Back in 2001, Train’s Drops of Jupiter wasn’t an obvious hit. The band was still clawing their way into the mainstream, Columbia Records wasn’t convinced they were ready to “graduate,” and Pat Monahan had just lost his mother. But then, a song came to him in a dream. “I wrote all of Drops of Jupiter in 15 minutes,” he says. “I played it for the label, and the head guy closed his eyes and said, ‘Song of the year.’”
That song, with Paul Buckmaster’s now-iconic string arrangement, launched Train from underdog rock band to global stars. But it wasn’t the only standout on the record. Let It Roll, one of the album’s most emotionally gutting tracks, was Monahan’s personal tribute to his mother. “I found out she was terminally ill through a card someone handed me backstage at a show,” he recalls. “I spent an hour crying at a payphone. That song came from that moment.”
The record wasn’t without its struggles. The band was nearly forced to change the now-famous “soy latte” lyric from Drops of Jupiter for being “not masculine enough.” Monahan refused. “I don’t even drink soy lattes, but that was the line,” he laughs. “I didn’t understand why it would be offensive to anyone. Turns out, it became iconic.”
The album’s success hit a strange time—right before 9/11. The tragedy changed everything, including the way music was promoted. “We had a $400,000 video where I was climbing a skyscraper—it got scrapped immediately,” he says. “James Taylor’s Fire and Rain stopped getting played. Everything just froze.”
Two decades later, Drops of Jupiter is still finding new audiences, from Taylor Swift covering it live to a surprise revelation that folk icon Judy Collins performed it. “I didn’t even know that,” Monahan says, genuinely floored. “That’s a huge honor.”
As for the next chapter? Monahan’s keeping his focus on emotion and connection. “I don’t write political songs—I leave that to people who are smarter than me,” he says. “I just want to make people feel something.”
Watch the interview above and then check out the videos below.
