Songfacts®:

• Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wrote this song for his two sons, Joey and Jakob, who were 28 and 25 at the time. He's letting them know how they enriched his life, and making it clear he'll be there for support on their life journeys.
• "Father To A Son" is part of Green Day's 14th album, Saviors, which finds Billie Joe Armstrong in a reflective mood, looking back on his struggles with alcoholism and mental health. Through the travails, his wife Adrienne, whom he married in 1994, has been there to support him, and they formed a strong bond with their kids even as Armstrong assumed the role of rock star.
• Armstrong knows he's getting soft on this song, but he thought the message was important. "I was like, 'How do I sum this up without getting too sappy?'" he said in People.
• Both Joey and Jakob followed in the footsteps of their dad, becoming musicians. Joey, a drummer, formed a band called Emily's Army in 2004 that later became SWMRS. Jakob, who sings and plays guitar, formed a band called Ultra Q.