Greylan James Warned His Ex He Wrote a Song About Her Wedding (Exclusive)

Greylan James loves a good secret, and the ACM Award-winning singer-songwriter spills a good one in the lyrics of his latest single, “Water at a Wedding.”

But that’s not the only secret he’s been keeping.

“No comment,” James, 29, tells PEOPLE with a laugh about the identity of the ex-girlfriend who undoubtedly plays the lead role in the eye-opening track. “The fun thing about this song is people wanting to know the truth behind the story.”

Granted, the co-writer of hits such as Jordan Davis’ “Next Thing You Know” admits the story behind “Water at a Wedding” is a real one he experienced at an ex-girlfriend’s wedding..

“It was really fun to write and really easy to write because it was such a wild scenario,” says James, who penned “Water at a Wedding” last September alongside fellow songwriters Chase McGill and Matt Dragstrem. “We were just literally painting the scene.”

At one point in the song, the story goes from sad to shocking.

“We were talking about the whole twist being in the second verse,” remembers James, who’s already been gaining attention this summer on the strength of his debut radio single “Wait Til You Have Kids.”

He adds, “But then we were like, ‘No, let’s keep people hanging.’ I felt like we gave the listener a minute to really process the story that was going on before we twisted it even further in the bridge.”

It’s a twist that James decided to tell his ex about before the song even came out. “I told her, ‘I wrote this song about your wedding,’ and we had a conversation about it,” he recalls. “And then fast-forward, the song is coming out, so I told her to ‘just prepare yourself.’ So yeah, the heads up was given.”

And while James gave his ex a heads-up about the release of the song, he didn’t quite grant the same courtesy to his label. “My label had told me specifically to not post it,” James laughs. “And I was just like, ‘F— it, I want to do it.’ They weren’t sure if the country listener was ready to hear a song like that come out of me. But then I’d have a couple Jack and Cokes in my house, and I’d be like, ‘I just want to listen to it and just close my eyes and go through it again.’”

Despite his label’s advice, James got sneaky in June and teased “Water at a Wedding” on his burner account. “I made a fake TikTok account, and I turned the brightness all the way down, so nobody could see my face,” he says. “It was the first TikTok I ever posted on that account, and it got a hundred thousand views.”

The label forgave him, and the rest is history. The teasers for “Water at a Wedding” garnered nearly 10 million views across platforms, including 6 million on TikTok alone.

What makes the story of “Water at a Wedding” even more intriguing? The story looks to be just beginning. “I’ve got songs to keep explaining what happened after that song, and I already got to part two, part three, and so forth,” says James. “So, that’s kind of what we’re working on.”

In fact, James says the second song in the story has already been recorded. And while stepping from behind-the-scenes songwriter to front-and-center artist has been scary, it’s a process that felt necessary to truly become the artist he wants to be going forward. 

“Other people have been telling my story with their own albums and their own voice,” says James, who will head out on tour with Cole Swindell this fall. “And I guess I was kind of scared to really lean into my personal stuff. That’s a scary thing to do because I’ve got friends and family and exes and all that stuff. But that’s what people want to hear. They want to know you.”