Songfacts®:

• Johnny in "Freedom (Johnny's Song)" is Gavin DeGraw's dad, John Wayne DeGraw, who died in 2020. The song is a look at his life, which led him into the Army.
  
  On X, DeGraw posted that the song "is the story of my hard-working mother and father. I always thought our blue-collar heroes were not celebrated enough. I needed to tell their story."
• The song is part of Gavin DeGraw's album Face The River, which is a chronicle of his parents' lives. His dad was still alive when he started it, but his mom Lynne, a detox specialist, died in 2017.
• When DeGraw spoke with Songfacts in 2024, he said "Freedom (Johnny's Song)" is the song that defines him the most, "because that's what I'm from, that's the kind of people and culture I appreciate."
  
  "That's the other part," he added. "We don't just listen to songs as audience members, we're looking for somewhere to identify ourselves, and 'Freedom' identifies who I am."