AARON LEWIS: 'I Feel Like God's Had His Hand On My Shoulder My Whole Life'

During a recent solo concert, STAIND frontman Aaron Lewis spoke about the inspiration for the deeply confessional nature of his lyrics. While introducing the song "Lost And Lonely", Aaron told the audience (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I write songs about shit that's fucking with me at the time. It's always been my outlet. When I was younger, I just didn't know. And I used to do shit like write poems for English class. And my teacher thought I was fucked up because of the shit that was the content of my poems. As beautifully as they were put together, she had her concerns. It's where I always, where I always put my shit.

"I had a pretty fucked up childhood," he continued. "I went through a lot of shit that no child should ever have to endure. And I've questioned God on many occasions in my life as to why that he felt that I needed to go through that in order to get right here. Some days I have a better grasp on that, some days I don't. I guess the shit that absolutely destroyed me as a child, it also gave me the strength to persevere through anything, which is why I feel like I'm still here. Which is why I feel like God's had his hand on my shoulder my whole life. Ever since. That maybe he didn't allow me to go through what I went through, maybe he was there to protect what was left. I don't know. These are things I think about every day.

"So I wrote this song, 'cause I was going through some shit," Lewis added. "And happy songs usually don't come out of that. I had decided that in that moment, the one thing that I could do to try to save my entire life from just completely collapsing before I die. So I checked myself into rehab.

"And with that I say cheers. Cheers to successfully making it through another day in this fucked up world, in this fucked up life."

Aaron's latest solo album, "The Hill", debuted at No. 175 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 8,133 equivalent units, a combination of pure album sales and on-demand streams. It marked the lowest-charting record on the Billboard 200 of Lewis's solo career so far.

Notably, "The Hill" had 6,826 pure album sales in its first week, enough to land the LP at No. 5 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart, which ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales.

According to Forbes, Lewis previously reached the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 twice as a solo artist, with his "Town Line" EP, which reached No. 7 in 2011, and with "Sinner", which peaked at No. 4 in 2016. He also landed in the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 with "The Road" (No. 30 peak),"State I'm In" (No. 19) and "Frayed At Both Ends" (No. 39).

One of the songs on "The Hill" is "Made In China" — written by Lewis and Bobby Pinson — which offers the loud-and-proud declaration that some things are still made in the USA. The song features such lyrics as "I ain't made in China / From all the cheapest parts / I ain't one for driving them imported foreign cars / I'm more like American muscle from 1966 / I ain't made in China / I'm American as it gets / I ain't made by Uyghur kids for pennies on the dollar / I'm made in the USA / It says so on my collar / Tried and true, red, white and blue / My roots run way too thick / yeah, I ain't made in China / 'Cause I'm American as it gets."

"The best songs come from a place of authenticity," explained Lewis. "This one started as a conversation with friends as we picked up items around the room with 'Made In China' stamped on the bottom. And we put pen to paper."

The "Let's Go Fishing" lyrics find the 52-year-old Lewis — an outspoken conservative rocker who reinvented himself as a solo country artist in the last decade — singing about "making America great again", "turning off CNN" and using the "Let's Go, Brandon!" catchphrase, which was coined by American conservatives to criticize President Joe Biden.

Lewis made headlines in September 2021 when he urged his fans to chant "Fuck Joe Biden" during a STAIND concert in Pennsylvania.

In March 2022, Lewis told the Los Angeles Times that he doesn't blindly listen to information that is delivered by the mainstream media.

"I'm not uneducated; I'm actually really smart, and I look for myself. I seek other options of information," he said. "I refuse to believe that a huge, gigantic corporation has our best interest in mind."

Asked where he gets his news, Lewis said: "I have news feeds and people that I follow on Telegram. Dan Ball. Andrew Wilkow. Mark Levin. If I'm gonna watch any sort of news source on television, it's Tucker Carlson."

At some of his solo concerts, Lewis has been taking the stage while wearing a black hat with white mesh and white lettering on the front clearly stating "FUJOE," an expletive directed toward Biden.

Photo credit: Jim Wright