“Over the course of the time that I was writing the record, the ideas about mortality and all that were sort of in the room with me, and I think that it was a combination of factors. I think it’s kind of a natural thing as you get older – it’s something you think about more.

“During the first summer that I was writing songs for this record, that happened. I was invited to a wedding of one of my co-writers on the album and as it happened, that same week I went to three memorial services and it really hit me that the older you get, this is what happens.

“This is the way it is – the ratio starts to shift and it’s just a fact of life. I think it even validated, for me, the idea of writing about this subject. I thought, ‘This is reality. This is what it is to be in your 50s and I think there must be other people that want to hear about this.'”