Songfacts®:

• This song features Slash from Guns N' Roses on guitar. Slash and Kravitz went to the same high school (Beverly Hills High School), but knew each other only fleetingly. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Martin - Rostock, Germany
• Kravitz initially invited Slash to record a solo for "Fields Of Joy," but they decided to also write a song together. Slash already had the music in mind for a Guns N' Roses song, but because Steven Adler couldn't do the drumming, he brought it to Kravitz instead.
  
• This featured in the films The Waterboy (1998) and Go (1999).
• Slash met up with Kravitz for a vodka-fueled songwriting session directly after finishing his European tour. "After the last date, he jumped on the Concorde and flew from London to New York at nine in the morning," Kravitz recalled to Rolling Stone. "He had me get a gallon of vodka and a bag of ice, and we went in the studio and bang, there it was. The two of us wrote and cut the tune. I played drums; he played guitar; then I played my guitar, bass and did the vocals. I brought the horn players in and it was done. Then he got on a plane the next morning and went to LA It was a wild day."
• The album takes its name from the song's first line: "My mama said that your life is a gift." This track, in particular, was inspired by her wisdom. The singer explained: "The lyrics are about how my mom always wanted to give me her wisdom. She would want me to slow down sometimes to think and take things in. I was just on a crazy ride at the time and couldn't slow down. She was telling me this stuff at the time... 'but I'm always on the run."