Music

Jason Mraz shares a few stories behind ‘Waiting for My Rocket to Come’

For #SpotifyTBT

10.11.2017

By Su Fen Tan

Jason Mraz shares a few stories behind ‘Waiting for My Rocket to Come’

There’s John Mayer, Bon Iver, Sara Bareilles, and many others who have made the noughties a great decade for music. But of course, no ’00s playlist would be complete without a dose of Jason Mraz. On this week’s #ThrowbackThursday playlist on Spotify, the prolific singer-songwriter (who is currently on Broadway!) shared his stories behind a couple of songs from the album that started it all—Waiting for My Rocket to Come

On ‘The Remedy’…

“It was inspired by my friend Charlie, who at the time I was working on my first album, Charlie was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare kind of bone cancer. He was born on July 4th, so fireworks were time for celebration, and around this time I was driving home from a gig, from San Diego to Los Angeles. I could see the fireworks exploding over the freeway at Disneyland and my mind, my narrator started chanting and singing this verse about what was going on in our lives—why did Charlie have his life and why do I have my life? And Charlie’s attitude through the whole thing was “Man I’m not gonna let this stop me, I’m not gonna worry my life away”. That power of positivity caused a wave through our community, and it affected me and became the first mantra that I sang in my catalogue. It ultimately transformed my DNA and who I am as a songwriter.”

 

On ‘You And I Both’…

“‘You And I Both’ is a love song, and it’s an ode to the person who was by my side when I set my first few steps on the journey of becoming an artiste who created original music. This person was a writing partner, a writing coach, a mentor, a brilliant poet. So this song was written a few years after that, and it was looking back at our relationship. I was so grateful for their time and their teaching in how it affected my wordplay or my appreciation of words.”

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