Aaron Lewis’ Controversial ‘Am I the Only One’ Hits No. 1 on Country Chart

At this point, most Staind fans know that frontman Aaron Lewis has found a second successful career as a country singer. Now, the musician is enjoying a No. 1 hit country song with “Am I the Only One,” his latest conservative-minded anthem that panders to rightist fears and beliefs.

Lewis began performing the acoustic guitar-driven number during his solo concerts earlier this year. The tune’s politicized content — the lyrics mention Confederate monuments’ removal, pointedly diss the left-leaning rocker Bruce Springsteen and more — started drawing attention in April.

Listen to “Am I the Only One” and read its lyrics down toward the bottom of this post.

On July 2, Lewis released a studio recording of “Am I the Only One” as a standalone single, his first solo release of 2021. Two weeks later, as Taste of Country reported, the song debuted in the top spot on the Billboard chart for Hot Country Songs for the week ending July 17. At the same time, it debuted within the Top 15 of the Hot 100.

Hot Country Songs accounts for a song’s sales, streaming numbers and airplay in its tally. “Am I the Only One” sold 59,300 digital copies in its first week out, July 2-8, which also put it at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Digital Songs Sales chart and No. 2 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales ranking.

But what’s perhaps more surprising is that the song’s charged lyrics aren’t even wholly Lewis’ own. He shares co-writing credit on “Am I the Only One” with country songwriters Ira Dean and Jeffrey Steele, underscoring the performative nature of Lewis’ right-wing posturing.

Last month, Lewis blamed Democrats for “every racist law” in America during a live show, and he’s previously made his political stance abundantly clear in similarly provocative songs such as “If I Was a Liberal.”

Staind heads out on a U.S. tour with Korn later this summer, and Lewis has projected that a new Staind album could arrive by 2022.

Aaron Lewis, “Am I the Only One” Lyric Video

Aaron Lewis, “Am I the Only One” Lyrics

Am I the only one here tonight
Shakin’ my head and thinkin’ somethin’ ain’t right
Is it just me? Am I losin’ my mind?
Am I standin’ on the edge of the end of time?
Am I the only one? Tell me I’m not
Who thinks they’re takin’ all the good we got
And turnin’ it bad, hell, I’ll be damned
I think I’m turnin’ into my old man

Am I the only one, willin’ to bleed
Or take a bullet for bein’ free
Screamin’, ‘What the fuck’ at my TV
For tellin’ me, yeah, are you tellin’ me?
That I’m the only one, willin’ to fight
For my love of the red and white
And the blue, burnin’ on the ground
Another statue comin’ down in a town near you
Watchin’ the threads of Old Glory come undone

Am I the only one not brainwashed?
Makin’ my way through the land of the lost
Who still gives a shit and worries ’bout his kids
As they try to undo all the things he did?

Am I the only one who can’t take no more
Screamin’, ‘If you don’t like it, there’s the fuckin’ door’
This ain’t the freedom we’ve been fightin’ for
It was somethin’ more, yeah, it was somethin’ more
Am I the only one, willin’ to fight
For my love of the red and white
And the blue, burnin’ on the ground
Another statue comin’ down in a town near you
Watchin’ the threads of Old Glory come undone

I’m not the only one
I can’t be the only one

Am I the only one who quits singin’ along
Every time they play a Springsteen song?

Am I the only one sittin’ here
Still holdin’ on, holdin’ back my tears
For the ones who paid with the lives they gave
God bless the USA
I’m not the only one, willin’ to fight
For my love of the red and white
And the blue, burnin’ on the ground
Another statue comin’ down in a town near you
Watchin’ the threads of Old Glory come undone

I’m not the only one
I can’t be the only one