This song was originally thought to be about Kurt Cobain, but was revealed to be about R. Budd Dwyer, a politician who killed himself before his staff and assorted television news crews. He was elected Treasurer for the State of Pennsylvania and had been tried and found guilty of racketeering, bribery, fraud, and conspiracy. Although Hey Man Nice Shot isn't about Kurt Cobain, the line "they'd stick it in your face and let you smell what they considered wrong" sounds like a reference to the Nirvana song Smells Like Teen Spirit. Hey Man Nice Shot is basically sarcastically saying good job shooting yourself and taking a nonchalant attitude by saying "hey man have fun."
"'Hey Man Nice Shot' is about a guy doing something drastic," Rich picks up, "holding a whole bunch of people at bay, and doing something incredibly devastating to himself. I responded to that as some guy trying to make his life better, by making it worse. And trying to make everyone else alive through suicide. I'm not going to bring up his name out of respect for his family, and the fact that I don't want to sell records off of it. As far as me seeing some guy do something crazy [in the eyes of] everyone else, I saw him do something that took a lot of balls—granted, it was very wrong—I still think that if you tried something and it was a fucked-up way of dealing with it, hey man, nice shot. You took a shot at something. I'm not condoning his death, but like a kamikaze pilot, he had the balls to do something. Of course, fighting the U.S. in the ’40s wasn't the best idea in the world for the Japanese, but they were dedicated and they felt this was the best way to deal with battleships. At least there is a spirit there. I don't know if it's right."
This song was originally thought to be about Kurt Cobain, but was revealed to be about R. Budd Dwyer, a politician who killed himself before his staff and assorted television news crews. He was elected Treasurer for the State of Pennsylvania and had been tried and found guilty of racketeering, bribery, fraud, and conspiracy. Although Hey Man Nice Shot isn't about Kurt Cobain, the line "they'd stick it in your face and let you smell what they considered wrong" sounds like a reference to the Nirvana song Smells Like Teen Spirit. Hey Man Nice Shot is basically sarcastically saying good job shooting yourself and taking a nonchalant attitude by saying "hey man have fun."
"'Hey Man Nice Shot' is about a guy doing something drastic," Rich picks up, "holding a whole bunch of people at bay, and doing something incredibly devastating to himself. I responded to that as some guy trying to make his life better, by making it worse. And trying to make everyone else alive through suicide. I'm not going to bring up his name out of respect for his family, and the fact that I don't want to sell records off of it. As far as me seeing some guy do something crazy [in the eyes of] everyone else, I saw him do something that took a lot of balls—granted, it was very wrong—I still think that if you tried something and it was a fucked-up way of dealing with it, hey man, nice shot. You took a shot at something. I'm not condoning his death, but like a kamikaze pilot, he had the balls to do something. Of course, fighting the U.S. in the ’40s wasn't the best idea in the world for the Japanese, but they were dedicated and they felt this was the best way to deal with battleships. At least there is a spirit there. I don't know if it's right."