I'm With You

Album: Let Go (2002)
Charted: 7 4
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • When you're all alone, by yourself, you can feel horrible. Avril knows this feeling and in the song, she tells you how she felt when she went through it. You feel like you're so lonely and scared, trying to find yourself and figure everything out, but you just can't. You wish someone would help you, but no one does, until one person picks you up and helps you from up from the floor. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Shana - Radcliff, KY
  • Another interpretation: A girl grows up and becomes a prostitute. She hates her life but can't get out of it. The chorus is: "It's a damn cold night Trying to figure out this life Won't you take me by the hand take me somewhere new I don't know who you are but I, I'm with you I'm with you..." This could be about being with a John and having sex with him. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Marcos - Westville, OK
  • This was the third single from Avril Lavigne's debut album, Let Go, released when she was 17. Like the first two singles, "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi," it was written by Lavigne with the Los Angeles-based songwriting team The Matrix: Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards and Scott Spock.
  • The video was directed by David LaChapelle, who worked on Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty" video. The clip captures Avril's loneliness as she walks alone through the dark streets of Los Angeles (downtown's Orpheum Theatre can be seen in the background) and dodges strangers at a party. Some of the scenes are in slow motion but the singer's lips are still in sync with the music. To achieve the effect, the director shot the footage with the music at double speed.

    LaChapelle is also a noted photographer, with many of his subjects being pop stars. He took a portrait of Avril Lavigne on location during the video shoot.
  • Rihanna sampled the "yeah, yeah" vocals in this song for her 2010 hit Cheers (Drink To That). Lavigne told Entertainment Weekly she was thrilled that Rihanna borrowed from one of her most-loved tunes. Said the Canadian pop-punker: "It was really exciting because 'I'm With You' is one of my favorite songs that I've done, I always love performing it. And I think Rihanna's awesome, she has great songs, she's a really great singer, so yeah I was excited. I think it's really cool."

    Lavigne and her "I'm With You" co-writers earned writing credits on the Rihanna song because of the sample.
  • Lavigne told Digital Spy in a 2013 interview that she considers this to be her best song. She explained: "It's still a challenging song vocally and the crowd always get into it."
  • Avril Lavigne and British singer-songwriter Yungblud performed the song together on the livestreamed The Yungblud Show in March 2022. Yungblud introduced Lavigne as the "emo queen."

Comments: 42

  • Ryan from Los AngelesI think this song can be interpreted a few different ways. To me it's about depression, or at least loneliness and finding yourself -- being lost in life and desperation. The video really nails the loneliness aspect. You can be in a room full of people and still feel alone, and sometimes you don't want to even interact with them (the scene where she pushes the dude).

    I do believe that this is perhaps Avril's best song emotionally. "Alice" has a similar vibe but I like this one better.

    The "prostitute" interpretation is interesting, and many of them have the same sense of loneliness and being lost. This is why I find Avril Lavigne to be a brilliant artist.
  • Zadude from TorontoLike many good songs - lyrics are interpreted how you see them yourself or how you want to be. It is a sad song and as others have noted, there is hope. It is a very good song and I think that is why it clicks with so many people. I am also happy it pulled people out of some really desperate situations. To me, it sounds like a young girl that is lost, is hurt and is desperate for change.

    What scares me about the song is how amazingly it depicts those lost and hurt feelings and how it oozes with desperation even if there is hope.Definitely a teen desperation song. If you read the lyrics as they are without interpreting them, it eerily reminds me of what happens to many young women that are desperate to grow up, or leave a bad situation or runaway and are willing to do anything even if that includes taking the hand of a stranger to leave. Which if you are terribly unlucky can be dangerous or leads to an abduction, rape, a life into the sex trade or worse. It is why we have the Highway of Tears in Canada and well, this is the story of many lost and hurt teens (especially young girls).

