The Taste Of Ink was The Used’s break-out hit. Released in late 2002, the song became something of a self-fulfilling prophecy for the Utah band, as Bert McCracken, recently out of rehab, fantasised about making something of his life and escaping the drudgery of their home state. As Bert recalls here, it became the song most entwined with the group’s humble, smoke-stained beginnings, but also their first flushes of fame. However, it didn’t end up sounding exactly the way that the four-piece had originally planned. “When I first met the band, we were all such different people. I’d just come out of drug rehab and quit using crystal meth a couple of months before that. I was in a really sensitive place. And once we started writing music and trying to play shows, it felt like we were ...
