Kiedis was lyrically influenced by love, his girlfriend, and the emotions expressed when one fell in love. Songs written for the album such as "By the Way," "I Could Die for You," "Dosed," "Warm Tape" and non-album tracks "Someone" and "Body of Water" all digressed into the many sides of love. Drugs also played an integral part in Kiedis' writings, as he'd only been sober since December 2000. Tracks like "This Is the Place" and "Don't Forget Me" expressed his intense relationship with narcotics, the harmful physical and emotional effects they caused him and the ever-present danger of relapse (as Kiedis has suffered chronic relapse into drug-dependency). He referenced early Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak in "This Is the Place" and describes how drug use forced him to miss the funeral: "On the day my best friend died/I could not get my copper clean." "Venice Queen" was composed lyrically as an ode to Kiedis' drug rehabilitation therapist, Gloria Scott, who died shortly after he purchased her a home on California's Venice Beach. It mourned her death as a painful loss: "We all want to tell her/Tell her that we love her/Venice gets a queen/Best I've ever seen."