Lead singer Brad Arnold explained the idea behind this track in an interview:

‘Loser’ was about one of my buddies growing up when I was a teenager. I actually wasn’t telling him he was a loser, but me and him come from a good family – and I love my family – and he was from an equally… well, I ain’t gonna put ‘em equal with my family (laughs) but he was from a good family, too. But when we were teenagers, he got kind of mixed up in cocaine and stuff. And that song wasn’t me calling him a loser, but it was how I think he viewed himself through the cloak of that drug. It’s kind of like his own self doubt. And thankfully he’s doing a lot better now. I get a lot of people that really can identify that song with their life in some way. And I think everybody feels like that every now and then.