Shooting Star

Rodgers wrote the story of Johnny, who hears his first Beatles song, Love Me Do, becomes a rock star, and dies after taking whiskey and sleeping pills. Rodgers recalled that "you had Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin...just a catalog of people who didn't make it", and said "that was the germ of this song". Kirke called it "a sort of homage to the pitfalls of being in the rock world", "based on a composite of musicians". Ed Naha of Rolling Stone called it "the piece de resistance of the album (and the highpoint of Paul's writing career)". Wardlaw called it "a cautionary tale about what can happen when a big dreamer gets more success than he can handle".

It was never a single, yet it became a radio staple. In 1996 Bad Company re-recorded it for Stories Told & Untold, with Robert Hart singing and Richie Sambora on guitar. It was in the 1994 film Clerks. For the 2025 tribute album Halestorm recorded it, and Rodgers added vocal ad libs and guitar parts from Palm Springs.