Songfacts®:

• "Broken Man" is a complex and multi-layered song with deliberately ambiguous lyrics. Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, uses the phrase "broken man" even though the musician is a woman, creating a sense of ambiguity and challenging gender norms.
  
  Clark said the song explores "this feeling of the rawness, the brokenness, the violence, that we all have inside of us."
• Clark released "Broken Man" as the lead single from her seventh studio album, All Born Screaming, on February 29, 2024. She kicks off this song with the menacing warning:
  
  On the street, I'm a king-sized killer
  I can make your kingdom come
  
  That line, and the track as a whole, Clark told NME, is representative of the mood of All Born Screaming with "that lustre and swagger that you feel right before things go terribly wrong!"
• The song starts slow and builds with prominent drums, a combination of St. Vincent's programming, jazz drummer Mark Guiliana's pounding, and a powerful ending featuring Dave Grohl.
  
  "From the beginning of the song, it's a slow-burn," Clark told NME. "The shape of the song is climbing the mountain, because it just grows and grows. There are essentially three drummers on the track: the first part is my programming, the second part Mark Guiliana comes in, and then at the very end of the track – just when you think it can't get any higher – Grohl comes in with this absolute reckless spirit and just takes it to the edge."
• Alex Da Corte (an American conceptual artist who works in painting, sculpture and installation) directed the video. Shot in Philadelphia, it shows St. Vincent singing the song's lyrics into an old-fashioned microphone as parts of her body erupt into flames. By the end of the visual, she is completely engulfed in fire.
  
  "The video is the album cover come to life," explained Clark. "It's an exploration of brokenness, shot in a black void – a violent dance with the camera. It's a finding and then an acceptance of being absolutely on fire."
• Da Corte created the visual side of All Born Screaming. He and Clark have worked together before, including on her "New York" music video.
• St. Vincent performed with Dave Grohl in 2014 when Nirvana were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "Ever since [that] first time we jammed, I hoped that someday it would happen again," Grohl told The Guardian. "She always takes you somewhere new, and does it with such power and grace. A total badass."
• For All Born Screaming, Clark bid farewell to frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff and instead produced the project herself. She previously helmed Sleater-Kinney's 2019 album, The Center Won't Hold, and co-produced her previous two albums, Daddy's Home and 2017s Masseduction with Antonoff.
  
  "For me, this record was spending a lot of time alone in my studio, trying to find a new language for myself," Clark told Apple Music's Hanuman Welch. "I co-produced all my other records, but this one was very much my fingerprints on every single thing. And a lot of the impetus of the record was like, 'Okay: I'm in the studio and everything has to start with chaos.'"
• St. Vincent recorded a Spanish version titled "Hombre Roto." The song was recorded for Todos Nacen Gritando, a Spanish-language reimagining of All Born Screaming.
  
  St. Vincent was inspired to create the album after seeing her fans sing along to her English songs in Spanish at concerts. She wanted to meet them halfway and connect on a deeper level. The singer worked closely with her friend and collaborator, Alan Del Rio Ortiz, to translate the lyrics while maintaining the original melodies and vibe.
• The lyrics were inspired by Saturn Devouring His Son by the Spanish Romantic painter Francisco Goya.
  
  "The look in his eyes," St Vincent noted to the NME. "That would be 'Broken Man.'"
  
  Saturn Devouring His Son depicts the Greek myth of Cronus (Roman equivalent: Saturn), who, fearing a prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, devoured each of them immediately after birth. The haunting and disturbing painting is one of a series of 14 dark and enigmatic works known as the "Black Paintings," which Goya painted directly onto the walls of his home in the early 19th century.
• "Broken Man" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2025; All Born Screaming took Best Alternative Music Album at the ceremony.