Factory of Faith

The speaker had big dreams and chased after fame all his life. There was this girl he liked, but she wasn't really around, so he slept with a bunch of random girls but then she came back into his life. He wants to give up his playboy ways and get married, and her friends are nervous that he'll leave her.

"All my life, I was swinging for the fence I was looking for the triple Never playing good defense" I feel like he's using baseball as a metaphor for fame - "swinging for the fence" = hitting the ball out of the park = hitting the big time. But "never playing good defense" = making bad life choices.

"gunning for the glitter" = reinforces that idea. Glitter = glamourous lifestyle of fame

"She was never really there so I couldn't really get her" = the girl he liked was never around, maybe on business, always busy, or maybe she wouldn't come with him on tour.

"She was good for getting there but not so much for round trip" = maybe she's afraid to commit to him because he was a player

After I thought about this song, I didn't know what the "is just a medicine" part meant. But then it hit me. Is this song about Johnny Cash and June Carter? I may be overanalyzing but hear me out. The only explanation about "factually I, is just a medicine, makes you wanna cry, why don't they let us in?" that I could come up with is people are trying to get into a country and they wouldn't let them in because they had drugs, but the speaker claims that it's just his medicine. This did happen to Johnny Cash when he came back to the USA from Mexico.

Also "fishing for a hook" = he did fish, and in the movie Walk the Line, he and June went fishing, she had just gotten divorced, and he was looking to start a relationship with her but she wasn't buying it so he "took a little trip" and went on tour, "opening up the book" for other girls.

The search for fame would also apply to my clearly overanalytic explanation of this song.

I just tought I heard John's back vocals when the part "Be my wife.." began ..

Josh is really John without the "n." Haha, no that was a lie.

He don't wanna be a playa no more... (He's not a player he just crushes a lot)

Such a great song. The chorus makes me get chills down my spine.

It seems to me that he is definitely talking about his time living the "rock star life" and sleeping around and doing drugs. He wants to give up that part of his rock and roll life and have a serious relationship. He's put his faith in this girl, but she was not up to it. "She was good at getting there , but not as much round-trip" seems like she couldn't commit all the way, also "Last Night I had a dream, it was great" seems to imply that his faith and love are not as valid in the real world as they are in his dreams. But ultimately it's a hopeful song. He still has faith in her, regardless of the status of their relationship. It's pretty sweet as far as "disillusioned love" songs go.

Okay this could very well be wrong as well but here goes. "So I took a little trip and I opened up the book" I think that he realised how he was acting because he took a trip, aka a psychedelic, and gained some knowledge and perspective from it, hence, "opened up the book". A well documented result of some psychedelics like dmt, ayahausca, shrooms ect, is ego death- when you realize your own identy and sense of existence is just an illusion. That would explain this part-time "Factually I, is just a medicine" He is saying "I" aka his own existence and ego, is something you need, but kind kind of clinical, it's something you swallow and it might not taste nice, if I were to look at its connotations. I might be way of but it's just my interpretation.