Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
Filter frontman and founding member Richard Patrick has said that the song is about him getting drunk on an airplane and taking off all of his clothes. Patrick expanded in greater detail in a 2008 retrospective interview:
"When I wrote the chorus to "Take a Picture" it was just after my friend was like, "Do you remember anything you did last night?"
And I was like, "What are you talking about?"
She said, "My God, you were throwing beer bottles out of a cab window at a cop car. Do you remember that?"
And I said, "Good lord, could you take my picture, 'cuz I won't remember."
And that line just kinda stuck.
Weeks later, I had another drunken experience – being on a plane and being blacked out and not feeling good and taking my shirt off, half in and out of consciousness – and I'm in the back of a paddy wagon.
I'm thinking, "Oh my God, what is my dad gonna think of this shit?"
Y'know, "Dad, what do you think about your son now?"
So, the song is this amazing thing for me to look back on now."
Patrick's father was offended by this line, but Patrick explained to his father that each time he sings the line it has a different meaning because Patrick changes the tone in which he delivers the line each time it's sung.
The song was intended as a tribute to the Was (Not Was) song "Dad, I'm in Jail", from their album What Up, Dog?
Thanks Ron Ward for the Video assets 🤟
Check out my buddy here youtube.com/live/w8cx1DjAAjk?feature=shared
Filter frontman and founding member Richard Patrick has said that the song is about him getting drunk on an airplane and taking off all of his clothes. Patrick expanded in greater detail in a 2008 retrospective interview:
"When I wrote the chorus to "Take a Picture" it was just after my friend was like, "Do you remember anything you did last night?"
And I was like, "What are you talking about?"
She said, "My God, you were throwing beer bottles out of a cab window at a cop car. Do you remember that?"
And I said, "Good lord, could you take my picture, 'cuz I won't remember."
And that line just kinda stuck.
Weeks later, I had another drunken experience – being on a plane and being blacked out and not feeling good and taking my shirt off, half in and out of consciousness – and I'm in the back of a paddy wagon.
I'm thinking, "Oh my God, what is my dad gonna think of this shit?"
Y'know, "Dad, what do you think about your son now?"
So, the song is this amazing thing for me to look back on now."
Patrick's father was offended by this line, but Patrick explained to his father that each time he sings the line it has a different meaning because Patrick changes the tone in which he delivers the line each time it's sung.
The song was intended as a tribute to the Was (Not Was) song "Dad, I'm in Jail", from their album What Up, Dog?
Thanks Ron Ward for the Video assets 🤟
Check out my buddy here youtube.com/live/w8cx1DjAAjk?feature=shared
