"Everlong" is the second single released from Foo Fighters' second album The Colour and the Shape, released in 1997. The song was conceived when Dave Grohl returned home to Washington, DC following the initial recording sessions for the album. It was eventually recorded as part of the second set of sessions, which took place at Grandmaster Recorders in January-February 1997.

The song was written when the band took a two-week break from recording after the initial sessions. Dave Grohl wrote "Everlong" by himself at his home in Virginia. Written in the key of D Major, the song opens with a quiet, clean guitar playing the chords that form the basis of the verse. A fast drum beat enters, which is joined by the same chords played with distortion. Though in 4/4 time, the verse repeats after every seven measures. The verses are based on the progression ♭3-1-♭6-1. The first chord is Dmaj7 chord, followed by a Bsus2. This is followed by a Gsus2 chord. The pre-chorus follows the progression ♭3-♭7, but with an added guitar riff adding strength to the instrumentation as Grohl's vocals rise to a shout. The chorus uses the progression 1-♭6-♭3 (♭7-♭6), a mainstay of rock music. The song ends on a G chord, never resolving back to D.

Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio personality, television host, author, actor and photographer best known for his radio show which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style. Stern has been exclusive to Sirius XM Radio, a subscription-based satellite radio service, since 2006. The son of a former recording and radio engineer, Stern wished to pursue a career in radio at the age of five. While at Boston University he worked at the campus station WTBU before a brief stint at WNTN in Newton, Massachusetts.

He developed his on-air personality when he landed positions at WRNW in Briarcliff Manor, WCCC in Hartford and WWWW in Detroit. In 1981, he was paired with his current newscaster and co-host Robin Quivers at WWDC in Washington, D.C. Stern then moved to WNBC in New York City in 1982 to host afternoons until his firing in 1985. He re-emerged on WXRK that year, and became one of the most popular radio personalities during his 20-year tenure at the station. Stern's show is the most-fined radio program, after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued fines to station licensees for allegedly indecent material that totaled $2.5 million. Stern has won Billboard's Nationally Syndicated Air Personality of the Year award eight times, and is one of the highest-paid figures in radio.

David Eric "Dave" Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter, who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter and founder of the Foo Fighters, prior to which he was the drummer in the grunge band Nirvana. He is also the drummer and co-founder of the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures. Grohl has additionally written all the music and performed all the instruments for his short-lived side projects Late! and Probot, as well as being involved with Queens of the Stone Age numerous times throughout the past decade. He has performed session work (as a drummer) for a variety of musicians, including Garbage, Killing Joke, Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, Slash, Juliette Lewis, Tenacious D, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Lemmy Kilmister.

As a child, Grohl's family relocated from Warren, Ohio, to Springfield, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Three years later, when Grohl was six, his parents divorced, and Grohl grew up living with his mother.