“THE WAR FOLLOWED ME HOME” is probably one of the most personal and difficult songs I’ve ever written.
I wrote this song after coming off almost a week of nightmares night after night, followed by one of the worst periods of depression I’ve been through. I was still in a pretty terrible place when I sat down to write it, and something inside me said, Put it into words now. Don’t wait until you feel better. - So I did.
I didn’t want to write about these feelings later, when they were easier to explain or when I could make them sound prettier. I wanted to write them while I was still feeling them.
This song is about something many veterans understand: coming home doesn’t always mean the war is over. The uniform gets put away. Decades pass. You build a life, you grow older, and the world keeps moving. But sometimes the war follows you home, and memories you thought were buried can suddenly feel like they happened yesterday.
In this song, the young man I once was and the older man I am today sometimes become the same person. More than anything, “THE WAR FOLLOWED ME HOME” is my message to my fellow veterans who may be carrying their own memories, nightmares, pain, or battles that nobody around them can see. If that’s you, I hope you listen to these words and know that another veteran understands.
Please listen with headphones if you can. Listen closely to every word. The melody matters, but this song was never really about the melody. It’s about the words. It’s about the story. And most of all, it’s about the message.
Lyrics
[INTRO — PIANO, CELLO, STRINGS]
[VERSE 1]
I closed my eyes in Las Vegas last night,
And somewhere in the darkness I was young again.
The years disappeared, my bedroom faded away,
And suddenly I was back in Vietnam again.
I heard the sounds still living in my memory,
Saw faces from a lifetime ago.
For a few terrible moments I wasn't dreaming—
I was that young soldier I used to know.
[PRE-CHORUS]
People call them nightmares,
But that word never says enough.
Sometimes Vietnam isn't a memory—
Sometimes Vietnam wakes back up.
[CHORUS]
I came home from Vietnam,
But Vietnam followed me home.
Across an ocean, across the years,
It never completely let me go.
Vietnam still comes back at night,
And suddenly I'm young again.
I wake up here in Las Vegas,
But my mind is still back then.
The war followed me home.
[VERSE 2]
The nightmare ends, but that's not the ending.
Sometimes that's where the hardest part begins.
I open my eyes and know that I'm safe,
But Vietnam is still underneath my skin.
Then comes the silence, then comes the weight,
Then comes the darkness of the day.
Depression settles over everything,
And sometimes I can't push it away.
I don't want company, I don't want noise,
Sometimes I don't want anything at all.
I can be sitting safely inside my own home
And still feel trapped behind four walls.
[VERSE 3 — SUNG, NOT SPOKEN]
The VA has walked this road beside me,
With doctors who listen and medicine that helps.
They can't erase the things that happened,
But they help me through the nights I can't help myself.
They can't erase Vietnam,
Or make every nightmare disappear.
But those terrible nights come less often now,
And that helps me make it through another year.
PTSD doesn't follow calendars,
It doesn't care how long ago the battle was fought.
It can take an old man sleeping safely in Nevada
And turn him into the young man Vietnam never forgot.
[BRIDGE]
And somewhere tonight another veteran
is lying awake in the dark.
Maybe Korea.
Maybe Vietnam.
Maybe the Persian Gulf,
Iraq or Afghanistan.
Maybe someplace more recent
you still can't talk about.
Different wars.
Different generations.
But maybe the same nightmare,
the same racing heart,
the same depression
when morning finally comes.
Brother, sister,
I know.
Whatever battlefield still finds you at night,
you're not the only one.
[KEY CHANGE]
You're not the only one
who wakes up in a war that's long over.
You're not the only one
who carries the dream into the morning.
You're not the only one
who smiles and says, "I'm fine,"
while fighting something nobody else can see.
From Korea to Vietnam,
from the Gulf to Iraq and Afghanistan,
generations came home carrying things
no one else could see.
You're not weak.
You're not alone.
I know because Vietnam still finds me too.
[FINAL CHORUS]
I came home from Vietnam,
But Vietnam followed me home.
More than half a lifetime later,
there are nights it still won't leave me alone.
Vietnam still comes back in my dreams.
The young man and the old man become one.
Then I open my eyes in Las Vegas
and wait for another morning to come.
I've had days so dark
I couldn't see beyond the pain.
But I've lived through every one of them,
and here I am again.
I can't promise the nightmares disappear.
Mine haven't.
I can't promise depression never returns.
Mine does.
But I can tell every veteran listening—
Whatever war followed you home,
you don't have to carry it alone.
I'm still here.
And so are you.
[FINAL REFRAIN]
The war followed me home,
but it did not take everything.
I'm still here.
And tomorrow...
I'll get up again.
[INSTRUMENTAL OUTRO — NO VOCALS]