when I said that it didn’t matter.”
He added, “So I’m gonna say it’s ‘the.’ It’s ‘the.’ I’ve been singing ‘the’ for the longest time but I sing it both ways sometimes.”
When asked about “the inspiration” for the lyric, Urie revealed, “When we wrote that, Ryan [Ross] wrote most of the lyrics on the first album. And that was about that time when his dad walked in on him and his girlfriend and he said that to Ryan, like verbatim. He said, ‘Haven’t you ever heard of closing the goddamn door?’ Then he shut it and yeah, this was where it came from.”
Urie also dished on the lyric “What a shame, the poor groom’s bride is a whore.” The singer had a simple explanation for the line’s inspiration. “Yeah, Ryan’s girlfriend cheated on him,” Urie said. “She was a total whore. <chuckles> Absolutely was!”
