He hung Christmas decorations in a London studio in August. He played every part himself, with two or three fingers. He gave the money away. And he died on Christmas Day.

His song never hit number one while he was alive.

Tonight on The Mortals, a licensed funeral director tells the story behind "Last Christmas," and what the word "last" means to every family he ever sat with in December. Nobody knows it's the last one while it's happening.

We also get into whether it's okay to skip Christmas the first year after a loss, setting their place at the table, why kids belong at the funeral home, and doing the work anyway, even when you never get to see it land.

My version of "Last Christmas" comes out Thursday, Nov 5: https://nathanmorrismusic.com

If tonight is heavy, call or text 988. Someone is there.

What's one small thing you remember from a last Christmas with someone? Tell me in the comments.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome to The Mortals Live
1:18 Christmas trees in November
2:50 George Michael died on Christmas Day
4:39 February 1984: a melody in his childhood bedroom
6:55 Tinsel in August, played with two or three fingers
8:19 Setting the room before the family walks in
9:32 Beat by Band Aid, then he gave the money away
11:45 When someone dies on a holiday, the family loses the day
13:30 Number one 36 years later: what legacy is
14:54 The last Christmas nobody knew was the last
18:22 Most of the good we do, we never see land
21:39 My version of Last Christmas and the hearse cover
24:05 Call your people in November
26:03 Why Christmas music keeps coming back
29:46 Christmas songs born from grief
31:12 Ornaments, empty chairs and skipping Christmas
33:28 Bring the kids to the funeral home
40:13 Do the thing. Do it anyway.

The Mortals Live. Every Tuesday, 7pm ET.

👔 OOTD and the link. Tonight, I'm wearing: https://shopltk.com/explore/nathanmorris
Far less professional than usual, by my own admission.

#TheMortals #LastChristmas #GeorgeMichael #Grief #FuneralDirector

• • •
🖤 STAY CONNECTED

⭐ Members-only content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0rrl2tcQlqgkkQgMR9f_0w/join
🌐 Website: https://nathanmorrismusic.com
✉️ Feel Anything newsletter: https://nathanmorrismusic.beehiiv.com
📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nathanmorrismusic
TikTok: @nathanmorrismusic
Instagram: @nathanmorris
X: @nathanmorris

Last week's show was rough. I fumbled. A lot.

This week I figured out why. I overthought it. Weeks of treating my content like a math problem made it stiff and careful. My content got buns. Polished falls flat.

I learned the fix in the funeral home years ago. When a family plans a service, they bring two kinds of pictures. The church directory photo. And the shoebox. People always stand in front of the shoebox.

We also talked about The Comeback Room. I'm going to ask artists about the night they almost quit. First up is Julia Cole, night one of her Love You To Death Tour at Headliners in Louisville.

Your homework: send the ugly text. The one you've rewritten nine times.

Who's in your shoebox photo?

If today feels heavy, call or text 988. Someone's there.

The Mortals is live every Tuesday at 7pm ET on YouTube @nathanmorrismusic.

Join The Mortals, my supporter community: https://nathanmorrismusic.com/supporters
Feel Anything, my weekly email: https://nathanmorrismusic.beehiiv.com
Free Funeral Song Guide: https://nathanmorrismusic.com/funeral-songs

More than 300 booths on the funeral convention floor this week. Not one of them sells the 2am phone call.

The NFDA convention is in Charlotte right now, and the closing keynote is called 28,000 Days. So tonight I said the things that don't get said out loud on that floor. With respect. I love this work.

The Funeral Rule only requires a written price list when you walk in the door. The FTC called funeral homes undercover, and after hours a lot of callers couldn't get a price at all. A family on the phone at 9 at night shouldn't have to call three times. Post your prices.

We also get into what's actually required (your own casket, embalming, vaults), why no cremation family should ever say "we're just doing cremation," why funeral directors need permission to go home, and why this profession fights change so hard.

If tonight is heavy, call or text 988. Someone's there.

What's one thing you're going to stop wasting time on? Tell me in the comments.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome to The Mortals Live
3:43 The funeral convention is happening right now
6:46 The Funeral Rule has a catch
8:06 The FTC called funeral homes undercover
9:25 My take: post your prices
10:16 Your own casket, embalming, vaults: what's required
12:14 Retire the word "just" for cremation
14:57 No booth sells the 2am phone call
16:38 Backstage with a cop who found standup
19:42 28,000 days: go to the visitation
24:58 Skip Thanksgiving? And the holiday death calls
28:18 Funeral directors need permission to rest
29:23 Why funeral service fights change
39:52 Words matter: "remains" is somebody's dad
47:49 Families are online. Show up there.
59:29 Bitter or better after loss
1:03:33 Starting over and doing the thing
1:10:19 A beautiful funeral needs a beautiful song

The Mortals Live. Every Tuesday, 7pm ET.

