Meaning of *Snow (Hey Oh)*

Question

I'm a big fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and particularly the song Snow (Hey Oh) from Stadium Arcadium, however the lyrics just don't make any sense at all to me. A friend said he thought the song was about cocaine addiction, which would explain the song's title, but I still don't see that comes from these lyrics.

Answer 1

In a quote reproduced on Wikipedia, Anthony Kiedis states that the track is

"... about surviving, starting fresh. I've made a mess of everything, but I have a blank slate—a canvas of snow—and I get to start over."

The use of snow to depict a blank slate ties into the behavior of snow covering tracks,

Running through the field where all my tracks will be concealed

_{"Snow (Hey Oh)"}

Though this may tie in to the artist's personal trials, it is a universal sentiment.

Kiedis later said:

It's about the repeated failure to start your life anew and how difficult it can be to get rid off old ways of thinking, and destructive ideas we become so attached to.

In the context of Kiedis' own life, however, the destructive things that he became immersed in were, in fact, cocaine and China White heroin — both of which share a powdery white appearance reminiscent of snow.

Come to decide that the things that I tried
Were in my life just to get high on

_{"Snow (Hey Oh)"}

Furthermore, the song mentions a desire to turn away from his ways, in favor of independence:

When it's killing me
When will I really see
All that I need to look inside

_{"Snow (Hey Oh)"}

So your initial guess is likely the idea behind the making of the song, if not necessarily the song itself; Kiedis was a recovering addict, facing relapses.