Airborne Toxic Event's Mikel Jollett Covers Magnetic Fields for His Late Grandmother

Of the many memorable moments on the Airborne Toxic Event's new concert DVD/album, 'All I Ever Wanted,' one of the most moving is when frontman Mikel Jollett performs Magnetic Fields' 'The Book of Love' to his grandmother, Juliet, who died a week before the concert. As Jollett said during the 2009 show at L.A.'s Walt Disney Music Hall, one of his last memories of her was performing that cover while sitting on the edge of her bed a few weeks earlier. She had asked him to play her a song, but "not one of those Airborne songs with all the screaming and the jumping."

While the Disney performance was intensely emotional for Jollett, it was just as special moving for his mother, who was in the audience. "My mom had heard 'Book of Love' in a movie, and it reminded her so much of her parents' relationship, this very romantic, life-long relationship they had," Jollett tells Spinner. "She spent the week online trying to find this one song and we never talked about it. Then she comes to Disney Hall, I tell that story and we play 'Book of Love' and that was the song. She's sitting there next to my aunt and they both just start bawling. We talked afterward and she couldn't believe it. It was crazy."

On top of that connection, Jollett says that the lyrics to 'The Book of Love' are the perfect description of his grandparents' 72-year relationship. "That song has this majesty to it," he says. "It's timeless and soulful and real and they were like that. When you first start a relationship, everything's motivated by sex and attraction and a desire to have some sort of future. Over time, it's motivated to maybe raise children and have security with your family and by the end, what gives it its urgency is a desire to try and escape death. What makes it romantic is the fact that you know the clock's ticking, and I think that was the case with them. The song captures that in this way that's soulful. I love Stephin Merritt. I never understood why the Magnetic Fields weren't a way, way bigger band."

'All I Ever Wanted: Live From the Walt Disney Concert Hall' is out now via Island/Def Jam. Check out a clip of the band playing 'Sometime Around Midnight' here, and watch the 'Book of Love' performance below.