Songfacts®:

• Bob Seger's I Knew You When album is dedicated to his late longtime friend Glenn Frey, who passed away on January 18, 2016. This fierce rocker, which is dressed with '80s synths, celebrates the defiant artistic independence that both Seger and Frey sought throughout their careers:
  
  I need to turn the wheel
  Away from every deal
  Until I find out what's real
  
  "Glenn always fought the machine," Seger told USA Today. "He wanted to push his band in whatever direction he felt it should go, not where the suits thought it should go. And I've had that same problem. I thought that (lyric) said a lot about the struggle that the Eagles and I both went through, trying to be true to ourselves."
• The album contains two full-blown tributes to Frey - "I Knew You When" and "Glenn Song." The latter song is only available on the record's Deluxe Edition.