Jim Peterik, former keyboardist

Survivor had released two albums, neither of which had done particularly well, and we were worried our label was going to drop us. One day I came home, pressed play on the answering machine and I heard: “Yo Jim, give me a call, it’s Sylvester Stallone.” I went: “Yeah, right.”

Stallone had said to his friend Tony Scotti [co-founder of Scotti Brothers Records] “I’m looking for a new sound for my Rocky III movie” and Tony had played him a couple of our songs. So I’m talking to Stallone on the telephone. He said: “I want something for the kids. Something street, something with a pulse. Can you help me out?” I told him: “I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this since I started my career in music.”

The next day Frankie Sullivan, our guitarist, came over and a FedEx arrived with a giant Betamax video cassette on which was a rough cut of the first three minutes of the movie. Man, the energy of it – with Mr T rising up and Rocky getting soft and doing commercials. But there was music on there already. BOMP, BOMP, BOMP – Another One Bites the Dust by Queen! Stallone couldn’t get the publishing rights. I said: “Frankie, we got our work cut out for us. Because Another One Bites the Dust is fucking perfect.”

It was a few days later in the car when I came up with the riff and the idea of timing the chord changes with the punches. Frankie got the ball rolling with the lyrics: “Back on the street, doing time, taking chances.” But we had to call Stallone and say: “You gotta send us the whole movie because we can’t get any further with the story.” Then we heard that phrase when Apollo says: “You had that eye of the tiger, man, the edge …. You gotta get it back.” That had to be the hook.

We went out to Hollywood for the premiere and were on the red carpet with celebrities. But I only really got how big the film was about a month later, when I snuck into my local theatre in Illinois, and the place was packed. People were clapping and standing up, cheering.

The Grammy is still sitting on my recording console. The money doesn’t suck, but the best royalty is that I’ll be in the supermarket and meet random people who tell me the song has affected their lives in a positive way. It’s helped people through cancer or a heart attack. I know people that have been on the operating table and asked to have Eye of the Tiger playing. That’s the real shit.

Frankie Sullivan, guitarist

‘I played it on a glued-together guitar’ … from left, Stephan Ellis, Jim Peterik, Dave Bickler, Mark Droubay, Frankie Sullivan. Photograph: GAB Archive/Redferns

We sent Sly the song and didn’t hear back from him for a while and were wondering what was going on. I’m friends with his brother Frank, and so I asked him. He said: “I was up at Sly’s last night, he was banging and slamming his head to it so much he was sweating.” I thought: “Well, that’s a good sign.”

Fast forward and we were about to go out to Hollywood to put the music to the film, and Jim got sick with pneumonia. So I ended up on my own, 23 years old, at the soundstage at Warner Brothers. After two days Sly said: “It doesn’t have balls. I don’t care what the hell you do, I want it to kick ass.”

All I did was push the faders up a single decibel and, boom, you could feel the difference. It was kicking and he loved it. He said: “Print it!” I told him: “But that’s the demo!” Sly said: “I don’t give a fuck what it is.” That’s his attitude. He’s a really cool guy.

A week after the film came out I was driving on the freeway and I heard it on the radio. I switched over and I heard it on another station. I switched again and heard it on a third station, and then I pulled over because it was one of those moments I never wanted to forget. Did we know it was going to go to No 1 in the US for six weeks, and to No 1 in 29 other countries? No, course not, but I felt in my gut that people were going to relate to the song because it’s about getting your ass out of bed. It’s about saying: “I’m not going to try to go to the gym Monday – I am going to go to the gym Monday.”

When we were writing Tiger, I was living with a friend, renting a room for $150 a month and he was waiving the rent half the time. The guitar I played on the song had a broken headstock. I couldn’t afford another one so I glued it back together. Now I collect vintage guitars. I still have the tape of Rocky III with Another One Bites the Dust on it – maybe the only one. It might be worth a lot of money today. But out of loyalty to Sly, it stays locked in my safe.

* This article was amended on 9 March to clarify that Jim Peterik is not currently in the band.