“Live Like We’re Dying” is not your usual memorial song. The eighth season American Idol winner, 27 year old Kris Allen, almost screams as he sings his Live Like We’re Dying to instill an in the moment rush to grab every second you have left of life – no matter what age, how close (or faraway) to death you may be. This is a song for everyone, including those living the last days of their life. Kris Allen’s gritty high-contrast and fast action rock video reinforces a need for an immediate count down on living life to its fullest. It hit number 18 on the U.S. Billboard in 2009.
What many may not know is that over the years Kris has traveled to many countries to offer missionary work, including Burma, Thailand, Mozambique, Morocco and Spain, to name a few. On his very first missionary to Morocco he returned to the US with a rare form of hepatitis. He attributes his having approached near-death as the reason he began writing original songs, consequently leading him in his successful career today and to writing such a hit song as Live Like We’re Dying.
We provide the lyrics below to inspire a modern day rock memorial song for a funeral or memorial service:
“Sometimes we fall down, can’t get back up
We’re hiding behind skin that’s too tough
How come we don’t say I love you enough?
‘Til it’s to late, it’s not too late
Our hearts are hungry for a food that won’t come
And we could make a feast from these crumbs
And we’re all staring down the barrel of a gun
So if your life flashed before you, what would you wish you would’ve done?
Yeah, we gotta start lookin’ at the hands of the time we’ve been given
If this is all we got, then we gotta start thinkin’
If every second counts on a clock that’s tickin’
Gotta live like we’re dying
We only got 86 400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or to throw it all away
We gotta tell ’em that we love ’em while we got the chance to say
Gotta live like we’re dying”
Read more: KRIS ALLEN – LIVE LIKE WE’RE DYING LYRICS