I've been singing that song all my life, basically. It's a really amazing song. Somebody told me that the chorus part—the "Lie-la-lie"—was initially a placeholder, but he kept it in the song like that because the verses are so wordy.
It sort of opens up and he kept it that way from the initial demo of it. I got Sammy Hagar to sing with me on that because he's a buddy. He's a rock god. He's funny as hell and he's a really good guy. I said, "Why don't you do something with me on my album here? I want to bring in some people that I love! What have you got? It's elsewhere now. Anyway, long story short, he said, "Nah, that's too predictable. I don't want to be so predictable, to be the Red Rocker on a song about rock.
I used to be a boxer! There's only one of him in the world. That's him. And then the Cranberries cover ["Dreams"]—me and Jeff, my hubby, were just driving around in Sonoma County. We heard it on the radio and he said, "You've got to get Liv Warfield to sing this with you!
I said, "OK! Let's just do that! I think that can be done easily enough! I kind of heard myself saying something one night. I was like, "Wow, we've lost another angel of rock and roll. It's kind of like, "Well, they're going to be having some big party up there at the angel ballroom. I went and sang some stuff for Taylor for his last album, called Get the Money.
Really good album. I said, "Well, I'm going to make a solo album now, so do you have any cool jams laying around, dude? I've got some cool jams kicking around, dude! He sent me this jam that they had. It was a completely long-winded jam that needed a lot of structuring.
I structured it very differently from the original. And I had these words, so I put it together and it just became a fun sort of lark of a song. It's kind of a dark topic, but [you can] make it kind of a funny moment. Sort of like the song "The Inbetween. I have two twin boys that are both 21 now. One boy, Curtis, wrote this poem for a class assignment—a poetry-writing assignment, I guess. I thought it was really clever. He was like, "Black and white, wrong and right.
Now, after this horrendous political era we just tried to live through with all the bully-pulpit stuff we've had to deal with, I was scrolling through my notes and I found that again. I thought, "This is really relevant for our times that we're living through politically.
It kind of sheds new light on a situation. Sounds like Curtis is pretty wise and perceptive. What do you learn from your boys? You learn everything from your kids. Being a parent is not an easy thing to do. It's one of the bigger challenges you could ever face. Because when you love somebody that much and you're trying to help them survive through their own childhood.
Because you care. Because you love somebody even more than your own life, your own self. It's bigger than you are and you're responsible for it. The best thing you could ever possibly try to do is keep them alive long enough to figure it out for themselves. That's a story about a toxic relationship that you have to get out of. You have to face the truth of how you've enabled yourself to be hurt and you've enabled the relationship to go bad.
It's kind of self-examination of "OK, I have to be brave enough to get this out of my life and take responsibility for what my part in it was. It's kind of complex, but it's definitely a truth that we've all had to face at some point in our own relationship lives. There are some unhealthy things sometimes that leave behind. Were you thinking of any particular relationship or was it a composite of relationships throughout your life? There's been more than one! So, it's a conglomerate of various situations I've found myself in that I had to get out of and get over.
After the '80s, we went home to Seattle. That was a time when all the Seattle bands were exploding. I thought, "Oh, no! They're going to hate us because we're '80s dinosaurs! At the time, our friends from Alice in Chains … Layne Staley was still walking around and talking.
But he was definitely on a course that everyone could see. It was going to go badly. He was going to self-destruct. We all saw that coming. He was a sweet soul, you know? It was hard to see that inevitable demise. He was letting himself go down that dark ladder. So, that's when I wrote that song. He was still alive, but everyone could see that. That's what that song was about. It's sort of a cautionary tale, but it's also a very heavy message because I don't think he had a chance against that dragon.
It was just a sad story in advance of the sadder story. That's been around for a long time. It never was destined to be a Heart song, although we tried to do that song a few times, in a few ways. That was a nice version of it. That's cool you knew Layne. I personally declare Dirt to be the most powerful album ever written about addiction. Oh, for sure. I love that band.
Mike Inez was actually in Heart for a while after Layne disappeared. He was our bass player for five years, I think. Michael Inez is one of the funniest humans on the planet, for Christ's sake. A seriously funny person. Maybe the funniest person I've ever met in my life. That's kind of a take-off on Paul Simon.
I cut my teeth on Paul Simon's stuff when I was nine, 10, 11 and Early on in my playing life, as an acoustic guitar player. I'm actually glad I didn't get sued by Paul Simon because that basic guitar part in the song was a cue in Jerry Maguire , which was based on a Paul Simon-type fingerstyle part. I kind of took that and ran with it and put lyrics to it, because I already had written it.
I had already put that part together for the movie. If there's anyone to plagiarize besides Paul Simon, I suppose I could plagiarize myself [laughs].
