Christina Ricci wore a forty-pound chain during filming. Writer and director Craig Brewer brought various different chains on the set and told Ricci to choose the one that suited her best.
The title of the film derives from the Blind Lemon Jefferson song, recorded in 1927.
Samuel L. Jackson learned to play the guitar for this film while completing production of Snakes on a Plane (2006). This film was the other of two films released the same year in which Jackson starred with the word "snake" in the title.
Christina Ricci revealed in an interview that she wasn't the filmmakers' first choice for the role. She said, "They didn't even want me to audition. But I bleached my hair, auditioned and they still weren't fully convinced. They were worried I wasn't going to be sexual enough, so my agents and publicist just inundated them with sexy images of me." That and her willingness to perform nude in several scenes, something other potential actresses didn't want to do, finally convinced them to cast her.
Christina Ricci ate food with no nutritional value before and during filming. She also refused to put more clothes on between takes, which concerned Samuel L. Jackson.