[Verse]
I’m down a one way street
With a one night stand
With a one track mind
Out in no man’s land
The punishment sometimes
Don’t seem to fit the crime
Yeah there’s a hole in my soul
But one thing I learned
For every love letter written
Is another one burned
So you tell me how it’s gonna be this time
[Pre-Chorus]
Is it over?
Is it over?
Cause I’m blowing out the flame
[Chorus]
Take a walk outside your mind
Tell me how it feels to be
The one who turns the knife inside of me
Take a look and you will find there’s nothing there girl
Yeah I swear, I’m telling you girl yeah cause
There’s a hole in my soul that’s been killing me forever
It’s a place where a garden never grows
There’s a hole in my soul, yeah I should have known better
Cause your love’s like a thorn without a rose
[Verse 2]
I’m as dry as a seven year drought
I got dust for tears
And I’m all tapped out
Sometimes I feel broke, can’t get fixed
I know there’s been all kinds of shoes
Underneath your bed
Now I sleep with my boots on
But you’re still in my head
And something tells me this time
I’m down to my last licks
[Pre-Chorus]
Cause if it’s over
Then it’s over
And it’s driving me insane
[Chorus]
Take a walk outside your mind
Tell me how it feels to be
The one who turns
The knife inside of me
Take a look and you will find
There’s nothing there, girl, yeah, I swear
I’m telling you girl yeah ’cause
There’s a hole in my soul
That’s been killing me forever
It’s a place where a garden never grows
There’s a hole in my soul
Yeah, I should have known better
Cause your love’s like a thorn without a rose
Yeah, yeah
[Bridge]
Yeah, is it over?
Yeah, it’s over
And I’m blowing out the flame
The song is a ballad, one of Aerosmith‘s more emotional ones. It is also lengthy, running just over six minutes. The lyrics focus on a heartbroken man who feels very sad and emotionally damaged (“I got dust for tears and I’m all tapped out”) by a failed relationship (“tell me how it feels to be the one who turns the knife inside of me”) and feels that there is a void in his life that cannot be filled (“there’s a hole in my soul that’s been killing me forever”).
In concert
In concert, Steven Tyler has been known to substitute some lines with racier lyrics. On a live version of the song from the A Little South of Sanity album, Tyler sings “I fuck with my boots on cause you fuck with my head” instead of the studio version lyrics “I sleep with my boots on, but you’re still in my head.”
The band played the song heavily on their lengthy Nine Lives Tour from 1997–1999, but has almost never played it since.
Music video
Directed by Andy Morahan,[1] the video featured a nerdyhigh school student (played by Branden Williams), often picked on, who is unsuccessful in finding the right girl. He uses his scientific genius to build a cloning machine and creates a beautiful girl (played by Eva Mendes), but she meets someone else at a party. He creates another who he also loses to a football player (played by Seann William Scott). A classmate (played by Alexandra Holden) discovers his machine and stops him from creating another girl for himself, and he realizes the girl for him had been there all along.
