I'm Not a Vampire

Album: The Drug in Me Is You (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Escape the Fate frontman Ronnie Radke received a sentence of five years probation on battery charges in 2006 after the fatal shooting of 18 year-old Michael Cook. The singer failed to report to his parole officer and was arrested in June 2008, where he was sentenced to two years in prison. Following Radke's incarceration, Escape the Fate kicked him out of the band. During his time in jail, Radke formed Falling In Reverse with bassist Nason Schoeffler, who helped find guitarist Jacky Vincent and rhythm guitarist Derek Jones. Later, former drummer Ryan Seaman was recruited. Schoeffler quit the band in April 2011 and was replaced by Mika Horiuchi, formerly of the band Cellador.

    The band began recording for the first time in December 2010 after Radke's release on the 12th of that month. The ensuing album, The Drug in Me Is You, was released by Epitaph on July 26, 2011. It sold 18,000 copies in its first week in the US charting at #19 on the Billboard 200.
  • The songs for The Drug in Me Is You were all written by Radke during his imprisonment. Radke told Las Vegas Weekly: "I would think all day, for days and days, [about] what people would want to hear. I would dissect my old album and read all the fan letters and the reasons why they loved my band and why they listened to it. And I wrote about that, but in different ways. I don't know why these kids love the tragedies that I write about. I guess they can relate to it."
  • This is the second single to be released from the The Drug in Me Is You album. Its accompanying video was shot in LA and directed by Zach Merck, who was also responsible for the visual for the band's debut single, "The Drug in Me Is You."

    The story was inspired by Radke's lyrics "about being an alcoholic and drug addict."

    "I wrote the lyrics and melody in prison," Radke told Kerrang! magazine. "The video's like a celebrity rehab spoof. It's comedy all round y'know, just really non-stop funny, stupid little jokey type things."

    He continued: "There's a spoof Dr. Drew, a Bret Michaels and a Beverly Hills housewife. Then there's a Perez Hilton type, a gangsta rapper and Perez Hilton too. There are shots of me in an AA meeting and there's also a very Van Halen scene going on!"
  • Falling in Reverse released a new piano-led version of the track on February 12, 2021. The reworking, titled "I'm Not a Vampire (Revamped)" transforms the original into an orchestrated ballad.

    "I wrote the original song, while sitting inside a maximum security prison, about drug addiction," said Radke. "I always believed songs such as this one had more to offer than its original form, so I wanted to give fans a new perspective and redefine who I am when it comes to expressing myself and being creative."

Comments: 1

  • Amanda from Millville, MaHas anyone else noticed the similarity between the first line of the song and the infamous Ted Bundy quote, "Sometimes I feel like a vampire"? I was reading up on serial killers today, and the line just struck me. I know that Ronnie has alluded to other things in his lyrics both in FIR and from when he was in ETF. (When I Go Out I Want to Go Out on a Chariot of Fire references the Telltale Heart, I'm Not a Vampire has Eminem references, and a lot of people think the name "Cellar Door" is an allusion to Donnie Darko.) Any thoughts, or am I being overanalytical?
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