Noah Kahan Reflects on Friend’s Death and Last Message

Noah Kahan is opening up about a deeply personal loss that continues to shape his life years later.

In a new interview, the Grammy-nominated singer reflected on the death of his friend Carlo — the inspiration behind his 2019 song “Carlo’s Song.”

The emotional conversation offered a rare glimpse into the grief that helped shape both his music and his outlook on life.

A Friendship That Left a Lasting Mark

Kahan revealed that Carlo died from a sudden illness, calling him the first close friend he ever lost.

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“It was my first really good friend that I lost,” he told Rolling Stone. “I didn’t handle it very well. I was spiraling, and a little bit self-destructive.”

The last time the two saw each other was during a trip to a fire tower in Vermont, where they smoked cigarettes, listened to music and took in the fall scenery.

Kahan later got a tattoo of a fire tower in Carlo’s honor.

The Lesson He Took With Him

The loss changed the way Kahan looks at life and relationships.

“One of the last messages he sent me was to hang out, and we didn’t end up getting to,” he said. “It changed something in me, and it made me remember that every moment is fleeting.”

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Kahan admitted he struggled to process the grief at the time, even continuing to message Carlo on Facebook after his death.

Turning Grief Into Music

Kahan poured much of that pain into “Carlo’s Song,” a fan-favorite track from 2019 that wrestles with loss, anger and memory.

On the song, he sings: “They tell me grief is just love letting go / They say it like milk has been spilled on the floor.”

The loss continues to echo through his music years later.

Kahan revisits Carlo again on “Dan,” the closing track from his latest album, The Great Divide, singing, “Everybody’s asleep, let’s talk about him / Let’s talk about high school, talk about death.”