Hannah Ellis and Nick Wayne debuted an emotional ballad about lifelong love on Friday (February 7).

The married singer-songwriters released “Waiting to Die,” their first original duet they’ve ever recorded (following Ellis and Wayne’s 2019 cover of “If the World Was Ending,” a song that JP Saxe and Julia Michaels released that year). It’s Ellis and Wayne's first original collaboration they've released after more than a decade of writing music together.

Ellis shared in a recent conversation with iHeartCountry that the new duet was inspired by Wayne’s grandparents. His grandparents had been married for 67 years when Wayne’s grandmother passed away about two years ago.Wayne and Ellis shared a conversation with one another about what his grandfather must have been going through, and Ellis recalled saying, “‘man, I feel like if that happened to you, Nick, I’d just be waiting to die.’ And like the good songwriter that I am, I wrote it down.”

She brought up the idea in a songwriting session with writer Eric Arjes, acknowledging that the title “might be morbid, but it also feels sweet and endearing.” Wayne remembered, “it was a beautiful write, and Hannah really led the charge melodically, just finding those sweet spots and getting a story told the right way.” Ellis said the ballad honors her husband’s grandparents while expressing her truth for her own marriage. In those ways, the song feels “full of love, rather than sadness,” despite the “heavy” sound of the title. Ultimately, the couple agreed that the song was “meant to be” a duet. They said they weren’t necessarily seeking to write and record one together, but the more they worked on “Waiting to Die,” the more it made sense as a collaboration.

“Waiting to Die” shares a sentimental perspective of contemplating life without a romantic partner, and unable to imagine it. Ellis said her favorite lyric is a line proposed by her husband, who suggested “I never wanna feel like Johnny did those four months he outlived June,” nodding to music legends June Carter Cash, who died in May 2003, and Johnny Cash, who followed in September 2003.

Ellis and Wayne paired the ballad with a “simple,” “heartfelt” and “beautiful” music video, which features the married duo singing their duet in a cemetery on “the most amazing overcast, 55-, 60-degree day in the middle of December,” Wayne recalled. “We were blessed with the perfect, moody day.”

Soon, they’ll perform together again at their annual Valentine’s Day show at the Listening Room Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee. Ellis and Wayne said the set list often includes some covers and unreleased original music (serenading the crowd with love songs and heartbreak anthems alike). There will be more plans down the road in 2025, but Ellis opted to keep those “secrets” for now. As for the “Waiting to Die” release day, Ellis and Wayne plan to pop a bottle of champagne (it caught Ellis’ attention when her husband suggested “I could buy more flowers”), and spend the day together. So far, they’ve shared additional glimpses into their daily lives (in the weeks after jokingly teasing a reality series, for example), and delved into the growing list of messages they’ve received in response to the duet.

Even before the song’s debut, Ellis and Wayne found themselves reading paragraphs of emotional reactions written in the comments of the short sneak peeks they posted on social media. Ellis shed a tear alongside some of the commenters who expressed grief for lost loved ones, and those who said “Waiting to Die” captured the feeling of their own stories. Wayne said that’s an “impactful and beautiful” thing about creating art and connecting with others.

“I think music just makes people feel seen,” Ellis said, “and that’s really the goal.”

Bob Delmont