Cai asked Mikel Jollett:

What is the inspiration for the song “True” on the album Hollywood Park? And does it relate to a part of the book?

Mikel Jollett “True” is the final song on the record Hollywood Park which is the soundtrack that the band and I made as a companion piece to the book. It’s about the time spent in the hospital with my father. In the modern world you often know when someone’s going to die weeks or months before they do. And you know when it’s really the end. It’s hard at that time because everyone shows up at the hospital to say their goodbyes and there’s no word that’s going to make it okay. You just show up for the person and show up for each other. That song was about that time and conversations I had with my brother, my mom, Bonnie, and my wife about my dad, trying to wrap my head around the enormity of the loss that was coming. I chose to end the record with the metaphor of the dust, which starts off as the dust of the racetrack and ends up becoming the dust of his ashes.

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