Janis Ian: Breaking Silence

- 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 ♪