Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Starting Over lyrics

(feat. Ben Bridwell of Band Of Horses)

[Intro: Macklemore]
1, 2, now

[Verse 1: Macklemore]
Those three-plus years, I was so proud of
Then I threw them all away for two Styrofoam cups
The irony, everyone will think that "He lied to me"
Made my sobriety so public, there's no fucking privacy
If I don't talk about it then I carry a date
A "08/10/08" that now has been changed
And everyone that put me in some box as a saint
That I never was, just a false prophet that never came
And will they think that everything that I've written has all been fake?
Or will I just take my slip to the grave?
What the fuck are my parents gonna say?
The success story that got his life together and changed
And you know, what pain looks like
When you tell your dad you relapsed and look at him directly into his face
Deceit on your shoulders, deceivingly heavy weight
Haven't seen tears like this on my girl in a while
The trust that I once built has been betrayed
But I'd rather live telling the truth and be judged for my mistakes
Than falsely held up, given props, loved and praised
I guess, I gotta get this on the page
Feeling sick and helpless
Lost the compass where self is
I know what I've gotta do, and I can't help it
One day at a time is what they tell us
Now I've gotta find a way to tell them
God help 'em, yeah
One day at a time is what they tell us
Now I've gotta find a way to tell them

[Hook: Ben Bridwell]
We fall, so hard, now we gotta get back what we lost, lost
I thought you’d gone, but you were with me all along, along

[Verse 2: Macklemore]
And every kid that came up to me
And said I was the music they listened to when they first got clean
Now look at me, a couple days sober, I'm fighting demons
Back of that meeting on the East Side, shaking, tweaking
Hope that they don't see it, hope that no one is looking
That no one recognizes that failure under that hoodie
Just posted in the back with my hands crossed, shooken
If they call on me I'm passin', if they talk to me I'm booking
Out that door, but before, I can make it
Somebody stops me and says "Are you Macklemore?
Maybe this isn't the place or time, I just wanted to say that
If it wasn't for 'Otherside,' I wouldn't have made it"
I just looked down at the ground and say, "Thank you"
She tells me she has nine months, and that she's so grateful
Tears in her eyes, looking like she's gonna cry, fuck
I barely got forty-eight hours, treated like I'm some wise monk
I want to tell her I relapsed, but I can't
I just shake her hand and tell her, "Congrats"
Get back to my car, and I think I'm tripping, yeah
Cause God wrote "Otherside," that pen was in my hand
I'm just a flawed man, man, I fucked up
Like so many others, I just never thought I would
I never thought I would, didn't pick up the book
Doin' it by myself didn't turn out that good

[Bridge: Macklemore]
If I can be an example of getting sober
Then I can be an example of starting over
If I can be an example of getting sober
Then I can be an example of starting over

[Hook: Ben Bridwell]
We fall, so hard, now we gotta get back what we lost, lost
I thought you’d gone, but you were with me all along, along

[Outro: Ben Bridwell]
We fall, so hard, now we gotta get back what we lost, lost