When flies get stuck in Vaseline, it's not pretty. They're not killed instantly, but struggle until finally meeting their doom. STP lead singer Scott Weiland, who wrote the lyrics, elaborated on the metaphor in an appearance on VH1's Storytellers, saying the song is about "feeling like an insect under a magnifying glass."
In our interview with Scott Weiland, he revealed that the key line in this song came from a misheard lyric: His parents put on the Eagles song "Life in the Fast Lane, and Weiland thought they were singing, "Flies in the Vasoline."
The title is spelled differently than the brand of petroleum jelly, which is spelled Vaseline.
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