Rihanna once refused to leave WILL.I.AM's house until the rapper surrendered a song he wrote for the Black Eyed Peas - because the track perfectly captured how she felt after her split from Chris Brown.
The Umbrella hitmaker was hours away from finishing her Rated R album when Will.i.am invited her to his home to listen to a handful of his compositions.
Rihanna immediately fell in love with Photographs, a track the star had penned for his own band, because it brought back memories of her break-up earlier this year (09).
She tells Fuse.TV, "I was in the studio 'cause it was the last night before we had to hand the album in and I was recording. (I) went back (to Will.i.am's house) and he didn't really want to play it (Photographs) at first. He was like, 'Ok, Rihanna's here now. You come to strongarm me?' But when I heard it, the story is so, so real and I was like, 'This is my story - why do you guys want this song? This is not (Black Eyed Peas' album) The Energy Never Dies, this is deep s**t!' Everybody knows that feeling that after a break-up, you just feel empty, like I just spent the last how many years in a relationship building this foundation and all I have left to show for it is some photographs, some memories. It was so personal and I wasn't leaving the studio without it."
And the 21 year old stayed put until Will.i.am gave in and let her record the track.
She adds, "It was like three hours long, we listened to the song over and over again and we just kind of stared each other down. And finally he said, 'OK, but you have to come on tour with us.'
"When something is really important to me, I'll go to the end of the earth for it and that can be for anything but of course music is my first love so I'm very passionate about stuff like that and if I believe in a record enough, then I'll do anything. We didn't leave his house until 4am but it was worth it because now it's my favourite song on the album."