    So follow the hope in the song - look for something better in life, no matter how hard today seems, there is always hope, and if you get it right, a new future. Take care those that are/were lost and confused.
  • One Dude from BrazilI read a lot of ridiculous reviews here, the song is just about LONELINESS.
  • Khoi from PhillyThis song is about finding yourself, plain and simple.
  • Jess from Almere, NetherlandsThis song just breaks me every time I hear it. I literally see myself in this song. Here's why:

    "I'm standing on a bridge, I'm waiting in the dark. I though that you'd be here by now" I'm the kind of girl who has a lot of problems at home so I tend to just sneak out every night. I Always go to this bridge because the water and the height help me calm down. I never shared this place with anyone until I got this amazing boyfriend. We would sit there together for hour every night. Well, he just broke up with me and it was all very painful. I still sit at that same spot every night hoping that I would see him coming around the corner. Waiting for him to hold me and tell me it's all going to be okay.
    "There's nothing but the rain, no footsteps on the ground. I'm listening but there's no sound" I just sit there. 2 am and there is no one anywhere close. I used to hear his footsteps but now there's just nothing but the cold rain on the ground. (It rains a lot in the Netherlands, especially around this time of the year)
    "Isn't anyone trying to find me, wont somebody come take me home" I can leave my home for days without my family noticing. Nobody ever missed me. Then I met my now ex boyfriend and he cared so much. He was just Always with me. Because I don't see the place I live as a home, I kinda started to feel at home whenever I was with him. He pushed me away so hard and he hurt me so badly but I still hope someone will take me to him...
    "It's a damn cold night, I'm trying to figure out this life" It can be extremely cold when you're just sitting outside in the middle of the night. Where I live it's about 2 degrees at night. When I'm outside in the dark I just start thinking about life and all the s--t that has happened to me and I just try to figure out why my life is like this.
    "Won't you take my by the hand, take me somewhere new" I keep hoping that someone will free me from this life, that someone will show me that it can all be fun as well. Take me somewhere where it's all different and where I can forget about my past. A place where I can start again and have a second chance at life.
    "I don't know who you are but I, I'm with you" I don't know who the person who is going to save me is. All I know is that one day he will be there. in my head I'm still with my ex but In my heart I'm already with that person. I have no f--king idea who it is but I know that he's with me.
    "I'm looking for a place, I'm searching for a face, is anybody here I know?" I'm looking for that place where I can be happy and where my past is meaningless. I need that place, I can't keep on going like this. I keep searching for someone who won't hurt me or break me or tear me apart. When I'm standing on that bridge and I think about jumping I just hope that if I decide to jump, anybody I know who cares enough about me stops me.
    "Cause nothing's going right, and everything's a mess. and no one likes to be alone" My entire life is going extremely wrong. I have a drug problem, a drinking problem and just so much s--t that I can't cope with. It's all just one big mess and I completely lost myself. I basically live on the streets. It's a thug life and most of the time you're by yourself. And it's just terrible to be so lost and alone.
    "Why is everything so confusing? Maybe I'm just out of my mind" The longer I think about everything that's going on in my life I get more and more confused and I just can't see the end anymore. I hate the boy who broke me but I love him so much and I would do anything to have him next to me. I can't control it anymore and I just don't know if my mind can take this much thinking. I'm just out of my mind.

