You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.

I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe.

This is Key Change, where I talk to fascinating people about the music that changed their lives.

My guest today is John Green.

My name is John Green, and I'm a novelist and YouTuber. John is the award-winning

number one best-selling author of books, including Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars,

Turtles All the Way Down, the Anthropocene reviewed, and everything is tuberculosis. John and his

brother, Hank Green, have co-created a lot of projects together, including their massive YouTube channel, vlog brothers, and their podcast, Dear Hank and John.

John also serves on the board of trustees for the global health nonprofit, partners in health.

And when I asked John if there was a piece of music that changed his life, he knew the answer right away.

It's a song by Jerry and the Pacemakers called You'll Never Walk Alone,

which is a cover of a cover. It's from the musical carousel, I think.

And it's a little bit of a convoluted story how this song came into my life.

But, you know, in thinking about your question, have you listened to a song

that really changed your life? There are certainly songs that mean more to me than you'll never

walk alone. But there's no song that's changed my life more dramatically. How do you parse the

difference between those two things? Well, you know, my favorite band is a band called The Mountain Goats.

There are songs by Will Oldham that I really treasure.

There are songs by Loretta Lynn that I really treasure from my childhood.

But you'll never walk alone had this, or has, I guess, this ongoing deep impact and my daily lived experience, which is very weird for me.

I mean, I'm not a music guy like you.

Like, I don't have the relationship with music that you have.

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