Why John Green finds solace in the Mountain Goats

John Green helped his brother, Hank Green, sing a specific song at the end of every date of the duo’s “Turtles All the Way Down” tour this fall.

“This Year,” originally recorded by indie-rock band the Mountain Goats for 2005 album “The Sunset Tree,” offers the memorable chorus, "I am going to make it through this year if it kills me."

Indianapolis author Green introduced "This Year" by telling audience members, "This is a song that’s been a light for me in very dark times, and I hope it will be for you as well."

Green drew on his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety when writing "Turtles All the Way Down," a set-in-Indianapolis story that's spent seven weeks at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Sellers list for young adult hardcover books.

During an Oct. 19 interview before the "Turtles" book tour played Pike Performing Arts Center, Green talked about his affection for the Mountain Goats.

“People say this stuff about music, and a lot of times I don’t really believe them when they say it, but I do find Mountain Goats songs, in general — or some selection of 70 to 100 Mountain Goats songs — to be sort of hymns in their way,” he said.

The author, whose pre-"Turtles" works include "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Looking for Alaska," is seen wearing a Mountain Goats T-shirt (one that states, "I only listen to the Mountain Goats") in his profile photo at Twitter and Facebook.

The Green brothers invited the Mountain Goats to perform as part of a 2013 show at New York's Carnegie Hall, and a rendition of "This Year" closed the program.

John Green assembled a playlist of Mountain Goats songs for his fans in 2015, and he quoted Mountain Goats' song "Game Shows Touch Our Lives" at the beginning of 2008 novel "Paper Towns."

Mountain Goats singer-guitarist John Darnielle was born in Bloomington, Ind., and he grew up in Southern California. Green was born in Indianapolis before growing up in Orlando, Fla., and moving to Indianapolis with his wife, Sarah, in 2007. (At the time, Sarah was a newly hired curator at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.)

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The Mountain Goats issued their 16th studio album, "Goths," in May 2017.

Green and his "Vlogbrothers" partner, Hank, will host their annual "Project for Awesome" online fundraiser Dec. 15-17.

Saying Mountain Goats songs "can be with me wherever I am," Green mentioned that people feel the same way about the music of One Direction, Tracy Chapman and other artists.

“It’s a tremendous consolation,” he said. “Wherever you find that consolation in the music that makes you feel less alone, hold onto it.”

Call IndyStar reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.