Lyrical interpretation

This song is about climbing back to the top after you've hit totally rock bottom. Steven Tyler and songwriter Richie Supa wrote it for the kids at the Caron Foundation, which is the drug and alcohol rehab center in Pennsylvania where Tyler gained his sobriety in 1986.

The lyrics document the struggles Aerosmith faced and overcame as they were confronted with drug and alcohol problems as well as creative differences that threatened to break up the band. The line, "That one last shot's a permanent vacation" refers to the Aerosmith's comeback album Permanent Vacation, which put them back on top. The line, "How high can you fly with broken wings?" is a reference to their logo, which contains a set of wings.

In the song, Steven Tyler sings about hard times in his life ("I thought I could leave, but couldn't get out the door", "I was wishin' that I would die", "Scratchin' to stay alive") and how he came to grasp reality and escape his hard times ("It's amazing...with the blink of an eye you finally see the light...when the moment arrives that you know you'll be alright") and how he's "sayin' a prayer for the desperate hearts tonight".

The lyrics primarily concern the band's well-documented struggles with drug and alcohol addiction and their subsequent recovery, the musical renaissance of their career in the nineties being a last chance at what they should have always been - "Got one last shot at permanent vacation, and how high can you fly with broken wings? Life's a journey, not a destination, and you just can't tell just what tomorrow brings. You have to learn to crawl, before you learn to walk, but I just couldn't listen to all that righteous talk, oh yeah - I was out on the streets, tryin' to survive, scratchin' to stay alive."