EW looks back at how the 2001 hit almost didn’t happen.
Everyone knows the lyrics toTrain’s “Drops of Jupiter.”
EW looks back on the song that helped solidify Train all thanks to a dream.
“Had I not lost my mother, the song probably would not have been written,” says Train frontman Pat Monahan.Mike Corrado
Did you make it to the Milky Way?
And it almost wasn’t.
20 on the charts, effectively launching their career.
Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect
But Monahan had issues following it up with another hit until he found his literal dream song.
SCOTT UNDERWOOD (drummer, 1994-2014):We had really high hopes.
I was really proud of that; it’s a huge deal for me, especially being the drummer.
“I pressed Pat to write what I thought would be a first single,” says then-Columbia Records head Don Ienner, of Train’s sophomore record. Monahan returned with “Drops of Jupiter”.Sony Music
It was completed, turned in.
Nobody wanted to hear that we needed one more song.
[Laughs] But that’s what happened.
It went on for a while, like three or four months, maybe longer.
I was already off making another record.
MONAHAN:Columbia Records didn’t consider us to have a first single yet…. That’s just the way it was.
I pressed Pat to write what I thought would be a first single.
I bet he swore that he hated me, that he didn’t want to do it.
He must have turned in 20 or 30 songs, all of which I rejected.
The stakes were so high.
O’BRIEN:That was a tough pill to swallow.
But they were totally right.
STAFFORD:They call it the sophomore slump, I guess.
The night of the life-changing dream about his late mother, Monahan was in Erie, Penn.
MONAHAN:That’s where I’m from.
That’s where my mom passed away.
It was the winter.
It was just one night, one dream, done.
My dream was basically my mother coming back and saying, “This is what it’s like.”
I really didn’t think of it as anything but a really long song.
I was really surprised that people would care as much as they did or do.
UNDERWOOD:I found [Monahan writing this song from a dream] mysterious and interesting and cool.
I don’t know how that works.
Now, the record was finished.
And I flipped over it.
UNDERWOOD:Everyone thought it was f—ing amazing.
Just him singing those words, and that melody, I was floored.
[Laughs] But he kind of did.
IENNER:One night, he comes up to my office about 9 o’clock.
We had a glass of wine.
And he says, “Don, I don’t have anything.
And I really want to put the album out.
I’m working on this idea.
Do you mind if I play it for you?”
Probably 60 or 70 seconds went by.
I stopped it and I said, “This is your first single.
This is your Grammy.”
MONAHAN:It was thankfully at a time when the movieAlmost Famouswas out.
IENNER:I had just seenAlmost Famousabout a week or two earlier.
MONAHAN:So when Donnie heard this song, he freaked out.
He immediately called it “the song of the year.”
IENNER:This song to me could have been an Elton song.
We will make a top 10, if not a No.
1 song, that will launch your career forever."
I thought it was about a lost love.
I had no idea it was about his mother until after.
But at 60 to 70 seconds, we were done.
I knew at that point we had what we wanted.
To me it wasn’t a song, it was a movie.
Let’s do this.
This is the one."
That’s all I needed to hear.
MONAHAN:It was a very strange time.
Every word that I wrote felt like the right word.
I didn’t even drink coffee!
They were just things that were supposed to be there.
But people wanted me to change it.
O’BRIEN:It wasn’t “people,” it wasme.
[Laughs] I just, soy latte was I don’t know about that, man.
It was that lyric in particular.
UNDERWOOD:I was like, “What’s the problem?
Dude, we drink soy lattes!
That was your initial idea, man.
This is your lyric.
This is you expressing yourself.
Don’t change a thing.”
IENNER:I never liked the latte line.
I thought it was cheesy.
But people loved it.
I thought there was another way that he could have written it, and he wasreallyadamant about soy lattes.
“Nobody wants to hear about soy lattes.”
“Fried chicken is racist.”
I don’t fight the current.
It was less fighting with people and more just doing what I was going to do.
I knew I was right.
By the time we recorded it, I was like, “I’m not doing anything different.”
[Laughs] You’ve got to stop him, he’s gone mad!"
He’s not going to push it too far where he loses his job.
So Pat’s gotten away with some stuff, let’s just say that.
And on that song he got away with it in a really big, Grammy-winning way.
With the lyrics set, the music came next.
At the time, Train consisted of Monahan, Stafford, Underwood, Rob Hotchkiss, and Charlie Colin.
O’BRIEN:My only thought was, “How are we going to approach this?”
It didn’t have a traditional chorus.
It started with the title of the song and it doesn’t say it again after that.
It had a sort of bridge.
It wasn’t a traditional arrangement.
It didn’t have an ending.
