The following is from an Indigo Girls interview in Spin magazine, from August 1989:
Amy Ray: "'Kid Fears' is about the difficulty of growing up, getting into a world where people know where your hiding places are and what your secrets are. In the third verse, when I say 'Skipping stones/We know the price now,' that's specifically about the music industry. I used the image of skipping stones because the flatter and smoother the stone is, the better it skips and the more spin you put on it the farther it goes. When I say smooth, I'm talking about being polished and dressing right. 'We know the price now/Any sin will do' - there's a lot of things you can do to get further in the industry, and a lot of them, to me, are sins, because they're compromises. I stick to principles too much. I have a real short temper and tend to be outspoken. It's like, one person says something like 'Oh, when the paychecks start rolling in you'll change your mind about that,' can make you say 'Well f*ck you, because I'm never going to change, I'm always going to feel this way and I know I am.' You have to be really strong, and remember that you're getting to play and that's really what you want to do."
The following is from an Indigo Girls interview in Spin magazine, from August 1989:
Amy Ray: "'Kid Fears' is about the difficulty of growing up, getting into a world where people know where your hiding places are and what your secrets are. In the third verse, when I say 'Skipping stones/We know the price now,' that's specifically about the music industry. I used the image of skipping stones because the flatter and smoother the stone is, the better it skips and the more spin you put on it the farther it goes. When I say smooth, I'm talking about being polished and dressing right. 'We know the price now/Any sin will do' - there's a lot of things you can do to get further in the industry, and a lot of them, to me, are sins, because they're compromises. I stick to principles too much. I have a real short temper and tend to be outspoken. It's like, one person says something like 'Oh, when the paychecks start rolling in you'll change your mind about that,' can make you say 'Well f*ck you, because I'm never going to change, I'm always going to feel this way and I know I am.' You have to be really strong, and remember that you're getting to play and that's really what you want to do."