Enrique Iglesias, John Legend, and Joan Jett are just a few of the newly released, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Story Behind the Song. Read excerpts from the book by Melissa Etheridge and Christina Aguilera in the following pages.

Melissa Etheridge on "Come to my Window"

I wrote most of this song in a hotel room, which is where I did a lot of my writing once I started touring a lot after my first album. The first three albums did fine. I was being played on radio and had a bit of a following. The hip hop beats were starting around 1990, the time of my third album, I experimented musically with them. So for the fourth album, I was thinking of getting back to my soul – to the roots of rock and roll where I came from.

I was in a relationship at the time that was tumultuous. In my early twenties and thirties I made some poor choices and what you choose is what you get. I was struggling with fidelity, honesty and what it is that makes a relationship.

On the road, as a ‘rock star,’ there’s superficial attention and adulation is thrown at you for a couple of hours – then you’re alone in your room and it’s lonely. I understand why some people turn to drugs.

I started writing in my room (I remember it was nice but can’t remember where it was – Europe or America) after a show. I had a not so good phone call with my partner at the time, where out of loneliness, I sat on the phone, silent:

I would dial the numbers
Just to listen to your breath

Because of all of the attention I was getting, I felt I needed to do something for someone else. I would sacrifice so many things, put myself through so much pain for this relationship: