How Having Children Affected the Music of 15 Legends

Number of Children: Seven

Overall Effect: A Lovely Result

It's easy to understand why Stevie Wonder is such a well liked musician. Despite losing his vision shortly after birth, Wonder has famously maintained one of the most charismatic and positive attitudes of any artist in the industry. He's long been a fan favorite, and also proven to be quite the fertile ladies man, fathering seven children between two marriages and several other relationships. His first born was daughter Aisha Morris in 1975. Shortly after Stevie was quoted as saying, "She was the one thing that I needed in my life and in my music for a long time." It was her birth that would inspire the hit single, "Isn't She Lovely."

Number of Children: One

Overall Effect: Continued Dominance

Adele is an accolade-collecting machine. With just two full-length albums on her résumé, the English singer/songwriter has netted eight Grammys, 20 Billboard Awards, and 71 other honors since 2006. In October of 2012 she gave birth to her first child, a son, whose name has yet to be shared. While on "maternity leave," Adele wrote and recorded the eponymous theme song for a new James Bond movie entitled "Skyfall." The record was subsequently nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, the latter of which she won for earlier this month.

Number of Children: Two

Overall Effect: Lessons of Love and Other Drugs

Famed musician John Lennon was father to two sons from two separate marriages. His first, Julian, was born just as Beatlemania was approaching manic heights. A publicity decision was made to keep both Julian's birth and the marriage concealed as to not jeopardize the band's popularity. Per this and other reasons their relationship was strained in the early years, but that didn't prevent Julian from having an affect on his father's music.

One story in particular centers around the song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," which fans have long ascertained was a clever way for the band to allude to LSD use without overtly stating it. Julian claims that he gave his father the idea by showing him one of his watercolor paintings. "It was just a bunch of stars and this blonde girl I knew at school. And Dad said, 'What's this?' I said, 'It's Lucy in the sky with diamonds.'" John would later insist that "it's not an acid song." Paul McCartney would also eventually corroborate Julian's account.

Lennon's second son, Sean, was born to Yoko Ono in 1975. His birth followed three miscarriages by Ono, and came at a time when John was more intently focused on his solo career. Committed to being a more devout father, Lennon would take a five year hiatus from music to be a househusband and care for Sean. During a trip to Tokyo in 1977 he formally announced the break saying, "We have basically decided, without any great decision, to be with our baby as much as we can until we feel we can take time off to indulge ourselves in creating things outside of the family." Lennon would release one final album in 1980 shortly before his death.

Number of Children: 0

Overall Effect: Tragic Loss Derails Focus

Prince is a notorious Lothario. The eccentric artist has reportedly had romantic ties to a number of famous women including Madonna, Sheila E., Carmen Electra and Susan Moonsie, all of which were harmless flings. He has however wed twice, initially to backup singer and dancer, Mayte Garcia, on Valentine's Day, 1996. Together they had a son named Boy Gregory in October of the same year, who was born with Pfeiffer syndrome and died just a week after birth.

Prior to the loss of his son, Prince had been working on material for a new album called Emancipation. A number of songs on the album's second disc were ballads dedicated to his unborn child, and the track "Sex in the Summer" even featured a recording of the baby's heartbeat as part of the percussion. Emancipation released to mixed critical reaction, and his next two albums would suffer a similar fate coupled with sizable decreases in commercial interest.

Sex in the summer by ClassicMrWizVid

Number of Children: Three (two adopted)

Overall Effect: Daddy's Little Girl

You'd be hard pressed to find a child referenced in their parent's music more than Hailie Mathers. The now 17-year old daughter of Eminem and estranged wife Kimberly Anne Scott has been mentioned or featured in no less than 10 of his songs. It's not uncommon for rappers to credit family members as a source of inspiration (Kanye has famously cited his mother as a guiding light), but Em's continuous use of Hailie's name and likeness in his music proves that there may be no larger single motivating factor behind his artistry than the health and happiness of his little girl.

"I thank her every day. Every day I wake up, I thank her." - Eminem speaking on Hailie

Number of Children: Two

Overall Effect: It Was Destiny

Nas' 2012 album Life Is Good is arguably one of his best releases in years. One standout record, a song called "Daughters," was inspired by an intimately personal aspect of the rapper's life, his eldest child Destiny. The track serves as a reflection on the birth and growth of the then 17-year-old girl, and was lauded by music critics and fans who connected the heartfelt subject matter and honest lyrics. In addition to a Grammy nod for the album, "Daughters" earned Nas two more nominations for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for the upcoming 2013 Grammy Awards to be held in February.

Number of Children: One

Overall Effect: The Comeback King

When it comes to music-related flattery, it's hard to top Elvis Presley's "The King" nickname. The multi-talented performer was a cultural icon, one whose influence was felt across all major platforms of entertainment during his era. Although his faltering health, drug abuse, and ultimate passing have been well documented, those unfamiliar with the King's timeline may not know that he experienced an incredible low point due to the release and flop of the movie called Clambake in 1967. The following year his first and only daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, was born. Shortly after, Presley would become the focal feature in a 1968 NBC-produced theatrical Christmas program that would once again restore him to prominence in the national spotlight. The 60-minute broadcast, simply titled Elvis, would eventually be known as the "'68 Comeback Special."

Number of Children: Six

Overall Effect: What kids?

If your nickname is "The Prince of Darkness" or the "Godfather of Heavy Mental," chances are you're a pretty bad dude. Ozzy Osbourne earned these monikers by rocking the hardest and orchestrating some of the most ridiculous onstage antics of all time. Biting the head off a dove in 1981? Yeah, he did that. "Accidentally" biting the head off a bat during a show just a few years later? He did that too. Ozzy's career has been plagued with controversy from the start. Excessive drug use, accusations of Satan worship, a bad influence on teenagers and a proponent of suicide in his songs: Osbourne has been blasted with it all, yet remains unfazed. Fathering five children and adopting a sixth would cause most men to pump the brakes and reassess their lifestyle, but not Ozzy, he just continued to go off the rails in the "Crazy Train."

Number of Children: One

Overall Effect: Business is Good

Jay-Z and Beyoncé didn't just "have a baby," they produced a star in the making. Blue Ivy Carter wasn't but two days old by the time she made her first appearance on a Jigga track. "Glory" detailed J & B's experiences through the pregnancy and also touched on a previous miscarriage the couple had to overcome. It was B.I.C. that changed everything, and despite initially being fiercely protective of her privacy, the couple have more recently been open to sharing their new addition with the world.

As for how Jay-Z's music has been affected by the birth of his daughter, or even Beyoncé's for that matter? The superstar duo haven't missed a beat. Whether it be Hova's guest appearances on Cruel Summer and Justin Timberlake's comeback single "Suit & Tie," or Sasha Fierce signing a multi-million dollar Pepsi endorsement and recently announced Destiny's Child reunion project, the two are as active and lucrative as ever.

Number of Children: Two

Overall Effect: Concerns for the Future

The birth of a child can elicit a number of conflicting emotional responses. While a new baby is no doubt a blessing, feelings of joyful excitement can sometimes give way to fear when people think about how the actions and ideas of today's world will impact the future their children will be forced to exist in. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke acknowledged this concern as an underlying theme of the band's 2003 release, Hail To The Thief. He was uncomfortable with what he called "rise of the right" and the "general sense of ignorance and intolerance and panic and stupidity" that he felt occurred around the turn of the millennium. This unease made him fearful for his children's future. While writing lyrics for the album, Yorke gained inspiration from his young son, and adopted a strategy of "distilling" the song's political themes into "childlike simplicity."

Number of Children: Four

Overall Effect: All Thawed Out

The Ice Cube we now see in family friendly movies is a far cry from the stone cold rapper who came blasting out of South Central L.A. in the late '80s alongside Dr. Dre, Eazy-E and others as part of N.W.A. The tipping point may have happened sometime around the release of Friday, but whenever it happened, it's safe to say that Cube has for the most part retired his hardened street image.

So what initiated this shift in action and perspective? It's hard to tell. As a father of four, one could assume that Ice began taking that fact into account when accepting new projects and releasing music. Once lyrics are on wax there's no erasing them, and when asked about how his recordings and use of profanity were interpreted by his children he recalls advising them that "[there are] appropriate times to use any kind of language.... Adults should never hear you use these words. If you want to use these words around your friends, that's really on you."

Number of Children: One

Overall Effect: You Gotta Fight, For Your Daughter's Right

Last year's loss of founding Beastie Boy member MCA, aka Adam Yauch, was a difficult one to process. At just 47, the rap rock pioneer passed after a three-year bought with salivary gland cancer. His contributions to music, and even film via his independent film distributing company Oscilloscope Pictures, won't soon be forgotten.

As a practicing Buddhist, Yauch emerged as a strong supporter of LGBT rights and feminism, using his position as an entertainer to positively advance the religious and social issues that were important to him. In 1998 he married longtime girlfriend Dechen Wangdu and shortly after the couple welcomed their first and only child, a daughter named Tenzin Losel.

During the following year the Beastie Boys would release a song called "Sure Shot" in which Yauch would famously sing: "I want to say a little something that’s long overdue/ The disrespect to women has got to be through/ To all the mothers and sisters and wives and friends/ I want to offer my love and respect to the end."

Number of Children: One

Overall Effect: Still Punk Rock

It's been nearly 20 years since Kurt Cobain's death, and many are still mourning the loss. This was evidenced late last year when rumors circulated that his music was to be used in a Broadway play, that a new CBS sitcom was going to take its name from the song title "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and that the remaining members of Nirvana were going to reunite to perform with Paul McCartney at the Sandy Relief concert. Thankfully only one of those things happened (so far), but the sheer prospect of the other two becoming a reality led to a shared sense of unease that was felt by every Nirvana fan.

Cobain was gifted, cursed and obsessed. A perfectionist in his own right, the alternative pioneer took musical inspiration from various aspects of his life, but it's hard to say if his only daughter, Francis Bean, was one of them. Her birth in 1992 came during the period between Nirvana's most commercially successful release, Nervermind, and their final album, In Utero. Although from the outside Nevermind sounded as powerful as anything else coming out of Seattle at the time, Cobain complained that the album was too polished. His vision for their new album was to revert the band's sound back to something more natural.

Frances Bean was 18-months-old when her father committed suicide, and while most accounts of their brief time together were positive, there doesn't seem to be any aspect or piece of their relationship referenced in Cobain's music. In fact, things ultimately took a darker and more desperate turn with In Utero, signifying that his mental state and general outlook may have already been far too damaged for even a young daughter's love to repair.