Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" was co-written by Sarah Hudson, who is a singer-songwriter and a member of the Pop group Ultraviolet Sound. Though Sarah isn't related to Katy (whose real name is Katy Hudson), she is the first cousin of another famous person with the same name, the actress Kate Hudson.
David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" was likely based on various musicians in his ambit, including Iggy Pop (zIGGY), and Jimi Hendrix, who played guitar left-handed ("He played it left hand").
The Bangles song "Eternal Flame" was inspired by a display at Graceland that honored Elvis Presley.
Eminem sampled Dido's "Thank You" for his song "Stan," and Dido appeared in his video as Stan's unfortunate wife.
"Open Arms" was a pioneering power ballad. Stadium Rock bands like Journey shied away from slow songs, but when they reluctantly agreed to record this song, it became their biggest hit.
David Byrne says "Road To Nowhere" is about "how there's no order and no plan and no scheme to life and death and it doesn't mean anything, but it's all right.
One of the most popular classical vocalists in the land is lining up a trip to space, which is the inspiration for many of her songs.
Jim talks about the impact of "The Middle" and uses a tree metaphor to describe his songwriting philosophy.
The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.
Iron Maiden, Adele, Toto, Eminem and Earth, Wind & Fire are just some of the artists with songs directly inspired by movies - and not always good ones.
In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.
In this talk from the '80s, the Kansas frontman talks turning to God and writing "Dust In The Wind."
