Counting Crows vocalist Adam Duritz wrote this track with guitarist David Immerglück. The song finds Duritz asking, "What is the price of this fame and self-absorption?" He told TeamRock a lot of the lyrics are him "making fun of things." Duritz explained: "Someone was bitching about the obviousness of it saying 'I live alone but I'm hungry for affection. I struggle with connections' – does he have to relate his travails? That's a joke, you idiot!"

"And we joke about people being self-absorbed, but of course we want them to be that way, because who the f--k else is going to write songs for us, paint paintings, and sacrifice the rest of their lives to examining their own navels, so that everybody else can be entertained,?" he added. "Movies about artists are always about that s--t, bland critiques of them not always being the best people. Who gives a f--k? Lots of people who are far less interesting than Mozart have bad home lives. But nobody ever explores, why would you paint a painting, or write a song?"