Byrd and Chesnutt had been friends since both artists' major-label music careers began in the early 1990s. Byrd told Knight Ridder that he wanted to do a duet with Chesnutt for several years, but the opportunity for one never occurred until he found the song. He also presented it as an example of wanting to sound "different" on the corresponding album Ten Rounds, to which "A Good Way to Get on My Bad Side" served as lead single.[2] The same publication describes the song as "toe-tapping, fast paced music" about a narrator who lists off various aspects that he finds a personal annoyance. One example listed in the last verse is a criticism of mainstream country music, wherein Byrd sings, "a little sissy in a cowboy hat ain't country".[2]
