Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" is a mashup of "Werewolves Of London" and "Sweet Home Alabama." The album it came from was released in October, 2007, but the song wasn't issued as a single until summer, 2008 for a more seasonable release.
Gwen Stefani wrote the early No Doubt song "Just a Girl" as a message to her overprotective father.
Ed Sheeran's "Bloodstream" was written after an experience taking MDMA during a wedding celebration in Ibiza; it's basically about all the feelings that he got from that time.
Dido helped shut down a Neo-Nazi Web site after learning it was using "White Flag" to promote its hateful messages. Owners of the site had misinterpreted the track as racist and thought they represented their white supremacy views.
The Kenny G instrumental "Songbird" owes much of its success to VH1, which launched a year earlier and played the video to death.
"Heaven" by The Psychedelic Furs sounds upbeat, but is about an impending nuclear bombardment.
Guitarist Tony Iommi on the "Iron Man" riff, the definitive Black Sabbath song, and how Ozzy and Dio compared as songwriters.
Scott was Stevie Wonder's bass player before becoming a top session player. Hits he played on include "I Will Survive," "Being With You" and "Sara Smile."
The stories behind "Shine," "December," "The World I Know" and other Collective Soul hits.
Roger reveals the songwriting formula Clive Davis told him, and if "Eight Miles High" is really about drugs.
Dan cracked the Top 40 with "Ritual," then went to India and spent 2 hours with the Dalai Lama.
Jim talks about the impact of "The Middle" and uses a tree metaphor to describe his songwriting philosophy.