The "Ms. Jackson" in the OutKast song is Erykah Badu's mother. Andre 3000 had a child with Badu, and felt she was portraying him as a lousy dad.
Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" is based on the song "It's A Hard Knock Life" from the Broadway play Annie.
Madonna didn't write "Papa Don't Preach," which deals with abortion. What drew her to the song was the singer standing up to male authority.
Roger Daltrey stutters the vocal on "My Generation" by The Who. The idea was to sound like a British kid on speed.
The '40s hit "Rum and Coca-Cola" is really about American soldiers soliciting prostitutes in Trinidad.
When he was asked to write a song for the Singles soundtrack, Mark thought the Seattle grunge scene was already overblown, so that's what he wrote about.
The Brazilian rocker sees pictures in his riffs. When he came up with one of his gnarliest songs, there was a riot going on.
Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.
As a 5-year-old, Brandi was writing lyrics to instrumental versions lullabies. She still puts her heart into her songs, including the one Elton John sings on.
Bob was the bass player and lyricist for the first two Ozzy Osbourne albums. Here's how he wrote songs like "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" with Ozzy and Randy Rhoads.
Mike is lead guitarist with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and co-writer of classic songs like "Boys Of Summer," "Refugee" and "The Heart Of The Matter."