And I know the guy we needed to bring in.
We all were like, “Brendan O’Brien!”
We didn’t think he’d really do it.
[Laughs] But he did.
Let’s get Elton John to play the piano on this song."
O’BRIEN:I don’t know if the Elton John conversation got much past that.
That would make it a Train song featuring Elton John doing basically an Elton John song at that point.
I’m not sure that would have had the same impact.
O’BRIEN:He was great and everybody played great because he’s great.
And I felt so proud of myself because I was right about him.
He has such a bounce and swing in his playing.
He was absolutely the best choice you could ever want to play piano on your record.
Nothing else had been recorded yet and we all just looked at each other and smiled.
You could just sense the magic already.
But Ienner was also committed to his original idea of bringing in Buckmaster to orchestrate a string arrangement.
IENNER:Paul didMadman Across the Water, all those great albums by Elton.
It just seemed to me like the exact right thing to do.
We built the track and then we had Paul come in to orchestrate it.
He was thrilled that I had suggested him for this, because he didn’t really know about Train.
If I’d seenAlmost Famouseven just a week later?
I don’t know that I would have immediately thought of Buckmaster.
But everything happens for a reason.
MONAHAN:Donnie personally called him.
O’BRIEN:I had a lot of back and forth with Paul about the arrangement.
That’s just the way Paul worked.
STAFFORD:Paul had never been nominated for a Grammy, believe it or not.
That was really special.
MONAHAN:[The strings] added emotion.
It’s such a weird thing to talk about, but it does create so many feelings.
It was pretty massive and a big deal for me because I don’t come from much.
O’BRIEN:After all the drama involved, finishing it and hearing it, I loved it.
It sounded like a hit to me.
Was it everything you wanted to find?
STAFFORD:We were back on the road and we were sent a mix to listen to.
MONAHAN:It’s better than my dream was.
UNDERWOOD:It trumped the song I wrote with Pat for the initial single.
I turned it up as loud as I could.
Anybody that was in the building I had walk into my office and played it for them.
It’s one of those magical moments that you work your entire life for.
It was difficult to get this four-minute ballad on the radio, but that wasn’t my job.
MONAHAN:The first time we performed it was for a radio show in Chicago, a Christmas show.
I just announced it as a song that was going to be on the next album.
I did not expect that.
O’BRIEN:As soon as the song came out, it did well right away.
And it just kept going.
MONAHAN:I don’t remember really caring about the charts.
That’s all I wanted: How do I go see people in Glasgow?
This was the only way, and it worked.
IENNER:Train was really an American thing.
It was a top song almost weirdly immediately.
MONAHAN:One of the greatest misinterpretations was when the song came out.
A lot of people who lovedDiver Downwanted me dead.
It was pretty awesome.
The idea was, did you fallforsomebody else?
It gets misinterpreted so much.
But I just don’t take this kind of stuff too seriously.
I’m so glad someone thought I said Van Halen, that’s hilarious to me.
Lyrical misinterpretations aside, “Drops of Jupiter” hit No.
5 on the Hot 100 and went on to earn five Grammy nominations, including Song of the Year.
For us to get nominated, it’s such a cliche, but that was enough.
So I thought maybe we would get that.
And then there were several others, so that was pretty fun.
STAFFORD:The night of the Grammys, we performed close to our category being announced.
You guys are really good songwriters.
Congratulations on your nomination."
Little did I know at the time that he was going to be presenting our award.
And we beat U2!
The one that I wanted was Song of the Year.
But hey, they all feel good.
It was cool for me to be able to [thank my mom in my acceptance speech].
[Laughs] And they did.
We should have won Best Song but that damn Alicia Keys [laughs].
I mean, talk about out of your league.
We’re still this baby band and we’re there with U2 and Don Henley and the biggest stars.
We never really felt like we fit in.
UNDERWOOD:Shortly after winning a Grammy, you just want to win another Grammy.
That’s what I personally experienced.
Pat, Jimmy, Rob, and Charlie, it seems like everybody else handled it really well.
It’s not like everybody just fell apart and blew up and our egos got the best of us.
We kept working, we were underdogs, we appreciated it, and we didn’t get jaded yet.
And nothing did really get to that level again.
IENNER:When it comes on the radio today, I turn it up to 10.
And it still blows my mind.
“Meet Virginia” was cool and it was quirky in its own way.
I absolutely believe that.
I just thought that was super-cute.
Twenty years later, Monahan is incredibly proud of the single that saved Train.
MONAHAN:“Drops of Jupiter,” it’s a career song.
Had I not lost my mother, the song probably would not have been written.
Had I been forced to write songs with other people, maybe something good could have come of it?
But definitely not this.
