Songfacts®:

• Oberst told MTV News: "I think it has a sort of comedic aspect to it. The juxtaposition of the music and what's being sung about I suppose. I just think of sort of a stubborn old cowboy man that just wants to go lay in the grass and, you know, die out by the tree or something."
• Conor Oberst told Mojo magazine September 2008 the story behind this song: "I have a friend who just celebrated his 75th birthday. It's a song for him: he's very strong, for the record I think he'll live forever, but we've talked about stuff like this… He doesn't want to die with his boots on, in the desert, looking up at the stars, and I think he deserves that. It's kind of a jailbreak song, a promise…if I'm ever in hospital you gotta come break me out."