Still, Tobias Forge has actually spoken about the song, and it seems it has been somewhat misinterpreted. In a conversation with Mastodon's Brann Dailor (via YouTube), Forge described how his child's friend heard that the lyrics of "Mary on a Cross" were "perverse," prompting Forge to go into more detail regarding how the lyrics aren't what they appear to be on the surface. "There are a few, there are multiple layers of the lyrics — it might be important for people to understand that," Forge explained. "The chorus is written very tongue-in-cheek, of course. 'Go down' doesn't necessarily mean as in a 69 sense of the word. It can also mean 'go down' as in 'go down in history, your own ascent.'"
Forge went on to say that the song refers to people whose intentions have been misunderstood, like Mary Magdalene. Despite this, as mentioned in the above conversation, the song has received a decent amount of backlash from those who believe the lyrics are offensive. Forge addressed this issue again on an episode of Cutter's RockCast, saying, "Of course, that is the backside of it, people hearing it and finding it, like, deeply offensive and this that or the other, just because they didn't have the brain capacity to sort of realize what it is about."
