Songfacts®:

• The Gaslight Anthem vocalist and songwriter Brian Fallon was inspired to write this song after attending a solo show by Soundgarden singer and rhythm guitarist Chris Cornell. He explained to Artist Direct: "I went to see one of Chris Cornell's solo acoustic shows at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ. I saw his name on the marquee, and I was like, 'I've got to go!' I got in, and he was awesome. He was really on fire! He just killed it. When I got home, I was really buzzed on the whole vibe of his show. I used some Soundgarden-style weird chords I saw him play that I never really learned before. I watched his hands and thought, 'Look at that chord! I wonder if it would sound good with these chords I normally use.' It was a cool growing thing. That song came out really quickly in about 20 minutes. It was a good stride."
• Whilst The Gaslight Anthem's first three albums were steeped in Americana, Handwritten is rooted in frontman Brian Fallon's own experiences. "Now I am no angel but I got nothing to hide," he rasps on this brooding track. "Can you say the same thing for yourself tonight?" "It's supposed to be a letter to whoever is listening," explained the singer. "Like, this is what we got beat up by and maybe you did too. There's so many things that I just never wrote about, real personal stuff that I just wasn't ready to talk about yet. Now I think being an adult I have some reflection on it."
• Many of the Gaslight fans have misinterpreted the song. Brian Fallon told Kerrang: "All the time people think that the lyric 'Too much blood on the page' is about writing songs, but it's not, it's about never putting work before your real life, and the things that matter to the people that you love. Putting too much blood on the page is about not putting too much into going for a job over your loved ones, or your family, or whatever. That song wasn't specifically about me. It had nothing to do with writing songs, and it wasn't about me. That's one that people always think!"