John Pierce: While We're Young

John Pierce (on writing the Huey Lewis & The News song "While We're Young"): This is the truth. Every day, I will at least attempt to write something for the band. Every day. So my batting average is like one for about 7,300. I don't know. It's not a great percentage. But I had this idea… I remember I was in San Francisco. We had a corporate show and I was on my way to the gig. And some guy was just yelling at somebody, “Come on! While we're young!” And I thought, wait a minute. “While We're Young.” That would be good for an aging rock band. And so I played with it and found a little piece of music. I played it in the car and tried to sing, to get something going. Ultimately, Huey invited me down to play a little golf. We played golf, had a couple of cocktails, and then I felt secure enough to play Huey my idea. Which is scary by the way. Because you really want him to like it. And he got it, the hook. He understood it. Then he came up with this separate verse concept. For him, it was a very different type of melody.