Starlighter (Echo, Utah)

The lyrics for this song were inspired by a journey in the mountains of Utah, which Hawthorne Heights frontman JT Woodruff described to Rock Sound as "the worst drive of my life." He explained: "There was snow pouring everywhere, the van I was driving didn't have heat or defrost, and the passenger was wiping the window frantically with the sock he was wearing, so I could see the road. It was 14 miles till the next exit, and our lives kept flashing before our eyes. When we eventually made it safely to an exit, we left the van in the middle of the parking lot, checked in to a room, and when I stopped trembling, I wrote lyrics about summer. I needed to get my head out of the snow and think about how this situation would be different if it was in June. So while my mind was racing, I crafted a story about a group of friends whose entire lives are ahead of them, and they just want to have one last weekend blow out. There are laughs, arguments, adventure, and everything that makes a summer weekend great. But the overlying theme is that I thought I was going to die that night, with my friends, just so I could sing and play guitar. Pretty crucial. [Laughs]"