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Originally Posted by HonestDenver1
Most people that "experiment" with intravenous heroin don't just get off it, they usually require rehab. Maybe Dave is stronger than the average person.
I also remember a story about R&R somewhere that it was about a friends mental health problem, same with the nancies line "23 and so tired of life, such a shame to throw it all away" While the lines can be universal, I truly don't think Dave went through these things at the specific level he's writing about.. Just observations and stories...
R&R is most definitely about a person dying from drug usage due to crippling mental health..
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Sometimes the level of emotion, terror, pain and isolation in art makes it very very VERY hard to believe the artist isn't speaking from experience. Whether it's from loving someone dearly and closely who went through that, or from knowing at least the cycles of mania & numbness and also the "my head won't leave my head alone/I don't believe it will, until I'm dead and gone", this song sounds like it's from experience. " Maybe not from drug use specifically, or maybe he wasn't "the experiencer" (to your point), but to me there's no way I believe this is just a song written 3rd person, from a distance. And my gut is (but I have no direct knowledge) that if asked about it, specifically if asked if he's ever felt these struggles in his head himself, I'd be shocked if Dave said "No, never".
That's not the same as saying he had to have been a heroin user to write the song, because that's not true. But gonna guess he knew one extremely well and loved them dearly if he didn't experience it himself, because he tells the story of the struggle too well and with far too much emotion not to have known that story up close.