Songfacts®:

• This anti-love song is the first single off Pennsylvania alternative metal band Halestorm's sophomore album, The Strange Case Of…. "The guys gave me carte blanche to write about whatever I wanted, so a lot of personal stuff came out," vocalist Lzzy Hale told Noisecreep about the record's lyrical content. "Open up those floodgates! We've been living two feet from each other forever now, so a lot has happened."
• Hale explained the single's meaning to Noisecreep: "The song is my little stab against the media's portrayal of love," she said. "Your heart cannot be measured or judged by the quizzes in magazines and scenes in movies. So for both boys and girls I tell you this, love who and how you want, and for god's sake when love bites, bite back! That bitch can eat her heart out!"
• Lzzy Hale explained to Revolver magazine that rather than her usual lyrics which find her attacking guys, this song finds her rooting for her man. "This is kind of my attempt to be on the guy's side for once," she said, "because on the last record, you guys weren't entirely too happy with me [Laughs]…
  The singer added: "Well, most of you like it rough anyways… but, I've been hanging out with guys my entire life. My entire band is made up of a bunch of guys.
  I've seen my share of band girlfriends, and honestly, a lot of them are so obsessed with the Cosmopolitan-like quizzes and, 'Am I being loved enough?' and 'Is my man right for me?' This is my attempt at just kind of being one girl to kind of stand next to the guy."
• According to producer Howard Benson, this was one of the quickest songs that he's ever recorded in his studios.
• Lzzy Hale (from Guitar World magazine): "Obviously I kind of like that title. 'Love Bites' was musically directly inspired by a cover record we did a few months ago called ReAniMate. And on that we covered a Skid Row song, 'Slave To The Grind', and a Guns N' Roses song, 'Out Ta Get Me,' and the tempo of those songs wasn't something we've really tried to write. But it's definitely a cool title. I think we went through this wonderful self-discovery about ourselves and realized, 'Hey! We can pull off this type of stuff.'"