M. Shepard

The song is named after a boy named Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming who was killed for being gay. The song is about how people can't be themselves because the world or society does not allow them or won't accept them... Sometimes harm comes to those who are themselves just like Matthew Shepard.

In the beginning of the song it states, "The stage is set to rip the wings from a butterfly," the stage being the world, and the butterfly being the person. By ripping the wings off of a butterfly, it can't be itself.