"I Want to Live" is the debut single of American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 country music singer Josh Gracin

Josh Gracin

Joshua Mario "Josh" Gracin is a country music singer. A former member of the United States Marine Corps, he first gained public attention as the fourth-place finalist on the second season of the Fox Networks talent competition American Idol.After his elimination from the show, Gracin completed his...

. It was released in March 2004 as the first single off his debut album Josh Gracin

Josh Gracin (album)

Josh Gracin is the self-titled debut album of American country music singer Josh Gracin. It was released in the United States on June 15, 2004 on Lyric Street Records, reached number eleven on the Nielsen Soundscan album chart and sold 57,048 the first week...

. The song peaked at number 4 on the U.S. Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

) charts in mid-2004.

Content

A mid-tempo ballad, "I Want to Live" centralizes on a character who, upon realizing that his life has been unsatisfactory, decides that he wants to change — to "take everything that this world has to give".

The song's opening electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 riff is based on the Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

 song "Kashmir

Kashmir (song)

"Kashmir" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin from their sixth album Physical Graffiti, released in 1975. It was written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant over a period of three years, with the lyrics dating back to 1973.-Overview:The song centres around a signature chord progression...

". A fiddle-and-drum fadeout was omitted from the radio edit of "I Want to Live".

Chart performance

"I Want to Live" debuted at number 57 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 13, 2004. > >

Chart (2004)	Peak position