The lyrics refer to the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981. The title comes from his poems; "I remain the far side of crazy". Hinckley was obsessing over actress Jodie Foster and believed that the only way to attract her attention was to become famous himself. He was inspired by the murder of John Lennon and the subsequent media attention that his killer, Mark Chapman, received as a result. The song picks a number of lines from the letters that Hinckley sent to Foster both before and after the assassination.