It feels like a thousand years since “A Thousand Miles” hit the airwaves.
Turns out, it’s only been two decades, but that doesn’t make Vanessa Carlton’s romantic piano-driven tune any less of a staple in pop music.
Now, the singer-songwriter, 40, is discussing the Grammy-nominated track’s real-life inspiration.
“The song is about a crush I had on a Juilliard student,” the “Nolita Fairytale” singer told “Entertainment Tonight” last week.
“I can’t say the person’s name because they are a famous actor and I don’t want to say it,” said Carlton, who said, “Purposefully, I’m not attaching a gender and it will remain like that.”
Carlton, who attended Columbia University for a brief time, came out as bisexual when she headlined Nashville Pride in 2010.
Let’s make our way downtown — to the internet’s current theories about the song’s muse, regardless of the songstress’ plans to leave it up for interpretation.
Reddit users have, according to Glamour, settled on the theory that Wes Bentley, of “American Beauty” and “The Hunger Games” fame, is the likely answer as he’s just two years older than Carlton and the pair could have been in Manhattan at the same time.
A Facebook fan page for the singer reportedly has reportedly also dubbed Bentley the inspiration.
Other possible contenders the internet has identified include Juilliard alumni like Jessica Chastain, Oscar Isaac, David Conrad, Christian Camargo, Glenn Howerton and Alan Tudyk, according to Glamour.
In the meantime, fans of the “unrivaled anthem of basic b-tches everywhere,” as The Guardian dubbed it in 2019, can check out Vice’s new documentary, “The Story of A Thousand Miles By Vanessa Carlton,” or revisit the track in “Legally Blonde,” multiple times in “White Chicks” (Terry Crews is featured in the doc), the Disney Channel Original Movie “You Wish!” or “Isn’t It Romantic?”
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