Bruce Pollock ("The Next to Last of the Rock Journalists") is the Deems Taylor Award winning author of 15 books on music, including Bob Dylan FAQ, America's Songs, V.3 Working Musicians: Defining Moments from the Road and The Rock Song Index: The 7500 Most Important Songs of Rock and Roll History. Visit Bruce at brucepollockthewriter.com
John Cunningham of The Twintones - "Jo-Ann"With his twin brother, John performed on Bandstand with Dick Clark, but saw their hit song go to another group. 
Michael BoltonInto the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists. 
Tracy Nelson of Mother Earth - "Down So Low"In one of the most heartbreaking songs of all time, Tracy tells us that the heartbreaker was Steve Miller. 
Mike Scott of The Waterboys - "Fisherman's Blues"Armed with a childhood spent devouring books, Mike Scott's heart was stolen by the punk rock scene of 1977. Not surprisingly, he would go on to become the most literate of rockers. 
Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"The Prince-penned "Manic Monday" was the first song The Bangles heard coming from a car radio, but "Eternal Flame" is closest to Susanna's heart, perhaps because she sang it in "various states of undress." 
Jackie DeShannon - "Put a Little Love in Your Heart"It wasn't her biggest hit as a songwriter (that would be "Bette Davis Eyes"), but "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" had a family connection for Jackie. 
Steven Tyler of AerosmithTyler talks about his true love: songwriting. How he identifies the beauty in a melody and turns sorrow into art. 
Steve Forbert - "Romeo's Tune""Let me smell the moon in your perfume..." It took a rough mix and an extra verse, but Steve found his "calling card" song, which is always the encore. 
Marc Campbell - "88 Lines About 44 Women"The Nails lead singer Marc Campbell talks about those 44 women he sings about over a stock Casio keyboard track. He's married to one of them now - you might be surprised which. 
Donald FagenFagen talks about how the Steely Dan songwriting strategy has changed over the years, and explains why you don't hear many covers of their songs.