The Chills

Album: Any Man in America (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This hard-edged, anthemic song is the first single from Texan alternative rock band Blue October's sixth studio album, Any Man in America. The tune was made available for digital download on May 31, 2011 and sent to radio on June 27, 2011.
  • After the release of Blue October's Approaching Normal, frontman Justin Furstenfeld found himself fighting a bitter custody battle over his daughter Blue Reed. On one occasion, after not seeing his daughter for three months, the singer blacked out in an airport and had to be hospitalized. Any Man in America chronicles these events. He explained to Guitar World: "It's my last chance as a father to tell the world things I wasn't able to tell when I was put through a custody battle that was so illegal because I was a man. We live in the land of the free, but we're screwed up when it comes to the rights of divorced fathers. I've got to tell the world what happened, who did it and what the judge's and the cops' names are. I'll probably get in trouble for it, but I don't care. I want my daughter to see that, while I might not have been there, I never walked out."
  • Furstenfeld explained the meaning of the song title to AntiMusic: "These are the chills that piss you off, because they're more like feeling that you're being controlled by another person. This is the type of feeling that gives you these chills. Yet you still keep falling for it, again and again and again. And that falling for it perpetuates these chills. They can be a good thing in a healthy relationship. But in an unhealthy relationship when there is a child involved, those chills are not good news and never really go away. Except now, those chills would come from my daughter looking at us both and saying 'Why can't we just all be together?' Those are the f--kin' chills I'm talking about."

Comments: 1

  • Kim from Canterbury, United KingdomGoing to see Blue October in London, can't wait!!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Timothy B. Schmit

Timothy B. SchmitSongwriter Interviews

The longtime Eagle talks about soaring back to his solo career, and what he learned about songwriting in the group.

80s Video Director Jay Dubin

80s Video Director Jay DubinSong Writing

Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in Songs

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien Songs

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien SongsSong Writing

The trail runs from flying saucer songs in the '50s, through Bowie, blink-182 and Katy Perry.

Church Lyrics

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.