At the website Letters of Note, Shaun Usher has collected more than 500 letters, memos, faxes and telegrams written by prominent people. While plenty of sites let us ogle naked celebrities -- and we remain grateful for those -- Usher’s gives us naked emotion, revealing how stars express themselves to fans, friends, business associates and each other. Many of Usher’s most fascinating pieces of correspondence come from musicians, and having spent some time scouring the site, the Hive recommends readers start with these.

1. Slash’s teenage love letter

In 1979, 14-year-old Saul Hudson got dumped by his girlfriend Michelle, evidently because he talked too much about his guitar. In this letter -- written in neat cursive and decorated with a cartoon doodle of a dude hiding behind a giant pot leaf -- the boy who would become Slash makes peace with his ex, admitting he’s “a hard person to get along with.” He goes on to describe a recent night at the Starwood, a Hollywood hangout where he hopes to one day play that guitar he won’t stop yapping about. That dream likely came true, and years later, after dating Axl Rose, Michelle became the subject of Guns N' Roses’ “My Michelle.” [Read Slash's letter]

2. Sid Vicious’ lovey-dovey Top 12 list

How did Sid love Nancy? Watch him count the ways. Mere months before he allegedly stabbed her to death in New York City’s Chelsea Hotel, Sid put pen to paper and composed “What Makes Nancy So Great,” an inventory of his girlfriend’s 12 best qualities. They range from sweet to profane, suggesting the doomed Sex Pistol loved his lady for her body and mind. [Read Sid Vicious' letter]

3. Thom Yorke’s thank-yous

Thom Yorke may seem like an aloof guy, but in the mid-‘90s, at least, before OK Computer established Radiohead as its generation’s Pink Floyd, he sometimes responded to fan mail. In the second of two notes posted here, Yorke gives a pep talk to a girl named Melissa, assuring her she’s not alone in feeling how she feels. It’s a tender missive from one misfit to another. [Read Thom Yorke's letter]

4. Billie Joe strikes back

Sure, Insomniac wasn’t quite as good as Dookie, but after an angry mother wrote Green Day in December 1996, blasting the album’s explicit content and deeming it “one of the worst interpretations of an ‘artform’” she’d ever heard, singer Billie Joe Armstrong was moved to defend himself. In his reply, Armstrong explains that he makes music for himself, not others, and suggests the woman pay more attention to what her eight-year-old is listening to. The punch line comes in the postscript, where he can’t resist sticking it to her one last time. [Read Billie Joe Armstrong's letter]

5. A Stooge with a heart

Iggy Pop isn’t always prompt with his correspondence, but what he lacks in speediness he makes up for in sentiment. In 1995, nine months after receiving a 20-page letter from a 21-year-old Parisian girl in the midst of serious family drama, Pop sent a touching reply, sharing his own 20s experiences -- “people booed me on the stage,” he writes -- and closing with a piece of advice that ought to go on coffee mugs: “grow big and strong and take your hits and keep going.” [Read Iggy Pop's letter]