Demo Version of Avenged Sevenfold’s ‘Nobody’ Has REALLY Different Lyrics
UPDATE (March 22, 2023): It looks like M. Shadows was the source of some fake news, toying with everyone by stating "I wanna confirm [the demo circulating] is real" when it was just a joke the whole time. Adam (@speedy_edits) had a nice laugh that his "meme" trolled the media.
Last week, Avenged Sevenfold announced their long-awaited new album, Life Is But a Dream, and released the first single, "Nobody." Now, singer M. Shadows has confirmed that a demo version that has been circulating online is not at all fake and, lyrically, it's quite a different version than the one we've all heard.
"There is a demo of 'Nobody' going around I wanna confirm it's real. It was uncovered by @Speedy_Edits. Cool to see it evolve," writes Shadows in a Twitter post with a snippet of the demo audio embedded as a video.
What's different about the song?
The official studio version of "Nobody" contains lyrics based on the writings of 20th century French philosopher Albert Camus. It's indicative of a deep mindset explored on the record and the band describes it as "a journey through an existential crisis; a very personal exploration into the meaning, purpose and value of human existence with the anxiety of death always looming."
But before Avenged Sevenfold arrived at this version of "Nobody," it was a raunchy song about sex and sin — quite the departure from feeling like you're in philosophy class.
Below are the lyrics heard in the snipper shared by Shadows:
Let me tell you about a girl I know that comes alive when you take off her clothes / There's no telling just where she's been / Ask around but no one seems to know / Late at night when you're looking to sin / Call her up and she'll lay down the law / You can't trust her because she'll lie to your face / But that's not why you gave her a call / You're waist deep inside / You're lust and burning desire (lust and burning desire) / We've all been more than eager to sin / And it feels all right until we pay the price
The lyrics are actually from "Girl I Know," an Avenged track that appears on the Diamonds in the Rough compilation.
READ MORE: M. Shadows Reveals Best Song for Someone Just Getting Into Avenged Sevenfold
Who is @Speedy_Edits?
It's not like this audio snippet just came from nowhere with some underground die-hard fan lurking in the darkest corners of the Avenged Sevenfold internet rabbit hole, hacking their way through secure sites to leak private audio files.
Speedy (real name Adam) is actually the administrator of Avenged Sevenfold's Deathbats Club, the band's own NFT marketplace.
Who knows what this means for additional singles that will precede the June 2 release of Life Is But a Dream? It's been exciting so far and there's no sign that it's going to die down anytime soon, especially with Avenged's first live shows since 2018 now on the books — get tickets here.