Lea Michele’s ‘Hey You’ Is A Farewell Song To Cory Monteith? ‘Songwriting Is A Form Of Therapy’

Lea Michele and Cory Monteith, stars of TV series Glee, were in a relationship right up until Cory’s tragic death in July 2013. Lea Michele’s new song “Hey You,” which is part of her album Places, talks about the final days of someone she loves, and how she would give anything to get those days back. Is the song a tribute to her relationship with Cory? As Lea explains, while the album’s lyrics were inspired by her personal journals, she doesn’t name Cory specifically – but admits the songs were therapeutic for her.

Lea Michele, who is now 3o-years-old, began her career as an actress on Broadway. She is mostly known, however, for her role as Rachel Berry on the TV series Glee. It was on Glee where Lea got to know Cory Monteith, who played Finn Hudson on the show – the popular quarterback who discovered his love for singing and performing. During 2012, Lea and Cory started dating, But on July 13, 2013, Cory was found dead in his hotel room from a lethal combination of heroin and alcohol. He was 31-years-old when he died.

Following Cory’s death, Lea Michele got two tattoos on her body, as a tribute to his life – one of the number five, which was Finn Hudson’s football team number, and a tattoo of the name Finn on her hip. Last month, Lea released her latest album, Places, which includes the song “Hey You.” Looking at the song’s lyrics, it may very well be another tribute to the late actor.

“I like to keep certain things private”, Lea Michele tells People magazine, when asked whether the song is about Cory Monteith. However, she then adds “Songwriting is a form of therapy.”

The emotional song’s lyrics are clearly about someone loved who is no longer with us.

“Final days were the hardest
I didn’t think they would be your last
Hope you know I forgive you
Give anything to get them back
But know that everything’s okay
I’m doing okay without you
I know you had to go away
I’ll tell you everyday I miss you”

“I love it. I think it is such a beautiful song, and it has such a beautiful message,” Lea says. “Despite it being about a more sensitive subject matter, when I listen to it, my overall feeling that I get from it is just joy and love.”

Speaking recently with the San Francisco Examiner, Lea explained the process behind writing the lyrics for “Hey You” and several of the other songs in the album. Lea would bring stories from her journals to her co-writers, Ali Tamposi and Stephen Wrabel, who would then work out the lyrics.

Earlier this year, Lea took to Instagram to share an emotional throwback photo of Cory and her, taken in 2012 – a year before Cory’s death. The photo shows the two in a loving embrace.

Speaking on The Ellen DeGeneres Show a few months after Cory’s death, Lea spoke about keeping his memory alive.

“My mom has experienced a lot of loss in her life and she told me at one point, there is an empowerment that comes with grief – at some point you find it. It’s very hard but you will find it, and I think at a certain point you can choose to sort of fall from this or you can choose to rise.

“And that’s what I’m just trying to do my best for him, because I know that that’s what he would have wanted. And to just do my best and to hopefully make something positive for where I go the rest of my life.”

Producing such a beautiful, heartbreaking song as “Hey You”, and the entire Places album, can definitely be considered doing something positive, as Lea Michele says goodbye to her love and moves on without forgetting him.

[Featured Image by Christopher Polk/Getty Images]