Never Too Late (Three Days Grace song)

"Never Too Late"
Single by Three Days Grace
from the album One-X
Released	June 5, 2007 October 23, 2007 (Mainstream Top 40 radio)
Format	CD single, digital download
Recorded	late 2005
Genre	Post-grunge, hard rock, alternative rock
Length	3:29
Label	Jive
Writer(s)	Adam Gontier
Certification	Gold (U.S.)
Three Days Grace singles chronology
"Pain" (2006) "Never Too Late" (2007) "Riot" (2007)
Alternative cover Deluxe Single Cover

"Never Too Late" is the third single from Three Days Grace off their second album One-X.

Popularity and censorship

The song reached the number 1 spot at the MuchMusic Countdown on June 29 for one week. It also reached the top of the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. This is the band's most successful song ever despite the fact that their prior hit Pain and a few singles that were less successful did better on the U.S. charts since Never Too Late peaked number 71 (Pain peaked at #44) on the Billboard Hot 100 and didn't hit number 1 on Modern Rock Tracks (peaked at number 2 even though it's the band's song that had the most airplay on the chart's stations than other songs and their number 1's) like its other singles including Pain because of the large amount of airplay for Foo Fighters' The Pretender that's been number one for 18 weeks making it the longest running number 1 song on the chart, but because of this song being their most successful hit, it was the band's only song to do well and chart on both Top 40 Mainstream and Adult Top 40 formats at #12 and #13. Pain failed to chart and Never Too Late was the highest charting single on the Canadian Charts, better than other songs where the band is from, so Never Too Late is Three Days Grace's most successful song, even though Pain was the highest charting single on the U.S. charts. Its music video has also reached more views on YouTube than Pain has ("Pain" has about 26 million views, while "Never Too Late" has 43 million).

The track managed to resurge in pop airplay, peaking at number 14 on Mediabase, and was added by the pop stations in the US, Z100 and Y100. It is the only song to be released to Mainstream Top 40 radio. Certain radio stations play a version of the song which censors the phrase "end your life" in the chorus to "change your life" to eliminate the suicide reference from the song. It also quiets the heaviness of the guitar. It appeared on Now! 26, the only song from the album to appear on a Now! album in the U.S.

On October 23, 2007, Three Days Grace released a Single featuring "Never Too Late" and two Clear Channel acoustic recordings of "Pain" and "I Hate Everything About You". On February 12, 2008 an EP was released through iTunes containing the album version of "Never Too Late", an acoustic version and the music video.

Song meaning and usage

This song's meaning was explained by Three Days Grace frontman, Adam Gontier, at a live performance on March 7, 2007 at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., where he stated, "This song is about being in a very dark place, but being able to see a way out." Then, at the Palace, in Detroit, Michigan, he explained it as, "feeling like you don't belong here, and wanting to give up, but never giving up." The song was featured in a promo for the television show Eleventh Hour.

Music video

The video begins with a young girl in her room dancing with her parents. Later, it shows her older self (played by Naomi Gontier) struggling against doctors as they strap her down to a hospital bed. The video then cuts to her younger self showing a man touching her and she smiles hesitantly. Black hands marks are later seen on her, her room, and her father's hand. It is revealed that she was sexually abused as a child, explaining her traumatic breakdown when she is older. Her younger self is shown again; she sees an angel who fights off her father, scattering his feathers over her in the process. Eventually her older self is able to overcome her fear as she leaves the hospital bed while her younger self goes to her own bed in peace.

The band is seen performing the song throughout the video, though it begins and ends with Adam Gontier singing and playing guitar in the girl's room.

Track listing

Promotional Single
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Never Too Late"	3:29

Never Too Late Ringle (Single+Ringtone)
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Never Too Late"	3:35
2.	"Pain (Clear Channel Stripped Version)"	3:19
3.	"I Hate Everything About You (Clear Channel Stripped Version)"	3:51

Never Too Late EP
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Never Too Late"	3:29
2.	"Never Too Late (Acoustic)"	3:31
3.	"Never Too Late (Music Video)"	3:31

Personnel

• Adam Gontier - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Brad Walst - bass, backing vocals
• Neil Sanderson - drums, backing vocals
• Barry Stock - lead guitar

Charts

Chart (2007-08)	Peak position
Canadian Hot 100	30
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	71
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	2
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	1
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Top 40	12
U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40	13

External links

• "Never Too Late" official music video on YouTube
• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

Preceded by "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven

Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks number-one single August 18, 2007 - September 29, 2007

Succeeded by "The Pretender" by Foo Fighters