Medium Rare Interviews

Rare classic rock interviews by Redbeard from the vast In the Studio archive

Kinks- Sleepwalker/Misfits- Ray Davies

Ray Davies of The Kinks In the Studio for their late Seventies rock revitalization which started with “Sleepwalker” and continued into May 1978's "Misfits".

The Fixx- Reach the Beach- Cy Curnin, Adam Woods

Cy Curnin and Adam Woods In the Studio for The Fixx 1983 two million-seller "Reach the Beach"!

Rod Stewart- Time

Rod Stewart joins me In the Studio for a rare conversation to discuss his 2013 album “Time”.

R.E.M.- Murmur/Reckoning- Michael Stipe, Peter Buck

R.E.M. "Murmur" quietly emerged April 12, 1983 and has never left my essential music list, along with its follow-up "Reckoning" forty years ago. Michael Stipe & Peter Buck are here In the Studio for "Reckoning" 40th anniversary. Songs include "Radio Free Europe","South Central Rain","Can't Get There from Here","Driver 8",  and an ultra-rare live acoustic performance of "Maps and Legends" from McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica.

Simon and Garfunkel- Bookends- Art Garfunkel

"Bookends" by Simon and Garfunkel went to #1 sales in both America and the UK, and since then Rolling Stone magazine has ranked "Bookends" as the #21 album of the entire Sixties, as well as #234 on their Top 500 Albums of All Time. Art Garfunkel is my guest In the Studio for this ultra-rare classic rock interview.

Genesis- And Then There Were Three- Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins

Progressive rock band Genesis flirted perilously close to the mainstream for the first time in December 1976 with "Your Own Special Way" on the album”Wind and Wuthering”, yet there are no reports of any permanent injury. Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins join me In the Studio. -Redbeard

Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991- Gary Rossington, Leon Wilkeson, Billy Powell, Ed King

Highly significant in their long, colorful history," Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991" was the band's sixth studio album but, more importantly, the first new studio album since 1977's fateful "Street Survivors"; their first since the tragic plane crash that year claimed the lives of three band members; their first to anoint original Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zant's youngest brother, Johnny, as their permanent singer; the return of original guitarist Ed King, And sadly, "Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991" would be the first album without original guitarist Allen Collins.

Mick Jagger- Wandering Spirit 30th anniversary

Mick Jagger joins me from the In the Studio archive on the thirtieth anniversary of his third (and easily best) solo effort,"Wandering Spirit". Jagger is in fine voice throughout and surrounded by crack studio musicians who bring their "A" game because, well hey, it's Mick bleedin' Jagger, okay?

Little Feat- Dixie Chicken- Bill Payne, the late Paul Barrere

If only the world's most acclaimed rock musicians voted for election into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Little Feat would have been inducted on the first ballot years ago. The list of famous Little Feat fans included the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Palmer, and Robert Plant just for starters. But for most of the Seventies, they didn't sell many albums...

The Byrds- Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, the late David Crosby

David Crosby of The Byrds has died at 81. The members of the original Byrds - singer/songwriter/electric 12-string guitar player Roger (Jim) McGuinn, singer/songwriter David Crosby, the talented but tortured late singer/songwriter Gene Clark, bass player Chris Hillman, & the late drummer Michael Clarke - were always unabashed in their acknowledgment of their influences, equal parts American folk singers, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles. Yet instead of being hopelessly derivative, somehow they ended up being one of the greatest imprints on both the form and substance of rock and country music to this day.  McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman join me in this ultra-rare classic rock interview covering the first four Byrds albums Mr Tambourine Man,  Turn Turn Turn, Fifth Dimension , and Younger Than Yesterday in February 1967. - Redbeard

Steppenwolf- Gold- John Kay

Mainstream rock fans would vote Steppenwolf into the Rock Hall easily if only for pretty much single-handedly putting hard rock and its term "heavy metal thunder" onto American Top 40 radio with "Born to Be Wild". Lead singer John Kay is my guest In the Studio.

Kinks- To the Bone Best Of pt 2- Ray Davies

Ray Davies of the seminal London band The Kinks, with the conclusion of my interview in conjunction with their live & unplugged "best of" collection, "To the Bone".

Deep Purple- Made in Japan- Ian Gillan, Roger Glover

When Deep Purple's limited-release double live album "Made in Japan" snuck out in that country alone fifty years ago, the title was a disparaging phrase made to imply that something was cheaply made and of low quality...So it is ironic that the state-of-the-art live hard rock recording, never bested in the half century since,"...is absolutely live. There are no overdubs..." on "Made in Japan", assures Deep Purple bass player/producer Roger Glover in my classic rock interview with him and Deep Purple singer/lyricist Ian Gillan.

Joe Satriani- Surfing With the Alien 35th anniversary

Joe Satriani interview In the Studio on the 35th anniversary of "Surfing with the Alien".

Melissa Etheridge- The Awakening

Melissa Etheridge:"And I got to lie still, and I stopped being a rock star. I stopped working, I stopped striving, I stopped everything. And I was completely still . And being still is the best thing you can do for yourself. I mean it. We just don't do enough of it in our lives , and it is so important. And I just laid still, and I finally got to the point where my brain stopped chattering. It stopped waking up and wandering, and I started dreaming again. I started dreaming of what I wanted the rest of my life to look like ." RB: "With the diagnosis of breast cancer, you still could make plans for the future even before you completed chemotherapy and radiation ?" ME:" Oh my gosh , I want the rest of my life ! No no no, I'm not done at all, I'm just beginning . And with that new excitement, I started looking at what I had created , what I'm creating now, and what I wanted to create. I started reading like crazy , I started reading everything from cosmology to quantum physics , string theory, agnostic gospels, Buddhism, everything ! And everybody is saying the same thing , this simple thing : that we're all here to create, to be happy, and to love. You know, give me the peace signs and all the gooey stuff, but that's really what I started feeling.And when I started thinking ,'Oh my gosh , I want to write a new album ' , I had this joy behind it . I had this great desire to put my experience down and to ignite people and light 'em up and say , 'Look , you can do this too . We don't have to do it this way '. " RB: What attitudes and behaviors should we all look at ? ME: Today , right now, we have a choice .We have marketed ourselves into a little bitty corner of sound bites and fast food , and we think we can sustain ourselves on this . We think we can go to McDonald's every day , eat in our car , and be fine . We can just download that one little song that sounds just like that other song . They're little pieces . If you want to live your life on just little pieces of life , okay , that's your choice . But I think that there's a large bunch of us who really want more , who really do believe that the best food comes from the earth ; that it grows up out of the dirt ; and then you eat it and it nourishes you . And that music is made channeled through an artist . They craft it , they put it down in a certain place , and you can enjoy it for three minutes , or an hour , or you can even go to a live concert and enjoy it for three hours . Imagine giving yourself that time ! But I think our society needs to take a breath and step back , and get off this wheel that we're on of faster , faster , faster . I do ."