A heart-breaking pop and R&B ballad speaking of unrequited love. In a behind-the-scenes video, Mars explained, "The concept of the video is my struggle, to tell this girl I'd do anything for her, so I'm going as far as dragging a piano to get to her just so I can sing my heart out." The video involves Mars's efforts to sing to a girl after dragging an upright piano through Los Angeles. He wears a suit and encounters a gang and a pit bull along the way. When he reaches the girl's house and finds out she is with another man, he drags himself and the piano in front of a train.

Easy come, easy go
That's just how you live, oh
Take, take, take it all,
But you never give
Should of known you was trouble from the first kiss
Had your eyes wide open?
Why were they open?

Gave you all I had
And you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever asked,

Cause what you don't understand is
I'd catch a grenade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Throw my hand on a blade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
I'd jump in front of a train for ya (yeah, yeah , yeah)
You know I'd do anything for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Oh, oh
I would go through all this pain,
Take a bullet straight through my brain,
Yes, I would die for ya baby;
But you won't do the same

No, no, no, no
Black, black, black and blue, beat me till I'm numb
Tell the devil I said "hey" when you get back to where you're from
Mad woman, bad woman,
That's just what you are, yeah,
You'll smile in my face then rip the brakes out my car

Gave you all I had
And you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, yes you did
To give me all your love is all I ever asked

Cause what you don't understand is
I'd catch a grenade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Throw my hand on a blade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
I'd jump in front of a train for ya (yeah, yeah , yeah)
You know I'd do anything for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Oh, oh
I would go through all this pain,
Take a bullet straight through my brain,
Yes, I would die for ya baby;
But you won't do the same

If my body was on fire, ooh
You'd watch me burn down in flames
You said you loved me you're a liar
Cause you never, ever, ever did baby...

But darling I'll still catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
I'd jump in front of a train for ya (yeah, yeah , yeah)
You know I'd do anything for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Oh, oh
I would go through all this pain,
Take a bullet straight through my brain,
Yes, I would die for ya baby;
But you won't do the same.
No, you won't do the same,
You wouldn't do the same,
Ooh, you'll never do the same,
No, no, no, no

EASY COME, EASY GO= This is an English proverb that means that the things that you get without any effort, are easy to lose because you don't appreciate them and you don't fight for them or take care of them. For example, if you work hard to save some money, you'll appreciate that money and spend it wisely, but if you win a lot of money in the lottery, you spend it all in silly things because you don't appreciate it. Another saying with a similar meaning is "no pain, no gain" (if you want to learn or obtain something good, you need to make an effort).

SHOULD OF KNOWN= This is a colloquial (or mistaken) spelling which is quite common because the auxiliary verb HAVE, when speaking, sounds /v/ after a vowel (I've got /aɪv gɒt/) and /əv/ after a consonant (I should've know /aɪ ʃʊdəv nəʊn/), and the pronunciation of OF is also /əv/, so it is easy to confuse the spelling of both words because they sound the same. (careful: /ɒf/ is the pronunciation of OFF!)

YOU WAS= (slang; black English or simply wrong English) You were.

TROUBLE= /trʌbəl/ Problems.

WIDE OPEN= Totally open.
Popular wisdom says, "never trust someone who kisses you with their eyes open". Why? Because if you love someone, when you kiss them you get lost in the kiss and you close your eyes to feel it more intensely, but if you don't feel anything, you may keep your eyes open, so if they kiss you with open eyes, they probably don't love you, and that is what he means in this song. That's why he asks WHY WERE THEY OPEN?

GAVE YOU= I gave you.
In colloquial speech and songs it is common to drop the subject in some cases where it is obvious.

TOSSED IT IN THE TRASH= Threw it away, rejected it.
To toss is to throw, and the trash (AmE) is the litter bin (BrE), the place where you throw the rubbish.

CAUSE= (coll.) Because.

GRENADE= (also "hand grenade") A weapon which is like a small bomb. You hold it in your hand, pull the ring and throw it at the enemy because in a few seconds it explodes. If they throw a grenade and you catch it, you will die because it's going to explode in your hand in an instant (so he says that he would catch a grenade to save her if it is necessary, because he loves her more than his live). (see picture)

YA= (coll.) You.

BLADE= In a knife, sword or similar weapons, the long and thing metal part which has a sharp and cutting edge to cut. The blade is attached to a handle, which is the safe part where you grab it. So if you take a knife, you hold it by the handle (usually wood or plastic) and you cut with the blade (usually metal).

I WOULD GO THROUGH ALL THIS PAIN= If you go through pain, you suffer the pain, you experience that pain.

BULLET= /bʊlɪt/ The small metal thing shot by a gun to kill someone (see picture).

BRAIN= The soft and greyish stuff inside our head that some people use to think.

YOU WON'T DO= You don't want to do, you refuse to do.
The verb WILL (and it's negative WON'T) is often use with the same meaning as "want". In that case, the past of WILL is WOULD:
- Will you come to my party? = Do you want to come to my party?
- I want her to be my partner, but she won't = but she doesn't want to.
- I asked her why she did it, but she wouldn't say = but she didn't want to tell me.

BLACK AND BLUE= If they hit you hard (for example in the eye), after some hours your skin will turn dark blue or black, so if you go black and blue, you show the consequences of a fight or an attack. (see picture)

BEAT= Hit (attack someone by hitting with fists or a hard object)

NUMB= /nʌm/ When a part of your body is numb, you can't feel anything there. For example, sometimes, after you have been sitting on the ground, your leg may go numb and you don't feel anything there so you have to move it and wait for the blood to circulate back through it before you can walk (and when circulation comes back you feel "pins and needles", an unpleasant itchy feeling).

I SAID "HEY"= I said "hello", I sent him my regards.
He's telling her to say hello to the devil when she goes back to where she came from, because she's living in hell (because she is a very bad bad girl).

MAD= (esp. BrE) Crazy.

IN MY FACE= In front of me.
The opposite is "behind my back". If you do something "in my face", you do it openly, so I know. If you do something "behind my back", you do it secretly, so I don't know. Some people pretend to be your friend and smile to you in your face, but then insult you behind your back, so they are not your friends, they are hypocrits.

RIP= Break (by removing).

BRAKES= (in a vehicle: car, bike, etc) /breɪks/ The device that lets you stop or slow down when you're driving. If they break your brakes of your car, you can't stop the car and you'll have an accident.

ON FIRE= Burning, in flames.

BURN DOWN= If something burns down, it is totally destroyed by the fire.

YOU NEVER EVER DID= We can say "never ever" (or "never ever ever...") To emphasize the word "never" (if we say "never never" we are using a double negative).

"I was with my friend Benny Blanco and he was playing me some songs, and he played me this song that had a lyric like [the one in "Grenade"]... he said, this band is not signed, this is a CD that wasn’t released. I said to Benny, I can relate to that so much, I want to take that and make it my own. He was in contact with the dude, and I started writing my version, basically. It’s a heartbreaking, heartbreak song, and I think everyone can relate to that. You’re so in love with this woman and you don’t understand, 'What am I doing wrong? What am I not giving to you? I’ll go as far as putting a bullet in my brain for you, and why can’t I get that kind of love in return?'"

—Bruno Mars on writing and the meaning of "Grenade"