The song’s title was inspired by a story from The San Francisco Chronicle about Howard Dully, who recalled how his stepmother forced him to have a transorbital lobotomy when he was 12.

This is the first song from Gloria’s point of view. Remember “¡Viva la Gloria!”, when we were introduced to this character who completely changed midway through the song? That was quite obviously in Christian’s point of view and the last line was “Tell me the story of your life.” Well, here it is; this is Gloria’s story that he asked for, much like “21st Century Breakdown” was Christian’s story. Problem is, she can’t remember much. She didn’t get a literal lobotomy but joining life with Christian, the extremist revolutionary leader, has wiped away most of her fond dreams and memories. The brutal sadness of reality has washed away the time with her family, even laughter and a more fulfilling life.

The negativity and pain has tarnished her innocence and without her faith she compares herself to a “lost refugee.” “Christian sang the eulogy” is, in a way, referring back to “¡Viva la Gloria!” but, also, Christian basically killed the person Gloria was, as she has morphed into someone completely different since initially meeting him. In her mind, she’s not any worse though, because she found out the “truth” about the cons of America from Christian — yet she’s not in love with him either, because she’s too drugged out and disgusted with the world.

Singer Billie Joe Armstrong explained to Q magazine May 2009:

It’s about how self destructive behaviour can overshadow parts of your ambition.“ He added: "A lot of people have a self-destruct button. I think for a lot of rock musicians, when you’re celebrating, it turns into partying and then suddenly you’re f—ing yourself up and you’re destroying something you worked so hard to build up. There’s this shiny red button that you just want to push.”