That's the first thing I wrote for this album and I was just trying to touch base with my earlier self—my college-girl self with the poetry that I used to explore before I was in Heart. He's definitely in the top three, in my estimation. Maybe the Beatles. Those are the four pillars of greatness, I think, in music. I wanted a tribute to Eddie [Van Halen].
When he passed away, I was really sad, of course. I was very moved to try to pay tribute to him in some way. When we used to be in the same place together in the '80s—we did some shows with those guys—he told me he thought I was a really great guitar player on the acoustic.
I was like, "How can you say that? You're the best guitar player on the planet! Why don't you play more acoustic yourself? The next morning, at the crack of dawn, he called my hotel room and played me this amazing instrumental on the acoustic I gave him. It was just one of the most beautiful things I'd ever heard.
Just an exciting, inspirational moment, although he'd probably been up all night partying. So I thought I would return the favor and make him a piece of instrumental music on the acoustic guitar. That's what I did. I put a little piece of the song "Jump" in there. I tried to approximate what I vaguely remembered from what he played me that morning. I know things have been kind of hot and cold with your main project over the last few years.
How would you describe your personal and creative relationship with Ann today? Well, that's a loaded question. I think we're fine. We both kind of welcomed the break from each other and from Heart in a certain way. I think there's a certain blessing inside the larger curse of the whole shutdown we've been living through.
Personally, I feel like it's been a relief and a chance to reorganize who I am, thinking of who I am inside the larger picture of Heart and who I am outside of Heart altogether. There's a lesson in this shutdown for me, and part of it is to remember who I am without defining myself as somebody in Heart. Which is a beautiful reckoning, I think. There's an offer for Heart to go out in I think that would be awesome to do that. I would want to do that. But having been outside of the world of it and the pressure of it and the framework of it for this long now has been very freeing.
I feel I've gained a lot of momentum as a person because of it. When Rise Against's Tim McIlrath talks to his fans and teenage daughters, a troubling throughline emerges: how difficult it is to achieve the American Dream. After hearing those repeated concerns, he decided enough was enough. So on their latest album, Nowhere Generation , which was released June 4, Rise Against takes a stand against these demoralizing, capitalistic forces.
When we would talk to our fans, the theme was apparent. These ideas kept coming up. This idea of these anxieties about what tomorrow's going to look like, and also the weight they felt they were waking up with every day.
The more I examined that, the more I realized that there's a lot of evidence and a lot of good reasons to feel that weight. Whether it's living in a time that has normalized the idea that one can work full-time and still live below the poverty level or living in a time where we're expected to accept the idea of concentrated wealth and the rise of the one percent.
Living in a time where we're dealing with global warming and climate change, and society's response or lack of response to it. A number of other elements have contributed to this downwardly mobile landscape. How did these conversations help you be more honest and authentic as a songwriter? I think that having a relationship with our audience helps that. I think being a father of two teenagers gives me a bit of a crash course in it as well—and then just talking to the band about it.
It's amazing how many people have their own stories—their own things to add to this narrative. It takes on a life of its own. People talk about what it's like to feel like they're swimming upstream as they try to get ahead. They started asking questions like, "Why? Why does it feel like this?
What's happening? I grew up in a relatively stable time politically, economically and socially, and I think we took a lot of that for granted. That's what made [succeeding] generations less sympathetic to these concerns. I think that we all think, 'Well, this is life. It's hard, and you figure it out,' without acknowledging 'Is life different? Is the experience different now than it was before? Are we living in a society that is ripping the crops out without replanting the seeds for the future?
That's what's happening now. I think that we're starting to realize the new and unique obstacles to getting ahead in today's world. Young people are less likely to own a home or have savings. That is keeping people from being able to pursue that American Dream. Yeah, that's one of my favorite songs. I think you're right. I think people feel a little bit lost. And "Nowhere Generation" is speaking to people who are trying to figure out where they fit in the landscape nowadays, if they fit in at all.
And I talked about young people, but you don't need to be young to relate to this idea. For people my age, older than me, if you were part of this generation that is sort of falling victim to the short-term way of thinking instead of long-term, then you're part of the Nowhere Generation.
On the song "The Numbers," and elsewhere on the album, you remind the listener that they're not alone in this fight. Why do you think that's important, especially entering into this post-pandemic world? I think it's pointing out things like, despite its flaws, democracy is still our most effective way of governing. Giving voice to the people is still the best way we've figured out for human society to function. But it definitely requires those voices. It requires that voice.
I think that not only that voice, but social movements throughout history have given rise to a lot of the ideas and concepts that we take for granted today. There's a lot of evidence of individuals or groups that have put their hand on the steering wheel of history. And it shows them for the better. And that progress is often the result of somebody simply being fed up and trying to demand that they be listened to.
We still have a government that's based on voting. It's people that need to be listened to. That song opens with a sample from "The Internationale. And how can history be part of the solution? Especially with a song like "The Numbers," it was talking about the people. It has been used by many different countries and [adapted into] most popular languages.
