It also had something to do with him coming to terms with his father's death that he took really hard and I know affected him all though high school and top of that, our Jr year a popular classmates that everyone knew and liked a lot was murdered by another classmate. It was eventually ruled an accident and the guy was convicted of man slaughter. Every one knew it wasn't an accident and we all were really devistated by the light sentence.
Also, our Sophomore year our class president was killed in a car accident, by our senor year we were all just hoping to get out without anybody else dying. A lot of that emotion is tied up in that song.
I knew Billy the best and honestly he was a really nice guy back then.