This song is an allegory about a man, post-addiction looking at his life, his past, and reflecting on his relationship. From hard-won experience, I know when you have immersed yourself in the life of an addict, you view life through the prism of your bondage. It colors everything you see and everything you feel. When you crawl out of that hole, there is the fear of "Will they still like me? Will I still like them? Can I even function?" After 20 years of opiate addiction, many of the people I knew had never known me sober. I was terrified. I was lucky to have left the area and made a new start, but I was still with my girlfriend (who was never a user/addict) and there were friends that I still loved and didn't want to lose. Bur, as is usually the case, most of those relationships blossomed. My girlfriend, who stood by me and loved me when I was living like a wounded, feral animal and could still see good in me, has marveled at the transformation. But I will live with what and who I was for the rest of my life. That feral animal was "..a man who walks beside me, he is who I used to be.."
This song is an allegory about a man, post-addiction looking at his life, his past, and reflecting on his relationship. From hard-won experience, I know when you have immersed yourself in the life of an addict, you view life through the prism of your bondage. It colors everything you see and everything you feel. When you crawl out of that hole, there is the fear of "Will they still like me? Will I still like them? Can I even function?" After 20 years of opiate addiction, many of the people I knew had never known me sober. I was terrified. I was lucky to have left the area and made a new start, but I was still with my girlfriend (who was never a user/addict) and there were friends that I still loved and didn't want to lose. Bur, as is usually the case, most of those relationships blossomed. My girlfriend, who stood by me and loved me when I was living like a wounded, feral animal and could still see good in me, has marveled at the transformation. But I will live with what and who I was for the rest of my life. That feral animal was "..a man who walks beside me, he is who I used to be.."