Hero

Album: My Wild West (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "'Hero' is one of those rare songs that came to me all at once," Lissie told Drowned In Sound of the country anthem. "I was at my old house in Ojai, California one evening just getting some things done around the place and it poured out of me! I'd been thinking about duality, Schrödinger's cat, parallel realities and just this general idea of being simultaneously a huge success and failure and what I want my life to look like. Shortly after I bought a farm in NE Iowa, and between tours I am living there!"
  • The singer told Interview magazine more about the song's background: "There was a time in my late teens and early 20s where I was motivated by this wanting to get out, to prove to the world that I had something to offer -that kind of youthful spirit, where maybe I had my eye on fame and fortune. I mellowed out in my late 20s and now that I'm in my early 30s, I'm coming to peace with it. My priorities have really changed. I'll always want to play and share my music with as many people as I can, but the emphasis is more on how do I find a happy place, what's my balance, what's my ideal? Sometimes people think, 'You don't get to have it all, you don't get to be happy, life's a struggle,' but what if it's not?

    I was toying with the idea of ambivalence a lot. It's something I work on, not being so invested in outcomes and being more engaged in the process of my life. 'Hero' is about knowing what you want to see happen, but being somewhat ambivalent and not being caught up in outcomes, because it's really almost the same thing, it's all someone's opinion. Whether I'm a hero or a zero doesn't really matter. It's all perception."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Superman in Song

Superman in SongSong Writing

Not everyone can be a superhero, but that hasn't stopped generations of musicians from trying to be Superman.

Waiting For The Break of Day: Three Classic Songs About All-Nighters

Waiting For The Break of Day: Three Classic Songs About All-NightersSong Writing

These Three famous songs actually describe how they were written - late into the evening.

Dick Wagner (Alice Cooper/Lou Reed)

Dick Wagner (Alice Cooper/Lou Reed)Songwriter Interviews

The co-writer/guitarist on many Alice Cooper hits, Dick was also Lou Reed's axeman on the Rock n' Roll Animal album.

Dave Edmunds

Dave EdmundsSongwriter Interviews

A renowned guitarist and rock revivalist, Dave took "I Hear You Knocking" to the top of the UK charts and was the first to record Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk."

Lita Ford

Lita FordSongwriter Interviews

Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.

Songs About Movies

Songs About MoviesSong Writing

Iron Maiden, Adele, Toto, Eminem and Earth, Wind & Fire are just some of the artists with songs directly inspired by movies - and not always good ones.