Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone Lyrics Meaning

I believe that it is about a girl who left her life living in a small town and goes to either New York City or the West Coast, Las Vegas, Nevada or Hollywood, California and began a new life in a new world as a prostitute or adult movie actor. There is this friend who in the shadows tried to warn her about the outcome and where she would land; letting her know that pipe dreams are not always reality. She begs him off, puts him down because his life is going nowhere.

In her beginning, she was a great splash on the scene; making lots of quick money and she became popular in that industry. As she rose in the game, she remembered where she came from and tossed tokens to those who she considered still where she was.

But there are rival's and rivalry becomes more intense as one climbs the ladder of success. A certain stature one must maintain and she does so by living lavishly and spending and buying whatever her desire. Due to her false sense of pride lines are drawn and determinations are made by her that she will not compromise and do just anything as others (namely one who in her mind is a tramp) and willing to compromise her more modest morals, at first.

But her lifestyle takes a turn for her and she journeys down a forbidden road. She becomes addicted to drugs and alcohol, and those who sponsored and admired her begin to see the cracks in her facade and she is no longer a money draw. The intrepid lifestyle of her's becomes a liability more than an asset. Her manager who she once idolized as he lied to her making her think that he was forever and her life is forever is unmasked. He shows her that it was always about the money, and women like her come to him a dime a dozen.

Tossed out, her addiction and alcoholism get the best of her. She is forced from her false comforts and fleeting fame due to addiction and wrong choices and must make a choice. She remembers her friend who tried to warn her of the road she was headed onto. She now thinks and asked the rhetorical question "How does it feel to be on your own (abandoned) with no place, or direction to go because she does not and cannot escape her addiction. Her so-called friends and associates have all left her; she has been completely exposed by her addiction and poverty - no one cares for her and like a rock that is kicked around this is how her life has become and there is no way that she sees things can turn around. Her manager, friends who she partied with and used her, addiction, and pride have taken everything from her and the only worth in her life is a diamond ring that she is forced to pawn for the survival of either eating or satisfying her drug addiction which is, in reality, a place to nowhere. She asks again, how does it feel to be left alone with no direction home, a complete unknown - like a (kicked around) rolling stone?