The Voice Behind The Struts Just Dropped His Darkest and Most Personal Song Yet, “When I Die Will I Miss Living”

Luke Spiller has spent the better part of the last decade proving rock music can still feel massive, dramatic, and genuinely fun. As the frontman of The Struts, he helped usher in a new generation of glam-rock revivalism built on swagger, theatricality, and arena-sized hooks that refused to play small. But “When I Die Will I Miss Living” reveals a completely different side of him.

Debuting after being featured on Chicago Med, the new single feels less like a rock anthem and more like a public unraveling. There’s still grandeur in the presentation, but underneath it sits something heavier. Self-reflection, fear, nostalgia, and emotional exhaustion all bleed through the track in ways that feel startlingly honest coming from someone so associated with larger-than-life performance.

The song also signals a major creative shift for Spiller as he moves into his solo era. Instead of leaning into the explosive glam energy that made The Struts a global success story, he’s diving into something more cinematic, vulnerable, and psychologically exposed. “When I Die Will I Miss Living” doesn’t sound like someone chasing another hit. It sounds like someone trying to figure himself out in real time.

“When I Die Will I Miss Living” feels deeply existential right from the title alone. What sparked the emotional core of this song?

I was reading a lot of Billy Collins, and I was going through one of my ‘lyric phases’ where I don’t pick up an instrument. I had this routine where the first three hours of my day were spent solely on drinking coffee and writing lyrics. The concept grabbed me, and before I knew it, I was humming along while I was writing. I had the whole thing done in those three hours.

Did stepping outside of The Struts give you permission to write more vulnerably than you normally would within the band?

Yes, of course. There’s very little room to approach music in this way with the band. We’re well aware of what our fans love about us, and we want to give them even more of it. We’ve spent fifteen years building a following, and we want to nurture that.

My songs are a doorway for existing fans to walk through if they’d like to know what’s on my heart and things I’ve personally been feeling.

Your music has always had a theatrical edge, but this new material feels far more cinematic and intimate. What inspired that shift sonically?

It all started with my debut solo album “love will probably kill me before cigarettes and wine” I was sick of writing rock n roll party anthems and had a lot of emotions I needed to get off my chest. So I gravitated towards artists that do it best, like Lana, Scott Walker, Adele, Gordon Lightfoot just to name a few.

Hearing the song featured on Chicago Med gave it a completely different emotional weight. What was it like hearing your music in that setting for the first time?

It’s never happened for me as a solo artist so it’s really encouraged and inspired me to continue to work outside of the band, as now I know my music has its own path and can be loved and appreciated in its own way.

After years of touring arenas and building a global fanbase, what does success actually look like to you now as a solo artist?

That’s a great question. As of now, it’s not a financial or streaming success for that matter, but I think if you can write something in your room on your own, then have thousands of people enjoy it online: that to me is success. I did a solo tour last winter, and it was a great success. I’d love to do more of that as well as take my music to film and television. Who knows, maybe somebody will even cut one of my songs and do it in their own style; it’s all possible right now.