“‘Cause I’d get a thousand hugs/ From 10,000 lightning bugs/ As they tried to teach me how to dance,” is the line which has continuously confused listeners.
Adam Young finally answers the burning questions: does each other firefly hug you 1,000 times? Or do only a fraction of the 10,000 fireflies give you a hug?
“I was the recipient of 1,000 hugs from 10,000 lightning bugs,” Adam Young from Owl City confirms on Twitter to a confused fan.
“I was the recipient of 1,000 hugs from 10,000 lightning bugs for a grand total of 10,000,000 hugs. As the lyrics of the song clearly state, the average layperson would not believe their eyes if 10,000,000 fireflies were to illuminate planet Earth, nor would the average person conclude by natural instinct that 10,000 lightning bugs, acting as a collective group, are capable of embracing a human being 1,000 times without difficulty.”
“I can furthermore add that while each individual hug took place, each firefly participated in the chemical reaction commonly known as bioluminescence in which the enzymes within the firefly, in the presence of oxygen, magnesium ions and ATP, emitted a chemically produced light or “glow” because they were happy to be hugging me.”
Read more of the explanation below or on Adam Young’s Twitter.
.@pryce_d since you asked…. pic.twitter.com/z4LFlisYfQ
— Owl City (@owlcity) June 21, 2017
Rob Morgan (owl city’s bassist) has cleared that up for us so everybody calm down pic.twitter.com/kXAZCpAPCE
— Magnus Lewis (@magnuslewis263) June 6, 2017
