Korn's most popular song, "Freak On A Leash," is about their predatory record label making huge profits off the band. It was quite profitable, helping the Follow The Leader album sell over 5 million copies.
The 1979 song "Life During Wartime" by Talking Heads deals with how technology could be exploited to take down the framework of society and enable government surveillance.
Billy Idol's "Eyes Without A Face" has a gruesome inspiration. It's based on a 1959 French movie about a surgeon who abducts young women and removes their facial features.
"Rockin' In The Free World" is a very pro-America title, but the song takes on politicians who are indifferent to the poor and disenfranchised.
"Panama" by Van Halen is not about the country or the canal, but about a stripper David Lee Roth met in Arizona.
Thirty years after Jimi Hendrix played "Fire" at Woodstock, Red Hot Chili Peppers played it at Woodstock '99, but this time the unruly crowd actually set fires and looted.
With his X-wife Exene, John fronts the band X and writes their songs.
Tyler talks about his true love: songwriting. How he identifies the beauty in a melody and turns sorrow into art.
Richie talks about the impact of "Amazed," and how his 4-year-old son inspired another Lonestar hit.
Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.
With the band in danger of being dropped from their label, Alice Cooper drummer Neal Smith co-wrote the song that started their trek from horror show curiosity to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Our chat with Barney Hoskyns, who covers the wild years of Woodstock - the town, not the festival - in his book Small Town Talk.