R.E.M.- Losing My Religion 4-28-92

This slightly slower all-acoustic performance by R.E.M. of "Losing My Religion" at the Capital Plaza Theater in Charleston WV in April 1992, replete with melancholy solo violin, may be my favorite version, thanks to the Mountain Stage...

Van Halen- 5150 @40- Sammy Hagar, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony 3-23

Forty years ago it was the biggest buzz in music. Sammy Hagar, Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony are my guests for the "5150" backstory, plus the late Eddie Van Halen. Join us In the Studio for the fortieth anniversary of Van Halen's eleven million-seller "5150" the week of March 23.

Doobie Brothers- Takin’ It to the Streets 50th- Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald 3-16

A head transplant on a popular rock band has to be the most high-risk gamble in the music business (just ask Van Halen, Journey, and Foreigner), but as in the case of the Doobie Brothers' "Takin' It to the Streets", it's almost never elective surgery. Hear Tom Johnston and his thankless replacement, Michael McDonald, here In the Studio on the golden anniversary of the Doobie Brothers' Takin' It to the Streets the week of March 16.

Jethro Tull- Aqualung 55th Anniversary- Ian Anderson 3-9

Every real rock music fan has a shortlist of essential albums which were more than mere entertainment, and mine includes Jethro Tull's March 1971 fourth album, "Aqualung". Since then, I've never thought the same way about religion, homelessness, or one-legged flute players in tights. Ian Anderson is my guest here In the Studio for the fifty-fifth anniversary of Jethro Tull's "Aqualung".

Alice Cooper Group- I’m 18- Dallas 10-6-15

Not to be confused with Dallas Alice (that would be Little Feat), this is Alice in Dallas "Live from the Astroturf", performing in Good Records and improbably backed by his original Alice Cooper band (minus the late Glenn Buxton who passed in 1997) who gave us "Love It to Death", "Killer", "School's Out", and "Billion Dollar Babies". 
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Alice Cooper- Love It to Death/Killer 55th Anniversaries

"Love It to Death" in March 1971 may have been the third album by the band Alice Cooper, but that doesn't change the fact that nobody bought the first two. By December of that same year, EVERYBODY had heard "I'm Eighteen" off of Love It to Death , and Alice Cooper had written and recorded a soon-to-be-classic additional full album, "Killer". And it was. Alice proves in my classic rock interview that  you can project practically any fringe, edgy, sociopathic image in rock and get away with it - as long as you deliver the hits.
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R.E.M.- Out of Time 35th Anniversary- Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills

It is clear on the 35th anniversary of R.E.M.'s "Out of Time" album that the song from it, "Losing My Religion", has weathered the time in between exceedingly well. "Pop culture, particularly in the US, everything comes and goes in cycles, as things do," points out R.E.M. singer/ lyricist Michael Stipe, "which we all realize as we all grow older and wiser, whether it's politics or music or pop culture...I always wanted to have a song that would be considered 'the song of the Summer'. As it was, that song kind of became the song of the year," he chuckled. Ten million copies sold and three Grammy Awards later, nobody could argue the case.

38 Special- Wild-Eyed Southern Boys 45th- Donnie Van Zant, Jeff Carlisi

Former singer/songwriter/co-founder Donnie Van Zant and original 38 Special lead guitarist Jeff Carlisi recall band headquarters in an abandoned auto parts garage in a swamp to work up songs, on the 45th anniversary of "Wild-Eyed Southern Boys".

INXS- Original Sin- London Royal Albert Hall 1986

Down through history, slavery by the founding fathers has sometimes been referred to as America's "Original Sin", hence the dedication to Dr. Martin Luther King jr at the introduction of that song at London's Royal Albert Hall back in 1986…
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Phil Collins- Face Value 45th Anniversary

Of his cinderella  first solo album "Face Value" forty-five years ago, Phil Collins recalls the real-life betrayal and heartbreak which inspired "In the Air Tonight", "I Missed Again"; and why he did not include another original, "How Can You Sit There?", on Face Value nor it's follow up, Hello I Must Be Going, but opted instead to give it to the soundtrack of the 1984 movie Against All Odds, going on to become Phil Collins' first #1 hit.