anonymous August 18th, 2005 07:46AM  
It's about his ex-girlfriend and he saw that she had problem with drinking, but she didn't realise how bad of an alcoholic that she was and so he tried to help her and she blew him off. Now he's pissed that he ever tried to help her and he wishes that she wouldn't have ever been part of his life. So bassically he wants her to go fix her own problem and he wants to move on.

Punx_not_dead October 30th, 2005 02:20PM  
I may have this tendency to interpret this into many songs, but I think this song contains some definite implications of self harming. Maybe the whole thing about the drinking ex-girlfriend is true and a major part, but when he sings: "I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut
[...]
My scars remind me that the past is real
I tear my heart open just to feel"

He describes quite accurately what self harmers feel, tearing his heart open (or hurting himself, tearing his flesh open) only to be able to feel anything at all, but at the same time "sewing himself shut",(bottling up feelings of anxiety and aggression) and the scars remind him of everything that's happened... that was my first thought when I heard it, especially since there are indications of self injury in "last resort", too. "Don't give a fuck if I cut my arm bleeding".

anonymous November 18th, 2005 03:20PM  
I think everyone's interpretation on this song was based on the video. I just watched it and what everyone said fit the video exactly. Sometimes artists make the video different than what they originally wrote the song about. I'm not saying that is the case, I don't know. When I heard this song before I saw the video, my friend and I came to the conclusion that it was about a guy who had either cut himself in the past or had a friend who was cutting him/her self. That is what the lyrics sound like, but then if you watch the video it is about the alcoholic girlfriend, and so I don't know what it is. I guess the best place to find out would be to ask the writer!

anonymous January 11th, 2006 09:29PM  
The guy in this song is still in love with her, but she just wants to be friends and sees him as someone she can go to, but he can't take the pain of having her so close to him yet so far from where he wants to be. He's ready to move on, and also when he sees her its like a scar-not phsically but always a constant reminder of how he got it and the good times they shared.

heavenly_rage May 29th, 2006 09:17AM  
It's about a guy who's in love with a girl and throughout the whole relationship he does nothing but give everything of himself to her to help her, to be there for her, to save her from her demons with nothing in return. He finally decideds to leave although he still loves her and his heart's still open to her and she keeps coming back to try to win him back, but he's so fed up with focusing on purely her that he wants her out of his life, so he can move on, because the pain of being with her is too much to handle anymore, and he realises everything he did was for nothing because she took everything for granted and abused his love and trust. Be bared all for her with nothing in return.

anonymous October 16th, 2006 07:57PM  
I agree with evildarkness2666


macayla

anonymous December 8th, 2006 09:13AM  
after reading all these interpratations, I think that there was some problem with an alcoholic girlfriend or lover. eventualy the issue blew up one night and as a result he self harmed himeself and ended up in the hosspuital, and also, in the concernt in Chicago he screams out befor the song that " this song is about a horrible fucking night in vagus, that changed my life"

metalman536 January 6th, 2007 08:45AM  
i think that this song could be about someone dying in the past, because in the lyrics... "but you never realized, that your drowning in the water, so I offered you my hand, compassions in our nature, tonight is our last stand". and there's other parts of the song that give me that idea. but that's just what I think, I could be wrong though

ilovepaparoach March 11th, 2007 01:39PM  
i think this song is about someone trying to help his girlfriend who has a problem but he realizes that her problem is a problem that only she can fix and he can't help her. now he's pissed off that he ever tried to help her because she has to fix her own fuckin problems and he has to move on with his own life.

Polarcrest March 22nd, 2007 12:07AM  
You all are getting to caught up in the video. Pay more attention to the lyrics. It is possible that it is just that simple and he is talking about his girlfriend that had a drinking problem, but regardless of that music video there is nothing much within the song that in any way suggests a drinking problem. The only time alcohol is even mentioned is when he says that he is drunk and he is feeling down.

Who's to say that this song is even about a girl at all? Why can't this be about his best friend, or a relative...maybe his own mother?

Jacoby's lyrics as good as they are, have never seemed to me to be all that deep in meening, so I do think this song is simply a song about someone in his life that he had many problems with, many hard times with. It's about someone in his life that he tried to help but couldn't no matter what he did and that person only ended up bringing him down along with them.

This song could easily be about his mom though. Maybe his mom had a drug problem, and she treated him poorly maybe even beat him, I really can't say, but look more closely at the lyrics than the videos. I meen come on do you think Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" song is about ink?

hole830 March 22nd, 2007 03:46PM  
i don't think she has a drinking problem. It would be wrong for him to be getting drunk if that was why they are not together. If alcohol is what tore them apart then he would not want to touch the stuff.

anonymous April 15th, 2007 04:45PM  
I can relate to this song. With every word I feel like he is speaking to me. My ex boyfriend and I were constantly breaking up and going back out. We wore our feelings on our sleeves. Any time we needed help it seemed that we'd go back out not from love but out of compassion. We were friends and felt we couldn't say no. I think this author is protected and stumbling his way through the land of women. His first true love hit him hard and this song is his way of trying to mend his broken heart.

