'Hate Me,' 20 years later: Blue October revisits signature hit with 20th anniversary 'Foiled' reissue

Blue October will release a vinyl reissue of their 2006 album Foiled on Friday in honor of its 20th anniversary. The original album spawned the single "Hate Me," which remains Blue October's signature song.

Speaking with ABC Audio, frontman Justin Furstenfeld recalls his mindset when he was first writing "Hate Me."

"My initial hopes for the song was to explain why I kept messing up relationships and choosing drugs and dark ways, sick ways of living over normal, healthy girlfriend relationships," Furstenfeld says.

The vinyl Foiled reissue includes an acoustic version of "Hate Me," which puts an even greater emphasis on Furstenfeld's lyrics about cockroaches and porno in between the song's anthemic chorus.

In recording the acoustic version, Furstenfeld says he was inspired by late country icon Johnny Cash's famed cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt."

"It was just all about the words, and sung down and sung really low with just an acoustic and this rumbling voice," Furstenfeld says.

Furstenfeld adds that country music has long been a part of his life.

"I grew up on a lot of country music, and dark country, like, cocaine cowboy kinda country," he says. "And my dad loved it."

Channeling all that into an acoustic recording of "Hate Me" results in a song Furstenfeld describes as "the one you would hear at a bar where you kinda went, 'OK, maybe I should chill out.'" 

Blue October will be performing Foiled in full on a U.S. tour kicking off in October.

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