- I was writing with Don Schlitz.
MCA was his company.
And he said, "They're sending Janis Ian here to write with a few people."
And he said, "Would you like to meet her?"
And I said, yeah, of course.
- If you're a songwriter, you know Janis Ian.
If you're a songwriter, you know the integrity of her writing.
And so the opportunity to sit in a room with this woman and co-write with her was an honor.
- Janis's friend, her name was Mary, she had a restaurant called Options.
And we would go there for lunch every day.
And wasn't doing well.
Tough business.
- [Janis] We walked in one day and Mary was really down and I said, what's wrong?
And she said, "I'm gonna lose the restaurant.
"Why should I stay alive, man, "I'm not doing anything in the world."
- She started talking about committing suicide and I knew that Janis and I were both feeling the same thing.
It was like, what do we do here?
- [Janis] We said, the usual platitudes.
And she said, "No, no.
It's different for you."
Whether you have children or not.
Your work's gonna live.
But I haven't left a mark.
- What do you say after that?
What did we need to say to Mary?
(guitar music) - I was sitting there with a guitar and I said, man, some people's lives just, I don't know, some people's lives just run down.
And Kai said, "Some people's lives run down like clocks."
♪ Some people's lives ♪ ♪ Run down like clocks ♪ ♪ One day they stop ♪ ♪ That's all they've got ♪ ♪ Some lives wear out ♪ ♪ Like old tennis shoes ♪ ♪ No one can use ♪ ♪ It's sad but it's true ♪ ♪ Didn't anybody tell them ♪ ♪ Didn't anybody see ♪ ♪ Didn't anybody love them ♪ ♪ Like you love me ♪ - We were looking for this clincher that we just hadn't found.
And one day we were driving down the interstate and it just popped in.
♪ Some people's lives ♪ ♪ Are as cold as their lips ♪ ♪ They just need to be kissed ♪