Songfacts®:

• Brendon Urie was raised in a Mormon family but left the faith when he was around 17. He explained to Alternative Press that in this song, he is reflecting on his early religious roots in the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
  
  "There may be a sad underlying message, but for the most part, I'm just really taking back my tradition - I'm doing my job. I'm not really religious at all. I mean, you could argue that I am. I don't know: It's something about the way I was raised that I can't knock all of those traditions that I feel so positive about. On this one, I compare myself to the wicked, but do I consider myself wicked, as well? There's a dichotomy there, for sure."
• Urie croons a really high note at the track's end. He said: "That note is crazy: We were recording it and Jake [Sinclair, producer] said to me, 'Do an ad lib track.' That was the first thing I did. I don't know why I do that to myself. I was like, 'Goddammit. Now I gotta keep it, 'cause I like it.' And now I have to do that nightly on tour!"
  
  Urie's high note was influenced by his stint with the Broadway production of Kinky Boots. He told The Independent: "We had the basics recorded, and I was like 'it needs to climb at the end, let's do it!' It's kind of like a party trick. Broadway did teach me a lot, vocally: I learned a lot from the vocal coaches there."
• Directed by Daniel "Cloud" Campos, the blood-splattered music video is part of a trilogy that acts as the prequel to "This Is Gospel" and "Emperor's New Clothes", also directed by Cloud. The clip sees Brendon Urie taking on a team of ninjas who are after a secret artifact. The visual co-stars actress Chloe Holmes (True Blood).
  
  "It's very Kill Bill… ah man," Urie told The Independent with a grin, "I've always wanted to do a video like that where I'm playing a kind of evil James Bond character. I told the directors 'I just wanna throw guys through windows, chop off hands', and we fit it into this trilogy of videos."
  
  "The first idea I shot over to them they were like 'noooo, that's way too f---ed up'," he added laughing. "But the thought behind it was like, 'art doesn't need to be serious all the time' – it can be camp and super gory."
• The album title is taken from one of this song's lyrics.
  
  I pray for the wicked on the weekend
  Mama, can I get another amen?
  
  Urie explained to Coup De Main: "I was going through the songs, and that's when I hit it, 'Oh yeah!' There's a lot of religious imagery in it, which I subconsciously put in there, because it's just so much part of my culture. There's a lot of me doing shout-outs to my mama, saying, 'Hey, look, I made it!' There's a lot of, keep your hopes high, build your own religion in your mind, and just be nice to people - that's 'pray for the wicked'. So 'pray for the wicked' for sure."
• It takes a village to write a Panic! at the Disco song; there are 15 writers credited on this track, including Brendon Urie and his frequent collaborators Lauren Pritchard and Sam Hollander.