Children of Divorce

This was from an interview with a radio station.. pretty much clears up ALL the confusion

KSLU: Um, I have a question from Mamma Misha- she asks, was writing Children of Divorce a healing factor for you? Jonny: It was. That was probably one of the roughest moments of my life. I guess I can explain it. I was dating a girl, her name was Sarah Amalia, I’m not going to say her last name, but most people just by saying that will know who she is. I have no really hard feelings against her. I just didn’t feel happy in the relationship whatsoever, and I just decided to, you know, to break it off with her. At the time, it sucks, but she was actually pregnant, and she decided to keep the child. But she has yet to give me a blood test, and she won’t talk to me. She lives in Canada so it’s kind of hard to do anything legally. So it’s kind of just a big blank. So I wrote that song as a release for myself from like all the feelings that I was feeling at the time about the situation. Now I don’t feel so bad about it because I made an effort, I tried my best to tell her, you know it’s not my fault that I don’t have feelings for you but obviously I would love to be a father to the child, if it is mine. So, who knows.

This song's meaning is well documented. It is about a girl that Jonny was with a while back. She became pregnant but there was question about whether or not the child was his. She to this day has denied him a paternity test and continues to leave him in limbo about it after his countless attempts to find out the truth. This song declares his freedom from the burden that she put on him and his wish to find the truth or be let free from the purgatory he has been put in.

youtube.com/watch

that clears up everything, youre welcome.

omg everyone shut up. theres a video interview with jonny on youtube about the song, its about a girl who refuses to let jonny know whether or not the kid she has is his or another mans, and he offers to help her financially and she says for him to go away. watch it yourself. for you lazy people skip to 1:05 youtube.com/watch

DCswindle, what does the second part of your comment have to do with anything?

I like the IDEA that the song is about Johnny Craig's dad, but that's clearly not the case.

He clearly says "SHE will know my name!" Which makes the kid a girl, which Johnny is not...

GREAT song. GREAT Artist. Sucks that he's a douche though! :D

When I first heard it and read the lyrics, I took it as toward a mother. Because for it to be his "child of divorce" he would of had to have been married to said girl. But what made me think that it was to a mother figure was:

"And back to these cold shitty days in Portland, Wishing I'd never come across your face, Plagued by the memories of things unspoken," This could mean going back to where everything with her happened. And seeing her face in his mind never letting go of the things she didn't want but got stuck with. Or he's plagued by the memories of being around her and never being good enough, and how nothing went talked about. "Plagued by the memories of things unspoken" hits home for me most because the event that tore my parents apart and hurt me forever is never even spoken of by either of them. It's treated like it never existed, but haunts me whenever I walk into the house.

"Made me look over the flaws of your nature. Laying on your back became your only escape." My mother was like that, told me all her problems and cried to me like I was supposed to take care of her instead of the other way around. She slept around to feel better about my father not wanting her anymore because she cheated in the first place.

"I never planned to carry your burdens." This being how I or any other child was never meant to know so much so young, cleaning up after their mother and trying to hold together their family. I raised my sister and made sure she ate and got to school, and that we all had clean clothes and the house wasn't a wreck. I delt with my father and played the messenger between the two of them.

"But this child was a mistake." He could very well be referring to himself, or someone he knows that went through this who feels that way. I know I've thought that a lot.

"I knew from the moment i stepped off that plane, we had no future." This makes me think of how when I leave, and live on my own away from my mother, I feel myself realizing more and more and seeing how me and her are never going to have a good bond. The idea of getting away showing that there is more than taking care of someone who needs to learn to do it themselves and acknowledge someone else has, when they never showed any love or affection.

"How come your dreams are always so bitter?" My mother was miserable, even though she had me and my sister and a house and health, she was always miserable because her and my father didn't work out, and her friends were back in her hometown and no one in her life now liked her because of how destructive and awful she became.

"And who knows, maybe one day, you will know my name." This hit hard with me thinking about my mother because she doesn't listen to me. She sees me as a duplicate of my father, that nothing I say is my own. She never gives me the time of day or wants to talk to me other than to break me down. And this makes me feel like it's saying someday she'll notice me, someday I'll stick with her and she'll listen and know who I am.

"You still return to the same skylines, that leave you broken. Cheap talks with even cheaper company. Keeps the days turning into nights." This made me think of how my mother never let go of anything that hurt her. She kept letting it swallow her and lived in it always. She stayed with shitty friends that took everything she ever built that was good and just stared off, living but not being really alive, wasting time with these people who didn't really care about her just to pass the time.

"You lay awake crying cause your child, carries my name," This to me, means that she's crying because I/he/someone is her child. She's crying because the singer is her child, that's who she created and she's ashamed.

"while i regret ever making you apart of my life." I think everyday of how much it hurts trying to let my mom in and I do it over and over and over and it never works.

"Sadly enough, this song's not to hurt you, just to show the world that I'm free." This to me means he's finally letting go of her and not letting her unshown love hurt him anymore or letting her control his life and feelings. The song isn't to directly make her feel like shit, but annouce that he has grown as a person and moved on and can be independant and make his own life and love and not just live in the shadow of hurt.

That may not be the exact meaning he meant when he wrote it, but that is a basic view of what it means to me. The thing about music or writing of any kind is that it can be taken any way that the listener or reader sees it. There's really no reason to bitterly argue guys.

Here is the youtube link <a href="url">youtube.com/watch</a>

absolutely amazing. i didn't know how jonny would sound against acoustic, but its official... he sounds amazing with anyone, anything, anywhere. this song is stunningly beautiful

wow, i did it twice, FML.

legit lyrics:

And back to these cold shitty days in Portland. Wishing I'd never come across your face. Plagued by the memories of things unspoken. Scared by thoughts of your father. Made me look over the flaws of your nature. Laying on your back became your only escape. You feel so old, used, but not yet broken. Enough to thing you have it all together. I never planned to carry your burdens. But this child was a mistake.

I knew from the moment i stepped off that plane, we had no future. How come your dreams are always so bitter?. And who knows, and maybe one day, she will know my name

You still return to the same skylines, that leave you broken. Cheap talks with even cheaper company. Keeps the days turning into nights. You lay awake crying cause your child, carries my name while i regret ever making you apart of my life. Sadly enough, this song's not to hurt you, just to show the world that I'm free.

I knew from the moment i stepped off that plane, we had no future. How come your dreams are always so bitter?. And who knows, and maybe oneday, she will know my name She'll know. She will know.