Awful Lot

I think the song in general is about being torn between regretting a certain lifestyle but still reminiscing about it and loving certain aspects of it. There seems to be a lot of left over hurt feelings regarding the people who said they would take the long road with him.

"I tried to tap a deeper, brighter vein but I’m back in old skin again."

Trying to move on in some aspect but getting pulled back in

"Pale stone. I am out of blood. Left in the chapel by a thousand other things I could have loved but barely touched. "

He's drained. The lifestyle has taken it's toll. Left with regrets, he wants to repent, thinking about what could've been if he lived a different way

"We used to talk to god with acid on our tongues. We were divine when we were drunk, before the world put out the fire and fed us crumbs."

The people he used to live that lifestyle with were all living in ignorance and it was bliss. Until they had a rude awakening and realized realistically, their life style won't cultivate in this world

"Chasing bended light, I went missing on the roads that wind through the corners of your eyes."

Not caring about anything else other than chasing that high.

I think the Barbarians/Savages bit is someone on the outside looking in, calling him and his friends that

"We tamper with a down machine but know it cannot work.

We had such promise until we broke our promises. "

I think this is saying even in their own minds they knew possibly that it wouldn't work out, whether as a band in general or as trying to maintain that lifestyle in the long run.

Like i said i think he's very torn here. He says they had so much promise, until we broke our promises. So possibly he was still wanting to move forward with the band lifestyle and his other friends had given up on it or the honeymoon phase finally ended for them as they're growing up?

"Why can’t it be the year two thousand? I want to live in the year two thousand when I was dumb enough to truly believe.

Why can’t it be the year two thousand? I want to live in the year two thousand when having nothing meant having everything."

I think these lines sum up the meaning and the rest of the song perfectly. He wants to go back to a time when he was dumb enough to believe he could be a rockstar and still have it all (when having nothing meant having everything)

"No one is taking my calls anymore. I can never get through. Acknowledge me you motherfuckers, I am cold and I’m blue."

The people from his past, the ones who broke their promises, are older and have their own lives now.

I think the Barbarians/Savages bit here at the end is possibly Keith talking to his old friends who gave up on their promise.