3 Rock Tracks That Were Inspired by Real-Life True Crimes

When it comes to music, you never know where or when inspiration might strike. Sometimes a song is born out of joy and happiness. But occasionally, a tune can come from a deep pain or sadness.

Indeed, that’s just what we wanted to dive into below. We wanted to dive into three songs from back in the day that were inspired by actual (tragic) events. These are three rock songs that were inspired by real-life true crimes.

“Nebraska” by Bruce Springsteen from ‘Nebraska’ (1982)

While most fans associate big, bombastic rock songs with the New Jersey-born Bruce Springsteen, the artist subverted those expectations in the early 1980s and released a stripped-down, bare album in 1982. That LP upended his rocking reputation. Indeed, Nebraska was quite the left turn for The Boss in the early part of the decade. The album’s title track was inspired by the true story of murderers Charles Starkweather and his teenage girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, who carried out their brutal crimes across the states of Nebraska and Wyoming in the late 1950s.

“Midnight Rider” by The Allman Brothers Band from ‘Idlewild South’ (1970)

Sometimes you just have to get out and leave. Indeed, that’s what this 1970 song from The Allman Brothers Band is all about. But while it was inspired by a true story, it wasn’t exactly taken from the newspaper headlines. No, the song was written by Gregg Allman while he was literally on the run from a drug dealer looking for him. Allman hid out in a farmhouse in Macon, Georgia, avoiding the guy. But while he laid low from the guy, Allman didn’t waste his free time. Instead, Allman penned this tune while he made himself scarce. What more could you want from a song’s origin story?

“Jeremy” by Pearl Jam from ‘Ten’ (1991)

Unlike “Midnight Rider”, the 1991 Pearl Jam song “Jeremy” was taken right out of the newspaper headlines. The song was written by the band’s lead singer Eddie Vedder when he read about some tragic and horrible gun violence around the turn of the 1990s. Vedder saw that a young student stood up in the middle of his classroom and committed suicide, shooting himself, after being bullied. It’s one of the saddest stories ever put to music.

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