Not Just A Song About God: The Real Meaning Behind Joan Osborne’s “One of Us”

After just one listen, we can come away from hearing Joan Osborne’s 1995 hit “One of Us” thinking the song’s message is abundantly clear. “One of Us” asks listeners to imagine that we can see God in human form in our everyday lives. It also asks us to consider how we would respond to God in that situation and whether our relationship with faith would change.

Yet that is not the meaning that the song’s writer, Eric Bazilian, intended. Co-founder of the Philadelphia-based rock band The Hooters, Bazilian told Songfacts the song’s message is far more general. Using a face-to-face encounter with God was merely a vehicle for Bazilian to raise his larger point. A more literal interpretation of “One of Us’” lyrics still offers a coherent message, but what do we miss by focusing on that understanding of the song? Let’s hear what Bazilian has had to say about “One of Us” and see how it matches up with his lyrics.

A Song About Challenging Our Assumptions

Bazilian conceived of “One of Us” as being “about what happens to you when you look at something that has completely changed your worldview, which could be meeting God, it could be meeting an alien, it could be a near-death experience, it could be anything like that.” His point, then, was to write a song about questioning one’s basic assumptions in general.

It can be easy to miss that point, especially given how “One of Us” starts off. In a heavily affected style, Osborne sings about God being a physical presence on Earth.

So one of these nights at about 12 o’clock
This old world’s gonna reel and rock
Saints will tremble and cry for pain
For the Lord’s gonna come in his heavenly airplane

A Slob on the Bus

While this intro reinforces the idea that “One of Us” is specifically about God and religion, it sets up a contrast between how we might imagine God’s arrival on Earth and how it could actually happen in less expected ways. Then in the first verse, Bazilian gets us thinking about what we would actually do if we could meet God in an otherwise normal circumstance.

If God had a name, what would it be?
And would you call it to His face
If you were faced with Him in all His glory?
What would you ask if you had just one question?

The chorus lyrics make clear that the God we would face “in all His glory” was, at least in appearance, just another human. And a very ordinary human at that. 

What if God was one of us?
Just like a slob like one of us?
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin’ to make His way home

How Much Do We Actually Want to See?

If there is a hint about “One of Us”’ broader meaning, it comes in the second verse. Bazilian ponders whether we would be open to learning from our encounter with God or if we would even want to acknowledge what was happening right before us?

If God had a face, what would it look like?
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints
And all the prophets?

While Bazilian didn’t write additional verses about other belief-defying scenarios, we can fill in the blanks ourselves. If we did encounter aliens from outer space, for example, would we want to know more? Or would we pretend it never happened so we could preserve our skepticism about aliens?

Hooters and Crash Test Dummies Influences

Once you know that Bazilian wrote “One of Us,” it’s hard not to imagine it as a Hooters song. It already has the band’s stamp on it. Bazilian plays guitar and electric piano on “One of Us,” and bandmate Rob Hyman plays drums and mellotron. Both of them also sing backing vocals. The producer for “One of Us” and Osborne’s Relish album, Rick Chertoff, also produced The Hooters’ three albums on Columbia Records.

While Osborne’s version does have a Hooters feel to it, The Hooters themselves covered the song on their Five by Five EP released in 2010.

If “One of Us” also reminds you a little of the Canadian band Crash Test Dummies, you’re not merely imagining it. In an interview for the video series Top 2000 a gogo, Bazilian said that when he sat down to record vocals for the song’s demo, “I heard a voice in my head. I heard Brad Roberts from the Crash Test Dummies.” Not only did Bazilian sing the song in Roberts’ style for the demo, but the verse melodies from “One of Us” and Crash Test Dummies’ “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” bear some resemblance to each other.

The Impact of “One of Us”

“One of Us” peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it registered on six other Billboard charts. It reached the Top 10 on the Pop Airplay (No. 2) and Alternative Airplay (No. 7) charts. Relish spent 56 weeks on the Billboard 200, topping out at No. 9, and it was certified Triple Platinum in July 1996. “One of Us” was nominated for Record of the Year at the 1996 Grammy Awards, and Osborne was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the song and for Best New Artist. Relish also received a nomination for Album of the Year.

“One of Us” was used as the theme song to the CBS series Joan of Arcadia, which was about a teenager who sees God in a variety of human guises. The song was also featured in the Fox series Glee and used in the films Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Vanilla Sky. Prince covered “One of Us” for his 1996 album Emancipation.

Lots of songs can reach us on multiple levels, but one has to listen carefully to take in “One of Us”’ deeper message. Even if we take the song at face value, contemplating how we would respond to seeing God in everyday circumstances, gives us plenty to think about.

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Photo by Pamela Corey/WireImage