Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Twenty One Pilots’ frontman Tyler Joseph delivers a heartfelt tribute to his mom in the 2013 release, “House of Gold.”
In this song about the fear of growing old, Joseph’s mom asks her singer/songwriter son if he’ll take care of her in her twilight years. Written as an exchange between Joseph and his mom, he sings, “She asked me, ‘Son, when I grow old / Will you buy me a house of gold? / And when your father turns to stone / Will you take care of me?'”
The devoted son responds that he will not only make her the “Queen of everything you see,” but he’ll also bring her fame and cure her of disease.
Joseph told British Rock Sound magazine that he wrote the song to express his love for his mother, but didn't reveal "exactly" what the song was about because it would leave him "a little too vulnerable."
"But I love my mom very much and I want to always be there for her, like she was for me, and this song is about that," he said.
Initially appearing as a bonus track on Twenty One Pilots’ second studio album, Regional at Best, “House of Gold” became the fourth track of the indie pop group’s third studio album, Vessel. The song, which features Joseph on the ukulele and bandmate Josh Dun on the drums, became a top-10 hit on Billboard‘s US Alternative Songs chart and was certified "platinum" with more than one million digital downloads.
Twenty One Pilots performed "House of Gold" on Conan in their late night debut. The date was August 8, 2013.
The album ascended to #21 on the US Billboard 200 chart and sold more than 500,000 copies. Vessel was re-released as a limited-edition vinyl boxset in early 2023 on the occasion of its 10 anniversary.
The name Twenty One Pilots was derived from an Arthur Miller play called All My Sons, in which a World War II contractor knowingly delivers defective airplane parts, reasoning that fixing the problems would be too costly. The tragic result is the loss of 21 pilots. Apparently, the bandmates were inspired by the lessons of the story — to avoid shortcuts and always act with integrity.
Hailing from Columbus, OH, Twenty One Pilots’ early fan base was made up of Ohio State University students.
The video below was shot in 2013 for The Live Room at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, CA. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“House of Gold”
Written by Tyler Joseph. Performed by Twenty One Pilots.
She asked me, “Son, when I grow old,
Will you buy me a house of gold?
And when your father turns to stone,
Will you take care of me?”
She asked me, “Son, when I grow old,
Will you buy me a house of gold?
And when your father turns to stone,
Will you take care of me?”
I will make you
Queen of everything you see
I’ll put you on the map
I’ll cure you of disease
Let’s say we up and left this town
And turned our future upside down
We’ll make pretend that you and me
Lived ever after, happily
She asked me, “Son, when I grow old,
Will you buy me a house of gold?
And when your father turns to stone,
Will you take care of me?”
I will make you
Queen of everything you see
I’ll put you on the map
I’ll cure you of disease
And since we know that dreams are dead
And life turns plans up on their head
I will plan to be a bum
So I just might become someone
She asked me, “Son, when I grow old,
Will you buy me a house of gold?
And when your father turns to stone,
Will you take care of me?”
I will make you
Queen of everything you see
I’ll put you on the map
I’ll cure you of disease
Credit: Screen capture via YouTube / Songkick.