Frontman Dave Grohl described this to Billboard magazine as "A stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song, with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it."
Grohl revealed in an interview with the XFM Radio station that they put this song together in a day, while other tracks on the record took several weeks. In the same interview he alluded that the song referred to political unrest and people not getting what they're promised but would prefer people to have their own idea or interpretation.
When "The Pretender" achieved its 17th week at the top of the Modern Rock Tracks chart in December 2007 it became the longest-running chart-topper in the history of this tally until Muse's "Madness" reigned for 19 weeks in 2012-13. The 3 songs it beat, each with 16-week runs at the top of the Modern Rock Tracks chart were: "Scar Tissue," Red Hot Chili Peppers (1999) "It's Been Awhile," Staind (2001) and "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams," Green Day (2004.)
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