I Wanna Be a Warhol

Album: My Shame Is True (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • This lust-ridden track about vocalist and guitarist Matt Skiba's romantic and sexual obsession with his former girlfriend was released as the first single from Alkaline Trio's 2013 album My Shame Is True. The song title references American pop artist Andy Warhol (1931-1987) whose pictures of soup tins and celebrities and flair for self-publicity made him a household name in the late 1960s. It was Warhol who coined the phrase "15 minutes of fame."
  • A music video for the song was released on March 8, 2013 featuring the actress Milla Jovovich.
  • The album title is a cheeky reference to Elvis Costello's 1977 LP My Aim Is True. However, it holds its own meaning with eight of the twelve songs written for Skipa's girlfriend whom he split from shortly before recording the record. "There's just this underlying theme of shame in the album," he told Billboard magazine. "I wrote them as if no one but her was going to hear them. That's kind of the way I used to write our original records because I didn't think anyone was gonna hear them."

    Skiba and his ex remained friends. She's the leather-clad motorcycle rider featured on the cover of My Shame Is True.

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