My interpretation is based on knowledge of the songwriter’s personal history and his other work. (I am not his sister, personal umbrella-holder, hamster, or left sock.)

It’s actually pretty straightforward. “Some Nights” is a personal reflection of Nate’s life, family, career, the sacrifices he made to achieve success, the sometimes disappointing emptiness of that success (how prophetic now that he’s a mega-star), struggles with the choices he made, loss, guilt, even simply the pain of growing up, and hope. The same themes are woven throughout the entire album, some even begun in Aim & Ignite.

I won’t go through every single line, but will focus on the ones that are most representative of the overall meaning.

“Some nights I stay up cashing in my bad luck
Some nights I call it a draw
Some nights I wish that my lips would build a castle
Some nights I wish they’d just fall off”

Some nights he’s performing in concerts, singing the songs he wrote, many of which deal with aforementioned themes. He vacillates between dreams of achieving superstar success in his career, and occasionally wishing he didn’t have the burden of such a dream and the responsibilities and problems that can come with it.

Elsewhere on the album (in “Stars”) he says “Some nights I rule the world/With Barlights and Pretty Girls/But most nights I stay straight and think about my mom/Oh God I miss her so much” which is an even more explicit reference to the lure of his career as an artist and performer and, of course, the quiet moments in between shows when he’s alone with his emotions, particularly grieving the death of his mother. “Barlights” and “Pretty Girls” refer to songs from the band’s previous album (two of the most popular, too!)

“But I still wake up, I still see your ghost…”

Said “ghost” appears several times, and could be his late mother, or his old self.

“Well that is it guys, that is all
5 minutes in and I’m bored again
Ten years of this
I’m not sure if anybody understands
This one is not for the folks at home
Sorry to leave, Mom, I had to go
Who the f** wants to die alone
All dried up in the desert sun?”

This line tricks people up, in conjunction with the war-themed video and the ongoing political and military conflicts in desert regions. It’s got nothing to do with that.

Nate’s been writing and performing for a long time – literally a decade at the time this song was written. He had to leave home, in Arizona, to focus on his career, leaving behind his family, which is a very close-knit one. His mother has since passed away, and he feels a lot of guilt and loss.

It was a difficult choice, wether to leave or stay. Many of us must make the choice at some point, maybe more than once. Simply put, this song is about leaving home, striking out on your own, and learning about who you are.

“So this is it?
I sold my soul for this?
Washed my hands of that for this?
I miss my mom and dad for this?”

He left home and everyone he loved, and isn’t sure it was worth it. The success he’s achieved isn’t as fulfilling as he expected. At the time, it wasn’t even the phenomenal success he’d go on to, but still impressive and life-altering. (Also, incidentally, his struggles with faith and religion are a common theme in his work.)

“When I see stars that’s all they are, etc.”

Stars are another recurrent theme, representing fate as well as fame. Here it means he no longer believes in fate, and possibly also that fame is not as glittering as we all dream. One could even maaaybe stretch it to believe that celebrities are just people, and stars are just stars.

“My heart is breaking for my sister and the con that she called “love”
But when I look into my nephew’s eyes
Man you wouldn’t believe
The most amazing things
That can come from some terrible nights”
(That “nights” has been confirmed by the band, not the oft-misquoted “lies”.)

His elder sister, with whom he is close, has had to face her own unique challenges and personal loss. She’s had responsibility of the greatest kind bestowed upon her. The love in her now-over relationship, which she either convinced herself of, shared, or was manipulated into believing, was false. But the love that was then *born of it* is precious and true. Even the most terrible nights can be worthwhile, literally, by resulting in a beloved child, or figuratively, resulting in personal growth, maturity, and wisdom.

Nate loves his nephew very much, and has previously sung to him on “Aim & Ignite”. He has a strong sense of family. He also repeatedly refers to his mother, father, and sister, who are all vitally important to him.They represent stability, home, true love, loyalty, and forgiveness. They’re the ones he can depend on and trust, who will love him no matter what he does, whatever “big mistakes” he makes.

The question of “What do I stand for?” is literal, also meaning “What inspires me?”, “What motivates me?”, “What do I really want from life?”, “What makes me happy?”,”What defines me?”, and other questions we all must ponder. What defines us is constantly changing, but it’s up to us to decide how we define ourselves. (I don’t believe it’s at all political.)

“Most nights, I don’t know anymore.”

On the nights when he’s doing what he loves, performing, “ruling the world”, he feels secure. But most nights he’s left struggling with the uncertainty that naturally bubbles up in everyone as we get older, lose friends, lose loved ones, start to drift a bit, start to move forward in our careers, our lives, essentially start realizing we’re adults. (Making his “We Are Young” so much more bittersweet and powerful.) The trials of growing up and changing what you are, how you are, why you are, are universal. The one constant is who you are.

Additionally he has the more personal complications of fame, the loss of his mother and his former band, all exacerbated by his own heightened sensitivity and emotional perspicacity. Without his mother, who was such an important part of his life, he might be feeling like he’s lost some of his ballast, setting him off balance. When the person who knows you best is gone, your very understanding of yourself, your own relationship with yourself, is shaken. You relied on that person to know you better than you know yourself, to give you guidance and insight into your own soul. It’s a life-changing loss that forces you to wobble for quite some time.

Ironically, as Nate becomes more and more well-known, the very question of “What *do* you stand for?” will be asked of him almost relentlessly. We’re doing it right now by attempting to extract as much meaning as we can from his lyrics, often assigning intentions that aren’t even there. In doing so, we’re revealing more of what we ourselves “stand for” even if we’re not conscious of it.

Nate’s very hard on himself in his songs. He’s also incredibly honest, and lays bare a lot of his greatest fears and struggles. At its most basic, “Some Nights” is about those fears, doubts, regrets, and struggles, as well as hope.

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