When You're Young by 3 Doors Down

Album: Time of My Life (2011)

Charted: 81

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Songfacts®:

This is the first single from 3 Doors Down's fifth studio album, Time of My Life. The single was released to iTunes on February 1, 2011.
Lead singer Brad Arnold wrote the song with Aerosmith and Def Leppard producer Marti Frederiksen. Arnold described the track to Billboard magazine as, "almost a mockery of how easy people think it is to be young. Young people always hear, 'This is the greatest time of your life...,' but it's not always that way, y'know?"
Arnold explained to Artist Direct what the song means to him: "So many times, older people look at young kids and say, 'Enjoy this time! It's the best time of your life,' when it's really not. Being young is hard. Everything's in front of you for the first time. Those things that are in front of you seem so much bigger than they do when you're looking back on them. I'm 32 now and looking back on my teenage years and before, a lot of it doesn't seem as hard as it did then because now it's behind me and I hardly remember it. You get the responsibilities of the world as an adult. However, when you were in high school, there was nothing bigger than that test on Friday. Now, you don't even remember what test it was [Laughs]. It's hard to be young. The song discusses that."
The song's music video was uploaded to YouTube on March 23, 2011. Arnold told Noisecreep about the clip: "This video symbolizes the struggles that we face as we fight to make our way through the seemingly narrow passages of our lives. It reflects our fight and our vulnerability. Ryan Smith and his team have done a wonderful job bringing the song to life through this edgy, cinematic delivery. I hope that everyone can see themselves in some way within the characters of this video."

Comments: 2

Dale Stevenson from Greenville, NcBeing an older man now, and listening to my mentors and sages of my youth. This song me more to me than just navigating life. It is a deep desire to fully know. Understanding that brings to mind philosophies on what living means by the varying approach we can take.

Great song! Thanks for helping me reflect and know the questions to life are still being sought. A great music comes from the journey!
Megan from Wake Forest, NcI love this song. I'm in college and still considered young, but not like middle school or high school young. But I consider college easier than middle school (where I was bullied everyday and depressed); and this song is so easy to relate to. For me, it was harder to be young than it is now.

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