Get Lyrical: Nick Heward's "Please Forgive Me"

posted in: Features

You might be inclined to believe that a plucky, heartfelt acoustic track called Please Forgive Me is a plea to a bitter ex-lover, but Arizona-based singer/songwriter Nick Heward will surprise you”he wrote it for his mother. The youngest of three children, Heward says he’s always been extremely close to his mom. His father was never a constant figure in his life, and growing up he wanted to provide for his family like his dad never did. I always felt like one day I would make things right and be the man of the house, he says. Basically my mom has always struggled and I’ve always wanted to fix it.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t always been easy for him to help her. When I was twenty-three, I came home from visiting some friends in Denver and found out that my mom was homeless and had checked into a Motel 6, which was the original name of the song, Heward says. It really broke my heart. That’s when I wrote ˜Please Forgive Me.’

The song’s lyrics are at the same time heartwarming and heartbreaking. “I want to buy you a house in Arizona/I want to buy you some art from LA” Heward croons. “Wanna see you free and clear/not bound to them government chains.” You can sense how badly he wants to help his mother, but his feelings of helplessness are also apparent in lines like “Wish I was a bigger man with faith to move your mountains/Seems I’m running out of time these days.”

The lyrics of the chorus”Please forgive me/I’m not gonna make it to the party of the year”refer to Heward’s sense of guilt after he found out about his mother’s situation. I felt like I was losing or I had failed. ˜Please forgive me for letting us down.’ I had envisioned something much different for our future as a kid, a celebration, ˜the party of the year!’

These days, Heward says things are looking up. He’s working as a full-time singer/songwriter, and his mother has an apartment ten minutes away in Scottsdale, AZ. I’m still working towards something bigger and better for both of us.