Repentance

VIII: Regret [Instrumental Intro] [Verse 1] Hello, Mirror, so glad to see you, my friend It's been a while Staring at the empty page before me All the years of wreckage running through my head Patterns of my life I thought adorned me Revealing hurtful shame and deep lament Overwhelming sorrow now absorbs me As the pen begins to trace my darkest past Signs throughout my life that should have warned me Of all the wrongs I've done for which I must repent [Pre-Chorus] I once thought it better to regret Things that I have done than haven't [Chorus] Sometimes you've got to be wrong And learn the hard way And sometimes you've got to be strong When you think it's too late [Verse 2] Staring at the finished page before me All the damage now so clear and evident Thinking 'bout the dreaded task in store for me A bitter fear at the thought of my amends Hoping that the step will help restore me To face my past and ask for forgiveness Cleaning up my dirty side of this unswept street Could this be the beginning of the end? [Chorus] I once thought it better to regret Things that I have done than haven't Sometimes you've got to be wrong And learn the hard way And just when you're through hanging on, you're saved [Guitar Solo] IX: Restitution [Excerpts of fellow musicians' apologies] [Corey Taylor] "Until that moment, I'd never felt like I'd failed at anything And I felt like I failed her And I failed myself, and I failed my children It's still really hard to deal with." [Steve Vai] "I want to thank you for helping me to see my own selfishness And to tell you how regretful I am it has hurt you." [Chris Jericho] "I'm sorry I didn't visit you in the hospital, Grandpa When you were on your deathbed I'm sorry I didn't come to your funeral I don't know if I was selfish or I just was too scared to face it It's one of the biggest regrets of my life." [David Ellefson] "I'm here to confess with you that what I did was wrong And I'm asking for your forgiveness..." [Steve Hogarth] "The only unforgivable thing hauls itself out of bed Looks over my shoulder at the bloody English weather." [Joe Satriani] "I really regret not being able to see my friend Andy." [Mikael Åkerfeldt] "One of my best friends, who's the godfather of my daughter He asked me to sing or play something at his wedding And I turned it down because I was busy and I guess, too much of a chickenshit to do it And I feel sorry for that, because it was a very, very close friend of mine." [Steven Wilson] "So, I wanted to apologize to anyone That I've upset or offended by my words It's just an opinion, but unfortunately I tend to express it as a fact And that's kind of arrogant. isn't it?" [Jon Anderson] "I think it's the betrayal It still haunts me." [Neal Morse] "I'm sorry for what I did back then I was a different person I really was and I'm so sorry I wish it wouldn't have happened, but it did And I'm sorry Will you forgive me?" [Daniel Gildenlöw] "I guess I'm simply sorry for being me and not you I so often wish you could be here with me to show me the way." [Interlude] Ah, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah [Spoken Outro: Mike Portnoy] "If we are painstaking about this phase of our development We will be amazed before we are halfway through We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace No matter how far down the scale we have gone We will see how our experience can benefit others That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear We will lose interest in selfish things And gain interest in our fellows Self-seeking will slip away Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us What we could not do for ourselves Are these extravagant promises, we think not They have been fulfilled amongst others: Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly We will always be true to our principles." [David Ellefson] "You're only as sick as your secrets But the truth shall set you free." [Corey Taylor] "The truth is the truth And so all you can do is live with it."