Sarah McLachlan Tells HuffPo Who Inspired Her Iconic Song 'Angel'

The Sarah McLachlan song "Angel" is one of those perennial hits. You've heard it even if you're not a fan and you know all the words even if you have never intentionally put it on.

The song, which is used in the touching/sappy SPCA commercials with all the wounder and sad animals, is actually about a person, something the singer revealed in a chat with Huffington Post.

She admitted during the Q&A that it was about Jonathan Melvoin who was the keyboard player for Smashing Pumpkins. Melvoin died of a heroin overdose in 1996.

"I wrote "Angel" after being on the road for almost two years straight and was both mentally and physically drained," McLachlan wrote.

"I went to a cottage north of Montreal to relax and write and read an article in Rolling Stone about the Smashing Pumpkins keyboard player who had OD'ed in a hotel room.

The story shook me because though I have never done hard drugs like that, I felt a flood of empathy for him and that feeling of being lost an lonely an desperately searching for some kind of release."

"Angel" was released in 1998 and reached the top 5 on the Billboard chart.