Wayne Coyne: "The Who Gave Me No Choice"

When Rock Daily caught up with Wayne Coyne backstage at the taping of VH1 Rock Honors: The Who (airing tonight), the Flaming Lips frontman told a story about riding to a Who show on the back of his older brother's motorcycle and being utterly blown away. "I already believed in rock & roll," he explains, "but seeing the Who really made me feel it. I knew I had to become a musician after that. What the Who did was they gave me no choice — which is what you want. It's like falling in love, and it's not up to me anymore." Eddie Vedder expressed a similar sentiment when RS chatted with him at Saturday's big Who tribute show: "These guys changed my whole world. It's a big part of why I get to do what I do."

For complete coverage of VH1 Rock Honors, check out rocknrolldiary.com. Also look for Rolling Stone correspondent Jenny Eliscu on VH1's broadcast 9 PM ET tonight.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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