twenty one pilots – Ride lyrics

In verse 1, Tyler gets vulnerable quickly. He sings about how he wants an easy life and how he knows that he won't be able to have it: "I just wanna stay in the sun where I find / . . . / Pieces of peace in the sun's peace of mind." He evokes an image of himself sunning on a tropical beach, free of worries. But he goes onto explain other, more unhealthy thoughts by singing, "Yeah, I think about the end just way too much / . . . / All my enemies who wouldn’t wish who I was." "[T]he end," here, likely refers to the end of his life or even to death. In addition to worries about death, he's also worried about those who don't like him for who he is and what he does.

In between the above lines, he repeats "I know it's hard sometimes" and "But it's fun to fantasize," weaving one message inside of the other; because life can be difficult, he enjoys thinking daydreaming about how much better it could be if he had no worries.

The second verse is a quick rap in which Tyler asks himself and his listeners if they are willing to sacrifice themselves for others. He sings, "I'd die for you. That's easy to say," suggesting that people who say that don't actually know if they would. They "have a list of people" that they'd sacrifice themselves for, that they'd take "a bullet for," but Tyler points out the metaphor's unreality by reminding listeners that he doesn't "seem to see many bullets coming through."

The rest of the song is mostly a series of stylizations and enhancements of the chorus, but one set of new lyrics does appear. Tyler admits that "I've been thinking too much. (Help me)." As the second verse illustrates best, Tyler knows he’s overthinking life, and he yearns for someone to make the questions of life clear to him. Dealing in a world of hypothetical if's and then's has left him bewildered and tired, a theme common in his music.

So here I am listening to this song. Beautiful and disastrous and life and death. My life, not Life as in the big picture human race Life. My family and friends and what I’ll lose. Desperation and fear and happiness and joy and pain and healing and brokenness and love and living, not just existing and memories. And I don't know what Tyler was thinking when he wrote this song but I know I was remembering. And now my life is summed up in a song that wasn't even written by me but its okay because that's what songs are meant to do, help you discover things about yourself and make you feel things. I'm not saying this song is flawless. Its not. Its flawed. But that doesn't matter because its raw and its real and it has emotion. All I have left to say is this: this song is very introspective :)
All right! All the way through good and halfway through awesome!

This song is about contemplating suicide. He wouldn't wish anyone to feel the way he is feeling. He fantasizes about an end to the pain he is in. I've been thinking too much help me is literal. He says it's hard to say I'd live for you, meaning, it's not taking your life for the sake of someone else is a difficult thing to ask. People back home have tried talking him out of suicide. Back home refers to people that known him closely. In the end he says, who would you live for, who would you die for, would you ever kill (yourself.) But he doesn't say it outright. He is falling yes for sure.