I thought it was a good way to show the listener just how timeless some of these concepts really are. It turned into a great way to start the song and to start the album. It sets a good tone. One of the last ones I got to was "Broken Dreams, Inc. I'd sit there for a while until one day I started writing that chorus and then the rest of it just fell out of me.
But it took me a long time to get around to. I was almost going to give up on the song. Then, it all came together as one of the best songs on the album. Was it important to have a universal look and feel?
We wanted this era of Rise Against to be defined by a look that people would recognize. If you were to look back at it, you would see the imagery around development. You would know specifically that this was this era of Rise Against. And part of the way of doing that was working with a single person instead of many different people, which is what we've done in the past: Someone for the album, someone for the video, someone for the live look, someone for the merchandise and that.
I recently read the story of a Chicago fan who was so inspired by the band's music that he became a lawyer. What does it mean to see that tangible impact? Seeing things like that is the best part of being in this band because you write these songs hoping that they land with people. Not everybody connects with it. It's just not the way it always turns out.
When somebody does, it really takes this song that you pull out of thin air—you just made up—and turns it into something real and tangible. It validates the effort that you put in.
It helps that person, but it also helps you as the writer of it to know, "Alright, there was a reason that put these words out to the world. They found somebody and they helped shape their path. No, it was just a very quick and random interaction at a coffee shop. We ate there, we just ran into each other on the street. But the story stuck with me. The band's debut album turned 20 this year.
What does that milestone mean to you? It really puts a fine point on just how long we've been doing this. I don't think that the guys that made that record had any idea of what was ahead of them. That we would be touching the lives of people that were being born that year, or the years after that. We survive to put our kids through school and buy cars and everything because music has been good to us. What a great feeling to be able to respect the road that got you there and the songs that did it.
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log In. For the latest songwriting tips, reviews, podcasts, and more. Facebook Twitter instagram pinterest youtube. Search Search for: Search. Cart 0. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Only members can comment. Remember Me. When Don Ienner saw the video he was like, "What does this even mean?
That one was thrown away. It was a strange time. It cost a lot of money to make those. You have to have a lot of confidence, and that was what Donnie Ienner had: He had confidence he was making good decisions for us -- and he was right, and I'll always be grateful for that.
We were all, "Maybe we can edit this to make it look better? This is too important. We gotta get it right. Of all the people we've talked about, he's the only one I still stay in close contact with.
Not the band, not Brendan… well, actually Nick DiDia, the engineer on the record, he's still a good friend and I love him so much.
He's such a talented guy, so funny and such a good golfer, so we have great times. But yeah, it's funny how 20 years changes everything. My body feels like it's been 20 years, but my brain not so much. That's what they say about age: One day you look at the mirror and go, "What the hell happened? It felt like the beginning of a new thing instead of the end of one. In retrospect if that had been the first song that had been written and then we could build an album around it, that would have been phenomenal.
That could have been a very successful outing. But it's still cool. We have the Save Me, San Francisco wine company , and on April 1 we come out with a reserve cab, our first higher price point wine, and my winemaker made cases and they'll probably be gone in the first couple days of going online. It's spectacular. We started making wine because we're a San Francisco band and wanted to share the taste of the Bay Area with people while also contributing to Family House , which is our charity.
Some of these kids are really, really sick. It's pretty harsh. That's very full circle. You wrote the song about your mom who fought cancer, and now proceeds from the wine named after it are going to kids fighting cancer. That's wonderful. I also wanted to ask -- do you own the masters to "Drops of Jupiter" and the rest of the album? I think that in two years I will own them. I might be wrong but it's close. I think Bob Dylan just sold all of his songs, didn't he?
Dylan sold everything , yes. Neil Young sold half of his publishing rights. I'll tell you what, Joe. If you give me a million bucks, you can own "Drops of Jupiter" right now.
I can swing a cool hundred. Okay, last question. The song is an all-time classic. When those things crop up, do you pay attention? We don't keep in touch, but I think that's nice that she did that and admired what we did. That's cool. If you're in the car now and "Drops of Jupiter" comes on, what are you most likely to do?
I turn it up. Just because, if I'm being completely honest, someone told me that there's a monitoring system that if you turn a song off or up, a system keeps track of that. So I have my own purpose. Search term. Billboard Pro Subscribe Sign In. Top Artists. Top Charts. My best friend Joey who was a girl dedicated this song to me after she died. Thank you to the writer of this song thank you for your mom and of course thank you Joey …i will never forget you xoxoxo. This is so scary. I always liked the song and thought it was a good fit.
Ten years of marriage later and I randomly read about the meaning behind this song. A few years before I got married, I lost my grandmother to cancer, she was virtually my mother and I was so close to her. One of her favourite songs was Drops of Jupiter, hence another reason why I chose the particular flowers for my hair, but I had no idea at the time what the connection was.
It feels like my nan was there that day. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
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