Take a Load Off

This is a track from Stone Temple Pilots' last album with lead singer Scott Weiland. It was their first record in nine years, their previous release being 2001's Shangri-La Dee Da.

Guitarist Dean DeLeo told MusicRadar about the song: "To me, there's two types of people: there's thinkers and there's feelers. The thinkers are lawyers and accountants. The feelers are writers and artists. When I hear this song, I'm thinking that everybody can be in that second category. Musically, it gets me off like you wouldn't believe. I love the chord voicings, which are a little Jimmy Pagey, I guess. Plus, the band is really playing balls-out on this song. When we got back together and played live on the road, we had some hot coals in our pants. This song reflects that spirit."

For the song's lyrics, singer Scott Weiland listened and studied to more poetical wordsmiths to learn how to free his writing from his autobiographical and "self-obsessed" nature. He told Ted Stryker in an interview on his KROQ-FM show, "There's an art to telling a story, and it can mean anything, or it can mean nothing."