“Miles Away” was the third and final single released from Hard Candy, Madonna’s eleventh studio album. The song is inspired by her then husband Guy Ritchie, with the song’s autobiographical lyrics dealing with long-distance relationships. She told Interview Magazine:

Probably in many respects most of the songs [on Hard Candy] are [autobiographical]. But in more of an unconscious way. I don’t really think about telling personal stories when I’m writing music. It just comes. And then a lot of times, six months later, eight months later, I go, “Oh, that’s what I wrote that song about.” But that’s when I play the song for lots of people and they all go, ‘Oh, I can totally relate to that’. In ‘Miles Away’ I’m tapping into the global consciousness of people who have intimacy problems.