Outside

Staind lead singer Aaron Lewis wrote "Outside" several years before recording it with the band. It's a very emotional and dour song where Lewis finally gets some perspective on a person, seeing her for the first time from the outside and realizing she's ugly inside - just like him. These barbed lyrics delivered with a rush of blood are what Lewis was known for in Staind; his songs swirled up the sludge of his psyche and revealed it to fans. Lewis is far more tormented in his songs than he is in real life; by the time "Outside" was released, he was married and well past his darkest times.

The breakout moment for Staind came in an unusual place: Biloxi, Mississippi - a far reach from their home base of Springfield, Massachusetts. It was there, on Halloween 1999, that they performed on the Family Values Tour, headlined by Limp Bizkit. At the end of their set, Aaron Lewis took his acoustic guitar to the front of the stage, sat down, and played "Outside" live for the first time. During the performance, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit sat nearby, singing on the chorus and gently hyping the crowd ("Biloxi!"). You wouldn't think a never-heard, confessional acoustic song would go over well with the nu-metal Limp Bizkit crowd, but it did. The audience hung on every word and put their lighters up, "Freebird" style. The performance was so powerful, the live recording was included on the Family Values Tour 1999 album and also issued as a promotional single, which was released to radio in 2000 credited to "Aaron Lewis From Staind With Fred Durst." Many stations put it in rotation, giving Staind lots of buzz. It was a big break for the band, whose first major label album, Dysfunction, was released earlier in 1999 and didn't produce any hits. When their next album, Break The Cycle, was issued in 2001, many more people had at least heard of Staind thanks to the live version of "Outside." The first single from the album, the similarly moody "It's Been Awhile," became a huge hit. The album eventually sold over 5 million copies and went to #1 in America, as did their next two.

"Outside" began as a song by Aaron Lewis' first band J-Cat (or J.C.A.T.), who were comprised of Jon Wysocki, Chris Ballini, Lewis, and Tori Sands. Their music was primarily acoustic. J-Cat wrote this and "It's Been Awhile" (which was barely changed) but their version of "Outside" is quite different. Lewis said he was always changing those lyrics around. A recording of the original version has surfaced online along with seven other songs including "Bonghits For Breakfast." The tracks were recorded at Club Infinity in Springfield, Massachusetts.