Songfacts®:

• Incubus lead singer Brandon Boyd was going through a period of unrest when he wrote this song where he vents some steam, particularly on the memorable chorus line, "Pardon me while I burst into flames."
  
  Boyd explained the meaning: "I was in a bookstore, browsing through an old Life magazine, when I saw a picture of what the article called spontaneous human combustion. There were an old guy's legs and shoes, perfectly intact - then, right around his knee area, was just a pile of charred ashes. I was going through some turmoil in my life, both good and bad, and the image struck a chord, so I wrote a song about it." >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Tim - Pittsburgh, PA
• I never thought I would be at 23
  On the verge of spontaneous combustion
  
  Boyd really was 23 when Incubus released this song on their third album, Make Yourself. He was 15 when the band formed in 1991.
• "Pardon Me" was the first single from the Make Yourself album. It got a lot of airplay on Alternative radio and drew many new fans to the band. It dented the Hot 100 pop chart at #102 but reached #3 on the Modern Rock Tracks, the band's first Billboard showing. The next single was "Stellar," which spent a week at #107 on the Hot 100 but was also a Modern Rock hit, climbing to #2. Finally, a more mellow song from the album called "Drive" was issued, and it crossed over; Incubus fans and their moms both liked it. The song climbed to #9 on the Hot 100 and got loads of airplay. It also reached #1 on Modern Rock Tracks, giving the three singles from the album a progression of 1-2-3.
• Incubus turntablist Chris Kilmore gets a lot of action on this one, doing some impressive scratching in the instrumental breaks. Linkin Park, with DJ Joe Hahn, was another popular band that incorporated turntables into their sound around this time.
  
  The scratching sounded fresh and new to young ears but disqualified the song from many radio formats that feared their older listeners would change the station as soon as they heard it.
• Incubus came in close contact with drum-and-bass and electronic music in the mid-to-late '90s when they played on festivals with the likes of Roni Size and Chemical Brothers. Those sounds they incorporated into "Pardon Me."
  
  "We'd do our set at the festival at noon and then we'd go and watch all these bands," Brandon Boyd told Revolver. "We'd be in the front of like 50,000 people in the barricade, right in front of the subs. It resonated. We were filtering all these influences, and we thought, What if we played with some of those references, some of those rhythms, and then combined them somehow with all this other music that we know and love? 'Pardon Me' was the result of that: the sped-up jazz drumbeat and the slower half-time thing with the heavy guitars.
  
  Another track Boyd mentions with this influence is "Nice To Know You" from their next album, Morning View.
• The music video, directed by Steven Murashige, is rather abstract and rich with special effects. Incubus has a very artistic sensibility, with drummer Jose Pasillas and lead singer Brandon Boyd both talented artists, so their videos are rarely straightforward.
• Incubus performed this song rather memorably on a 2001 episode of the sketch comedy show Mad TV. Each member wore mullet wigs; drummer Jose Pasillas put pillows in his shirt to make him look fat, Brandon Boyd pulled off part of his pants, and Chris Kilmore had a really long goatee. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Tim - Pittsburgh, PA
• On September 11, 2001, Incubus was in New York City doing pre-promotion for their Morning View album, set to start a tour the would return them to the city to play the Hammerstein Ballroom on September 15 and 16. When the attacks happened, their hotel room shook and they were engulfed in the mayhem. Just about everything shut down that week, but Incubus decided to move forward with their tour and play those shows at the Hammerstein. On September 14, Clear Channel, the largest radio station owner in the United States, sent their station a list of songs to avoid, fearing they would trigger listeners. Many songs on the list referenced explosions or fire - "Great Balls of Fire" and "Disco Inferno" were both on it.
  
  This was an inflection point when we realized most of us are resilient enough to confront tragedy and work out way through it, and songs could help, especially in a live environment. Incubus went ahead and played "Pardon Me," complete with the chorus about bursting into flames. It was an apt metaphor for how many people were feeling, and for many in the crowd, it helped with the healing.