At Hit Up Ange, singer/songwriter Pink Sweat$ discusses the songs origins:

Your song “Honesty” is quite frankly beautiful and has been heard practically everywhere. Can you talk about your experience creating that song and what inspired it?

Ohh yeah. You know how they sometimes say the best ideas come when you’re not even thinking. It’s like you could be trying to put this table together, wrecking your mind like “oh I gotta put this table together” and as soon as you sit down.. “Oh here’s the screw”. And “Honesty” was the perfect example of that. It was like I was working a ton, just like trying to make it happen. As a songwriter, you hit plateaus in everything, at my career at that time I felt like I hit a plateau ‘cause it’s like okay, I don’t really wanna write these kind of songs anymore which is what I considered at the time forgettable songs just cause I’m tryna maintain a living. So it’s like okay I wanna do something important, something that I feel like is important to me. Like okay, cool, let me take a seat… and I’m literally just having a conversation with a person, just like, just as we’re talking now. And, you know, I was having a drink or so, just relaxed, completely off guard and then the next day I heard this melody in my head and then I was like I should record that. And then I started singing and all the lyrics and the melodies just flowed. (starts singing) 🎵 Baby I’m afraid to fall in love 🎵. And everything was just… (makes whooshing noise) and it just essentially stemmed from a conversation. Yeah it was probably the most effortless song I’ve ever written.

At Vice.com, Pink Sweat$ discussed the format of the song:

“Honesty” is a song that borrows from the format of a conversation. You’ve said you freestyle a lot of your songs, but how much of “Honesty” borrows from a real conversation?

Eighty-five percent. I was having a conversation with a friend, who probably doesn’t even remember because we were drunk. Everybody is lowkey a little afraid of love and being vulnerable to somebody. When you get older you start recognizing your own demons. “Honesty,” even though it was a conversation with someone else, it was me looking in the mirror too.

At UpRoxx, he discussed how he knew it was a hit:

Was “Honesty” a song that surprised you with its popularity? Or was there a feeling with that one, that it was special?

Once I finished Volume 1, I knew “Honesty” was the one. “Honesty” and “Cocaine” were the first songs I ever wrote for myself, and it was the first time I had an unwavering personal connection to a record I had made. As a songwriter/producer you want the artist to change things and make it theirs. You want the record to come across as genuine, so you want the artist to really connect with it. For me, “Honesty” wasn’t changing at all. As soon as I made it, it was what it was.