What is the story behind this song? What was your inspiration for this song?
In 2017, a friend of mine died from complications during alcohol withdrawal. We only knew each other briefly before his passing but we became instant kindred spirits and I still have trouble holding back tears thinking about him. I wanted a song that honored his BEAUTIFUL spirit but also the devastation of burying someone with an addiction. I wanted to make sure his family, especially his mother, approved of the song and that it would be something he would have wanted to be heard to help others. Once his mother got back to me on how much she loved it and that her son would have loved everything about the song, I felt it was ok to release it. Getting a semifinalist placement in the ISC was something I needed to be at peace knowing the song was written well. When you are honoring the memory of someone there is an extra level of sweat that goes into EVERY line more than any other song. It’s intentionally poetic because he was a musician and songwriter that had a very poetic style himself. The acoustic guitar throughout was intentional to his guitar style, and I listened to demos he and I did together before his passing that were very similar.
Did you collaborate with anyone for this song? How did you meet them?
A songwriter I met at a Nashville songwriter event named Catherine Rose wrote most of the first few lines of the first verse and a friend of mine Alyssa Kinn (stage name Kinn) and I did the rest together. It took around 6 months for me to say it was done and I knew it was when I heard it back and cried.
Pottersfield 