    I don't think people actually read this bible but yeaa. Now you all know how I see this song and you understand why it is so touching and why I can see myself in the lyrics. It's an amazing song, especially because anyone can fit this song to their own life/stories. I read all the comments there were and everyone thinks it's about something else. and the beautiful part is that all the explanations are possible.
  • Joe from Penticton, Bc, CanadaSuch strength. Such love. Such sincerity of feeling. I can't say enough about how beautiful she is in every conceivable way.
  • Kate from Newtown, PaI don't think it's about people at all... last I heard she was a vegan who stood up for animal rights and it seems to me it's about pets who have been abused or abandonned and left to fend for themselves on the streets out in the world. Espeically the ones who were dumped because they were sick. They had a family and a home and now have been left, often thrown out of a moving car. SO now here they are sad, ALONE and terrified waiting for the family they were loyal to and loved to come back and get them. Could you just imagine?
  • Nicky from Hell, NeSounds like suicide to me. Her life is really bad, and she's debating killing herself. She's standing on a bridge thinking about jumping, and at the same time wishing somebody would come find her, and tell her she matters too much to do that. She's so desperate to be saved that she doesn't care who it is, whether she knows them or not - the first person to act like they care, she'll give herself to. This song reminds me so much of myself last year - I went through everything I just described.
  • Claudia from El Paso, TxThis song is not about finding the "one" or about a prostitute. This song is about a girl trying to find herself. Sometimes life can be quite challenging and difficult to face. You feel lost, and even though you have people around you, nobody really knows the confusion and sadness inside you. Then you wish for someone, doesnt matter a man a woman, a something that you to help you off the floor. It is a desperation song, a cry of desperation.
  • Mary from Tampico, MexicoI thinks this song is about feeling lonely because you still haven't found the one
  • Gail from Binghamton, NyThis song is about lonliness, but it's also about hope. The girl in the song feels that her soulmate is out there somewhere; she just hasn't met him yet. That's what she means when she says, "I don't know who you are, but I'm with you..." Knowing he is out there somewhere gives her the strength to get through the hard times.
  • Emily from Toronto, OnI think this song is about a girl being kidnapped and she is "waiting on the bridge" for her family, parents or friends to find her. But then a stranger comes and takes her "someplace new".
  • Theresa from Murfreesboro, TnThis is Avril's best song to date. Her voice is stunning, wish she would sing more songs like this. What happened to her?
  • Buddy from Barbourville, KyI used to think that this song was based on an old ghost story. In the story, some of the events Avril sings about are in the story, such as "I'm standing on the bridge, waiting in the dark, I thought that you'd be here by now" and the lyric "no footsteps on the ground". The story has these things in it. I still sort of stand by this theory of the song's meaning, though these meanings make alot of sense.
  • Sarah from Las Vegas, NvWow lots of comments. Don't know how mine will stand out. This song helped me get through a meth addiction. Every word in it was just like living with the addiction. Everyone I was around was untrustworthy. I really related to "I don't know who you are but I'm with you" because I was taking less of a chance with my life by leaving with a stranger than leaving with the people I was in company with. The lyrics, "cause nothing's going right, and everything's a mess and no one likes to be alone" really helped me to open my eyes and see life, and better yet, the life I was giving up by doing drugs and being with that crowd. It also made me think of my mom and how she was powerless to help me "isn't anyone trying to find me, won't somebody come take me home?" It was very moving. Six years later, I still feel a chill and remember what it felt like to be waiting for someone who may never come. Good job, Avril.
  • Don from B G, KyThere are 2 official music videos to this song. One has Avril seeing her bandmembers each alone along the deserted street. The other version has her find her bandmembers together on the street outside the party. The first line of the song sounds to me like "You're standing on a bridge." not "I'm standing on a bridge." I think this song is about the loneliness she feels looking for her as yet unknown soul-mate. The beauty is that it is enigmatic enough that many meanings can be made of it. A great song.
  • Calliope from Damascus, MdI think the song is about a girl who ran away from home but she really wants someone to find her, like her brother; she thought that he would notice that she was gone but no one else would and she's suprised that he doesn't come to take her back but then a stranger comes and "takes her someplace new" and for a while she forgets about her brother but not forever
  • Mike from Santa Barbara, CaThere are a lot of interesting interpetations of this song, which remains Lavigne's best. My take is that it's about lonliness and frustration, being stuck in a rut in one's life and feeling helpless to change it for the better, and she accepts an offer of an anonymous hook-up to take her mind off her problems. "I don't know who you are, but I'm with you."
  • Rose from St.louis, MoI think this song is about a girl who is with someone, but he's never there, and she doesnt know who he is anymore.
  • Morgan from Gratnsville, Utavril lavigne is one of my favorite artists ever and this song is really good
  • Tara from Somewhere, FlI can relate to this song very well. It's hard to explain, but here it goes: "I'm standing on a bridge, I'm waiting in the dark, I thought that you'd be here by now": Being depressed is sort of like being in darkness. and i went to a new school this year, and i wanted someone to talk to, but no one was ever there, so i'm alone. "There's nothing but the rain, no footsteps on the ground, i'm listening but there's no sound.": no footsteps is like i can never go back to find myself, and i don't know where i came from, so i can NEVER go back again to 'happiness'. "Isn't anyone trying to find me? Won't somebody come and take me home?" is just basicly, no one cares. "It's a damn cold night. Trying to figure out this life." when you're depressed and all alone, you get this strange cold feeling down your spine that won't seem to leave. and the line after that explains itself. "Won't you take me by the hand? Take me somewhere new. i don't know who you are but I, I'm with you." I just want someone to take me away from this place and don't care who it is. "I'm looking for a place, I'm searching for a face. Is there anybody here I know? Cause nothing's going right. And everything's a mess. And no one likes to be alone." is just wanting to go somewhere new, find myself again. Wanting someone i know who could comfort me, but no use. And whatever I do makes it worse ['Tourniquet' by Evanescence]. "Why is everything so confusing? Maybe I'm just out of my mind..." I can't get anything right anymore. And i can't think about anything without getting distracted by the stinging pain...
  • Lisa from Wexford, IrelandThis song describes something taht happened to me perfectly...
  • Valerie from Colonge, GermanyIthink the song isnt about dying its just about feeling lonely and about not quiet knowing who you are or where your at.I think its one of the best songs in the world!!!

