One Republic Releases (RED) Remix Of ‘I Lived,’ The Song Ryan Tedder Wrote For His Son, To Help Fight AIDS!

Despite One Republic's newest single being very personal for lead singer Ryan Tedder, the track will now help people all over the world.

Tedder penned the song "I Lived" for One Republic's album "Native" for his son Copeland Cruz, who is now 4-years-old. Now the band will release a new remix of the tune and has teamed up with Coca-Cola and (RED) to donate all the proceeds to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

"The whole idea, to quote the late great Robin Williams from Dead Poets Society, is very much 'carpe diem,' " 35-year-old Tedder told PEOPLE magazine. "That's the song - that's what it's about."

Tedder is a close friend of U2's Bono, who formed (RED) with Bobby Shriver to help raise awareness about AIDS and work towards eliminating the disease.

He told PEOPLE that the message behind the song made the decision to partner up with (RED) and Coca-Cola on this initiative an easy decision.

"The synergy was just kind of a no-brainer in this situation," said Tedder.

"It made sense," he added. "The nature of our song 'I Lived' lined up with the whole theme of their campaign."

While musicians often create and record new tracks for charity benefits, Tedder explained that he doesn't think this is always the best option "because they're done in a rushed, hurried manner."

Instead, One Republic had DJ Dave Audé remix "I Lived," a song that Tedder feels is "absolutely universal and applicable to everybody."

"One of the lines in the song is 'With every broken bone, I swear I live,' " explained Tedder. "So for every day that you're on this earth, for every minute that you have, the whole idea is doing nothing less than exactly what you feel you're supposed to do and squeezing every last drop out of life every day, regardless of the difficulties or trials that you face."

As for Copeland Cruz, Tedder reveals that his son doesn't "understand all the subtext and the lyrics because he's 4." But the boy does know the tune is about him.

"He loves it. He loves this song," said Tedder, clearly a proud dad. "He's always into whatever is the most recent song that we've done. So right now, he walks around singing 'Love Runs Out' cause that was our last single. Before then, it was 'Counting Stars,' and now it'll be 'I Lived.' "

The "I Lived (RED) Remix" was released today, Nov. 24. 

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Ryan Tedder
One Republic
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I Lived
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AIDS
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