Songfacts®:

• This is a very serious and moving song from Bowling for Soup, who are known for lighter fare like "1985" and "Girl All The Bad Guys Want." Lead singer Jaret Reddick wrote it with Butch Walker, who produced the track.
  
  So, is the song about a parent/child or boyfriend/girlfriend? Actually, both answers are correct. Reddick told Songfacts: "I'm a relationship guy - even on the funny songs. I mean, it's hard for me to write about things that aren't relationship-based, and it doesn't necessarily have to be girl/guy. It could be mom/dad. I think that's one of the cooler things about 'When We Die' is that the verses, Butch wrote one and I wrote one, and his is more about waking up the next day after a big fight with the person that you love, and mine is more about going home for the first time in ten years after not seeing your parents. And how both of those things, as much as the first one happens and is as unique to anybody's situation as the second one, is sort of all the same in that song - that every minute you've got to make it count, as cheesy as that sounds. Because even since I've been talking to you, these minutes are gone. That's it."