The Noose

This song is about Alcoholic Anonymous... If you din't notice the name of the album is "Thirteenth Step" There are 12 steps in AA. He is talking about how sometimes in AA people are on a "pink cloud" the pink cloud represents how people are overly confident in early recovery and get cocky. They think they are angelic and a totally different person that when they were using, hence the halo... One of the steps in AA is to make amends to people you have harmed in your addiction. Maynard is saying that the feeling one gets of perfection in their recovery can be their biggest downfall. Their halo will be their end. How do you make amends to someone you've killed in your addiction? You can't so you're not as perfect as you think.

I'm with prayingmantis on this one. It seems like it's about some one who killed an innocent person (or people) while DUI. They've either gone to rehab or 'found Jeebus' so they feel like they've made up for their past mistakes. The singer, though, is kinda like "Hey-- you're all better now!... That's great and all, but uh, what about the people you killed? They're still dead, and nothing can change that."

Yeah, I can't quite picture Maynard wording that last part like that.

Note the text below "::add your comments::". It says what does this song mean to you. I don't think it says ::tell us what you think about everyone elses' opinion::. I'm not trying to be a whiny bitch or trying to be hyppocritical but damn, respect people's opinions. Instead of saying, "No, you're wrong...", just say, "I think...insert your interpretation here". The beauty of songs is that they can be interpreted in many different ways, especially songs by Maynard, otherwise, a site like this would be insignificant. I love how some people just say, "No, that's wrong...", like they wrote the fucking song themselves or something. If you disagree with what I've said, guess what, I don't give a fuck. Good day.

Someone talking to a person that just came out of rehab for, say, drunk driving... well, DUI.

The person did some bad things, probably killed some people (by accident), but now he's "better."

So the singer is wondering how he's going to make it up to the people he destroyed now that he's clean.

I watched the aMOTION DVD with Maynard's commentary on and when the music video for this song came on he said that he went to an AA meeting with one of his friends and one of the guys who was sharing said "Don't let you halo fall and choke you to death." and that's how he got the idea for the song

Although this song may be already explained i wanted to share the meaning that it has for me, as I think the meaning is open for interpretation individually as almost every song out there. That is the beauty of music it does not really matter the actual meaning, but the meaning you give to it its what makes the song special for every individual. For me this song reminds me of suicide, describing everything perfectly but in metaphor, making reference to the person as a kind of an angel and hanging himself, as for the parts like "so glad to see you well" for me its not actually watching the person but to know that he might be in a better place.

first of tall, terrayzin, your a moron for not knowing that Maynard was jokeing and second... i always liked to believe that Maynards writing, although have meaning to him personally and maybe even the entire band, but are all written in a way that are open to interpretation to his fans. so, in a sense, we could all be right... except terrayzin, thats Maynards humor dude.

but thats just my opinion, i could be wrong

My, my I haven't read all the comments but what I have read cannot be any more far off the mark. The song is about someone who has managed to kick a habit through rehab but has developed a holier than thou attitude which is now starting to screw him over. The halo on his head is now turning into a noose, there is no actual noose. The song makes zero attacks on religion whatsoever.

I always felt this song is about someone finding "god" and kicking a n addiction. But the person had a very bleak, perhaps violent and murderous, past. The song is basically sarcastically asking "Well, now that you have forgiven yourself, how do you go about getting forgiveness from those you killed or hurt?"

I disagree with you all.....I saw APC life in Birmingham in feb and before he played this song he said "we appologise for our president" this song is aimed a President Bush for sending the troops into Iraq and hes saying its good to see hes ok even though hardworking American people have lost love ones......