Songfacts®:

• "Feel" was inspired by the deaths of several of Duff McKagan's rock peers, including Scott Weiland, Chris Cornell, Prince and Chester Bennington.
  
  During an April 4, 2019 appearance at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, McKagan explained: "These are just my friends... I don't name them in the song, and I gathered up the energy of those four - of the loss, the sense of loss - and it's just a song of... there is a little hope, like, we're going to remember you, and you're still here - these four in particular, and so many more before that."
• McKagan said that the Shooter Jennings-produced track originated with some chords and the lyrics, "Feel. When the lights go down, you are still here. All you hoped here remains." He explained:
  
  "It was coming from Scott Weiland, who I worked with and really tried to help a few times - intensely, one time; like, going to the Cascade Mountains for a month, intensely - and saw that it just took him over."
• McKagan has had panic attacks since his teen years and he used to keep a pack of Xanax on him for stress. He told Kerrang another inspiration for this song was his own relapse into prescription drug dependency in the late 2000s.
  
  "I was completely strung out on Xanax and Valium, which is really hard. It gets into your bones; it's really hard to shake loose. You have to taper - if you just go cold turkey you can have a seizure. I had to tell my wife, which was very shameful to me. But they say that relapse is part of recovery. It was, and it was a huge reminder. And I never understood that drug addiction is a progressive disease - it gets worse, even if you don't use. So I learned that lesson, but I think that everything in my life has happened for a reason. I wake up every morning and physically manifest. I look at my addiction, give it a little smile of acknowledgment, and move on with my day."