---

I just want to say that I am a firm believer in a song taking on meaning for each person that listens to it. And I hope that happens for you. I just want to let you know what I was thinking when I wrote it. But please don’t let that ruin what the song means for you…

This one was written two days after “Some Ghosts Never Die”

So the wife and kids went out for the morning to a dance competition. I wanted to go train Ai on my vocals so I could use my own voice for the songs I write.

Or at least have that as an option.

So I spent the morning singing to some of my favorite jams and recording me signing the vocals. The Ai needed 30 minutes of solid a capella vocals. (These are recordings that will NEVER see the light of day)

Once they were recorded it said it could take up to 5 hours for the Ai to train on my voice. I needed a break anyway. Plus I wanted to listen to some of the arrangement options on my songs that I had gotten from the previous night. 

So I was listening and jamming out. Relaxing because my throat was hurting. 

I got to the pop version of “Matt’s Song”

I don’t know if it was because no one was home. Or because I’ve been really working on myself and letting things go from the past… but I really listened to the words for the first time in a long time.

Like I always listen….but I felt them just like I was back there writing them all over again all those years ago. I read the lyrics along with the song. 

It hit like a ton of bricks and I broke down.

I was standing with my phone playing the song and I just crumbled.

At some point I looked back up and the screen on my phone was black. I could see my reflection in my phone. At the part of the song when I say “I swear I can hear you talking to me”, I tilted my phone, half expecting to see Matt.

As I did that, I pictured his famous red Clifford shirt and that grin. And then I realized…I look nothing like I did back then.

And that I’ve lived a lifetime since the last time I saw him. 

And that started “Much Older Guy”…

I hope you enjoy it!