Exactly What I Asked For

ORIGIN STORY

Finally. I wrote this song.

I took my broken heart into yet another songwriting session. This one with Logan Wall and Donovan Woods. Logan was at the computer working on a somber piano track and deep beat. Donovan was sitting on the couch with an acoustic guitar.

Donovan was going through a divorce, and I remember asking him: Donovan, I always thought that I’d know when I found love. But now I’m not sure. Is it just a choice?

And Donovan stopped plucking the guitar and locked me dead in the eyes and said: Dude, it’s just a fucking choice.

It broke my heart to hear it. But I never forgot it. I don’t know how we wrote this song, but I remember it emerged so naturally from what Logan was making on the track. I heard a melody that reminded me of One Headlight by The Wallflowers. It was deep and slow and cool. It told the truth.

Donovan is a wordsmith and dropped beautiful phrases. I loved hearing his ideas. Donovan and I had spent years touring and the song felt like it was revealing something real about the experience.

And then the chorus emerged. The honest line about the addiction we all shared: getting high on the love of strangers. I recorded a vocal for the song in one pass and we all loved it. We said our goodbyes and the song just lived in that demo for years.

But I started playing it on stages, mostly at writers rounds, and the response I got was very moving to me. In the dawn of social media and the selfie, maybe we all have this addiction. But I found that artists and musicians especially felt seen by the song.

This song has become the north star for the album. The lesson at the end of the journey. The gold at the end of the transformation.

Through this song I can share this entire story. Without it I fear I would be doomed to repeat the pattern and fall victim again, starving for the love of strangers.

With the release of this song and album, I can release the story I’ve been telling myself about my life. I can practice finding a sense of wholeness off the stage, so that when I step back on them I don’t have to burden the audience to fill a void in me. I can give to you all what I love most about life: Music, magic and real hope.

This is why I have called this THE COMPLETE COLLECTION because it tells the full story and speaks to the wholeness I desire.

It’s exactly what I am asking for now.