According to Dave Grohl, he came up with the verse about "having a trial" after the time he was helping his first daughter
Violet Maye on "learning to walk", and eventually she was able to walk on her own. The song was supposed to be on the previous studio album
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, but Dave decided to put the final version as the last track of
Wasting Light because it "sort of makes sense to the album's theme of time and second chances" and to "end the record on a positive note". Grohl added that the optimistic tone was a reminiscence on how bad he felt after
Kurt Cobain killed himself and wanting others to realize "in life, you get trapped in crisis, where you imagine there’s no way out. When really, if you dare to consider that crisis a blip on the radar, it’s easier to push through. And, yeah, I was just like, ‘I don’t want anyone to have that feeling that I had that morning.’ ”
Pat Smear, who played with Grohl and Cobain in
Nirvana, considers "Walk" and its lyrics about enjoying life an antithesis to the Nirvana song "
I Hate Myself and Want to Die". ==Music video==