About The Song
“Sorry You Asked?” is a country song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Dwight Yoakam. It opens his sixth studio album, Gone, released by Reprise Records on October 31, 1995. The track runs about 3 minutes and 25 seconds and is credited solely to Yoakam as songwriter. It was later issued as the third U.S. country single from the album in April 1996, following “Nothing” and “Gone (That’ll Be Me).” As a single, “Sorry You Asked?” reached No. 59 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in the United States and No. 73 on the Canadian country singles chart.
Gone marked a turning point in Yoakam’s career. Produced by longtime collaborator Pete Anderson and recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, the album pushed further away from straightforward neo-traditional honky-tonk into a more experimental blend of country, rock, soul and pop elements. Commercially, it still performed well, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and breaking into the Billboard 200, but it became his first studio album not to generate a Top 10 country single. The four singles—”Nothing,” “Gone (That’ll Be Me),” “Sorry You Asked?” and “Heart of Stone”—all charted more modestly than his early-1990s hits.
As the album’s opener, “Sorry You Asked?” sets the stylistic tone for Gone. Contemporary descriptions of the record highlight the track as a mariachi-inflected, horn-coloured introduction that immediately signals Yoakam’s willingness to experiment. The arrangement combines his familiar Bakersfield-influenced guitars and rhythm section with brass and a more percussive feel, creating a bright, restless surface. The personnel list for the album credits players on tenor and baritone saxophone, trumpet and additional percussion alongside Anderson’s guitars, Skip Edwards’ keyboards and Taras Prodaniuk’s bass, reflecting the broader palette used on this song and the project as a whole.
Lyrically, “Sorry You Asked?” is built around a social situation that becomes unexpectedly painful. The narrator warns a casual questioner that they will regret asking why his partner is no longer with him. As the verses unfold, he explains that the relationship has ended and that revisiting the story only reopens wounds. The language is direct and conversational, with the repeated title line serving as both a hook and a gentle rebuke to the person who raised the topic. Commentators on the album have noted that songs like this one lighten some of the darker subject matter of Yoakam’s earlier records without abandoning themes of loss and regret.
From a musical standpoint, the track illustrates how Yoakam and Anderson tried to “split the atom” of his sound during the Gone sessions. The song retains a clear country foundation—Yoakam’s twang, prominent electric guitar and a steady backbeat—but the use of horns, fuller background vocals and a more layered mix gives it a different texture from the stripped-down honky-tonk of his 1980s releases. Executive producer Dusty Wakeman later described the album’s sessions as deliberately free-wheeling, and critics have pointed to the opening track as one of the clearest examples of that exploratory approach.
As a single, “Sorry You Asked?” followed “Nothing” and “Gone (That’ll Be Me)” onto country radio in 1996. Its No. 59 peak on the U.S. country chart and lower-tier showing in Canada reflected the broader pattern for Gone, where radio support was cooler than in Yoakam’s commercial peak earlier in the decade. Nonetheless, the song received a dedicated music video and was included in official videography lists for his 1990s output, which helped maintain visibility for both the track and the album during its promotional cycle.
The song’s later history underlines its continuing place in Yoakam’s catalogue. “Sorry You Asked?” was selected for inclusion on the 1999 compilation Last Chance for a Thousand Years: Dwight Yoakam’s Greatest Hits from the 90’s, where it appears as track eleven alongside major hits such as “A Thousand Miles from Nowhere,” “Ain’t That Lonely Yet” and “Fast as You.” Its presence on that collection, as well as on digital streaming platforms and catalog reissues, has kept the track in circulation as a representative example of Yoakam’s mid-1990s experimentation—balancing traditional country songwriting with broader arrangements and studio ideas.
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Lyric
You’ll be sorry you asked me the reason
That she’s not here with me tonight
And I know you were probably just acting polite
But you’ll be sorry you ever asked why
We started having problems in August last year
So things have been kinda rough for quite awhile
And you know how you think it’ll work itself out
Well mister that thought’s wrong by a long, long mile
You’ll be sorry you asked me the reason
That she’s not here with me tonight
And I know you were probably just acting polite
But you’ll be sorry you ever asked why
I mighta, shoulda seen
That we were drifting apart
But I was in what I guess you’d call denial
And I always heard they say that you’re the last one to know
Well buddy I was last by a long, long while
You’ll be sorry you asked me the reason
That she’s not here with me tonight
And I know you were probably just acting polite
But you’ll be sorry you ever asked why
Okay we both have the tendency to overreact
So I can’t really tell you who’s at fault
But there were certain third parties, well her sister for one
Who helped bring our reconciling to a drop-dead halt
You’ll be sorry you asked me the reason
That she’s not here with me tonight
And I know you were probably just acting polite
But you’ll be sorry you ever asked why
Aren’t you sorry you ever asked why
I’m sure sorry you ever asked why
Did I tell you how she tried to have me locked out of the house
I had to go hire a lawyer and all
But I know that it was mostly her family’s idea
I could hear ’em tell her what to say every time I’d call