"Airplanes" by B.o.B was written by Lupe Fiasco, who recorded it but decided to pass.
Rod Stewart wrote "Maggie May" about the woman who deflowered him when he was 16.
Phil Collins' "Take Me Home" is about a patient in a mental institution and was inspired by the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Eric Clapton wrote "Wonderful Tonight" while waiting for his girlfriend, Pattie Boyd, to get ready for a night out. By the time she was ready, he had written the song.
The actress Michelle Pfeiffer gets namechecked in the 2014 megahit "Uptown Funk" ("Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold"). When it was released, "Riptide" by Vance Joy was on the charts; that song also mentions her ("Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen").
John Legend wrote "All Of Me" about his fiancée Chrissy Teigen. He sang it to her at their wedding ceremony in Como, Italy.
The Brazilian rocker sees pictures in his riffs. When he came up with one of his gnarliest songs, there was a riot going on.
Was Long Tall Sally a cross-dresser? Did he really set his piano on fire? See if you know the real stories about one of rock's greatest innovators.
Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.
The Def Leppard frontman talks about their "lamentable" hit he never thought of as a single, and why he's juiced by his Mott The Hoople cover band.
Tyler talks about his true love: songwriting. How he identifies the beauty in a melody and turns sorrow into art.
10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces