In a new interview with The Jesea Lee Show, FILTER frontman Richard Patrick spoke about the band’s alt-rock hit “Hey Man, Nice Shot”, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Regarding the song’s enduring popularity, Richard said: “God, I remember when the song was first released just being, like, ‘Boy, I hope this makes it.’ And the song was already taking off from the ‘Demon Knight’ soundtrack. And then it just kept building and building and building. And, yeah, it’s a staple of the set. We play it last every night usually. And it’s awesome.”

Asked if he knew the song was special when he first wrote it, Patrick said: “I played it for some friends of mine, and they were, like, ‘Rich, this is great.’ And some other things I had played for them, they were, like, ‘I don’t know, bro. ‘Cause I have really picky friends.’ And I played ’em ‘Hey Man, Nice Shot’, and they were, like, ‘Dude, undeniably this is a great song.’ And so I felt proud of it. And then every person I played it for until sitting in the offices of Warner Brothers and playing it for them, and they were just, like, ‘This is awesome. We wanna sign you because of this.’ It was a fantastic feeling.”

Richard went on to confirm that “Hey Man, Nice Shot” was written about the public suicide of Pennsylvania state treasurer R. Budd Dwyer on January 22, 1987, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Dwyer had been convicted of bribery charges in December 1986, and was expected to receive a lengthy sentence. Professing his innocence and decrying the legal system, Dwyer shot and killed himself with a .357 Magnum revolver during a live televised press conference.

“I never wanted to say that it was inspired by R. Budd Dwyer, but people were mistakenly saying it was about (NIRVANA frontman) Kurt Cobain, because he had killed himself,” Richard told The Jesea Lee Show. “But I wrote the song in ’91 (which was three years before Kurt‘s death). So the record company kind of just leaked it and said it’s about R. Budd Dwyer. It was inspired by R. Budd Dwyer‘s public suicide. And I just was, like, ‘Well, the cat’s out of the bag.’ And so I never wanted it to be out what the song was about, but it’s out. And he did what he did. He made the point he wanted to make. And I saw it as a young man and wrote lyrics about it and it just resonated with me and I just found it to be shocking and I tried to understand it. And so that’s what the song is about, trying to wrap my head around, like, why would someone do this? And it’s interesting fodder for lyrics, in my opinion. ‘Cause I was so over — and a lot of people were too — I was just so over songs about like hot rods and chicks and all that crap that they had spoonfed us in the ’80s.”

Elaborating on the fact that some people still mistakenly believe that “Hey Man, Nice Shot” was written about Cobain, Patrick said: “Urban legend is that it’s about Kurt. But the great thing is, is I went up to (NIRVANA‘s) Dave Grohl and I explained that the song was written way before Kurt killed himself. And I was already signed because of it. And then Kurt killed himself, and the record came out like a little bit later. And I explained it to Dave Grohl and I explained it to (NIRVANA‘s) Krist (Novoselic). And those are the only two people I care about. They acknowledged that they understood, like, ‘We know you didn’t do it.’ So, once I made it clear to them that it was written in ’91 and that it wasn’t about Kurt, and they reassured me that, like, ‘Hey, it’s okay. Don’t feel the weight of this.'”

Richard added: “No one wants to profit on someone’s demise, but at the same time, it is about suicide and it is about someone killing themselves. It’s wild.”

Circling back to how “Hey Man, Nice Shot” was conceived, Richard said: “I was writing this song for me and my stoner buddies that were hanging out when I was a kid. I wasn’t even writing it to leave NINE INCH NAILS, which I ended up leaving NINE INCH NAILSbecause of it. I was, like, ‘Shit, if I can write ‘Hey Man, Nice Shot’ and get a record contract with Warner Brothers, I can make a living in this business.’ And that’s exactly what I did.”