"Lift Me Up" was the first single from Five Finger Death Punch's fourth album, The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1. The song features Rob Halford, the lead singer for the English metal band Judas Priest, and was premiered on May 3, 2013 during a live performance at Revolver Magazine's Golden Gods Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The studio version hit US radio on May 13 and iTunes the next day.
The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell was envisioned as a double album, with the first sides being "The Wrong Side of Heaven" and the second "The Righteous Side of Hell," but when the band (and their label) decided to split them up and release them months apart, the titles were combined so they would make sense. The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 2 was the second one, released later in 2013.
They had so much material became they were coming off a creative high. "We came off the road after a couple of great years of touring and were really amped up to write the fourth record," Guitarist Zoltan Bathory explained. "We found ourselves 12-13 songs deep fairly quick but were still coming up with better and better material so we looked at each other and said, 'OK, why stop there? Let's keep going.' Once we passed the 24th song, we knew we're going to have to do a double album."
Vocalist Ivan Moody commented regarding the song's meaning: "The song itself was originally written about overcoming everyday obstacles and less-than-perfect situations. Most of us weren't born with a silver spoon in our mouth, but if life dealt you all the wrong cards, you still have to play. The song's intent is to inspire; if you play that hand right you might just come out on top anyway."
Speaking on Eddie Trunk's Friday Night Rocks radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM, Rob Halford recalled his contribution to this song.
"I get this really cool e-mail from the guys from Five Finger Death Punch," he said, "and much like you do in metal, you know, you just throw things out there and see what happens. And they said they had this cool song and they wondered whether there was a chance of me jumping in and doing some singing on the track. And I asked them to send it to me, and, man, as soon as I heard it, I just lit up. I said, 'I want to be a part of this.' So a few days later, I was in Las Vegas recording it. First time I met the band in person - really, really cool guys. Great metal. Great musicians. We became instant friends."
Zoltan Bathory told Metal Covenant how Rob Halford ended up contributing to this song. "We heard somewhere, somehow, I think it was on TV, where he said that Five Finger Death Punch was one of his favorite bands," he explained. "So when we wrote that song, I think maybe it was me who said that this sounds like old school Judas Priest, you know. That kind of clicked like, 'Wait a minute, what if we could get Rod Halford to sing this since it's already kind of old school Judas Priest.' We reached out to their management and originally they said 'No, he doesn't have time and he's recording.' But then Rob heard the song, because the management still passed it to him and he was, like the one who called us. You know 'I'm singing on the fu--ing track', so he really liked the track. A week later he was in Vegas recording with us."
Ivan Moody recalled to Metal Shrine that Halford was in the studio for just a couple of hours. "I was just in awe," he said. "It was f---ing amazing. He comes to the studio and he's recording the track and it's completely surreal at this point. He walked out and true story, I went to shake his hand and he gave me a hug and I was just trembling, man."
Moody added that Halford is "the most humble and down to earth, grounded human being I think I've ever met."
Ivan Moody developed a serious drinking problem while Five Finger Death Punch were touring in support of their American Capitalist album. The situation apparently got to the point where the band was threatening to replace Moody with a different frontman. The singer finally decided to get sober after a heart-to-heart conversation with Korn frontman Jonathan Davis, who struggled with drugs and alcohol early in his career. Moody told The Pulse of Radio that his personal experiences found their way into the lyrics for this song: "'Lift Me Up' was about overcoming, because it seems like sometimes there are these chains - and I know everybody can relate to this — and it's almost like you're just questioning, you're looking out to the universe to say, 'Hey, there's got to be more than this, you know, help me get out of this rut,'" he said. "And so 'Lift Me Up' was just more of a positive feed on how to get by and how to overcome."
"Lift Me Up" won Best Song at the 2014 Revolver Golden Gods awards and quickly became a 5FDP favorite. It remains one of their most popular songs and a must-play in concert.
