Elvis Costello says "Everyday I Write The Book" is a knockoff of Nick Lowe's "When I Write the Book."
The Split Enz song "Six Months In A Leaky Boat" is about the journey explorers made from Europe to colonize Australia and New Zealand, where the band is from.
"November Rain" by Guns N' Roses has a literary influence: The lyric is based on a story called Without You by Del James.
"Mother" by Danzig is about censorship, specifically the Parents Music Resource Center, which pushed record labels to put warning stickers on albums with explicit lyrics.
The opening lines to "Free Bird," "If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?" came from the girlfriend of Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins, who asked him that question during an argument.
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.
The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.
Psychedelic Furs lead singer Richard Butler talks about their first album since 1991 and explains what's really going on in "Pretty In Pink."
A Soul Train dancer takes us through a day on the show, and explains what you had to do to get camera time.
Call us crazy, but we like it when an artist comes around who doesn't mesh with the status quo.
Evelyn McDonnell, editor of the book Women Who Rock, on why the Supremes are just as important as Bob Dylan.
Gramm co-wrote this gorgeous ballad and delivered an inspired vocal, but the song was the beginning of the end of his time with Foreigner.