What Inspired Pierce The Veil Bulletproof Love Lyrics?

On a rainy drive home sophomore year, 'Bulletproof Love' crept through my speakers and felt like someone had carved a diary into guitar riffs. I got hooked not just by the melody but by how raw the words were — there's a visceral feeling of trying to hold on to someone who keeps slipping away, and that tug-of-war is what most people point to when they talk about what inspired the lyrics. From what I’ve pieced together and heard fans and music writers say over the years, Vic Fuentes wrote much of the material on 'Selfish Machines' from personal experience: relationships gone sideways, guilt, and the kind of helplessness that comes when the person you care about makes choices you can’t fix. That emotional honesty is the backbone of 'Bulletproof Love'.

I like to think of the song as equal parts literal heartbreak and metaphor. The title itself — a love that’s 'bulletproof' — reads like a bitter irony: the narrator wants to protect someone, but the protection either doesn’t work or is refused. Fans often interpret the lyrics through lenses of mental health struggles, addiction, or even suicidal ideation, because the imagery leans heavy toward loss, funerary metaphors, and emotional violence. Pierce the Veil's mid-era writing leaned darker and more intimate, and this track fits that pattern: the music swells like a panic attack and the words feel like an attempt to explain the unexplainable.

Beyond Vic’s personal life, the song sits inside a post-hardcore/emo landscape where melodrama, cinematic phrasing, and confessional lines are almost expected — but 'Bulletproof Love' still stands out due to its stark vulnerability. I’ve heard older interviews where he talks about writing through anger and regret rather than polishing a pop hook, which matches the song’s rough edges. For me, it’s been a late-night anthem for times I couldn’t save someone and had to accept my limits. If you want a fuller picture, reading interviews around the 'Selfish Machines' era and diving into other tracks on the album gives context, because the whole record deals with messy human stuff in a very personal way. It still hits me differently every time I hear it — sometimes comforting, sometimes devastating.

I’ve always felt 'Bulletproof Love' came from a place of frustrated rescue — like the narrator is desperate to save someone who keeps choosing harm. The inspiration, as fans and critics generally agree, seems rooted in Vic Fuentes’ personal relationships and the darker tone of the 'Selfish Machines' period. He was writing with a lot of emotional rawness then, so the song reads as a confession: blame, grief, and an inability to stop what’s happening to someone you love.

People often read the lyrics as touching on suicidal thoughts, addiction, or toxic dependency because of repeated funeral imagery and lines that imply irreversible loss. Musically, the band’s post-hardcore energy amplifies that desperation, so the inspiration isn’t just a single event but a mix of heartbreak, helplessness, and the wider emo/post-hardcore tendency to be theatrical about pain. If you’re curious, pairing this track with other songs from 'Selfish Machines' helps reveal the recurring themes — and if a deeper dive strikes a chord, checking those interviews from the album cycle is a good next step.