The song was initially written during the
Chinese Democracy sessions as "Silkworms" by keyboardists
Chris Pitman and
Dizzy Reed. It was performed live four times in 2001. In 2008, Pitman talked about the song in an interview shortly before the release of
Chinese Democracy, stating: "It ended up being this incredible track that sounded like Guns N' Roses 10 or 15 years in the future. It was so far removed from our other songs that we had to put it in this other place. Concept-wise, it didn't fit with
Chinese Democracy. We hope we will have other songs that match that kind of futuristic sound. It's a really exciting track because it morphs into this crazy sound, but it was out so much in the other direction that we have to let time catch up with it. Following the release of
Chinese Democracy, vocalist
Axl Rose stated that the song had been reworked, now with "a lot of guitars, lots of different drum[s] [and] the chorus is gone". Two different studio recordings of the song leaked online in 2018 and 2019, respectively. On August 3, 2021, the song was performed live in Boston during the
We're F'N' Back! Tour. Axl Rose introduced it by stating: "Some of you might have heard this under another name, but this is really kind of absurd to try this. Wasn't that funny? And they don't even know the joke yet. Okay, this is called 'Absurd'." The officially released version of the song was produced by Axl Rose and Caram Costanzo, the latter whom also recorded and mixed the track. It also features former Guns N' Roses drummer
Brain. An accompanying video was also made, animated by Creative Works. The song is officially credited as written by Rose, Reed, Slash and McKagan. ==Style==