FILTER's RICHARD PATRICK Reveals 'Scary' Inspiration For His Song 'Be Careful What You Wish For'

In a new interview with Hear 2 Zen, FILTER frontman Richard Patrick revealed that the song "Be Careful What You Wish For" from the band's latest album, "The Algorithm", was written about "a fan that has gone way too far and has stalked some of my friends and has said some really bad things about them. And they're all figments of his imagination," Richard said. " And I tried to explain this to him very, very gently, just, like, 'Hey, bro, that did not happen.' He was saying things that were just insane. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. He was saying things that were just delusional, and I had to kind of bring him back to reality and just tell him, like, 'Dude, this might be in your head.' And it's scary."

Patrick added: "You get famous and then, all of a sudden, there's all this stuff out there that happens."

Richard was also asked what it feels like for him walking through an airport or getting something to eat and being approached by fans for a picture or an autograph. He said: "It's scary at the same time, but it's also very charming. Most of the people I meet at the airport are very sweet and they just want an autograph or a thousand. And I'm always, like, 'Sure, I'll just do it.' 'Cause if they're selling it on eBay, then that's their hustle, that's their business. That's what's keeping them afloat. If my signature on something can help someone eat, then great. Why not? I don't mind."

Richard previously discussed the lyrical inspiration for "Be Careful What You Wish For" last August in an interview with Troy Culpan of May The Rock Be With You. At the time, Richard said: "I read a lot of the messages that come in through iMessage or Instagram or Twitter. And I get some DMs, and I got one that was really, really scary; the guy was a nut. He was name-dropping friends of mine and saying stuff that he was gonna do. And I was really distraught over it. Unfortunately, this is kind of the sad part of being famous, is that there's people that know everything about me, but I don't know anything about them. And it's kind of scary. And be careful what you wish for, 'cause with success in music comes fame and stuff like that, and you have to be very careful because there's some crazies out there, for sure."

He continued: "I get myself into trouble because politically, I kind of say what I wanna say; I don't really hold back. And I get a lot of terrible things said back to me from [Donald] Trump supporters or people that are really kind of crazy. So I just have to be kind of careful what I put out there, unfortunately. I mean, they've said some terrible things to me."

Patrick has been very vocal with his political views in recent years as an outspoken opponent of the Republican Party's hard-line stance on social issues.

Back in March 2019, FILTER's concert in El Paso, Texas was canceled after Richard posted an anti-Donald Trump video on Facebook.

At the time, Patrick said the venue informed FILTER that it "didn't like" the Facebook comments and said it had received threatening phone calls over the anti-Trump post. The venue also claimed that it was "illegal" to display the American flag upside down, which the band had planned to do during the show.

In a statement to Billboard, the venue confirmed what it told Patrick about the threatening phone calls in response to FILTER's Facebook video about Trump. The venue's general manager also noted that his staff was uncomfortable with FILTER's plan to display the American flag upside down and turn the concert into what he called a "political rally."

In October 2020, FILTER released the official music video for its then-new single, "Murica", featuring a character that Patrick told Alternative Press was "a Trump-supporting, gun-loving, unmedicated, super-freak 'merican unhinged and at his wits' end. And he's trying to take control of something that is not out of control." He said. "And he's afraid. He's the super-afraid white male. The Trump-supporting nutbag that I hope I can reach. These guys that are so far right that they think CNN, NBC, ABC, MSNBC [and] BBC are all out to get 'our President Trump.' Like they're all in a conspiracy to be super-left-wing, crazy liars. I'm trying to make an attempt to show them what they look like. These are the guys that can only listen to Fox News and Breitbart and that type of news outlet. They believe every fucking thing that the Rush Limbaughs, the Alex Joneses [say] and listen to only the right wing, 'the truth, man.' They do their 'own research' and believe 9/11 was an inside job, President Obama wasn't a real citizen and the lunar landings were faked. Hillary Clinton personally went out and killed people in Benghazi and it's her fault, she's [a] criminal and 'lock her up.' It's those people that I'm portraying in the video."

"The Algorithm" arrived on August 25, 2023 via Golden Robot Records.