[6][7] The band dedicated the song to a high-school friend, Barbara Lewis, who was killed by a drunk driver in 1993.

[8] Lead singer Ed Kowalczyk said, "I wrote 'Lightning Crashes' on an acoustic guitar in my brother's bedroom shortly before I had moved out of my parents' house and gotten my first place of my own."

While the clip is shot in a home environment, I envisioned it taking place in a hospital, where all these simultaneous deaths and births are going on, one family mourning the loss of a woman while a screaming baby emerges from a young mother in another room.

[9]New York magazine described the band as "deeply mystical" and claimed that the song was, "The story of a...connection between an old lady dying and a new mother at the moment of giving birth.

[37] It was also used at the beginning of the season 4 finale of One Tree Hill,[38] as well as the Yellowjackets (TV series) episode "Burial".