Considering Kiedis had resumed heavy drug use and Frusciante was no longer present for collaboration, songs were written at a far slower rate. Working with Frusciante had been something Kiedis took for granted: "John Frusciante had been a true anomaly when it came to song writing. He made it even easier than Hillel Slovak to create music, even though I'd known Hillel for years. I just figured that was how all guitar players were, that you showed them your lyrics and sang a little bit and the next thing you knew you had a song. That didn't happen right off the bat with Dave." Drummer Chad Smith suggested it was writer's block that was holding Kiedis back from coming up with lyrics, however Kiedis strongly denied this. With the writing process taking too much time and Kiedis returning to his drug habit, Flea for the first time on any of the band's albums, besides contributing music as usual, took over and wrote some of the song's lyrics, including "Transcending", his tribute to River Phoenix along with the intro and outro to "Deep Kick", a song that told the story of his and Kiedis's youth. Also, Flea contributed lead vocals to "Pea" (his first time doing that on any album).