 Producer Kevin Shirley was brought in on the advice of Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry . As Rich explained , " We really wanted to work with someone who can come in and say , ' That 's not good . ' ... If Kevin says something I disagree with , he 'll be the first one to say , ' Hey , it 's your song , ' but it 's healthy for me and Chris to have him come in and be as excited about our songs as we are and say , ' Okay , that 's cool , but what if we tried this ? ' " At his first meeting with the band , Shirley described the songs played for him as having " the same old jammy , shuffle feel of the last two records . I stopped them then and I said to them ... ' You 've got to feel like you 're teenagers again . You need a song like that . ' " Shirley 's prompting led the band to write " Kickin ' My Heart Around " on the spot , before he had signed on to produce . Rich agreed that Shirley shifted the focus to making " a rock record " that was " focused and concise " . 
