"Blow Up the Outside World" was written by frontman Chris Cornell. Cornell stated that he wrote the song when he was in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and at the time of writing it "[he] was a little fucked up." Guitarist Kim Thayil on the song's guitar solo:
A blues-type thing, exactly. And after I recorded it, the rest of the band loved it, and the assistant engineer loved it, but I kept feeling like it was too stiff. I was using a Tele with .011's. I was listening to it, going, 'You know, it doesn't have my trademark finger vibrato,' like you can hear on Ultramega OK and Badmotorfinger. I wasn't quite satisfied with it, but because everyone else really enjoyed it, eventually I let it go...I finally had to relax and trust the guys that it was cool.
Soundgarden "Blow Up the Outside World" Live @ The Forum Inglewood, CA. 7-22-2011