"Renegade" by Styx wasn't a big hit when it was released in 1978, but it became one of their most popular songs thanks in part to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who started playing it at home games in 2001 to fire up the team and fans.
The closing lyrics in "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies are "Birchmount Stadium, home of the Robbie," which refers to a soccer tournament in Ontario.
Neil Young's song "Old Man" was inspired by the caretaker of the ranch he bought in 1970. Neil was the young man at the time, just 25.
"Walking on a Thin Line" by Huey Lewis and the News is about an American soldier who is trained as a sniper in the Vietnam War. It was written for a documentary on the war.
In The Band song "The Weight," Nazareth ("Went down to Nazareth") refers to a town in Pennsylvania where the Martin Guitar company was located.
"Never Tear Us Apart" was a live favorite for INXS, who would often extend the second pause for a while as the crowd went crazy.
"Great songwriters don't necessarily have hit songs," says Chris. He's written a bunch, but his fans are more interested in the intricate jams.
The Third Day frontman talks about some of the classic songs he wrote with the band, and what changed for his solo country album.
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.
A founding member of the band War, Harold gives a first-person account of one of the most important periods in music history.
Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.