Songfacts®:

• This funk jam track was inspired by a life-changing trip bassist Flea and guitarist Josh Klinghoffer took to Ethiopia. Flea recalled to UK newspaper The Sun: "I got lost in a city called Harar. It was a really amazing experience that really changed everything. Damon Albarn [Blur, Gorillaz] had started African Express, basically a bunch of musicians go to a different country in Africa to jam with Africans, listen to African music and trip around. It was f---ing amazing. So we decided we'd go to Ethiopia. One day we got the bus and I got off the bus, walked down the little street, turned around and the bus was gone! I was lost. I walked around this little town for about an hour. No one speaks English and it's kind of crazy. I started getting scared. People were coming up to me and speaking to me but I didn't understand. Then one guy came up to me and he started speaking in broken English. He found my friends and helped me. So when I came home, I told the story to Anthony [Kiedis, vocals] and he wrote the song. It's very special to me."
• Kiedis spoke about the song in an interview with an Italian magazine: "It reflects the new spirituality of the band. Instead of drugs and alcohol, meditation, and injections of ozone, not heroin. Love for children and family. Respect and hope."
• Since the release of the Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium in 2006, Kiedis has had new responsibilities in the form of a son, Everly. He told UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph that fatherhood has changed him. "That energy of, 'I'd die for you in a second if that would help,' creeps into the song Ethiopia," he said. He added that the track is actually "about three or four things, creating a quadruple helix of ideas forming one lyrical notion."