JacobyLuva101 July 12th, 2007 10:31AM  
You all have it wrong that's for sure. It's about a night in Vegas
when Jacoby meet one of his friends from the younger years. His friend had a problem.Jacoby couldn't help him and being the kind hearted man he is he got pissed that he couldn't help him.So he took his fury out on a trashcan and got a giant scar on his head. THAT is why the song is called scars not because of a relationship.

anonymous August 2nd, 2007 08:46PM  
I think the above interpretations are all good and all hold some significance.
to me however, this song strikes a deeply personal note, because it almost tells the story of a relationship I had with someone.
this someone was a very unhappy, very deeply hurt person who was kept from functioning normally by their emotional and psychological pain. and one of the key ways this pain manifested itself is through the scars this someone inflicted upon themselves as the only way they knew how to cope. To watch this repetitive self-harm and depression was one of the most painful experiences of my life and as such I reached out to try and help this someone in any way I could.
but what I should have realised is that I was not a person qualified or capable enough to be dealing with what this someone was confiding in me- and that in swimming out to try and save a drowning person I was only letting myself be pulled under too. The resulting fear and strain was something that nearly caused me to have a break down, that effected my mental state deeply as I allowed myself to get far too involved in a very unhealthy relationship. It took a long time and a lot of tears, but I eventually realised and accepted that while my emotional scars would always remind me of the lessons this someone had taught me- it was time for me to move on with my life, and let them face their own demons; because that is the only way we ever heal, the only way we can ever move on.

anonymous October 21st, 2007 12:23PM  
Based on before I watched the video. [Mind you I still haven't watched all of it. Haha?]

I think it's about a person who of course was once in love with someone else. But, they broke up and in the end the ex kept returning to ask for help to get through their own problems. Hence, "I'm pissed cause you came around
Why don't you just go home." Each time he/she sees their ex, they are reminded of their "scar" or their break up because of the problem the ex has. So each time they see their ex, it's like him/her tearing their heart open and they sew themselves back shut afterwards. He/She is just tired of wanting to help and the ex not understanding that and he/she just wants their ex to fix themselves, so they can move on with their own life. Not having to try to help their ex with their issue.

Hope that made sense.

Karebear November 29th, 2007 03:57PM  
It means to me that time and time again he loves with his whole heart, even when he knows that he's going to get hurt...just like the last time. They lie, they cheat...they do whatever but the point is, all is forgiven because he's such a caring person and he'd do absoluteley anything for that person...to the point where it all becomes too much and too tragic and he has to get his heart broken. That's when he sews it back up and waits for someone else to come and rip it apart again.

anonymous March 27th, 2008 06:00PM  
Yes I agree with Punx_Not_dead.
apparently it is about (INFORMATION FROM WIKIPEDIA):
"Lead singer Jacoby Shaddix wrote the song after being taken to hospital in Las Vegas with 11 staples in his head in an act of self-harm. Shaddix told MTV News that the song was "about trying to help someone who really doesn't want you to help them".
The song was recorded as a power ballad which is a departure for the band. However, in interviews, the band claims that their fans like the song when it is played live in concert.
On a popular radio countdown show, American Top 40 hosted by Ryan Seacrest, Scars peaked at #6 in August, 2005, and spent 50 weeks in the chart from April 2005 to March 2006.
Papa Roach are well known for singing many of their songs in Spanish as well. "Scars" (�Heridas�) is among them. "

anonymous April 21st, 2008 08:24PM  
My interpretation of this song is a hurt abandonment. Let me clarify:

A person who has given his (or her) life to helping someone with their problems, only to have them pull him down in their destructive cycle. As the singer trys and trys to help the person, he hurts himself in the process, and "tears my heart open and sew myself shut" in an attempt to lessen the pain that he gains from his compassion.

He finally has been dragged to the bottom of the cycle, and decides that even though the other person means a lot to him, he needs to let go. He begins to try and heal himself, and the wounds that the other person caused leave "scars" that "remind me that the past is real," and the damage is real.

The singer is "drunk" in the problems that the other has caused, and "just wants to be alone" to sort them out. When the person re-enters his life, he gets upset because he doesn't want all that he is working for to be destroyed. All that he wants is for the other person to leave him be and to fix their own problems and his scars are there to help remind him to move forward.

There seems to be a tone of hurt, disgust and anger towards the other in the song, so maybe it is a harmful taboo of society that is the destructive factor.

anonymous May 6th, 2008 01:21PM  
The song is about you really need help but you don't want help.

anonymous May 10th, 2008 10:02AM  
The video shows Jacoby's girlfriend with a drinking problem, and many times he tries to help her. At one point, after a party, he takes all the alcohol and dumps it in the sink. She wakes up, and knocks a candle over as she grabs her jacket.

Jacoby stated that the song is about helping someone that does not want, or is refusing your help. Lines supporting this is, "I offered you my hand," or "I tried to grab your hand." "My weakness is that I care too much" is saying that he tries to move on, but he cares so much about the girl that he wants to help. Obviously he gets tired of it all, reffering to, "GO FIX YOURSELF, I can't help you fix yourself, but at least I can say I tried. I'm sorry but I've got to move on with my own life."