“Without You” is Rio Romeo’s newest track—a piano-driven elegy from their debut album “Good Grief”.
Los Angeles-based butch artist Rio Romeo has released “Without You,” the third track from their upcoming debut album Good Grief, arriving July 18 via AWAL. The piano-led ballad delivers an unflinching exploration of loss, memory, and queer identity, offering deeply personal insight wrapped in raw vocal emotion.
The intimate arrangement spotlights Rio’s powerful storytelling and genre-fluid aesthetic, grounded in musical-theater resonance and punk urgency. “‘Without You’ is one of the heavier songs on the record,” Rio shares. “I wrote it about one of my friends who ended up dying in a suicide by cop incident when I was very young… That’s so weird—he’ll always be the same person, but that sameness also lives inside me.”
The track’s stripped-down vulnerability serves as a heart-rending tribute to a friend frozen in time. “Although my life ended up moving forward and his didn’t, I think I am with him, fundamentally, in concrete—the 17-year-old inside my body.” 
Good Grief reflects on a turbulent five years in Rio’s life, marked by homelessness, injury, recovery, and the steady growth of a fiercely supportive fanbase. “I hope that it makes one person feel heard and feel less alone,” says Rio.
Their fall headlining Good Grief! Tour begins October 2 and includes dates in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and more.
With over 713,000 TikTok followers and more than 308 million Spotify streams for their breakout hit “Nothing’s New,” Rio Romeo is a vital new voice defining an era through radical honesty and haunting, beautiful songs.
