Armstrong’s father died on September 1, 1982, from cancer when Armstrong was only 10 years old. According to Songfacts, Armstrong locked himself in his room after his father’s funeral. When his mother knocked on the door to see if he was OK, Armstrong responded, “Wake me up when September ends.”

“I think it’s something that just stayed with me; the month of September being that anniversary that always is just, I don’t know, kind of a bummer,” Armstrong said in a Howard Stern interview last year. The lyrics “Like my father’s come to pass, twenty years has gone so fast,” refers to the time in between Armstrong’s father dying and him writing the song in 2002.

Armstrong added that he still thinks about his late father every time he performs the song. “I think about him every day, really. I kinda avoided writing about him for many years, and then finally having a breakthrough like that felt good. It wasn’t like a negative emotion so much, but it was just kind of like honoring him.”