9 Popular Songs You Didn't Know Were Based On Real News Stories

6. Filter - "Hey Man, Nice Shot"

Though legend has it that Filter wrote this song after the suicide of Kurt Cobain (which occurred the year before "Hey Man Nice Shot" was released), the band has routinely denied this bit of lore, with lead singer Richard Patrick explicitly stating--to magazines, radio DJs, and even Dave Grohl--that the song was written three years before Cobain shot himself. It was inspired by a suicide, but it was that of Budd Dwyer, a Pennsylvania state treasurer who was convicted of bribery charges and expecting a long jail sentence for his actions.

During a live, televised press conference, Dwyer repeatedly professed his innocence before pulling out a .357 magnum and shooting himself dead. Patrick saw the raw footage and his morbid sense of humor immediately got the best of him, with his first thought being that immortal lyric: "Hey man, nice shot."

Now that the smoke's goneAnd the air is all clearThose who were right thereGot a new kind of fear