Songfacts®:

• This was the lead track from Black Gives Way to Blue, the Seattle act's first album featuring vocalist William DuVall.
• Vocalist/guitarist Jerry Cantrell said: "The song basically speaks to any number of things that keep you balled up inside. A cell of our own making with an unlocked door that we choose to remain in. Focusing our attention inward instead of reaching out to a much larger world. I think this is common to us all. It's funny how hard we fight to hang on to a bone we can't pull through a hole in the fence, or how difficult it is to put down the bag of bricks and move on."
• When this song debuted on the Mainstream Rock airplay chart in July 2009, it became Alice In Chain's first entry since a live version of its introductory track "Man In The Box" reached #40 on the first chart of 2001.
• Cantrell told The Pulse of Radio: "The song is generally about how easy it is to remain in a bad groove (laughs), you know, remain in a bad rut. The most difficult and at the same time easy thing is just to step out of it, you know what I mean? It's like being in a cell that you're locked in, with a door that's not locked. That could be anything, you know. It could be any sort of behavioral or thought process that keeps you there and basically keeps you from growing."
• Ultimate Guitar asked vocalist William DuVall to comment on this song. He replied: "We thought that was a good one because it immediately sort of throws down a gauntlet: 'Here's a seven minute-plus hunk of metal to chew on – take that!' That's kind of how we looked at it. This is gonna sorta separate the wheat from the chaff as it were in terms of who's with us and who isn't. It's a real sort of test of endurance to play the thing and I think it also, as I say, you're definitely not going for radio friendly when you choose that as your opening salvo. It just kind of made what we thought was a cool statement that reflected our mind set. Like, 'Here it is; it's about as undiluted as you can get. And if you guys dig this, then you're liable to kind of be in for the ride, you know?' And what's interesting about it is we really figured radio is not gonna touch that. And sure enough the thing went Top 15 or Top 10 like Active Rock in America; stations all over the nation were playing the thing. No edit and no call for an edit; if anybody had asked, we would have refused (laughs). You know? And it got such a great reception and we see people sing along to it every night."