All My Life

So Dave Grohl himself has said that the song is about pleasuring women orally, but he's also known for not wanting to describe the meaning of his lyrics in too much detail, which leads me to believe that "All My Life" is about more than just oral sex. Most interpretations of this song are about depression, drug abuse and self harm. All of the above meanings sound very valid, but I've also thought of something else when listening to this song.

"All my life I've been searching for something Something never comes never leads to nothing"

Let's assume from the get-go that this "something" is some form of pure happiness ascending his life to a new level, which is often found from a person (someone to love with deep affection, possibly a soulmate). But his search for his special someone never leads anywhere. I'm also thinking that this "nothing" works as a counterpart to the "something". "Something" is the true joy he's searching for, whereas the "nothing" stands for physical and shallow pleasure such as drugs and meaningless sex. When he can't find his "something", it leads him to "nothing".

"Nothing satisfies but I'm getting close Closer to the prize at the end of the rope"

It's only logical that his failures of finding someone to make him truly happy is dissatisfying. He's saying that he's getting close to what he's longing for perhaps as a way to comfort himself, that it'll get better in the end, that he'll just struggle his way through in the meantime.

"All night long I dream of the day When it comes around and it's taken away"

He's someone living in the night (a dark period of his life) and he's longing for the sun to rise for him. And when the sun finally comes around (he finds someone who might be the one), it's taken away from him.

"Leaves me with the feeling that I feel the most Feel it come to life when I see your ghost"

The abandonment leaves him with his most common feeling (emptiness and loneliness). The "ghost" is the person he is longing for, but he can't see who it is. After being abandoned, he fantasizes about his "ghost", which makes his present feelings "come to life" (his emptiness and loneliness gets amplified). This is where the rest of the song comes in, where he's helplessly trying to fill the void.

"Calm down don't you resist You've such a delicate wrist And if I give it a twist Something to hold when I lose my grip"

He's seducing women to have sexual relations with him. Meaningless sex is what he tells himself that he can hold on to as he's losing his grip on what he's really longing for.

"Will I find something in there To give me just what I need Another reason to bleed One by one hidden up my sleeve (one by one hidden up my sleeve)"

These lines actually sound more like he's using drugs, but for the sake of consistency, I'll stick to the meaningless sex: He's wondering if he'll find his temporary solution with sex, or if it will just make things even worse (another reason to bleed). Each woman to seduce is just like another ace card up his sleeve to him.

"Don't let it go to waste, I love it but I hate the taste Weight keepin' me down"

Since sex is such a short act, he doesn't want it to go to waste. While he is actually in the act, he's loving it, but the taste, the lingering feeling afterwards, is something he hates. His constant pursuit of meaningless pleasure makes it harder and harder for him to break free from it, it is the weight that is keeping him down from achieving greater joys in life.

"Will I find a believer Another one who believes"

He's wondering if he might find another one who is like him, believing that there is more to life than all this meaninglessness.

"Another one to deceive"

He quickly reminds himself that if he would find another believer, it would still just be another one of his many meaningless sexual relations, since he's trapped in his constant sexual acts.

"Over and over down on my knees"

This can be interpreted as him pleasuring a woman, but it also might portray him praying over and over. Probably praying for him to find a way out of his downward spiral.

"If I get any closer And if you open up wide And if you let me inside On and on I've got nothing to hide (on and on I've got nothing to hide)"

This might be him deceiving a girl to open up her mind and/or her body to let him use her, lying that he's got nothing to hide. But it might also be something more sincere. If he would find someone who would open up their thoughts and feelings for him, he would do the same, because he would feel that he has nothing to hide from this person.

And then comes the lines that made me think the song is about meaningless sex:

"Done done on to the next one Done I'm done and on to the next one"

These lines get repeated over and over for a large portion of the song, indicating that they're a key to the song's meaning. It describes what he's thinking after he's done with every sexual act. He's just "done and on to the next one". There is nothing more going for him. After the eighth line, he starts to scream the lines in a very aggressive manner, filled with rage, probably directed towards himself for using countless people for his own selfish needs, and for allowing himself to fall this low and lose sight of what he truly wanted all along.

Personally, I feel that the song becomes so much more powerful when having this meaning in mind. I read that Dave Grohl described "All My Life" as being a representative of the album "One By One"'s sound for being "much more aggressive" as well as "a little darker, more romantic, creepier than anything we have done". The fact that the word "romantic" was thrown in among words like "aggressive", "darker" and "creepier" leads me to believe that my interpretation at least holds some ground. The romantic part being his longing for true love.

I am not saying that my interpretation is a very solid one (I am actually not very sure about it). The song may very well be about oral sex, drug abuse or suicidal thinking. Either way, I think we can all agree on that "All My Life" has a very dark theme going for it, and that Dave made a marvelous job in writing these lyrics vague enough for everyone to speculate and find various meanings, yet still maintaining enough context for there to be very plausible interpretations.