"I Won't Back Down" is a very personal song for Tom Petty. "I thought it wasn't that good because it was so naked," he said.
The philosophical Kansas song "Dust In The Wind" is inspired by a line of Native American poetry: "For all we are is dust in the wind."
Neil Young later apologized for "Southern Man," calling it "accusatory and condescending" in its portrayal of the American South.
A problem with his eyes gave Jackson Browne the idea for "Doctor My Eyes," which became a song about a man whose mental health suffers when he sees the world for what it really is.
Katy Perry co-wrote Iggy Azalea's hit single "Black Widow." Perry was originally going to sing on the track, but she couldn't fit it into her schedule, so Rita Ora provided the sung vocals instead.
"Soul Man" was a new term when the song was written in 1967. As defined by Sam & Dave, the "soul man" was a farmer "comin' to ya on a dusty road."
When televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart took on rockers like Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica, the rockers retaliated. Bono could even be seen mocking the preachers.
The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.
Smith breaks down some of his worship tracks as well as his mainstream hits, including "I Will Be Here For You" and "A Place In This World."
She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.
Wilder's hit "Break My Stride" had an unlikely inspiration: a famous record mogul who rejected it.
