Here’s wishing a very Happy 80th Birthday to Bob Seger, who was born on this day (May 6) in 1945. The legendary Michigan rocker has had an incredible career that dates back to the early 1960s.

Seger’s gritty early work was influenced by soul, R&B, and garage rock. He had his first major hit, “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man,” in 1968 with his group the Bob Seger System.

Moving into the 1970s, Bob began mixing more introspective ballads with raved-up roots rock tunes.

Seger’s career really took off in the mid-1970s when he began recording and touring with what became his longtime backing group, The Silver Bullet Band.

From 1976 through the 1980s, Seger and company scored more than a dozen Top-20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Among them were “Night Moves,” “Still the Same,” “Hollywood Nights,” “We’ve Got Tonite,” “Against the Wind,” “You’ll Accomp’ny Me,” “Shame on the Moon,” “Like a Rock,” and the chart-topping “Shakedown.”

In 2004, Bob was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He continued to tour and record. He released his last studio to date, I Knew You When, in 2017. Seger retired from touring after completing a farewell trek in November 2019.

Outside of his own recordings, Bob occasionally lent his vocal talents to songs by other artists. In honor of Seger’s milestone birthday, here are four interesting collaborations Bob did with other well-known music acts:

Seger sang backing vocals on “Radioactive,” the first track on KISS singer/bassist Gene Simmons’ 1978 self-titled debut solo album. The mid-tempo, upbeat pop-rock song also featured Aerosmith’s Joe Perry on guitar.

“Radioactive” was released as the album’s lead single, and peaked at No. 47 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Seger also contributed backing vocals to another song on the Gene Simmons album, “Living in Sin.”

Probably the most famous Seger collaboration was the Eagles’ 1979 chart-topping Hot 100 smash “Heartache Tonight.” The song, which appeared on the band’s The Long Run album, was co-written by Seger, JD Souther, and Eagles members Glenn Frey and Don Henley.

Accounts differ on how “Heartache Tonight” came together. Souther told SongFacts in a 2011 interview that he and Frey had begun writing the song’s verses at his house, and Glenn called Bob and asked him if he could come up with a chorus. According to Souther, “Seger just came right in with the chorus, just sang it and it was so good.”

Meanwhile, according to SongFacts, Seger maintained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he’d been in the room with Frey when he came up with the song’s chorus.

“Glenn had the verse: ‘Somebody’s gonna hurt someone before the night is through,’” Bob explained. “We hadn’t been sitting down for more than five minutes and I just blurted out, ‘There’s gonna be a heartache tonight!’ His eyes lit up huge.”

Seger also contributed backing vocals to “Heartache Tonight,” although he wasn’t credited on The Long Run’s liner notes.

Seger’s friendship with Frey dates back to the late 1960s, when they were both part of the Detroit rock scene. Glenn actually played acoustic guitar and sang backing vocals on “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man.”

After Frey died in 2016, Seger played “Heartache Tonight” at his memorial service.

“Take Me Back” was one of two songs to which Seger contributed backing vocals on Randy Newman’s 1983 album, Trouble in Paradise.

“Take Me Back” is an upbeat pop-rock song with a Tex-Mex feel. Seger sing harmony vocals during the chorus. The track also features Don Henley on backing vocals and several members of Toto—keyboardist David Paich, guitarist Steve Lukather, and drummer Jeff Porcaro.

Seger also appeared on the Trouble in Paradise song “Christmas in Capetown.”

Seger lent his vocal talents to “Landing in London,” a song by the popular alternative-rock band 3 Doors Down. The tune appeared on the group’s 2005 album, Seventeen Days, which topped the Billboard 200 in February of that year.

Bob sings the song’s second verse, as well as harmonies during the choruses.

In a 2005 interview with Hip Online, 3 Doors Down frontman Brad Arnold explained how the Seger collaboration came about.

“We were in Nashville recording and he was working across the hall on a project and we got to talking to him,” Arnold noted. “He was a super cool guy and a freaking legend. I love Bob Seger. I was too chicken to ask him to sing on the record so I had our manager go and ask him. So he took it over to him and he came back two days later and said he’d sing on it. I’m probably more proud of that than meeting the president.”

Released as a single, “Landing in London,” reached No. 32 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.