Relating to a Psychopath by Macy Gray

Album: The Id (2001)

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Macy Gray's 1999 debut album On How Life Is was wildly successful, but as she toured and made promotional appearances, it became clear that she could be a little unhinged. In this song, she turns the tables, letting her fans know that if they're relating to her, they must be a little off themselves:

Your role model is in therapy
You must be real far gone

Gray says the song is "tongue in cheek, nothing to take too seriously," but admits that elements of her personality come into play. Shortly after the album was released, she told Rolling Stone: "Some days I have psychosis for sure. I've been rushed to hospital a couple of times. I'm a manic depressive so I have my days, that's all. As an artist, you meet people all the time who say they relate to you and they love you. And then, as soon as you leave them, you go into therapy. I wonder if they knew the real me, they'd still say that."
Gray quotes some lyrics from her big hit "I Try" on this track:

I try to walk away
I choke and I stumble
This is the first track on Gray's second album, The Id, which had a surprisingly poor showing in the US but did very well across Europe, especially in the UK where it went to #1. Gray got the album title when a friend told her, "Macy, you're all id," referring to the Freudian term for base impulse.

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