Take a musical blues cruise through just some of the half century of hits from Texas treasure Delbert McClinton with me here In the Studio from two conversations fifteen years apart, 1992 and 2007. For starters you’ll hear Delbert recalling the time when touring Hamburg Germany playing harmonica with Bruce Channel ( shah NELL ) on the hit in 1962 “Hey Baby”, posing backstage for a photo with four unknown Liverpool lads. Afterwards one of the boys, John Lennon, asked Delbert to show him a few licks on the harmonica and, low and behold the following year the unknown band has a hit called “Love Me Do” with a three note harmonica hook! And the rest is, as they say, QuickBooks… 
Then there is Delbert’s mainstream breakthrough in 1980, “Givin’ It Up for Your Love” from the album The Jealous Kind; seven Grammy nominations including three wins for 1992’s duet with Bonnie Raitt on “Good Man, Good Woman”; 2002 album Nothing Personal ; and again a winner for Cost of Living album in 2006. And Delbert continued to defy time with Prick of the Litter in 2017. –Redbeard 
Blog
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Delbert McClinton- Lone Star Legend
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Def Leppard- Story So Far pt2- Joe Elliott, Ric Savage
After World War II the worldwide success of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Cream, and a bit later Led Zeppelin all had a profoundly positive effect on the British self-esteem. All of these predecessors of Def Leppard were almost entirely influenced musically by the blues, rhythm and blues, and soul music of African-Americans, yet it is most telling that when the Sheffield England quintet compiled an all-covers tribute album a few years ago made up of their most-loved formative impressions, all but one were by white British musicians.
“We grew up on a bunch of British pop music that never even infiltrated the American psyche,” asserts Def Leppard lead singer/songwriter Joe Elliott.” Of course we dearly love bands like Led Zeppelin and (Deep) Purple,what you may call heavier album track bands, but I think when we first started listening to radio it was the British Top 40 on (BBC) Radio One and Radio Luxembourg, which was a little more adventurous with their playlist. They’re the kinds of songs that we obviously got to listen to a lot. We were fortunate that the British music scene from ’70- ’71 to ’74 had a lot of the bands like Slade and Sweet and David Bowie and T Rex were very guitar-based three minute pop songs, which by today’s standards may be called ‘hard rock’, because it was just big drums and guitars and big honkin’ choruses. Some of them cheesy, some not. But you have to weed through the dross. A lot of the Slade singles were top notch.”It became like a Greatest Hits package all on its own: Def Leppard’s July 1987 Hysteria album, one of the most popular albums ever at an estimated twenty-five million copies, yet as Joe Elliott and Ric Savage remind us here in part two of The Story So Far, it is a miracle that it ever was finished. The epic saga is revealed here behind “Pour Some Sugar on Me”,”Love Bites”,”Animal”,”Women”,”Armageddon It“, and “Hysteria” , plus Nineties and 21st century chestnuts “Slang”, “Now”,”Let’s Go”,”Dangerous”, and the uncanny Depeche Mode cover “Personal Jesus“, as Def Leppard are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! –Redbeard
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Bad Company- Rock and Roll Fantasy- Dallas 7-10-13
The tributes to Mick Ralphs are still still pouring in, and well they should: when Bad Company came out of the starting gate on that hot July night in Texas 2013 with “Rock and Roll Fantasy”, they put the adoring Dallas/Ft. Worth audience on notice that they were in for the real deal. Here are Paul Rodgers, Simon Kirke, and the late Mick Ralphs of Bad Company completely live, no overdubs. –Redbeard -
James Brown Live at Volunteer Jam 9- Nashville Jan 1983
We celebrate American Black History Month with this unreleased historical musical moment. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 may have been signed by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, but that simply changed the law in America. Equality and respect in hearts and minds would be another thing entirely, a fact recognized by the Funkadelic 1970 album title Free Your Mind (and Your Ass Will Follow) . On January 23, 1983 I witnessed the true integration of one of the last holdouts from diversity, the Nashville music community, when as part of his annual Volunteer Jam series, host/organizer Charlie Daniels presented the legendary James Brown to headline Volunteer Jam 9.
Here’s the late soul/funk icon powering through a medley of “Hot Pants/Cold Sweat/Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag/I Feel Good” accompanied by a big bearded fiddle player in a huge white cowboy hat! Then Charlie, Rock 103 Memphis morning man Rob Grayson, and I are joined backstage at the interview table by the Godfather of Soul immediately after leaving the Nashville stage (above photo by James Bland).
