It Coulda Been Me

Album: Social Distortion (1990)
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Songfacts®:

  • This punk-rock song is about recovery from drug addiction. Social Distortion singer Mike Ness told Rolling Stone it was inspired by "watching my friends die or go to prison." He added: "At that point, I was just really grateful to figure out that being a junkie was a horrible life and that nothing was gonna come of it but misery. So it was also a song of hope and gratitude. It could have been me. In the first six months [of recovery] I realized that I was lucky and that now I just had all this energy that can go to a positive thing: I could play music. But it's very important to remember where you come from and that you can easily go back."
  • This appears on Social Distortion's self-titled third album. Known for its singles "Story of My Life" and "Ball And Chain," which made the rounds on alt-rock radio and MTV, the album earned a Gold certification in the US for 500,000 copies sold.
  • This was the band's first album after signing with Epic. Their previous album, Prison Bound, was released via the California-based alternative label Reckless Records.

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