Ethan Hawke
Actor, director and novelist
Townes Van Zandt’s To Live Is To Fly.
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I’ve been through a lot of grief in my life and there are intimate moments where you need to bawl your eyes out. As the dead person, I want to say: this is a moment you cannot control, life goes to shit sometimes. So I would choose Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin; some things you can’t change.
The Guardian, Honest playlist, The Guardian, 26 July 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
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Patricia Hodge
English actress
One of my favourite songs is Being Alive, from Company by Stephen Sondheim, but it would hardly be appropriate.
Tracy-Ann Oberman
Actor and writer
Our family song – Three Is A Magic Number, which my husband played me on the way back from the maternity hospital.
Kevin Pietersen
English cricketer
We Weren’t Born To Follow by Bon Jovi.
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