Public Service Announcement

Album: Restoring Force (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the opening track on Of Mice & Men's Restoring Force album. Frontman Austin Carlile told Kerrang! magazine: "The first line of the album is 'These are the hardest four years of my life.' That could be taken as the four years of high school, or four years of service, or who knows what."
  • Carlile was arrested and charged with leading an assault in late March 2013. However, when it came to the hearing the judge lowered these charges to a misdemeanor offense, of which the singer was found guilty. He sings here about feeling like a wild animal in a cage, prodded and poked at by the band's critics but unable to react:

    "I'm well aware that I did three days alone in a cell.
    A simple easy price to pay for something that I felt."

    Carlile told Kerrang! magazine: "People know what happened, they don't know my story – so why are they talking about it. Who the f--k are you? That hurts me, because if you don't know about something, you don't talk about it."

Comments: 1

  • Adelaide from Canada'These are the hardest four years of my life.' are not the opening lyrics from the song Public Service Announcement. However, they are the opening lyrics in the song "Glass Hearts".
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Subversive Songs Used To Sell

Subversive Songs Used To SellSong Writing

Songs about drugs, revolution and greed that have been used in commercials for sneakers, jeans, fast food, cruises and cars.

Rock Revenge Songs

Rock Revenge SongsMusic Quiz

John Lennon, Paul Simon and Lynyrd Skynyrd are some of the artists who have written revenge songs. Do you know who they wrote them about?

90s Metal

90s MetalFact or Fiction

Test your metal - Priest, Maiden, and Beavis and Butt-head show up in this one.

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up Musicians

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up MusiciansSong Writing

Eddie (played by Johnny Depp in the video) found fame fleeting, but Chuck Berry's made-up musician fared better.

Janis Ian

Janis IanSongwriter Interviews

One of the first successful female singer-songwriters, Janis had her first hit in 1967 at age 15.

Female Singers Of The 90s

Female Singers Of The 90sMusic Quiz

The ladies who ruled the '90s in this quiz.