The Luckiest / Ben Folds cover for Tom

Описание: In memory of Tom Johnson
Recorded July 21st, 2020

When we were teenagers, my friend Tom and I were both lifeguards at different pools. The pool I worked at was in our neighborhood, so occasionally he came and visited me.

One summer day, before our senior year, he came and stood next to my lifeguard chair (careful not to distract me) and told me he’d heard a song and loved it so much. He asked, if he sang it to me, would I learn it so I could sing it for him? I said sure, and he stood in the sunshine and sang me The Luckiest by Ben Folds from start to finish.

It’s a great song, but oddly enough, Tom’s the only person that ever played or sang that song for me. So over the years, it’s always been Tom’s Song to me. You see, even at 16, Tom was searching for The Love Of His Life, and that’s what the song is all about. I thought about it when he got married, when he had his daughter and when he had his son. As adulthood distanced us, it was a song I could listen to when I missed him and wanted to think about him.

We were kids when we met, maybe 9 or 10, and life seemed eternal. But last week, at the age of 34, Tom took his own life. In the days after his death, I played the song on repeat. I wept, thinking about how much I related to the song as his friend, but also how clearly this song related to Tom and the true Loves Of His Life, his two beautiful children. Eventually I found myself at the piano, making good on a long overdue promise.

Tom— it took me 18 years. But I learned it for you.