Songfacts®:

• Over guitar-driven waltz-time instrumentation, Thomas Rhett reflects on his inadequacies and unworthiness and the selfless love of his wife, Lauren Akins.
  
  You shoulda slammed the door, changed the lock, and said adios
  To my selfish heart, tore it apart, and left me alone
  Don't know why you were patient and wasted good savin' on me
  Maybe angels don't always have wings
• Rhett wrote "Angels" with R&B/pop artist Teddy Swims, Josh Thompson (Blake Shelton's "I'll Name the Dogs," Jon Pardi's "Ain't Always the Cowboy") and Julian Bunetta, who also co-penned Rhett's "Craving You" and "Beer Can't Fix." Swims previously featured Rhett on his rhythmic 2021 track "Broke."
• The quartet wrote the song from Rhett's personal perspective of gratitude for Lauren's patience. "Like, 'Dang, the things that I have done with you by my side, I don't understand how you're still here," he told Apple Music. "You've traveled with me for 800,000 shows, you sat with me during radio interviews, you went everywhere with me and were always my rock and did it with such grace.' Because this is just not an easy career to be married in. I just looked at my wife and I was like, 'I think that you might not be a real human sometimes. I think that you might be a living, walking angel.'"
• On the evening prior to the writing session, Rhett came across a book that explored the idea of encountering an angel who manifests in human form. This inspired him to contemplate the notion that Lauren embodied the qualities of an angel without wings. He shared this concept with his co-writers and they all embraced the idea, with Rhett taking the lead. Thus, the romantic ode was born.
  
  The four worked in tandem to elicit the maximum emotional impact of Rhett's concept, but they felt the song needed a bridge to fully bring it to life. After wrestling with several ideas, Josh Thompson suggested using the word "wings" as both the last word in the chorus and the opening word in the bridge.
  
  "He is the least-vocal songwriter that I write with - and by least vocal, I mean the person that is not just shouting out every melody and lyric that comes to his brain," Rhett told Billboard. "I think he kind of allows the write to happen. He just kind of tucks away in a corner with his laptop that's from 2001 because he's too old school to upgrade. We got stuck; he just spat out that bridge. And we were just like, 'That's what it was supposed to be the whole time.'"
• Lauren has served as the muse for many of Rhett's songs, including "Die a Happy Man," "Star of the Show," "Marry Me," "Look What God Gave Her," and "Us Someday." The country star was proud to find a new way of expressing his love for her. "The more records you make and the more songs you sing about love, it becomes more challenging to figure out how to say that," he explained to Audacy's Rob & Holly. "'Angels,' to me was a love song dedicated towards my wife, but in a way of like, 'Hey, thanks for putting up with me, you know, for 10 years because it's not an easy task!'"
• Teddy Swims sang the demo, and the original plan was for him to record it. The following morning, Rhett started having reservations about who would be the best fit to perform the song. He kept in touch with Swims over the next few months, seeking his thoughts on the progress of "Angels." Eventually, with Swims' blessing, Rhett decided to keep the song for himself. He worked with producer Dann Huff (Kane Brown, Brantley Gilbert) and recorded the track for Where We Started with Swims providing backing vocals.
• "Angels" garnered an enthusiastic response from Rhett's fans. The singer's manager, Virginia Davis, saw the potential for the song to reach an even wider audience and suggested that Julian Bunetta create a remix. Bunetta reworked the bass and drums, incorporating a piano with a tremolo effect in the opening bars. According to Bunetta, the intro needed some additional "ear candy" to catch the attention of listeners if the song was going to be played on the radio. The new version, retitled "Angels (Don't Always Have Wings)," was released to country radio on January 23, 2023.