Hello hello hello and welcome to the Better Each Day podcast where recording artists’ tell you the backstories and their music plays a few tales of its own. I’m Bruce Hilliard and thank you for being here.

I’ve had the pleasure of producing this show for over five years without the use of sponsors. Why, you ask. 

Because I’m not selling out for anyone I tell you! That’s why I eat: (multiple ads for 60s food and deodorant).

That was Love Potion #9, the home game. I’ve got new songs coming up in the next episodes but while listening to the old TV sounds I couldn’t help but flash on my dad and his accidental influence on my writing…at least subject matter. 

While Dad was sitting in his recliner sipping a scotch and reading the newspaper, he, on more than one occasion, would comment on an article about a teenager getting killed as the result of a high speed chase.

His point, and the one that stuck with me for all these years, is that teenagers, especially guys, are wired to run when chased. If the police would give these guys a break they wouldn’t run and end their lives way too short.

Dad’s message, courtesy of a few scotches and the evening news, led to my story song about Joey. He was the young man that had it all and accidentally killed a peer in a tavern brawl. Joey had his eyes on a lady, the bad guy calls her a slut and Joey pops him in the snot locker and the guy “droped like a rock.”

Joey freaks and hears voices. He hears the angels sing and they tell him to run. 

With Valentine’s Day a few weeks from now, I take you from the morbid story of Joey’s hormonal imbalance leading to headlines to a syrupy love song. This song is about searching and finally finding the place you belong…and the people that make it exist. The title is Sweetest Thing I’ve Ever Known.

There’s a sneak at where it's going. But for now that's all I got.