Early success can be a blessing as well as curse. Although Creed’s Adam Gontier should have been riding the high of a very successful self-titled, debut album, the lead singer later revealed that he had a lot of stuff going on with him that he needed to sort out. So the band’s second album ‘One-X’ was Adam’s way of healing his pain through words and songs.
Adam spoke to The Associated Press in 2006 and shared what the album and five songs in particular meant to him. The frontman said:
“The record is a lot more personal to me than our first record, just in the sense that our last record was sort of written about our friends, and things that happened around us and growing up in a small town. This record is sort of more about my life over the last few years.”
1. Animal I Have Become
After the first album and tour Adam became addicted to the prescription drug OxyContin. To get better the singer checked himself into the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto where he started writing lyrics. After he got out of rehab the band secluded themselves and started on their sophomore album ‘One-X.’ The first single from the album ‘Animal I Have Become’ is lyrics Gontier wrote when he was in rehab trying to get sober.
2. Over and Over
The lyrics of the track that goes, ‘I know what’s best for me, but I want you instead’ also represents Adam’s relationship with Oxycontin. It also showcases the hurt and pain that the frontman experienced during his time in rehab when he was trying to get clean.
3. Gone Forever
This next track can be interpreted in different ways. On one hand, it could be about Adam discovering that he’s better off without a toxic relationship. But on the other hand, it can also represent the happiness of the singer being free from drugs and addiction after his rehabilitation period.
4. Pain
On the Three Days Grace official website, Adam described the song as a constant sense of nothingness and his need to fix it. The singer said:
“This song really came to fruition while we were up in Bancroft, Ontario, Canada, at our buddy Art’s cottage, on Stiemer’s Lake. We were sitting on the deck, with guitars, beers, and a barbecue, when this song came to life. It’s a song about feeling like you’re constantly numb to things around you, thanks to your own actions, and it’s about being sick of that feeling. The main lyric in the chorus, ‘I’d rather feel pain, than nothing at all,’ really stands out to me, as one of the strongest lyrics on all of One-X.”
5. Never Too Late
Finally, this track represents a person that is willing to sit with the hardship while also trying to overcome it. In a radio interview Adam described ‘Never Too Late’ as one of his favorites within the album. The track signifies the frontman’s belief in second chances and if someone is willing to do the work they can change their life and their habits.
