All I want is to keep on trucking,
I think I could with a little bit of luck.
Come too far to just get stuck,
So I refuse to die.
– Sydney Sprague
I think many of my favorite songs are aspirational. They often describe people I wish I had in my life. Those times when I really needed a friend that I didn’t have, I found one in music. Don’t get me wrong, I had some great friends through these times that I will always treasure, but in a lot of ways I had to figure stuff out on my own.
For the longest time the only person who told me that No One could keep them from loving me was Alicia Keys. Every time I hear it I imagine she’s singing it directly to me.
Ani told me that all of the Parameters can change, no matter how invincible I imagine myself to be.
B.B. King warned me that I’d Better Not Look Down.
Colleen Duffy was the one person who, after everything went to shit, still wanted to take a Walk With Me.
I wish I’d had someone to tell me I’d See the Sun again. Dido had to take that role.
Tom Shear told me that The Noise Inside My Head wasn’t mine alone.
Ronan Harris let me know that it was ok to have Gratitude for what is in the past, but to Perpetually look beyond the place I stand.
Nobody told me that there could be someone to pick you back up again if you Fell Back Down except for Tim Armstrong.
Aimee Allen let me imagine a world where we’ve Got Each Other‘s backs and that she would be By My Side.
The spirit of Invictus was instilled in me by Randy Blythe.
Frank Turner told me that so long as I’m alive, I can Get Better, and that If I Ever Strayed I’d have friends who stuck with me whether I deserved them or not.
Music can have a profound effect on me. In a life dominated by solitude, some of my closest confidants have been musicians that I will never meet. If you know me well enough to recognize why these songs helped me, then thank you as well. It’s been a beautiful journey. I wouldn’t be who I am without them, or you.
Like Jamey Jasta said, I Live For This.