"Dirt Room" was the first single from alternative rock band Blue October

Blue October

Blue October is a rock band from Houston, Texas. The band was formed in 1995 and currently consists of Justin Furstenfeld , Jeremy Furstenfeld , Ryan Delahoussaye , Matt Noveskey , and Julian Mandrake .-History:Blue October was formed by lead...

's fifth studio album, Approaching Normal

Approaching Normal

Approaching Normal is the fifth studio album by alternative rock band Blue October. The album was released on March 24, 2009. and debuted at number thirteen on the Billboard charts.- Background :...

. The song was released to digital outlet stores on December 23, 2008 and to radio on January 13, 2009. An acoustic version of the song was included on the band's album Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October

Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October

Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October is a live acoustic album by Blue October. It is their third live album, and eighth album overall. The album was recorded during a sold out three-day tour of Houston, Austin, and Dallas July 22-25, 2010 during which the band played two acoustic...

.

Music video

The music video premiered on Yahoo! Music

Yahoo! Music

Yahoo! Music, owned by Yahoo!, is the provider of a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming...

 on January 27, 2009 and was directed by Kevin Kerslake

Kevin Kerslake

Kevin Kerslake is an American music video director. He has directed videos for Stone Temple Pilots, Filter, R.E.M., 311, Faith No More, Green Day, The Used, 10 Years, Depeche Mode, The Smashing Pumpkins, Papa Roach, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Rise Against, Insane Clown Posse, The Offspring, and Blue...

. It is centered around a robber (played by frontman Justin Furstenfeld

Justin Furstenfeld

Justin Steward Furstenfeld is a record producer, artist, author, and the lead singer, guitarist, lyricist and frontman of the American rock band Blue October.-Personal life:...

) who is captured by his attempted victim. He is tied up and the captor threatens him with premature burial

Premature burial

Premature burial, also known as live burial, burial alive, or vivisepulture, means to be buried while still alive. Animals or humans may be buried alive accidentally or intentionally...

. At the end of the video he is placed in an open grave and viewed by a great deal of people, including two police officers. These scenes are intercut with footage of the band playing the song in the living room of the captor's house. The music video shows Justin burning a dollar bill with the initials, "M.R." clearly displayed to the camera before the flames erupt. Justin has admittied that this song was inspired by an ex-friend and band-manager, Michael Rand, who matches those same initials. Rand alleged that he had written or co-written "Hate Me" and other songs on the same album, and thus created a lawsuit to ask for finacial compensation. This lawsuit was eventually settled, with no compensation granted to Rand. Justin still contends that those songs were written by him and were only influenced by his fellow-band mates. His intitial discussions of this lawsuit were very vague due to the legal requirements during an ongoing lawsuit.

Meaning dicussed

During the hushed period, Furstenfeld told Music Interviews Now: "That song is about not being a passive idiot anymore and not letting people take advantage of you anymore just because of who you are. I wouldn't say that we're famous… we are just normal people that get put on TV and stuff. That is just who we are… so if that makes us famous like the E! Entertainment crap, that's not us. People want to see you in that part and think you are rich, and they start to come out of the wood work…and they start asking for things over and over again, and that song's about just taking it too far. There was an incident that happened, I can't even talk about it… but I took care of it, wrote the song, and that's my revenge. I use my words as weapons. No one will take advantage of my family again. I usually do all the writing and on this new album everyone did some writing and it was really special to me."

In a later interview , Justin was able to be more candid about the song's true meaning. He explained quite bluntly; "That song is basically about when I got sued by my former manager that I had when I was maybe 17-or-18-years-old who claimed that I had written ‘Hate Me’ during that time and he wanted a piece of that pie." He went on to explain that, "the lawsuit went through and he lied during the whole thing, so it all came to light. But that song really brought out this more confidence side of me and not the, ‘Oh hate me because I am bad’ side – I don’t do drugs anymore and I don’t f*ck with that stuff, I have a daughter now so if anybody wants to take food off of her plate then they are going to have to come straight through me whether it be verbally, and I hope not physically because I try to teach self-expression instead of physical violence! You know?"

Chart positions

Chart (2009)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot Modern Rock Tracks	7
U.S. Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks	31