Editing Life Won't Wait (section)

==Writing and production==
Around early 1997, still riding high off of the success of ''...And Out Come the Wolves'', Rancid decided to immediately enter the studio following the ''...And Out Come the Wolves'' tour to record the next album. The recording of ''Life Won't Wait'' took place in the United States (from [[San Francisco]] to [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[New Orleans]]) and [[Jamaica]]. Two of the songs were recorded in [[Kingston, Jamaica|Kingston]]: "Hoover Street" and the title track, "Life Won't Wait". With the cooperation of numerous Jamaican reggae artists (such as [[Buju Banton]]) is very distinctive on this album, not just in the vocals, but also in instrumental parts, which all makes ''Life Won't Wait'' very different from most of the other Rancid releases. It is also the only album to date not to feature producer/engineer [[Brett Gurewitz]] in any capacity, with Armstrong and Frederiksen opting to produce it themselves. However, as Armstrong noted during his appearance on the podcast One Life, One Chance with [[Toby Morse]], Gurewitz sequenced the album.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Ep 6 [ Tim Armstrong (Rancid/Transplants/Hellcat Records) ] Toby Morse One Life One Chance Podcast |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNlZ6aoPHwQ?si=fbbJxu9diqMKIrFF&t=2094 |website=YouTube |publisher=Toby Morse One Life One Chance}}</ref> 

During the writing process the band had recorded over 50 songs, many still unreleased. For the album, Brett Gurewitz helped pick the songs to be on the record and also help sequence the final album.<ref name=":0" />  Some of the released non-album tracks ended up on singles, compilations, and the ''[[B Sides and C Sides]]'' collections. The song "Emelia" was co-written by [[Vic Ruggiero]] and recorded during these sessions. The song was later re-written and featured on Vic's first solo album in 2001.
The cover photo pays homage to John Lennon's ''Rock 'n' roll'' and Neil Young's ''After the Gold Rush'' cover designs.