"Jumper" by Third Eye Blind, Sunday, July 10, 2022 (Trigger Warning: Suicide)

If you listen to Third Eye Blind's A Collection, the band's greatest hits compilation, half of the songs on the compilation come from the band's first self-titled record. The San-Francisco-formed rock band scored their biggest hits in the late '90s, taking alternative rock stations by storm with their edgy lyrics and pop-rock that sometimes flirts with hip hop influences. The final single, "Jumper," from an album full of songs about sex and drugs is the story about a friend of the band's manager who committed suicide when he was in high school. In an interview with Songfacts lead singer Stephan Jenkins talks about how the song transformed from a lament to a song of empowerment.

ICING OVER A SECRET PAIN.  In the Songfacts interview, Jenkins talks about how "Jumper" was originally "a noir about a guy who jumped off a bridge and killed himself because he was gay." But the song doesn't sound like a dark tune. Like most of the songs on the first Third Eye Blind album, catchy upbeat guitar hooks with Jenkins energetic lyrics masked the tragedy behind the song. The music video for the song further obscures the meaning behind the song. The band is playing at a house party. The video uses a contrast of bright and dark colors and is stylized with a speed-up/slow-down film speed. By the end of the video, Jenkins, at the house party, sings directly to one of the characters the video follows, seemingly offering him encouragement. Jenkins talks about how the song went from "darkness to levity." The song about bullying transformed from a song about wishing you could say something more to convince a person not to take their life to an anthem of understanding that people care. 

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE ME AGAIN, I WOULD UNDERSTAND. Jenkins goes on to talk about how a new generation of fans coming to Third Eye Blind shows. "There are all kinds of races and LGBT couples" coming to the shows. But while Jenkins takes hope in the changing of attitudes that caused a young gay man to take his life when the band's manager was growing up, Jenkins does admit in the 2015 interview that "there are a lot of backwards fuckers out there . . . including the entire Republican Party." Which brings up the time that Third Eye Blind made national news for playing at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when the Republican National Convention was also in town. Many Republicans in town went to see the show of nostalgic '90s rock, but were confronted by Jenkins' preaching against major Republican platforms. For the song "Jumper," Jenkins reportedly said, "We believe in tolerance and acceptance." This was followed by booing from the crowd. Building a better tomorrow has certainly hit a snag over the last few years. While it's not entirely fair to pin it all on a political party, it's sad to think about the implications of what our eroding rights will mean for future generations. And with the regression in the education systems, I wonder if teachers will be allowed to tell the kid to "step back from that ledge." Some Republicans have made it clear that it's better to be dead than gay, and they use the Bible as justification.

 Read “Jumper” by Third Eye Blind on Genius.

Official Music Video:

Scene from Yes Man: