Songfacts®:

• "Hero" explores the feeling of wanting to help someone who is making destructive choices, but ultimately being unable to save them.
• Charlie Puth poured his heart and soul into the song, inspired by a real-life friend struggling with self-destructive behavior. He details that feeling of helplessness when someone you care about is determined to hurt themselves despite your efforts.
  
  "My new song 'Hero' is about when you see someone you love hurting themselves, ruining the things in their life that are good, but you just can't save them," Puth shared on Instagram. "It's one of the hardest songs I've ever had to write, but I wrote it hoping that you've gone through something similar in your life, and that it can fill in the BLANK for you like it did for me."
• Puth wrote the song with Jack Ro, Jacob Kasher Hindlin and John Byron. The singer produced the track himself.
  
  Jack "Ro" Rochon is a Canadian producer, songwriter and classically trained multi-instrumentalist. He contributed to four tracks on Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter album.
  
  Kasher is Puth's go-to writing partner. They penned hits like "Attention" and "Light Switch."
  
  Nashville songwriter John Byron primarily writes for country acts. He co-penned nine tracks on Morgan Wallen's mega-selling One Thing at a Time album, including the smash hit "Last Night" (Kasher also worked on that one).
• Puth released "Hero" as a single on May 24, 2024. When Taylor Swift shouted out Puth on her The Tortured Poets Department title song, it gave him a nudge to share the personal track.
  
  "I've never put out a song like this before – it's very different for me," he said, "but I want to thank Taylor Swift for letting me know musically that I just couldn't keep this on my hard drive any longer."