"That number-one hit poses the gentle question: 'Should I just kill myself?'" How a "throwaway" lyric written during a dark time helped turn some punk misfits into one of the biggest rock bands of the 2000s

Davey Havok of AFI performs onstage at San Diego Street Scene held at Qualcomm Stadium on August 4, 2006 in San Diego, California.

When it came to writing the follow-up to their acclaimed 2003 album Sing The Sorrow, AFI found themselves in a bit of a pickle. Towards the end of their sixth studio album cycle, their label Dreamworks was sold to Universal Music Group and the four-piece found themselves on Interscope.

Initial demos were rejected by Sing the Sorrow co-producer Butch Vig and subsequent writing sessions were pressured and, by vocalist Davey Havok's own admission, "not a happy time".

Sing the Sorrow co-producer Jerry Finn, however, did not abandon ship and decamped to a basement on "shabby farm" in northern California to work on pre-production.

It was in this basement that Jade Puget picked out a bassline on his guitar. Havok came up with a throwaway lyric, 'Hey, Miss Murder, can I...' which he had every intention of changing later in the studio. Except it stuck like Gorilla Super Glue.