Justin dedicates it (in Argue With a Tree) to the five friends he lost that year, but he doesn't say he wrote it for them . The part that goes "where did all my idols end up? they've all passed away" does seem related to the friends. I suspect that the song isn't about one or the other...it's about his experience with addiction (and whatever other issues there were) as a whole...to me, it seems he is talking about the consequences of it and how he feels about the person he was during that time (and how it affected the person he loved).
Justin dedicates it (in Argue With a Tree) to the five friends he lost that year, but he doesn't say he wrote it for them . The part that goes "where did all my idols end up? they've all passed away" does seem related to the friends. I suspect that the song isn't about one or the other...it's about his experience with addiction (and whatever other issues there were) as a whole...to me, it seems he is talking about the consequences of it and how he feels about the person he was during that time (and how it affected the person he loved).