Was ‘Cat’s in the Cradle’ About Harry Chapin’s Relationship With His Own Kids? Here’s What They Say

Harry Chapin’s folk hit “Cat’s in the Cradle” tells a story of a father too busy to spend time with his son. But was that song a reality for Chapin? Did the late musician’s children feel their father was too busy for them?

Jen, Jason, and Josh Chapin fielded that question in a new CBS Sunday Morning interview.

“The one time when I get a little ehhh is when somebody tells me, like, ‘Oh, your dad, he played a three-and-a-half-hour concert, and then he signed every single poetry book, and he kissed my girlfriend, and…’” Jen said. “And I’m like, ‘That’s great, but that was time we didn’t have.’”

But Jen, Jason, and Josh were adamant that their father was not inattentive. “He really loved kids,” Jen said. “When he came home, he wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna, like, zone out.’ He was, ‘Yes! Projects! Trips! Family outings!’”

Jason explained that Harry — who died in a car crash at age 38 in 1981 — adapted the song from a poem that Sandy, his wife, wrote about her first husband.

“It was based on the relationship her first husband had with his father,” Jason said. “And my mother was always observing how they didn’t connect on a father-son basis.”

On the topic of the 1974 hit, Jason offered another perspective on the song’s third and fourth verses, in which the son of the story grows up to be too busy to spend time with his father. “Some people interpret the last verse, when the dad calls the son to say, ‘Let’s get together,’ the son is too busy for his dad, because he’s busy with his own family, being a good dad,” Jason said.

“It needs a little close reading sometimes,” Josh added.

Harry Chapin: “It’s called ‘Cats in the Cradle” and it’s about my boy Josh. And frankly, this song scares me to death.” Six years later, Harry was gone. Treasure your dads. I miss mine every day. pic.twitter.com/L0GifvHDnk

— Richard Roeper (@RichardERoeper) June 16, 2024

Even if the Chapin children don’t feel that the song was about their relationship with their father, Chapin himself may have thought otherwse.

In a video clip that film critic Richard Roeper shared on X last year — an excerpt from Harry’s performance in a 1975 episode of the TV show Soundstage, Roeper said — Harry told the audience that “Cat’s in the Cradle” was about his son Josh.

“And frankly, this song scares me to death,” the singer-songwriter admitted.