Meaning of “Leave a Light On” by Tom Walker

“Leave a Light On” is a song by Scottish singer-songwriter Tom Walker. The song centers mainly on overcoming addiction. Speaking with MTV, Walker said the lyrics of “Leave a Light On” were inspired by a friend of his who had been battling severe drug addiction. In the song, Walker encourages his friend to get help. He goes on to tell his friend that if he ever loses his way, he (Walker) “will leave the light on” for him so he can find his way back.

In another interview with The Idolator, Walker said despite the song being inspired by his friend’s woes, it is also aimed at everyone dealing with addiction. According to him, in writing this song, his main goal was to let his friends and family know that whatever kind of addiction they are dealing with, they can talk about it and overcome it.

In his interview with MTV, Walker said the realest thing he had ever written was “Leave a Light On”.

Millions around the world relate to this song

Owing to the song’s topic and inspiring nature, millions around the world dealing with various types of addiction relate with it. Walker himself has stated on multiple occasions that shortly after the song came out, he received numerous warm messages from many across the world. According to him, most of these messages thanked him for writing the song.

Facts about “Leave a Light On”

• “Leave a Light On” was co-written by Tom Walker and the multiple award-winning English songwriter and producer Steve Mac. According to Walker, he and Mac wrote the entire song in about 5 hours. Mac is known for co-writing and co-producing some of the biggest hits of the last two decades. Some of his songwriting credits include such hits as Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” and Westlife’s “Queen of My Heart”.
• The production of this track was handled solely by Steve Mac – the song’s co-writer.
• The track was officially released on October 13, 2017. It is a single from Walker’s debut album What a Time to be Alive.
• “Leave a Light On” was so successful that it reached number 1 in France. In Walker’s home country of Scotland and a number of other European countries, the track reached number 2.
• Th phrase “leave a light on”, which happens to be the song’s title, doesn’t appear in the lyrics. However, the phrase “leave the light on” appears multiple times.

Does “Leave a Light On” have an official music video?

Yes, it does. The official music video of this tune was released on the same day (October 13, 2017) the tune came out. The clip was shot in Croatia. Another music video was later shot for this clip. That second clip was released in April 2018.

Have Steve Mac and Tom Walker worked together before?

No. This is the first time the two are working together.

Does “Leave a Light On” sample any song(s)?

No.

Who plays the keyboards on the track?

In addition to co-writing and producing this track, Steve Mac also played the keyboards on it.

Who is this friend Walker talks about in the song? And was the friend eventually able to overcome his drug problem?

No one knows the name of who this person is as Walker has to date not disclosed anything about him to the public. And it’s obvious Walker might never do that. Regarding whether the friend succeeded in overcoming his addiction, it is likely the friend did. We say this because in his MTV interview, Walker said he wrote the song about one of his friends who “was in a really bad place at that time“.  This basically implies that as of the time of the interview (published in January 2018), the friend had come out of that “bad place”.