A LIFE LIVED
Broken Man ~ Michael Nin
[Intro]
Tell them I said Thank you
Tell them I still hear their applause
Tell them I am Thankful Tell them I had my flaws.
Whisper I’m sorry
Whisper without any tears
Whisper forgiveness
Whisper all the wasted years.
[Verse]
There was no quiet in the storm
There was no quiet when I was born
You’re looking at the sum of who I am
You’re looking at the broken man
[Chorus]
Tell them I said Thank you (to the storm)
Tell them I still hear their applause
Tell them I am Thankful (I was born)
Tell them I had my flaws.
Whisper I’m sorry
Whisper without any tears
Whisper forgiveness
Whisper all the wasted years.
[Bridge][Verse] Tell them I said Thank you
Tell them I still hear their applause
Tell them I am Thankful
Tell them I had my flaws.
Whisper I’m sorry
Whisper without any tears
Whisper forgiveness
Whisper all the wasted years.
[Chorus]
Tell them I said Thank you
Tell them I still hear their applause
Tell them I am Thankful
Tell Them
Tell Them
Tell Them
Broken Man — Liner Notes
Broken Man came from a quiet moment late one night while Eddie Van Halen and I were working on the score for the film Sacred Sin. We had been chasing a piece of music for hours, trying to find our way through a bridge that just wouldn’t resolve. The studio was silent except for the piano and the soft hum of the equipment.
At one point, I turned to Ed and asked if he had any ideas.
He paused, looked over at me, and simply said, “I’m broken… I’m broken, man.”
Then he stood up from the piano, walked over to a chair with his wine, and quietly fell asleep.
The room went still, but in that moment, the song suddenly made sense.
Broken Man became the title, and the lyrics that followed are my imagining of what Ed might say to the world today if he had the chance to speak — an honest voice behind the legend.
