In 2002, Vanessa Carlton rocked the world when she dropped her instantly catchy debut single, “A Thousand Miles,” a breakthrough hit which remains the singer-songwriter’s signature song to this day.
In a new VICE “The Story of…” mini-documentary, Carlton reveals the little-known story behind the beloved tune, which, as it turns out, was written about a fellow Juilliard student whom Carlton had a crush on while attending the school back in the mid-90s.
Watch the doc, below:
In the doc, Carlton chooses to withhold the subject’s name because he’s a “famous actor” now. So, who could it be?
An in-depth Reddit thread has been investigating the timeline surrounding “A Thousand Miles,” which Carlton said was written around 1995. While going through a list of Juilliard attendees from that year, one eagle-eyed web sleuth noticed a few notable actors graduated or attended around the same time Carlton may have attended the school: Wes Bentley, Christian Camargo, David Conrad and Alan Tudyk. Another user suggested the song could have been written about It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia‘s Glenn Howerton.
However, yet another Reddit user backed up the Wes Bentley theory, referring to an alleged post in a Vanessa Carlton Facebook fan group that stated the song was written about Bentley “at a show.” Bentley, who reportedly dropped out of Juilliard after about one year, is only two years older than Carlton, which means that they both may have attended the school at the same time.
While a possible connection between Carlton and Bentley seems possible, there’s no way we can know for sure unless Carlton decides to let her secret crush be known. Regardless, whoever Carlton is singing about in her iconic music video is one lucky guy.