    p.s Avril rocks (even though shes going through that change at the moment)
  • Polly from London, EnglandRejection and losing someone is the most heart wrenching feeling -- an utter turmoil.
    Life goes on and Time heals. Avril is a superb artist.
  • Shannon Mulvany from Spokane, WaSome of you guys perceive Avril songs completely wrong! This song is not about suicide or prostitution or any of that crap! It's just about being alone and feeling lost and things like that.
  • Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScGood interpretations. I never considered the prostitute one though. I'm not a huge fan of Avril, but I bought her first album, and this song is pretty good.
  • Bob from Here And Loving It, Nowhere, United Statesto maria, nowhere, other
    the "im with you" line is directed towards anyone really, ever had someone your really close to, and you wanted to show them the world, but could never bring yourself to do it? The only way she could achieve this was through her death, she will always be with this person, watching and guiding them.
  • Maria from Nowhere, Otheri think the theory about suicide is a really good one, i hadnt thought about that before, and it'd explain a lot of things, the only thing that i dont get though, is "i'm with you"... who is that then?
  • Kourtlyn from Helotes, Txwell everyone knows somethings for sure.
    It's about being alone.
  • Sarah Floyd from Bloomingdale, Ilisnt she taling about a friend or a boyfriend what? tell me i dont get it and i like the song. well doesnt matter. and she does sing really good. and i hope she sings more songs in the future if she is still alive.
  • Here And Loving It from No WhereAs interesting as all this is, i would have to say that the song is about a young girl commiting suicide. Just look at the lyrics. "im standing on the bridge, im waiting in the dark, i thought that u would be here by now, theres nothing but the rain, no footsteps on the ground, im listening but theres no sound" She is there, waiting all alone, hoping that someone cares enough to save her, but no one ever comes.And the chours, well thats easy "its a damm cold night, trying to figure out this life, wont you, take me by the hand take me somewhere new" She has given up, she tried to sort it all out, but instead took her life, and the wont u take me by the hand, take me somewhere new, thats where she goes, not sure if she will go into heaven, or hell, she is willing to go, just take her away from the life she knows."I'm lookin' for a place, I'm searching for a face,Is enybody here, I know" where ever she is now, she tries to find someone she knows, she finds some one, and when they ask why, she explains "'Cause nothin's goin' right, And everythings a mess, And no one likes to be alone" then she asks why "isnt anyone trying to fine me" Indicating that she is left alone in the streets, dying with no one to care, then "wont somebody come take me home" though she has gone in this world, she stills wants to be home, she never had one here, so wants one there.
    Then she questions her own judgement and sainty "Oh,why is everythin' so confusing, Maybe I'm just out of my mind" not sure if this is real, of if she has just gone crazy and left in a mental institution (but thats a totally different aspect to the song)
    and then the songs finishes, with her left dead, and still saying "Take me by the hand take me somewhere new, I don't know who you are but I'm, I'm with you" she is willing to go whereever her after life takes her, its better then the life she had here.
  • Alyak from Ny, NyI actually think the song is much more interesting when you think of it as being told through the eyes of a prostitute. Most of avril's songs are really crappy and cheesy... The lyrics of this song are actually semi good if you think about it that way though. The music i must say really sucks(as always)... but the lyrics make you think a little(much different than "he was a sk8er boi she said see ya l8er boi")
  • Eug from Athens, GreeceAvril wants to express that she's tired of her everyday life, she wrote this song when she was 15.A 15 years old girl always wants to escape reality, because it has many problems, like school, parents, and she just wanna get away...it's not a prostitue's story!!!God!!!
  • Lola from Worcester, MaWith absurd theories of kidnappings,and prostitution aside, in my humble opinion, the meaning is much more easily identified. I believe it's about a girl who HAS a boyfriend but who becomes disenchanted with him. She feels lonely because she feels as though her and her boyfriend don't know each other anymore. Hence the lyrics "Take me by the hand, take me somewhere new, I don't know who you are... but I'm with you" The lyrics explain that she has someone she loves, but at the same time, they don't know each other anymore. A really good break up song.
  • Jackie from Chicago, Ilit doesn't remind me of a kidnapping. It just reminds me of a lonely person, and her significant other isn't avaliable. and bill, fome AK, that's not yodeling, but that was pretty funny.
  • Monty from Omaha, NeHow is it you all get kidnapping out of this song? I have always just chalked it up to that feeling of being on the outside and alone... and I am sure that is what Avril was thinking when she "Wrote" it... or at least that is what she was thinking when the A&R guys handed her the song.
  • Ellie from Dayton, OhI actually read an interveiw where Avril said it was about just a down day, her boyfriend wasn't available and she was just lonely. Here, I found her quote: "It's a song I wrote at the piano when I was kind of having a depressing day," she said. "Kind of like, where's my guy? One of those days."

