Barbra Streisand says sweet pillow talk between her and her husband, James Brolin, inspired Aerosmith’s chart-topping single, I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. 

The Oscar-winning actress wrote about the private conversation and shared how the words made it to the lips of frontman Steven Tyler in the pages of her memoir, My Name is Barbra, which is available now.

Streisand and Brolin began dating in 1996 after a friend set them up on a blind date, according to Today. They instantly connected and headed into a deep romance. One night, during their first months together, the couple was lying in bed, and Brolin admitted that he didn’t want the moment to end. 

“I don’t want to fall asleep,” he told her. When Streisand asked why, he said, “’cause I’ll miss you.”

“What a beautiful, poetic thing to say. And it captured a moment of complete bliss… physical, emotional, spiritual,” she wrote. 

In 1997, Barbra Streisand sat for an interview with Barbara Walters on 20/20. During that chat, she recounted that night. Songwriter Diane Warren happened to be watching, and she wrote down the conversation, knowing it would fuel moving lyrics. 

Barbra Streisand Knew She Would Marry James Brolin After That Night 

“I don’t want to fall asleep ’cause I’ll miss you” turned into the chorus, “I don’t wanna fall asleep / ‘Cause I’d miss you baby / And I don’t wanna miss a thing” in 1998. The song ended up soaring to the top of Billboard’s U.S. all-genre list and went RIAA Platinum 5 times. Of course, it also played during another sweet moment between Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck in Armageddon. After landing on the film’s soundtrack, it earned an Oscar nod for Best Original Song. 

“It was so gratifying to see so many people responding to Jim’s words,” Streisand continued. “Well, no wonder… so did I!”

While visiting The Howard Stern Show last week, Barbra Streisand further shared that she decided she was going to marry James Brolin the night he said those now-immortalized words. The two ended up saying, “I do” on July 1, 1998. 

“We’re spooning. You know, we’ve done our bits, whatever, and I’m about to fall asleep, and he says that to me. ‘I don’t wanna fall asleep ’cause then I’ll miss you,’” she recalled once again. 

“Oh my god,” she remembered thinking. “Okay, yes, I’ll marry you.”