Lighters

Album: Three (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Nashville songwriter Ross Copperman wrote this song with Gloriana's Tom Gossin and Rachel Reinert about the shared experience of going to live shows with. It was inspired specifically by one particular longtime fan of the band. "You hear stories about [fans] really being down and out, even scary stuff like not wanting to live anymore and then they tell you that one of your songs brought them out of that depression," he said. "It's so moving. You realize that this is so much bigger than, 'Hey, let's go make some fun songs and jump around like idiots on stage.'"

    Gossin added that "Lighters" talks of fans leaving their troubles behind when they get to see a band they love. "It's really about our acknowledgment and thank you to our fans for sharing this with us," he said. "It's all about having that shared moment."
  • Lighters have been a fixture at rock and country concerts for decades, with fans holding them up in the air to create points of light visible from the stage. The lighters usually come out for exceptionally poignant songs - Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" probably holds the record for most lighter hoists.
  • The song originally came to Tom Gossin in a dream. "I remembered one piece of it," he told The Boot, before singing the lines, "Let me see your light. Let me see your light." "I was like, 'I don't even know what that means.'"

    When Gossin brought the idea to Rachel Reinert and Ross Copperman during a writing session, they realized the potential of the lyric. "I was like, 'How do we make this fit?'" Reinert recalled. "Because a lot of our songs are relationship songs. This particular one, why it's so special to me, it's not about a relationship but more about a universal love thing. Lighters standing for your light. All of us go through ups and downs. We're all in this together."

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