This gentle acoustic song evokes a place of safety and comfort. Dave Grohl hasn't talked about the meaning, but his mom's name was Virginia and he was very fond of her, so she's likely the inspiration. In 2017 she published a book called From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars. Virginia died in 2022 at 84.
The song features Norah Jones on piano and co-vocals. She recalled her contribution in a 2010 interview with Billboard magazine: "I've been a fan of Dave Grohl's for a long time. He called me and I thought, 'Am I finally gonna get to rock?' When he sent me the track it was this beautiful bossa nova ballad so it made sense that he called me - but I wasn't going to get to rock after all. The song has a complex chord progression and it took me a minute to fish around for the right harmony, but we found it together."
"Norah is positively the most talented musician I've ever been around in my life – and that's including some heavies," Grohl told Craig McLean of The Independent on Sunday about working with Jones on this track. "She was unbelievable. Perfect pitch, perfect time, perfect placement, perfect playing. We were absolutely stunned. She did two takes and that was it. In and out in an hour and a half. And she was sweet as sugar, man. Unassuming, modest and a good hang."
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