Songfacts®:

• "Life Wasted" is about Johnny Ramone, the guitarist for the Ramones who died from prostate cancer in 2004. They were very close; Vedder was one of the few friends and family members who was with Ramone the day he died. Vedder came up with the lyric following Ramone's funeral.
  
  "At one point, someone is living, breathing, thinking, and talking, and a week later, it's a memory and a spirit," he said in Pearl Jam's tome Twenty. "'Life Wasted' came from that: 'I've faced it, a life wasted, I'm never going back again.' Live life to the fullest. I wasn't going to let this deep loss go without recognition."
• Vedder didn't want to reveal who this song was about, but he had a change of heart when asked about it by Rolling Stone. "When you leave that funeral, that drive is as important as any single stretch of road you'll travel on," he said. "You've got a renewed appreciation for life. And I think that feeling can last through the day, through the week, but then things start getting back to normal and you start taking this living and breathing and eating thing for granted. I think that song is there to remind you, 'This is that feeling.' The truth is - I'm a little sensitive and this is a close, personal relationship. I'll just say it. F--k it. Right up front. Half the record is based on the loss of the guy who turned out to be the best friend I ever had on the planet. And that was Johnny Ramone." >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Andrew - Evansville, IN
• Pearl Jam made a music video for this song, their first concept video since "Do The Evolution" in 1998, and their first-ever concept video where the band appears. Directed by the visual artist Fernando Apodaca, it shows the band members encased in various states of decay, using images that appear in the album liner notes.
  
  The video premiered on VH1 (apparently they had aged out of MTV) on May 19, 2006, and was also made available as a free download with a Creative Commons license.
• Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard wrote the music; Eddie Vedder penned the lyrics. The song is part of their self-titled album, commonly referred to as "Avocado" because that's what's on the cover.