Originally conceived in 2018 as a follow-up to the band's first album, Short Bus (1995), titled Rebus, the project changed course due to the collapse of the PledgeMusic crowd funding platform.

After releasing their seventh studio album, Crazy Eyes (2016), and touring in support of it in 2017, frontman Richard Patrick turned to making new music in 2018.

[9] Knowing both were there, Veruca Salt member Louise Post stopped mid-concert to call both out, stating that they need to "bury any bullshit, forget the crap, and get their shit together" in regards to making new music together.

[11] However, the band had gone quiet on the progress of the project through the mid-part of 2019, until July 2019, when Patrick announced that the collaboration with Liesegang had been cancelled due to the bankruptcy of the PledgeMusic company[12][13] and "a variety of other reasons".

[15] Despite this, Patrick noted that he still hoped to include three of the songs that he had written with Liesegang on the album, titled "Murica", "Thoughts and Prayers", and "(Command-Z) High as a Muv Fucka".