Danny Elfman saw his own struggles in Jack Skellington’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
Elfman talked about being a part of the holiday classic and how it mirrored his experiences. In his own words:
“Even though this is entirely Tim’s story – and I have nothing to do with that story – I interpreted the character entirely through my own life. [Jack Skellington’s story] that was my story. I was a guy who played in a rock band. This was my world. I was the king of that world, [but] I wanted to leave. I really wanted to get out, but I didn’t know how to get out. I felt like I had to evolve; I did it. I felt trapped. Everyone was depending on me. I want to emphasize this because it was my story, but I never told Tim about it.”
He added that he “interpreted it strictly from my own perspective because when he told me the story, I thought, ‘Oh, do I understand.’ So when I wrote about Jack, Christmas Town and Halloween Town, I was really writing about me and my band and my need to find another form of expression that I desperately needed. It seemed to work, as the film was released in 1993, and in 1995, Elfman left Oingo Boingo after a farewell tour.
