Kimberly Perry Continues the Story in ‘Sequel’ Song, ‘If I Die Young Pt. 2′

As the Band Perry go their separate ways and Kimberly Perry launches a solo career, the singer is revisiting the band's signature song. Perry's first release as a solo artist will be "If I Die Young Pt. 2," an update to the sibling trio's fan-favorite hit ballad from 2010, "If I Die Young."

Perry wrote the original "If I Die Young" solo, telling the haunting and bittersweet story of a young woman who contemplates what it would be like to die before her time. The song touches on the pain of a mother who "ain't even gray" when she loses her child, the sadness of dying before getting to experience romantic love and — finally — the idea that her ideas might be taken more seriously after her death.

"Maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singin' / Funny when you're dead how people start listenin'," Perry sings in one verse of the song.

In the 12 years since "If I Die Young" came out, Perry and her sibling bandmates have lived a whole lot of life: They've enjoyed a successful country career and disbanded, plus Perry has struck out on her own as a singer-songwriter. In personal news, she got married in 2021, and this month, she announced that she's pregnant with her first child.

In a statement, Perry says that with all these new experiences under her belt, "If I Die Young" was due for an update.

"I felt like the story wasn't finished," she explains. "There needed to be a sequel that talked about where my head is these days that now I've experienced so much life — I'm having a baby, I'm married, I've moved to Nashville; I've seen all of these dreams come true since writing the original version."

"If I Die Young Pt. 2" will arrive on Friday (May 5). It is the first song off Perry's five-track Bloom EP, which is due out on June 9. The project features a handful of new tracks, all co-written by Perry with some of Nashville's most in-demand songwriters.

Kimberly Perry's Bloom EP Track List:

1. "If I Die Young Pt. 2" (Kimberly Perry, Nicolle Galyon, Jimmy Robbins)
2. "Burn the House Down" (Kimberly Perry, Jimmy Robbins, Sasha Sloan)
3. "Cry at Your Funeral" (Kimberly Perry, Jesse Frasure)
4. "Ghosts" (Kimberly Perry, Nicolle Galyon, Jimmy Robbins)
5. "Smoke ‘Em Too" (Kimberly Perry, Casey Brown, Parker Welling)