As A Lyricist And Novelist, The Mountain Goats' Lead Man Writes About Pain — npr.org

When The Mountain Goats' founder John Darnielle was a teenager, he went through a self-destructive phase. "Your intelligence doesn't override your desire to destroy yourself," Darnielle tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "I really, really did not want to be in my own skin. I really wanted to get high and stay high." The singer-songwriter's parents divorced when he was 5 years old, and he was abused by his stepfather. Darnielle says he had the feeling of "being uprooted a lot and not being able to make friends and keep them."

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