This is lovingly dedicated to the lady in the purple cowgirl hat below, Julie Cannon Stein, whose beauty, poise, and charm were clearly evident in the faces of James Brown and her husband, Tom Stein, backstage that night. –Redbeard
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Kenny Loggins- Medley- Redbeard Ranch 2-21-04
Almost twenty years ago a spontaneous medley by Kenny Loggins of “If I Were a Carpenter/ Danny’s Song/I Want to Sing You a Love Song” was performed live during an interview at Redbeard’s Upper Room Recording on the Barbarosa Ponderosa outside Dallas Texas USA . The first song was written by Tim Hardin , the second and third by Kenny Loggins, with “Danny’s Song” covered & made a huge hit by Ann Murray, which brought the then-unknown Loggins to the attention of Jim Messina, who had left Poco. Together Loggins and Messina made four of the most timeless albums of the era, Sittin In, Loggins and Messina, Full Sail, and Mother Lode. Thanks to my buddy Kurt Gilchrist from Sirius/ XM Satellite Radio.-Redbeard
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Edie Brickell of the New Bohemians- Dallas January 1989
It would be fascinating to watch the latest Oscar-nominated remake of A Star is Born with Dallas-based Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, whose 1988 debut Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars was THE Cinderella best-seller that Fall and into 1989, peaking at #4 on the Billboard album chart and selling over a million copies largely on the strength of the hit single and video “What I Am“. The buzz earned them a coveted performance slot on national tv broadcast Saturday Night Live over the 1988 holiday season, so upon Edie’s return to Dallas thirty years ago I had the chance to catch up with her in the midst of that improbable rocket ride of fame and, in Ms. Brickell’s case, a life-altering romance. –Redbeard
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Jon Butcher- Wishes- Dallas 1-89
One of the nicest, most sincere musicians is Jon Butcher. Here’s Jon with me in January 1989 live and solo acoustic on Q102 Dallas/Ft.Worth singing “Wishes“, the title song to his 1987 album, plus “I’m Only Dreaming” from the even stronger follow-up, Pictures from the Front. To celebrate American Black History Month on the latter album’s thirtieth anniversary. –Redbeard
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Gary Hoey- Hocus Pocus/ Stranglehold- Dallas 10-93
Guitarslinger Gary Hoey had burst upon the scene that year with Animal Instinct , showing up at my Friday afternoon live remote broadcast on Dallas/Ft.Worth radio Q102 in October 1993, and he brought his guitar and effects rack to play live. Gary launched into the Dutch band Focus hit “Hocus Pocus” from twenty years earlier ( minus the yodeling ), along with a six string salute to Ted Nugent midway through the performance. -Redbeard
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Toto- Rosanna- Dallas 1993
The band Toto led by guitarist Steve Lukather and keyboardist David Paich accomplished a remarkable feat since that memorable 1978 debut, with combined sales going platinum every year since then featuring their international hits “Hold the Line”, “Africa”, “Rosanna”, “I’ll Be Over You”, “99”, and “I Won’t Hold You Back”…certified in the award pictured below backstage at New York City’s Barclay Center to total 40,000,000 worldwide sales! Toto always performs with some of music’s finest players including drummer Simon Phillips; Paich and Steve Porcaro on keyboards; the amazing singer/bass player Nathan East; Joe Williams, Mabvuto Carpenter, and Jenny Douglas-McRae on vocals. Here’s Steve Lukather and Toto totally live and mostly acoustic on my Q102 radio show in 1993 in a Dallas Mexican restaurant. That’s not a typo! –Redbeard
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Glenn Frey Fondly Remembered by Bob Seger
The late Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey was Bob Seger’s buddy long before Frey headed west and took wing with the Eagles. After the shock of Glenn Frey’s death in January 2016, the first person that I thought of, after his Eagles band mates past and present, was Bob Seger. A few years Frey’s senior, it was Seger that helped the eager aspiring Detroit singer/guitarist get Glenn’s first experience in a recording studio when Frey sang background vocals on Bob’s first hit “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” in 1968. As you can hear in my interview, Bob mentored the inexperienced Frey until Glenn headed to the West Coast, met another unknown musician from Gilmer Texas named Don Henley, united behind Stone Ponies singer Linda Ronstadt as her tour band, before taking wing shortly thereafter as The Eagles and flying into music history. –Redbeard (Glenn Frey far left next to Detroit friend Bob Seger backstage in New York City)
