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Megalomaniac by Incubus - Songfacts

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  • Megalomaniac means self-exaltation, and to be crazy for big things. The song is about power crazed people and their destructive behavior. Lead singer Brandon Boyd explained: "Lyrically speaking I know that there were a lot of things going on in and around the world and there were some very specific people in my mind coming dangerously close to having megalomaniacal tendencies and so I did my best to write those thoughts down." >>

    Suggestion credit:
    Katt - England

  • When this song was written, the United States had invaded Iraq, which points the finger at US President George W. Bush as the megalomaniac. But Brandon Boyd says the person in the song is a composite of different people, inspired by a character in the 1986 movie Three Amigos called El Guapo.

    "He was the bad guy," Boyd told MTV. "I think it was Steve Martin at the end who was talking about El Guapo and how everyone has their own El Guapo. It might be your mom, your dad or a tyrant of some kind. And basically I'm using my personal El Guapo."

    "It'd be great if people could apply their own El Guapos to this song," he added.

  • The video had lots of images of famous megalomaniacs, including Hitler and George W. Bush. For a while, MTV refused to show it except late at night. MTV was under a lot of pressure after Janet Jackson bared her breast at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, which they produced. They responded by banishing this and 6 other potentially offensive videos to late rotation, but this was the only one deemed offensive for political reasons - the others had too much sex. MTV eventually started playing this during the day, but before they did, guitarist Mike Einziger said, "It's ironic that this MTV scrutiny comes from an incident where someone bared their chest in public, while for the first time, our singer has his shirt on for an entire video."

  • "Megalomaniac" was the first single from the fifth Incubus album, A Crow Left Of The Murder. It was their first album with new bass player Ben Kenney, and their first produced by Brendan O'Brien, known for his work with Pearl Jam. Their previous album, Morning View, they recorded at a rented estate (on Morning View Drive in Malibu) where they lived while they were working. A Crow Left Of The Murder they recorded at guitarist Mike Einziger's home studio.