Meaning of “Drugs” by Falling In Reverse (Ft. Corey Taylor)

To begin with, Falling in Reverse’s “Drugs” definitely has a hostile tone. And death – whether symbolic or literal – is one of its major themes. However, there is clearly an underlying, philosophical message behind the song. In other words, while the title of the track is “Drugs”, these substances in and of themselves are dealt with relatively-briefly.

The track starts off with the statement “everybody’s on drugs”, which is also featured in the chorus. And it doesn’t seem Falling in Reverse is referring only to physical drugs. For instance, in the very-next line of the chorus, they seem to equate pursuit of “the American dream” with being hooked on these substances.

At the beginning of the first verse, Ronnie Radke is faced with a proposition to kill himself. However, he states that he is “already dead, just differently”. Here, he is referring to some type of symbolic death.  And within the overall context of the song, this would seem to be something tantamount to striving to live up to the expectations of others and indeed society in general.

As such, in the second verse, he tells the listener to “save yourself” “because nobody else really has a clue”. This would seem to imply that the audience is on a similar road to self-destruction with the people around them being unaware that such is even transpiring, as in the society at large not perceiving anything wrong with treading such a path.

He then makes to a reference to “pain” being injected into the “veins” of the listener “like heroin”, with such putting him in the position “just to feel again”, as in preparing him for another injection of pain.  This may allude to the listener continual submitting himself to the aforementioned societal ideologies, even though the ultimate result is an undesirable one. Indeed in the chorus “the American dream” is seemingly classified as “a new disease” which is “murdering” the people who are caught up in it.

Thus we have guest vocalist Corey Taylor beginning the breakdown of the song by stating “everybody is dead from the neck up”. This would imply that they are dead mentally, not physically. In other words, they are “complacent” in a “dying nation”, as in blindly following an ideology that will lead to death instead of critically analyzing the path their lives are on.

Facts about “Drugs”

• “Drugs” was written and produced by Ronnie Radke.
• It was released on the 8th of April 2019.
• This song, which came out as a single, is the third track on the group’s album, which is named, Drugs.
• Prior to “Drugs”, Falling in Reverse and Corey Taylor had never worked together. This therefore marks their first ever collabo.
• The clean vocals on the track are sung by Ronnie Radke. The unclean vocals, on the other hand, are sung by Corey Taylor.