Songfacts®:

• Pantera's vocalist Phil Anselmo told Loud Wire that the single was inspired by a sudden onset of back pain. He said: "This is right when I started feeling the pain in my lower back, and it felt scary. I think this is one of the first times in my life, man, that I had this thing called 'vulnerability' kick in, and that was a very uncomfortable feeling."
  
  Anselmo adds, "I think that was really my first glimpse into kind of screaming to the world, 'F--king... I am broken! Somebody f--king help me here!'"
• Pantera's guitarist Dimebag Darrell explained how the song came together: "'I'm Broken' was a soundcheck riff - one of them ones where I'd walk in with a hangover from ripping it up night after night with everyone in every town. That's where a lot of the best riffs I ever wrote came from. I just played the first riff I thought of, Vinnie [Paul, drummer] started kickin' in on it, Rex [Brown, bass guitarist] joined in - we didn't write the entire song on the spot, but we kept toying with it and finally worked on it once we got into the studio."
• The song soundtracked a commercial for the Steakhouse Thickburger from Carl's Jr., an American fast-food restaurant chain which predominantly operates in the Southwestern and Western states. The ad debuted in December 2015.