👔 OOTD and the link. Tonight, I'm wearing: https://shopltk.com/explore/nathanmorris
Sweaty hoodie edition. Moving a whole studio will do that.

• • •
🖤 STAY CONNECTED

⭐ Members-only content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0rrl2tcQlqgkkQgMR9f_0w/join
🌐 Website: https://nathanmorrismusic.com
✉️ Feel Anything newsletter: https://nathanmorrismusic.beehiiv.com
📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NathanMorrisMusic
TikTok: @nathanmorrismusic
Instagram: @nathanmorris
X: @nathanmorris

Every family I ever sat with thought their song was different. It usually wasn't.

This weekend I asked you one thing. Pick the song they'd sing in the car. Over 2,000 of you answered. Tonight we're reading them.

No guest. Just me and you. The car songs. The ratchet songs you're haunting your family over. The bottle of water in the fridge nobody touches. Why most eulogies are boring and the one rule that fixes yours. And ask a funeral director anything.

Homework before you leave: back up their text thread, save their voicemail somewhere besides your phone, and write your song down.

If tonight is heavy, call or text 988. Someone's there.

Who sang in the car at your house? Name and song. Put it in the comments.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome to The Mortals Live
1:03 Every family thinks their funeral song is different
3:32 Why I said pick the car song
5:31 The ratchet song: put it in writing
6:53 The freezer, the water bottle, the shoes by the door
9:02 Skip the resume: one story for the eulogy
10:37 Tonight's homework: text thread, voicemail, your song
11:55 Day 24 of starting over
15:21 Doom scrolling vs long form
19:18 Your funeral questions: suits, socks and glasses
24:42 The deathbed exercise: find your guiding light
32:36 Why funeral music defaults to the template
40:21 Coming home from LA and the family that changed me
53:29 Do the thing you love
1:02:51 This season of The Mortals
1:05:51 Burying the dead and why I keep showing up

The Mortals Live. Every Tuesday, 7pm ET.

👔 OOTD and the link. Tonight, I'm wearing: https://shopltk.com/explore/nathanmorris
Dressed for a funeral. Ready for a car-song sing-along.

🖤 STAY CONNECTED
🎵 Stream "Names I'll Never Lose": https://vyd.co/namesillneverlose
⭐ Members-only content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0rrl2tcQlqgkkQgMR9f_0w/join
🌐 Website: https://nathanmorrismusic.com
✉️ Feel Anything newsletter: https://nathanmorrismusic.beehiiv.com
📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nathanmorrismusic
TikTok: @nathanmorrismusic
Instagram: @nathanmorris
X: @nathanmorris

She couldn't sell 50 tickets on the other side of the world. Then the promoters canceled the whole tour. Her parents already had flights.She sat in a hotel room crying and asked herself one question. "What am I even doing?"One year later, 20,000 people in Australia sang her song back to her.Tonight is the first night of the new Mortals. Every week I sit down with a singer, a band or a comedian on the day their tour rolls through Louisville. We talk about the part nobody posts. Then you and I talk about it together.My first guest is Julia Cole. I caught her at Headliners Music Hall on night one of her first headline tour. We talked about almost quitting, a pair of crutches at the Opry, and why 10,000 views is 10,000 people in a room.Then I'm going to do something that scares me a little.Drop it in the chat: what's the closest you ever came to quitting?Live every Tuesday at 7pm ET.👔 OOTD and the link. Tonight, I'm wearing: https://bit.ly/4yQJ2ZgDressed for a living tribute. Nobody's getting buried tonight.🎙 Guest: Julia Cole (@juliacolemusic)"Love You To Death (Deluxe)" and her new single "Pushing Daisies" are out now everywhere.🪑 Coming to the chair:Officer Eudy, Nov 4Britton Emert, Nov 10Tim Timmons, Nov 13Touring through Louisville and want to sit down? booking@nathanmorrismusic.com- • •🖤 STAY CONNECTED🎵 Stream "Names I'll Never Lose": https://vyd.co/namesillneverlose⭐ Members-only content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0rrl2tcQlqgkkQgMR9f_0w/join🌐 Website: https://nathanmorrismusic.com✉️ Feel Anything newsletter: https://nathanmorrismusic.beehiiv.com📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nathanmorrismusicTikTok: @nathanmorrismusicInstagram: @nathanmorrisX: @nathanmorris

Last week's show was rough. I fumbled. A lot.

