Songfacts®:

• This song came together quickly for David Cook. He explained to Billboard magazine: "I think that was because I had a lyrical concept that was inspiring to me. I knew where I wanted the music to sit sonically. And I wrote it with [Better Than Ezra's] Kevin Griffin, who I've got a rapport with, so the how-do-you-do's got pushed aside and we went right to work."
• Cook explained the story behind the song. "It's a small moment but there's a poignant memory I have of Adam, my little brother [Andrew] and my dad traveling through Indiana," he said. "We had an opportunity to see Adam at this hotel parking lot off the highway. That's where the first line comes from, 'Chasing ghosts in a hotel parking lot.' The idea of watching home movies and being nostalgic and looking back on your life as a family, your life as an individual, the song comes from that."
  
  "I was inspired by the idea of looking back but not in a melancholy way, I think more in an appreciative way," Cook continued. "My family and I lost Adam over six years ago and I don't know that you ever come to terms with it. But every so often as you go on the journey, it's nice to put a flag in the sand and say, this is a moment. "Home Movies" is a flag in the ground. This is my opportunity to look back and feel good about it."