## An Unconventional Start
John Conlee didn’t follow the typical path to country music stardom. Before he was a singer, he was a licensed mortician and later a radio DJ. It was during his time working at a Nashville radio station in the 1970s that he co-wrote a song that would forever define his career and image. The song dealt with the deeply relatable human flaw of deliberately ignoring the painful truth of a failing relationship.
## Wearing Blindness
The brilliant lyrical hook of ‘Rose Colored Glasses’ captured the heartbreak of an individual who knows they are being lied to and used, but chooses to wear metaphorical rose-colored glasses simply because the illusion of love is less painful than the reality of a broken heart. It resonated immediately with anyone who had ever stubbornly held onto a doomed romance.
## A Permanent Image
When the song became a massive smash hit in 1978, it permanently changed Conlee’s life. He began wearing actual rose-colored glasses on stage, which became his visual trademark for the rest of his career. The song remains a classic country standard, a perfect distillation of sorrow hidden behind a facade of willful optimism.