"The Cocaine Cowboy" ©

The story — in my words

I wrote this one as a mirror to the guys I saw back home who put on the uniform of a tough guy—the big buckle and the low hat—just to hide the fact that they were terrified and falling apart inside. This character being a 'Jersey boy' is personal; it's about that specific displacement of feeling like you don't belong where you are, so you find a chemical way to be somewhere else. When we tracked this, I wanted that transition from the frantic panic of the streets to that surreal, floaty feeling of the ending. It’s a heavy story about how we sometimes lock ourselves in the dark when the key was in our hands the whole time. I didn't want it to just be a sad song, but a wake-up call for the restless souls chasing a high that never actually lands.