Song Origin Quotes

It was a song I wrote for my wife as a present, never intending for it to be a Styx song. 'Babe' was a demo. The demo became the hit record, including all the background vocals, which were done by me.

The poem that became the song 'Gold All Over the Ground' was written during 1967, when my dad was really falling in love with my mother.

'Bling Bling' was originally a Big Tymers song.

The first song I wrote was "Look Both Ways Before You Cross" from Imaginaryland. I started the song by singing a bass line, "hoo hoo hoo hoo."

Sometimes I have songs born out of stories.

Certainly in the case of having to answer questions about where a song comes from, it's a hell of a lot easier when you say, 'I've removed myself from it.' But they start from quite a personal place. They always do.

Sometimes when you're writing a song and that song comes into your head, it definitely comes from somewhere, like a real experience.

I wrote 'Happy Man' with a couple of boys of mine. I have been writing in Nashville for a long time. Of course I was writing songs back in Oklahoma when I was a kid.

To be a songwriter-singer means the songs come from deep within, and you treat them as an artist, with that much respect. I couldn't hardly cheat myself.

'Shotgun's one of the first songs I ever wrote. It's about a couple I met at Waffle House, an all night diner I used to hang at before I could go to bars.

The first song I did was over a Chief Keef beat - 'Understand Me.' I did that in, like, 2011 or 2012, I think.

People are always surprised to find this out, but the songs that we write, such as 'Winner of a Losing Game' and things like that, tend to be more country than the other stuff that we cut from outside writers.

I made the track 'Si Tu Novio Te Deja Sola' before I met Balvin.

It's rather mystifying when you think about writing songs - where they come from, and how they're born.

The first song I ever wrote was in grade eight.

When I wrote 'Help Me Make It Through the Night,' I was on an oil platform out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and was just thinking of myself.

'She's a Mystery to Me' was released in 1987, when I was 11 or something, and I absolutely adored the song. This song was written by Bono and The Edge, and the story goes that Bono woke up with the tune in his head, then thought that the only voice who could sing this song is Roy Orbison.

It's so fun to make up stories, but I find that the songs that I'm most proud of came from a real thing in my life - 'Peter Pan' being one of those.

I was born in Dallas, Texas, but I was raised in south Florida. 'Ice Ice Baby' is about that area.

'I'm Broken' was a sound check riff.

The Eternal Kansas City song came from a dream sequence. It was actually kind of weird. I had this dream about a Kansas City type of thing while I was up at Stevie Winwood's place near Cheltenham, in Britain. I went into this small town and I was walking along and this dream thing was still in my head.

I've always wanted to title an album 'Illinois.' I wrote the song, which was a very special song to me. The song isn't exactly about being from there, even though I am.

I took the song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face from a folk singer called Bonnie Dobson. I knew her and she had a record with that track on it.

In blues music, there's a lot of borrowing, so it's often difficult to identify the originator of a song.

One song I do is 'The First Cut is the Deepest.' I try to remind people I wrote that song, not Rod Stewart.