Eddie's leg tattoo, a stone hammer and a monkey wrench crossed, is the logo of the environmental group Earth First, showing his support for environmental activism.

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready suffers from Crohn's disease, which he was diagnosed with at the age of 21, and has worked to bring awareness of the disease. He performs an annual concert to benefit the Northwest chapter of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, and endorsed President Barack Obama specifically for his health care program, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which mandated health insurance be available to those with pre-existing conditions.

Couldn't hold on
She couldn't hold, no, she folded
A dissident is here
Escape is never the safest place, oh
A dissident is here

"Wishlist" contains 15 wishes, but NOT: "I wish I was a mountain counting crows and clarity".

Tim Palmer, who mixed the album, overdubbed a pepper shaker and a fire extinguisher as percussion on the track, later explaining to Guitar World, "The reason I used those items was purely because we were so far from a music rental shop and necessity became the mother of invention."

Backstreet lover on the side of the road
I got a bomb in my temple that is gonna explode
I got a .16 gauge buried under my clothes, I play
Once upon a time I could control myself
Once upon a time I could lose myself