Songfacts®:

• This was one of the first songs born when the Chili Peppers started working with producer Danger Mouse. In fact, Chad Smith and Danger Mouse came up with the drum part before the band officially started recording. Guitarist Josh Klinghoffer recalled in a track-by-track commentary:
  
  "He wanted to get together with Chad and sort of show him what he was thinking in terms of coming up with the drum part by playing him an album, discussing it and them having Chad go do it, and then loop him or something. They hadn't worked together yet and he wanted to show him his process and how he likes to work with drummers. So, Chad had gone down and they came up with a couple of drum ideas or drum beats."
• The week before the band were due to start laying down the album, Klinghoffer popped into Danger Mouse's studio to say hello and hear what he and Smith had come up with. The guitarist recalled:
  
  "He said: 'You know, if you hear anything over any of these beats…' And I had already picked up the guitar and I just came up with that riff, the main riff of that song, just without thinking. I don't like to think much, I suppose. So, that's how that song came to be. And then, of course, we changed it as it went along and added the bridge. Yeah, so the main riff and the chorus chords were just off the cuff; just off the top of my head."
• It is thought Anthony Kiedis' lyrics are directed to the band's late original guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died of a drug overdose in 1988. Other Chili Pepper songs that pay tribute to their fallen colleague include "Knock Me Down," "My Lovely Man" and "Dosed."