This week I figured out why. I overthought it. Weeks of treating my content like a math problem made it stiff and careful. My content got buns. Polished falls flat.

I learned the fix in the funeral home years ago. When a family plans a service, they bring two kinds of pictures. The church directory photo. And the shoebox. People always stand in front of the shoebox.

We also talked about The Comeback Room. I'm going to ask artists about the night they almost quit. First up is Julia Cole, night one of her Love You To Death Tour at Headliners in Louisville.

Your homework: send the ugly text. The one you've rewritten nine times.

Who's in your shoebox photo?

If today feels heavy, call or text 988. Someone's there.

The Mortals is live every Tuesday at 7pm ET on YouTube @nathanmorrismusic.

Join The Mortals, my supporter community: https://nathanmorrismusic.com/supporters
Stream "Names I'll Never Lose": https://vyd.co/namesillneverlose
Feel Anything, my weekly email: https://nathanmorrismusic.beehiiv.com
Free Funeral Song Guide: https://nathanmorrismusic.com/funeral-songs

At 10:15 on the night of April 14th, 1865, a president was carried into a stranger's back bedroom and laid diagonally across a bed that was too short for him. The most powerful family in America spent the next nine hours exactly as lost as every family I've ever sat with in a small room, hours after the phone rang.Because here's the truth nobody teaches you: in the first hours after a death, power doesn't help you. Money doesn't help you. What's left is just people in a room, not knowing what they're allowed to do.Tonight I'm walking you through it — hour by hour. Who to call first. What you do NOT have to decide tonight, no matter what anyone tells you. What the funeral home is going to ask, and what you're allowed to say no to. What to say to your job. What to say to your kids. The stuff nobody put in a pamphlet, because there is no pamphlet.I've been in that room over a thousand times — the first hour after someone has died. Same hands that used to hold a microphone, now guiding families through the worst night of their lives.If you've ever gotten that call — the one that rearranges the furniture of your whole life in one sentence — type a 1 in the chat. I want to see how many of us are in this room together tonight.You are not supposed to know what to do. Nobody does. Tonight, I'll tell you the truth about it.The Mortals Live — memento mori made warm. Look at death, so you can live louder.———🖤 STAY CONNECTED🎵 Stream "Names I'll Never Lose": https://laylo.com/nathanmorris⭐ Members-only content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0rrl2tcQlqgkkQgMR9f_0w/join🌐 Website: https://nathanmorrismusic.com✉️ Feel Anything newsletter: https://nathanmorrismusic.beehiiv.com📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nathanmorrismusicTikTok: @nathanmorrismusicInstagram: @nathanmorrisX: @nathanmorris🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/4595061185642496

I have a confession. I watch strangers mow their lawns on YouTube. On purpose. For fun. When I was going through the hardest stretch of my life and rebuilding, I mowed. A lot. Just months before, I owned a major funeral home company. Then I started helping a friend with 67 yards. That turned into 87. Big yards. Small yards. Messy ones with weeds in the beds. This episode: what those straight lines did for me, and what I learned being the guy in the grass-stained khakis. What's your lawn? The thing you do when your head's too loud. Tell me in the comments. The Mortals is live every Tuesday at 7pm ET on YouTube.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Pre-show

2:24 My confession: I watch strangers mow lawns

6:38 67 yards, then 87: mowing through the rebuild

12:29 The guy in the grass-stained khakis

16:24 What's your lawn? The thing you do when your head's too loud

28:41 The abrupt undoing: from funeral home owner to builder

34:07 "Why don't you just quit?"

45:01 Names I'll Never Lose

48:38 The War of Art & my grandfather's double Windsor

57:46 Victory in suffering & the voice that says you don't matter

1:07:06 What a million Spotify streams actually pays

1:14:22 Keep showing up

What I'm wearing tonight: https://on.ltk.com/+pEWhnITXSoTULE3__NCYXg

Join The Mortals, my supporter community: https://nathanmorrismusic.com/supporters

━━━━━━━━━━

STAY CONNECTED

Stream "Names I'll Never Lose": https://vyd.co/namesillneverlose

Website: https://nathanmorrismusic.com

Feel Anything newsletter: https://nathanmorrismusic.beehiiv.com

Watch live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nathanmorrismusic

Instagram: @nathanmorris

TikTok: @nathanmorrismusic