Songfacts®:

• This song's title leaves little to the imagination. "To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)" is about people doing young Ryan Adams wrong, driving him to get sad and stoned.
• This is the only song on Heartbreaker, Adams' debut solo album, cowritten with guitarist David Rawlings, best known for "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings."
• "To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)" was featured in the 2003 comedy Old School, starring Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson, and Vince Vaughn. The song plays during the opening sequence as Mitch Martin (played by Wilson) rushes to catch a flight home, where a disturbing surprise awaits him.
  
  It's also been featured in The Slaughter Rule (2002) and Accepted (2006).
• This is the first song on the Heartbreaker album, but it's preceded by a 37-second track called "(Argument with David Rawlings Concerning Morrissey)," which is some studio banter where Adams and Rawlings debate which album contains the Morrissey song "Suedehead."