One Way Ticket

Album: One Way Ticket To Hell And Back (2005)
Charted: 8
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is about addiction, specifically cocaine. Most songs about cocaine cloak it in euphemisms (see: "Snowblind" by Black Sabbath), but lead singer Justin Hawkins mentions the drug by name in this one:

    Holy coke, repeating myself, except I'm getting slightly louder

    Hawkins was indeed hooked; he later admitted that when the band became successful in 2003, he developed a cocaine habit that cost him about £1,000 per week and made him rather difficult to deal with. He didn't kick the habit until 2006 when he quit the band and went into rehab.

    Speaking with Rolling Stone in 2010, Hawkins explained that the band lived the life they portrayed: "It may have seemed like we were posturing," said the singer. "But we sold millions of records and did loads of drugs."
  • The video makes many not-so-veiled references to cocaine. It's set on a snowy mountain, and at one point the band runs from an avalanche. There' is a also a demon of some kind presiding over the underworld, having frozen the Earth. A white powder is clearly visible on his nose.
  • In 2003, their debut album Permission to Land made The Darkness the hottest new band in the UK, but they made some bad choices in the aftermath. For their follow-up album, One Way Ticket To Hell And Back they paid barrels of money to get producer Roy Thomas Baker on board because he was the man at the controls for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Justin Hawkins later said that cocaine is terrible for creativity, and the band was not up to form. Baker layered the tracks with guitar and vocals, but they didn't have the magic The Darkness conjured up on their debut.

    "One Way Ticket" was released as the first single; it debuted at #8 in the UK but fell fast. The group was kaput a year later, not heard from again until their 2012 album Hot Cakes.

Comments: 8

  • Madison from Norway, MeI can't make up my mind if they are a serious band or not. Are they intentionally trying to be funny or are their lyrics just that bizarre and over the top that they become funny?
  • Al from Grosse Pointe , Mii think the darkness means that one way ticket starts at hell and takes the back to wherever
  • Jim from Pittsburgh, PaOne Way Ticket to Hell and Back is a great example of the Darkness's sense of humor, since a one way ticket means no return. See also "Love On the Rocks With No Ice."
  • Wayne from Sydney, AustraliaIf it is a One Way Ticket to hell, "how does he come back then?". Doesn't a one way ticket mean No Return?
  • Stacey from Someplace, Australiaso hyped the darkness is coming to oz for a tour next month man i love them so much
  • Pinkie from Surrey, CanadaI like the artist who did the cover for this album. Mark Wilkinson. He did a lot of early Marillion album covers.
  • Josh from New York, Nythe song is only called "one way ticket". "to hell and back" is just repeated thru-out the song afterwards.
  • John from Millersville, MdThe song is named "one Way Ticket" on the back of the album and in several places within the cover booklet.
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