Sick Love

The song was inspired by the chord changes to a classic Elton John hit. Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis recalled to Entertainment Weekly: "Flea came in one day with this bass line that melted my heart. He was inspired by the chords of Elton John's 'Bennie And The Jets.'" The singer continued, "We finished writing this song and it was really nothing like Elton's - different tones, different textures, different lyrics, different melodies. But we felt like Elton had an ownership of those chords."

The Chili Peppers gave Elton John and his co-writer Bernie Taupin a songwriting credit and reached out to him to ask if he would like to play on the track. To their surprise, he agreed. "(We) asked him to play on the record to give it his blessing," Kiedis told UK's The Sun newspaper. "We asked Elton who said, 'I'm a big fan. I'll be there' and he came in and he was very sweet." "He was even a bit nervous when he came in. As soon as he touched the piano it was magical," the singer continued. "You try not to be a fan boy, but it IS Sir Elton John... He talked about everything and was really cool... It's a real honor for us to have him on the record."

This was one of the songs that the band already had before they recorded the album with producer Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton. Drummer Chad Smith said in a track-by-track: "'Sick Love' is a song that we had for a while. It's one of the ones that Brian really liked of the bad s--t we wrote before going into the studio with him."