The song title is a reference to the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away. The film tells the story of a FedEx employee who is stranded on a deserted tropical island for four years, with an inanimate volleyball named Wilson as his only companion. Vocalist Patrick Stump explained how bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz's rambling about past relationship mistakes during this song connect to the island survival film. (The word "Wilson" doesn't appear in the lyrics.) "Pete somehow related to it like, 'Yeah, don't you just wanna sometimes disappear and go on an island somewhere?'" Stump told ABC Radio. "And I'm like, 'I don't think he wanted to! I don't know what movie you saw, Pete.' But yeah, it is based on that, but in this oddly positive way."
The track begins with a sample of the Clash's Combat Rock song "Straight To Hell," which was later borrowed by British rapper M.I.A. for the spine of her hit single "Paper Planes."
Stump explained Wentz's "I'll stop wearing black when they make a darker color" lyric: "I used to tease Pete about the fact that every time on tour, it was a general rule that we had to wear black on stage everyday," he recalled. "I was like, 'I'm actually very muted in my color choices, but can I do a gray? Or a navy?' So I thought that was really funny."
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