Train Frontman Pat Monahan Shares Which of His Songs Was Inspired by His Therapist (Exclusive)

"I was like, 'Ooh, I'm gonna steal that,'" he tells PEOPLE

NEED TO KNOW

• Pat Monahan says his therapist inspired Train’s hit song “Calling All Angels”
• Monahan talks with PEOPLE about the challenges of creating the album My Private Nation while navigating a difficult period in his marriage and fatherhood
• Train recently released their latest single, “The Weekend,” and announced a 25th-anniversary tour for Drops of Jupiter

Inspiration for songs can come from anywhere.

When speaking with PEOPLE, the lead singer of Train, Pat Monahan, shares that the inspiration behind the song "Calling All Angels" from the band's 2003 album, My Private Nation, came from a therapy session.

“I had this great therapist in the Bay Area, and I was at a therapy session and very unhappy, but things were good career-wise, and she made me stand up and she said, 'We're made up of traitors and angels and it's time for you to call your angels,'" the 57-year-old recalls.

"I was like, 'Ooh, I'm gonna steal that,'" he adds. "Then she was like, ‘Now take a bow and congratulate yourself for the things that you have done well.' And I was like, ‘That's hard for people to do.' "

He shares that the inability to congratulate oneself comes from a constant desire to always strive for better. 

“We're so caught up in, 'I need to get better, I need to do better, I need more, I need all the stuff,'" he explains. "She helped me slow down and appreciate what I was able to do and not what I wasn't."

Monahan notes that it was “a very difficult time" for him while making My Private Nation, the pop-rock band's third studio album, as he was splitting his time between Seattle, San Francisco and Pennsylvania, all while juggling his family life.

“Even through that with a bad marriage and having two kids that I was trying to raise, making very little money and trying to move all over the country to fix things that were unfixable,” Monahan says.

Monahan was with ex-wife Ginean Rapp for over 15 years before they got divorced in 2006. The exes share two children, son Patrick and daughter Emelia. He later wed wife Amber Peterson in 2007.

His focus, he shares, is now on continuing to write lyrically driven albums.

“I'm still trying to make albums that the entire thing is special, not just one song, you know, it's hard to write 10 beautiful songs," he shares.

Train released their latest single, “The Weekend,” on March 4, 2026. The band also announced its Drops of Jupiter: 25 Years in the Atmosphere tour, which kicks off in July 2026.

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