Grammy Award winning singer Sara Bareilles penned a heart-wrenching song about grief inspired by stories shared by Anderson Cooper and “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert.
The “Love Song” artist opened up about the process and shared a preview of her emotional new song, “Home.”
Sara Bareilles Was Inspired by Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert
“I was walking around. I live in Brooklyn, I was walking around listening to the podcast, and I was so moved by the story Stephen shared about losing his father and his brother,” she told Cooper on the Thursday, March 19, episode of his “All There Is” podcast. “That episode is so special.”
Cooper explained that Colbert’s father and his two brothers were killed in a plane crash when the late-night host was just 10 years old. Cooper’s father, Wyatt Cooper, passed away at age 50 during open-heart surgery when the CNN journalist was just 10. He later lost his brother to suicide.
“Your connection in that conversation, I found it to be really inspiring. I came home and started writing a song about it,” she continued. She went on to say that her new song, “Home,” was based on the conversation the two men had on a previous episode of Cooper’s podcast.
During their conversation, Cooper and Colbert both shared that they grew up believing that they would die young because their fathers both died young.
“I realized when I had kids, I did not want to pass onto them my sadness,” Cooper told the comedian. “I wanted them to know about their grandparents, and my brother, but I don’t want it to be infused with this secret hidden sadness that they feel strange about.”
Bareilles joked that her song is “pretty much plagiarism” from the conversation between the two men.
“For me, on this Earth, our work is to find ways to be bold enough to let other people see us. Telling stories is such an important part of that,” she explained.
Sara Bareilles’ Song ‘Home’ Lyrics
Cooper became emotional as they shared a clip from Bareilles’ new song.
“I am one day older than my father was. Then he ever got to be. I was 10 years old when I grew up because he died at 53,” she sang. “I never asked hard questions. Thought they cause more pain. I hadn’t yet learned life’s holiest lesson that what is broken cannot heal until it’s known and loved by name.”
“So tell me your story, I’ll tell you mine. Don’t need to worry, everything’s already alright. You’ll be the universe with nothing to hide. Anywhere you ever need to go, I can carry us home.”
She continues, “I was taught to bury with the dead the presence of my grief. I see it now, but didn’t then. The silence is a thief. It made strangers out of friends, robbed me of saving graces offered in unlikely places. I thought I could outrun it in the end. When a shattered heart is desperate, the only respite is to let somebody in.”
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