Songfacts®:

• GarryOwen Lyrics is the songwriting identity of Matt Weingast, a combat veteran and former Army officer ("GarryOwen" is a regimental march in the Army). He told Songfacts the story behind this song:
  
  "The idea for 'Bonus Time' began with a poem I wrote after one of my combat deployments. Part of it came from a night in Afghanistan in 2002 when a few of us were sitting together and the conversation turned to sharing stories about close calls - those moments when, sometimes by inches or seconds, things could have turned out very differently. The small group included highly experienced combat soldiers as well as support soldiers – and I remember how in the end, close calls like that are the same regardless with how frequently or when in life they are first experienced. It's an experience that forever changes your outlook and leaves you with a deep sense of gratitude for living on borrowed time. There was another, darker experience behind it as well. During my combat deployments, I had been present as several soldiers died from wounds sustained in combat. In one experience there were multiple soldiers and I did not know those soldiers personally, which made the emotions much more complicated in a different way. I was witnessing the end of someone's life without having shared that life with them, and there was nothing I could do to change what was happening. Those moments stayed with me. I found myself thinking about how a person is remembered by not only those who were close to him or her during their life, but also those who were there when they breathed their last breaths. You don't get more personal than that.
  
  When I eventually began turning the poem into a song, though, I did not want 'Bonus Time' to be only about combat or war. Close calls are universal. Some are dramatic and some are ordinary. A key part of a combat soldiers perspective is the inherent knowledge that so much of outcomes turns on luck or fate or circumstance, and that someone else has always seen, endured, suffered and/or observed more than you. However, close calls and survival moments all share a common emotion of gratitude and a debt owed to someone (or something) else. Some happen on a battlefield, but others come through accidents, illness, circumstance, or simply those moments when we realize how easily life might have taken another path.
  
  That is why I kept the meaning of the song intentionally broad. To me, 'bonus time' is the time we get after a moment when we might not have gotten any more. My own experiences inevitably shaped the song, but I wanted listeners to be able to hear their own experiences in it.
  
  I was also thinking about the people who did not survive their own close calls. There is something humbling about realizing that one person gets to keep going while another does not. So, these experiences force us to remember not only others who were less fortunate but the debt we owe for being able to have survived that moment. That debt can often be very heavy. It is the source of considerable pain for many who after surviving a close call because inevitably nobody can ever live up to the promises made for having been given that gift. I wanted the song to acknowledge that without trying to explain it.
  
  That burden was a critical part behind the song. When I wrote the song, I don't think I ever expected anyone would hear the song. I wrote it for myself as my way to process my own experiences, emotions and thoughts. Eventually, after I played the song for others I began to realize that others could get comfort from the song in the same way that it helped me to attain a sense of meaning and peace. After all, the mission of GarryOwen Lyrics is to help try and soothe a few souls – so, I decided to put it out there for others to hear.
  
  In the end, 'Bonus Time' became less a song about surviving than a song about what survival asks of us afterward. For me, that is gratitude, humility, and an appreciation for the people and ordinary moments we might otherwise take for granted. Whatever else we accumulate or accomplish, eventually the thing we are really given - and the thing we ultimately spend - is our time on this earth. After all, 'its all bonus time, no treasure, no crown, just bonus time!"