Our Shared Madness

4: America's Suitehearts

I started a song during our last album that was shown the door as soon as I tried to give it light. Although, I think I've figured it out now. It took so long to get it right. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. And there's no guarantee that any of my lyrics and songs will ever see the daylight.

Patrick and I were playing with the lyrics and the title. He kept asking for it to be "America's Sweethearts", but it didn't really fit the lyrics. So, I payed for it to stay as what I wrote it, "America's Suitehearts".

It related back to what I had said in the other songs I had been working on, the whole idea of the press. The world is full of dramatic people. Humans crave for that sense of drama in their life. We're attracted to everyone's bad news. We wait for the best part of a movie, the most intense point, and it knocks us on off our feet in real life.

In dreams like mine, there aren't cameras following you around. I'm in my own little place with the people I love and that's it. All the harsh critics and nasty paparazzi have never existed and simply vanished into thin air. It's the healthiest place to live.

But, dreams don't last forever. Eventually, you wake up and smell the coffee in a world where anyone can rush to social media and post rumors about you with photoshopped pictures. You have to prepare yourself for the media blitz, because once you're in, you're as good as dead.

You have to point the finger back at yourself. When you're throwing people in the goo - realize you were the person scared to get in it.

We have become a culture that really likes to build people up...and we have this standard of morality that's insane but at the same time, we want to know what goes on behind closed doors. We want to shun celebrities and then back them up. We've created this snowball of culture where we chase Brangelina and they're 21,000 kids - but they're smart because they're building their own army and eventually will beat us.

Celebrities like Brad and Angelina are America's Sweethearts and we've all grown up into this period of it being okay for them to act the way they do for our own entertainment and admiration. No celebrity falls in love for love anymore. It's all about having the perfect body and the best sex. If not, you're shunned. That's why I called it Suitehearts.

I try to remember what the world was like before society became a scary word. Everyone was so obsessed with televisions and dad's were out, waxing their cars, now it's all about drugs and shit.

It makes me sick to watch anything on tv anymore. Reality shows, soap operas, and - worst of all - the news. I don't want my child growing up with that. Will Ash and I have to hide him from the public eye? The question haunts me.

Still, there's a sliver of hope left in me about humanity. One day, we'll look at each other the way we are and won't think twice. We'll accept one another and live our lives in harmony. That'll be the day, and I'm still waiting.