Likewise, “Life After Salem” seems to speak of feeling used, and in “Lost in the Citadel,” he sings of an on-off relationship he hoped would last for eternity, but which wasn’t fully reciprocated. “Dead Right Now” appears to reflect on a circa-2018 breakup in which the other person initially lost interest, but tried to come back into Lil Nas X’s life after seeing his success.
Many of the songs on Montero are about failed relationships. In tracks like “Void,” he talks about the lows he has hit behind the scenes of what might appear to be a wholly glamorous, successful life the traps he feels in the way he’s perceived the pressure to maintain his success and the loneliness at the top. Building on the vulnerability of singles like “Sun Goes Down,” Lil Nas X shares the painful parts of his past, and present, position.