Songfacts®:

• This hook-heavy tune was the lead single from American Christian rock band Skillet's eighth studio album, Awake.
• Frontman John Cooper told StereoTruth: "This song is the platform over which the whole record was written. Basically every day seems to get weirder, darker and scarier with thousands of people losing their homes and hurting over a wide variety of reasons. You see so much negativity on the news, especially this sense of violence that's getting really crazy. With all this going on, it's easy to feel on the edge, but no matter how dark it gets, there's always hope in a new day and staying positive is the first step. And when you boil it all down, Christ is the one who gives us a reason to live and He's our 'Hero' who's fighting for all of this oppression and injustice."
• This song, along with the rest of the album was helmed by the Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson (Daughtry, My Chemical Romance, The All American Rejects).
• When asked which Skillet songs were mostly derived from his personal experiences, John Cooper listed this as one, "because I wrote that song based on a time when I was wondering who my own children would look up to when they get older," he told the Bucks County Courier Times. "Who is left to believe in? I was hit hard by all the Catholic priest accusations during that time, and I thought, 'Man, these are supposed to be heroes to kids.' That is why I wrote that song. It's about all the people who we believe in the past that have let us down."
• This was a popular song in wrestling in 2010. It was used on WWE Raw and Royal Rumble.
• This was also used in the 2012 horror film Grave Encounters 2.
• After working with Comatose producer Brian Howes - who argued with Cooper over whether the opening line of "Yours To Hold" should be "See you standing here" or "I see you standing here" - Cooper had to readjust to Benson's broader approach on Awake. "Howard is not a songwriter," Cooper explained to jesusfreakhideout.com. "For example, for the song 'Hero,' I would say, 'Should it be 'I need a hero' or should it be 'I want a hero'?' He would just say that it didn't matter. I wasn't used to that. He's more about the concept of the song than the details. He wants to make sure it's something that people want to hear. I learned a lot from Howard about the overall sound of a record and what you're trying to say with it."