Songfacts®:

• In "Out Of Control," Hoobastank frontman Doug Robb is losing his mind trying to figure out what's expected of him. The song is about trying to appease a controlling force that is totalitarian in its demands yet completely ambiguous in its expectations, leaving Robb feeling inadequate for being unable to live up to standards that aren't even being clearly communicated in the first place. Robb has made comments about rigid control structures being the subject of multiple songs in the band's second studio album, The Reason, specifying institutions of organized religion while also stressing that organized religion wasn't the only such institution on his mind.
• Within popular memory Hoobastank will always be thought of as the sweet, sensitive lads that brought us tearjerker/eyeroller "The Reason," but the band always saw themselves more as edgy, aggressive rockers. They selected the heavier "Out Of Control" as the lead single off The Reason, rather than the title track, because they felt it represented their true essence better. The record label knew they had gold in "The Reason," but Hoobastank insisted that "Out Of Control" lead things off. The band won the argument but the suits won the war, as Hoobastank will never untether themselves from "The Reason."
• "Out Of Control" has generated some unwanted controversy for Hoobastank because of one of its two guest vocalists.
  
  Hoobastank met the Welsh band Lostprophets at a studio in Calabasas, California, shortly before recording The Reason. They gave the European band their first US touring opportunity. Talking to MTV News in 2004, Robb called the group some of his "best friends." Two Lostprophets, Ian Watkins and Jamie Oliver, sing with Robb on "Out Of Control."
  
  The association became a headache when Watkins was convicted for sexual offenses against children in 2013 (he was murdered in prison in 2025).
  
  Oliver also does turntables on this track.
• The music video opens with Hoobastank meanmugging their way down an alley (not since "Separate Ways" has a music video featured such unconvincing street-strutting meanmugging) before performing in the center of a raucous live crowd. It features frenetic camera jumps that came to define the band's visual approach. Nathan Cox directed it. He's worked on several prominent videos, including "Little Sister" and the Marilyn Manson remake of "Personal Jesus."
• Hoobastank guitarist Dan Estrin came up with the kernel of this song while messing around on guitar during a soundcheck in Hawaii. He kept tinkering with the song with the rest of the band. Back in Los Angeles they recorded a quick demo for producer Howard Benson. Benson liked it, and the song was finalized very quickly from there.
• Hoobastank made "Out Of Control" available for direct download off their website before its official radio release. In 2003 this was still a novel idea and innovative as far as marketing goes.
• The 2004 dirtbike-racing game MX Unleashed includes this song.