Songfacts®:

• Jason Isbell wrote this spare consideration of just how hard it is to change your life for the better.
  
  I'm glad I can't go back to where I came from
  I'm glad those days are gone, gone for good
  
  The song was written by Isbell for the A Star Is Born soundtrack. Hard-worn change is a subject Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper), the character who sings the song in the movie, knew well having spent time in rehab for a drink problem.
• The song is also autobiographical to Isbell himself. The singer-songwriter, who played with the famously unruly Southern rockers Drive-By Truckers for six years, was persuaded by his future wife, singer-songwriter/fiddler Amanda Shires, to give up alcohol.
  
  "When I got sober, the initial steps that I took to get my life together, I did [them] because of my wife, Amanda, who was not my wife at time," he told Esquire regarding the inspiration he pulled from while writing "Time."
  
  "I soon realized that any sort of exterior motivation is not going to be enough, even if it's a person that you are completely in love with. You have to want that type of redemption for yourself to make it a reality."
• Jason Isbell was asked to write a song that would to be the anchor of Jackson Maine's character in A Star is Born. After reading the screenplay he came up with "Maybe It's Time," which he sent to Bradley Cooper. The actor then recorded a demo of him singing the song and sent it to Isbell on his cell phone for his approval. Isbell admitted to Billboard that he was "terrified" as he feared having to tell the Hollywood star that it was rubbish and then request him to do better.
  
  Isbell received the demo just before embarking on a five hour flight. He he kept putting off listening to it until he was a good way through the journey. When he got off the plane, he texted back and told Cooper, "Man, it's really good - you did a great job and your voice is good! Thank you very much!" However Isbell didn't realize that the actor had been nervously staring at his phone for hours waiting for his response!