Pat Monahan Reveals the Dream That Inspired “Drops of Jupiter,” Teases Train’s Next Chapter (Exclusive)

“Drops of Jupiter” is all thanks to a dream. Train frontman Pat Monahan was the latest guest on American Songwriter’s Off the Record podcast, during which he told host Lisa Konicki about the circumstances that led him to write the band’s signature song.

“My mother had passed away. I was in a really bad relationship that was not working out. My band, we were not all best friends from high school, so there was turmoil in all of that,” Monahan said. “We had this rule that you could only write within the band, which is crippling, but you don’t realize that until later.”

With that in mind, Donnie Ienner, the then-president of Columbia Records, scheduled a meeting with Monahan. Two nights before that sit down, Monahan had a dream.

“I feel like she came and she was consoling me like, ‘You’re OK. I can swim through the planets now if I want, come back with drops of Jupiter in my hair. You’re OK,’” he said of his late mom. “I think she wrote that song. I keep being like, ‘Hey, Mom, where’s the next one?’”

Pat Monahan Recalls the Very First Reaction to “Drops of Jupiter”

Monahan quickly got the song demoed and brought the disc with him to the meeting.

“Donnie was the first person to ever hear it. As he was in the middle of his speech… I said, ‘I cut this demo. I had a dream.’ He goes, ‘Oh, that’s where the great ones are made,’” Monahan recalled. “By the time it got to ‘Plain old Jane, told a story about a man,‘ he just went, ‘F**king Song of the Year.’”

The 2001 track was indeed nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys, along with four other awards. It wound up winning for two: Best Rock Song and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s). For Monahan, though, the song was about more than awards.

“I think ‘Drops of Jupiter’ was the first time I realized how healing music can be. The responses that it got were everything from, ‘My father just passed away, and this was our song, and it helped me through it,’ to hate mail from Van Halen fans that thought I was saying, ‘Van Halen is overrated…’ instead of, ‘And that heaven is overrated.’ I was like, ‘Dude, I love Van Halen.’”

Pat Monahan on Train’s Latest LP

Now, 25 years later, Train is gearing up for the release of their next LP, Mad Dog in the Fog.

“It’s basically about the history of us getting started in San Francisco,” Monahan said of the album. “The whole album is basically about my voyage from Pennsylvania to San Francisco and the relationships.”

While the album is full of rock and guitar, it also includes several ballads, two of which are Monahan’s favorites on the LP. “What If We Try,” Monahan said, is a song about “trying to work out a long distance relationship.” The second track, “Blue Brushed Butterfly,” is “a love story about trying to tame someone.”

Elsewhere on the project is a song titled “I’m Tired of Looking Down.”

“It’s really about spending my life in an airplane,” Monahan explained. “‘Don’t want to come back, but I’m tired of being up here.’ Because when you land, you have to deal.”

Pat Monahan Reveals His Next Goal

“Kid in the Crown,” meanwhile, is all about Monahan and his 14-year-old son, Rock.

“My brother was my father figure and he always made me feel like, ‘You wear that crown until you feel like royalty. Don’t take it off for anybody,’” Monahan said. “And now my job is to do the same for my son.”

It’s no surprise Monahan wrote about his son. The teen has made headlines for his onstage appearances at Train’s recent shows, during which he shows off his singing and guitar skills. Monahan said he hopes that his collaboration with his kid is just beginning.

“My next goal is to write songs with my son, who is 14,” he said. “He’s on tour with us, and he comes out, and he blazes on guitar and sings ‘Like an Angel.’ He’s blowing up on the internet. It’s really funny how celebrities are texting my manager and then following my son on Instagram.”

Fans will have to wait until Train’s next album for a potential father-son collaboration. Even so, Monahan said he hopes that Mad Dog in the Fog connects with listeners when it comes out on Aug. 28.

“I always hope that something that I am doing helps people through their day a little bit. That’s all,” he said. “We get this brief speck of time here. And maybe for a few of those moments, something I did will matter.”