Hollow Crowns

Pre-Intro]

(Soft piano, ambient strings slowly building)

They say blood is thicker than water…

But what happens when your own blood leaves you drowning?

(Piano enters gently, soft beat begins)

Sitting at the table, faces all around

Laughter fills the room but I don’t make a sound

Holidays and birthdays, supposed to feel like home

But I’m just a ghost here, standing on my own

Learned to read the silence before I learned to speak

Mama’s hands were heavy, made a strong boy weak

Daddy treated love like something you could earn

Gave my whole heart to them, watched it crash and burn

(Strings swell softly)

I built these walls so high, no one gets inside

Taught myself to survive but forgot how to feel alive

They see a soldier standing, they don’t see the war

Fighting every demon knocking at my door

(Full instrumentation, soulful delivery)

I’m wearing hollow crowns in a room full of kings

Smiling through the emptiness, pretending everything’s fine

But underneath this armor, I’m just flesh and bone

A lone wolf learning how to make it on his own

(Beat softens, intimate tone)

Put on that uniform, served my country proud

Came back home a stranger, lost inside the crowd

Gave my life for freedom, for people I don’t know

Now I’m fighting battles that don’t ever let me go

I care for those around me, that part is still true

But showing love feels foreign, don’t know how to break through

Used and then discarded like a tool without a name

Family wrote the first verse of this lonely shame

(Building intensity)

These scars ain’t on my skin, they’re buried way down deep

Every night I’m wrestling with the demons in my sleep

But I refuse to let them write the final page

I’ll turn this pain to power, turn this hurt to sage

(Full, powerful)

I’m wearing hollow crowns in a room full of kings

Smiling through the emptiness, pretending everything’s fine

But underneath this armor, I’m just flesh and bone

A lone wolf learning how to make it on his own

(Stripped down, raw emotion — piano and voice only)

This darkness… it whispers

But it don’t get to win

I’ve been through the fire

Watch me rise again

(Strings build, emotional climax)

To anyone who’s felt this, who’s been broken down

Who’s smiled at the party while they’re secretly drowning

You’re not alone in this, even when it feels that way

The night is always darkest right before the day

(Full instrumentation, triumphant yet soulful)

We’re wearing hollow crowns, but we’re still standing tall

We’ve stumbled through the wreckage, we’ve survived it all

And underneath this armor beats a heart of stone

But stone can still be shaped, and wolves can find their home

No more hollow crowns… I’m building something real

Learning how to love again, learning how to feel

The darkness tried to take me, but I'm still holding on

A lone wolf finds his pack… and the night becomes the dawn