One Less Day (Dying Young)

Album: Chip Tooth Smile (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • This bouncy track about getting older is an ode to life. Rob Thomas sees every day he lives as a privilege.

    I'm not afraid of getting older
    I'm one less day from dying young
    I see the light go past my shoulder
    I'm one less day from dying young


    The song was first sparked during a conversation on tour between Thomas and Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows about getting older. The Matchbox Twenty singer told Radio.com that Duritz said to him: "Well every day that you get though, you're still one less day from dying young."

    The idea stuck with Thomas, and the passing of a few friends including George Michael helped spur this song.
  • Thomas told Billboard that when he was in his 20s, he "simultaneously thought that I was going to live forever and I wasn't going to make it past 25." However, as he got older, the singer realized the alternative to not getting older is in fact really bleak, and "it's also a privilege that is not afforded to everyone."

    Thomas is now at the age when he's losing friends from high school. "One Less Day" was prompted by the realization that, at 47, he "was already too old to die young."
  • Thomas told iHeartRadio the meaning behind the album title: "When I was like, I wanna say 17 or 18 years old, I was at a club and I was slam dancing and I chipped my tooth, my front tooth. And when I met my wife, I just gotten to the point where I had enough money that I could actually afford to get dental work done. And I had some stuff done, but she never let me fix the chip. She always said that I had to keep my chip tooth smile because she thought it gave me part of my personality. So she always called it my 'chip tooth smile,' and so we thought that was a good name for the record."

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