"I Don't Wanna Be Me" is a song by American gothic metal band Type O Negative. It is the second track on the band's sixth studio album, Life Is Killing Me (2003), and was released as a promo single the same year. Contrary to the gothic metal and doom metal style of the band's other songs, "I Don't Wanna Be Me" is often considered a punk rock song.
Content
The song has been described using multiple genres, but mostly described as mainly punk rock. Kerrang! described the song as "a highly-energised, sarcastic paean to self-hatred, waving a middle finger in their own faces as much as anyone else’s", noticing an influence of "old school catchy punk rock [...] At times, it even recalls the glorious heads down thrash attack of Peter’s previous band, the controversial Carnivore".[1]Loudwire described the song as "goth-punk-power-pop".[2]
On the song's lyrics, guitarist Kenny Hickey claims frontman Peter Steele's lyrics for the song were autobiographical: "At the time, Peter [...] wasn’t really doing too well, health-wise. He was getting sick of addictions and sick of life, hence the title, I Don't Wanna Be Me. He didn't wanna be Pete anymore."[3] Hickey also noted that the song - an unusually simple, fast song by the band's standards - was written in response to his frustration with Steele's usual complex, multi-part arrangements.[3]
In 2018 metal magazine Kerrang! ranked the song at No. 4 in its retrospective list of the band's top 13 songs, describing it as "probably the finest of all the fast-paced songs in their arsenal".[1]
The opening two seconds of guitar feedback and drum startup on "I Don't Wanna Be Me" is sampled and heard frequently on the Liberty Rock Radio station in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.
