RECORDING: S T A Y

STAY:


Many of you who follow my music or who have seen me live have heard my song "Stay" - I jokingly call it my "Grey's Anatomy" song, because it has that sound that just makes you want to cry without even hearing the lyrics, which are equally upsetting. Most people don't know where it comes from, so I thought I'd share.

This past June, I met a women in passing, through work. I met her family as well. She was very young, and beautiful, and full of life. 5 children under the age of 15. They came to me to pick out outfits for a concert they were attending. A few weeks later, she came into my store asking if i rememberd her, after a moment I did. She came to tell me that her husband died of natural causes unexpectadly just a few weeks before. She said she was fighting with him because he ruined the dress I sold them by putting it in the dryer, and while yelling at him, he began ignoring her. In anger, she ignored him back.

When she went upstairs, she found him dead. When he was ignoring her, he was actually dying, and in her fit of rage over what now is seen as a very stupid dress she ignored his silence. She came to me because she hadn't been able to tell anyone that they were fighting when he died. She was too embarressed to actually tell her family how horrible the last words they shared were. She left without even telling me her name, and she'll probably never hear this song.

But I left work early, really torn up about what had just been said. I couldn't imagine starting my life with someone and giving my heart to them, to have them leave so suddenly. So I wrote stay that afternoon.

Most people have no idea what the song is about, i try to color it as a love song, but this is who it was for.

These are the lyrics:

i get so afraid
everytime i see your face
what if you leave?
where would i be?
i get so scared
everytime i hear your voice
what if it's the last time?

don't walk away
stay
don't walk away
stay

what would i do?
after all we've been through...
i've lost who i am
my heart is somewhere inside of you
without you
how could i go another day?
when your the sparkle of my eye
without your touch
without your smile
nothing in my whole wide world
would seem worth while

don't walk away
stay
don't walk away
stay
don't leave
stay with me
stay with me, me
stay

you're the air i breathe
you're the one i love
i know you're still here
asking what i'm so scared of
i guess i fear
that one day you might see
that if you leave
you can do better than me

don't walk away
stay
don't walk away
please stay
don't go
please stay
don't walk away
stay stay stay
oh

Anyways, I originally played this song on the guitar. For the album I wanted to keep it simple, but with a great piano player here, we were tempted to hear how it sounded on keys, and it sounds even more beautiful. This song is very hard to record because hearing it over and over again is simply painful, and really breaks my heart. Because this isn't my story, in a way it isn't my song, and so it breaks my heart every time.