Twenty years ago Saturday, Jason Mraz‘s career blasted off with the release of his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come. Today, Jason still has love for the album — or, at least, there isn’t anything on there that really makes him cringe.
“I think musically, it holds up just fine,” he tells ABC Audio. “Lyrically, there’s a couple of moments … that I think, ‘Oh, OK, I was 20 when I wrote that.’ I didn’t either have time or the experience to fully think that thought out, or who I was at that age … I hear moments like that [and] I think, ‘Oh, OK, I may not be him anymore, but I accept who I was."”
Waiting for My Rocket to Come (Expanded Edition) is available Saturday, featuring two acoustic live tracks that haven’t been available digitally: “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry)” and “Tonight, Not Again.” Of course, “The Remedy” was the big hit from the album, but Jason was a bit ambivalent about it at first.
He wrote “The Remedy” about his friend who was battling cancer, but his record label brought in the pop production team The Matrix — Lauren Christy, Scott Spock and Graham Edwards — to add a happy, sing-along chorus. But Jason has since made his peace with the song.
“I learned to love it very quickly … when I started to feel how it was connecting with audiences, I realized that this is a good thing,” Jason recalls. “It supported my friend who inspired the song … it was a gift to all of us in many ways.”
In fact, Jason says a few months ago he ran into Christy at a party and they played “The Remedy” together.
“It was so fun!” he says. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”
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