    http://www.avril-lavigne.ws/index2.php?x=info/videography.php

    That's a good site for looking up junk like that :)
  • Kortnee from Napanee, Ontario, CanadaI heard this song is about Elizabeth Smart the one that got kidnapped
  • Kaycee from Oakdale, MnI know many people say this song is about love or whatever, but I'm convinced that the person in this song has just died, and doesn't know it. When it says, 'no footprints on the ground,' I take that as a clue. And, it says, 'won't you take me by the hand,' and, 'i don't know who you are, but I'm with you.' maybe that's God taking her into heaven
    I know, it probably doesn't have anything to do with religion, but this is what I always think of when I'm listening to it.
  • Bill from Bethel, Aksince when do "punks" yodel?
  • Sunny from Cincinnati, OhBefore the bodies of Laci & Connor Peterson were found, this was the song that Laci's family and friends said reminded them of her while they were searching for her. I love the song, but every time I hear it I usually have to turn the station because it reminds me of the pain that Laci's family has endured. Beautiful song, though.
  • Jade from Ottawa, CanadaI don't like Avril, but I like this song, but someone pointed out it kinda sounds like a girl is being kidnapped, or taken but doesn't care
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Frankie Valli

Frankie ValliSong Writing

An interview with Frankie Valli, who talks about why his songs - both solo and with The Four Seasons - have endured, and reflects on his time as Rusty Millio on The Sopranos.

Alice Cooper

Alice CooperFact or Fiction

How well do you know this shock-rock harbinger who's been publicly executed hundreds of times?

Sam Phillips

Sam PhillipsSongwriter Interviews

Collaborating with T Bone Burnett, Leslie Phillips changed her name and left her Christian label behind - Robert Plant, who recorded one of her songs on Raising Sand, is a fan.

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real Group

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real GroupSong Writing

The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular Music

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

In The Cards

In The CardsSong Writing

Songwriters have used cards and card games to make sense of heartache, togetherness, and even Gonorrhea.