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Plastic Guy, welcome to PS Gurus! And I know about crappy chairs! 

There are many different ways of removing a background from an image, depending on the nature of the image.

First, copy your background layer and turn off the original (the bottom layer). This isn't necessary to make the selection, but it's always a good idea so you can always go back to the original.

You're really talking about selections, which is a HUGE subject. If the "background" is a solid color, this is relatively easy. You can use the Magic Wand to select the color. You may have to fool with the Wand's tolerance settings; if it's selecting too much, lower the tolerance; if too little, make it higher. Once you've got all the background color selected, hit delete.

If it's a more complex image without a clear solid color, you'll need to make a selection. Mark has a good tutorial on selections here

If you can post the image in question, we can get more specific