When asked in a tweet about the title and subject matter of the song, vocalist Buddy Nielsen shared on Twitter:

He was a racist bigot and a bad person. It was always called Lush Rimbaugh. I will not be sorry for being happy that a bad person can no longer step on the necks of other people.

I’m not rejoicing in his death, listen to the lyrics. His legacy as a human can’t be separate from his actions. I wanted to be able to make sure. He literally had a segment where he would laugh about people dying of AIDS.

The band also shared in an Instagram post:

When I first heard that Rush had cancer I was overcome with a sense of empathy and compassion. We are all humans and live a somewhat shared existence, none of us are immune from aging, sickness and death. No matter what we do, we all have to contend with this at some point in our lives. A couple weeks after his cancer announcement he proceeded to do; that same bigoted racist and vile thing he has done his whole life. I was not surprised that even in the face of death and illness he resigned to tear others down and spew more bigoted racist garbage. He is known to be a champion for The Right, but what he really is a champion of is spreading pain and prolonged suffering to the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. I do not wish death on anyone. I do not celebrate the death of anyone. I do celebrate the movement of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people being liberated from oppression. While one less oppressor is not a victory, it presents an opportunity. A chance to change the narrative and not allow another harmful person to have a pedestal.

Senses Fail vocalist shared in Twitter responses that he wrote the song about a year before Rush Limbaugh’s death. When asked if he has always planned to release the track on the day of Rush’s death, he replied:

Yes absolutely, was worried it wasn’t gonna work out. Art is meant to create discussion.

When Rush Limbaugh was diagnosed with cancer, I had a fleeting sense of compassion for him because dealing with the gravity of an illness like that must be heavy for everyone. And then, like a week or so later, he just continued attacking people. You would think that the death sentence of lung cancer would change somebody’s view of the world, but it didn’t. And the truth is that most people who are set in their ways are not going to use any situation to look at the world differently. So, this is just a reflection on how I feel like, at times, it’s OK to wish ill on people who also wish ill on other people. It’s not a political song, though—it’s a karma thing.

— Buddy Nielsen via Apple Music