Gone Away Lyrics
Maybe in another life
I could find you there
Pulled away before your time
I can't deal, it's so unfair
[Chorus]
And it feels, and it feels like
Heaven is so far away
And it feels, yeah, it feels like
The world has grown cold
Now that you've gone away
[Verse 2]
Leavin' flowers on your grave
To show that I still care
Black roses and "Hail Mary's"
Can't bring back what's taken from me
[Pre-Chorus]
I reach to the sky and call out your name
And if I could trade, I would
[Chorus]
And it feels, and it feels like
Heaven is so far away
And it stings, yeah, it stings, now
The world is so cold
Now that you've gone away
Gone away, gone away
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ooh
Yeah ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, oh yeah
[Bridge]
I'll save your soul, woah
Yeah, yeah, ooh
[Pre-Chorus]
I reach to the sky and call out your name
Oh, please let me trade, I would
[Chorus]
And it feels, and it feels like
Heaven is so far away
And it feels, yeah, it feels like
The world has grown cold
Now that you've gone away
[Post-Chorus]
Gone away, gone away
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ooh
Yeah ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, oh yeah
Yeah ooh, yeah ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, oh yeah
About
Following their hit album Smash, The Offspring’s 4th album featured a personal story of the band’s singer Dexter Holland.
There was a rumour about the song, more specifically about the lyrics, that Dexter wrote the song about his at-the-time girlfriend, who died in a car accident. Decades after the song was released, Holland revealed that this rumour is not true.
In an interview with Bob Lefsetz in 2021, Dexter said that he was in a restaurant with his then-wife in Huntington Beach when a couple ran in and wanted to call the police, saying that someone’s chasing them with a gun. Moments after that, some gang members ran in and started to shoot up the place. Luckily, no one was hurt, but Dexter said that just the idea of coming that close to death was a life-changing moment. After that incident, Dexter wrote this song in a couple of days.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
“Gone Away” is a song that I wrote for [the 1997 album] Ixnay on the Hombre. We’d been playing that song live for quite a while, but we wanted to have a moment in the set where there was a little break—have it be a piano and vocal thing, a moment in the show where you could catch a breath. So we started doing that and the lighters went up instantly. We were getting so many messages on social media saying, ‘Where can I get the piano version of that song?’ so we put it on the album. As a recording experience, it was weird, because I’m used to loud guitars covering up all my vocal flaws. It felt very vulnerable in an uncomfortable way. It took a little while to work through that in the studio.
- 7.Light It Up
- 8.Want You Bad
- 9.Gone Away
- 11.Hit That
- 13.The Fall Guy
- 14.All I Want
- 19.Half-Truism
- 20.Truth in Fiction
- 22.Americana
- 24.Coming for You
- 25.She’s Got Issues
- 26.No Brakes
- 27.Can’t Repeat
- 30.Have You Ever
