Posts

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Styx- Grand Illusion- Tommy Shaw, James “JY” Young, Dennis DeYoung, Lawrence Gowan

Styx co-founder Dennis DeYoung, lifer James "JY" Young, and then recently recruited Alabama boy Tommy Shaw all join me here with current Styx keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan In the Studio for the early days of being the perennial opening act, saddled with the curse "big in the Flyover States", all the while writing and recording "Fooling Yourself","Come Sail Away","Miss America", "Man in the Wilderness", and "Grand Illusion".
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Grateful Dead- In the Dark- Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh

Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh In the Studio for the 35th anniversary of "In the Dark".

Doobie Brothers- Toulouse Street- Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, John Hartman

After a totally forgettable first album, the Doobie Brothers' sophomore effort "Toulouse Street" may just be the strongest second act of the Seventies. In the Studio Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, & John Hartman joined me forf "Listen to the Music","Rockin' Down the Highway","Disciple", and the definitive cover of "Jesus is Just All Right".
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Sammy Hagar- I Never Said Goodbye

After years of struggle as the undercard rock palooka who could take a punch and never go down, in 1984 Sammy Hagar answered the bell  and came out swinging, scoring a technical knockout with his mainstream hit "I Can't Drive 55" from his eighth solo album "VOA". Then in 1987 Sammy won by a knockout with his solo album "I Never Said Goodbye", at #14 his highest charting album ever, and that while being newly installed as Van Halen's lead singer. Sammy Hagar is my guest In the Studio.

Eddie Money- No Control

Eddie Money was always an effortless interview before his death in September 2019, a real pleasure, because he loved people, he loved to tell stories, and he had a million of 'em. As I prepared dual anniversaries for two of the late Eddie Money's best selling albums, “Eddie Money” debut in October 1977 and the big breakthrough “No Control” five years later in June 1982 forty years ago,  it occurred that one of the less recognized aspects of the brief but all-important Punk Rock trend in the latter half of the Seventies is how it aided and abetted countless upstart bands at the same time which were not necessarily a part of that CBGB Club scene. The late Eddie Money is my guest here In the Studio.
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Motley Crue- Girls Girls Girls- Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil

In an alternate universe where being boring and predictable is the Original Sin, Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Nikki Sixx, and Tommy Lee of Motley Crue would be sanctified saints, because they have been waging  jihad against the tyranny of the mainstream for a full four decades. Peaking at #2 on Billboard Album Sales chart, "Girls, Girls, Girls"  would eventually equal their preceding mega-seller "Theatre of Pain" with another four million copies sold. The always eyebrow-raising Nikki Sixx and hilarious Vince Neil are my guests In the Studio for "Girls, Girls, Girls"..
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Eagles- Eagles- the late Glenn Frey & Randy Meisner

Down through the history of mankind, first flights such as The Eagles are revered: the Montgolfier brothers in Paris in 1783 with their hot air balloon; the Wright brothers in 1903 with powered flight, Apollo 11 landing on the Moon...In June 1972 when the debut album by a Southern California-based band The Eagles was quietly released, it had none of the anticipated date-with-destiny public spectacle shared by all of the aforementioned events. But history proved that the original quartet's first flight would quickly allow a career to take wing that would soon soar, resulting in The Eagles becoming the most popular American band ever. Original member Randy Meisner & co-founder the late Glenn Frey are with me In the Studio for the story on the 50th anniversary of The Eagles.

Alan Parsons Project- I, Robot

Rare classic rock interview with the namesake British recording engineer/producer of the Alan Parsons Project, whose 1977 second album in collaboration with composer the late Eric Woolfson was once  again based on a famous literary work, this time the Isaac Asimov science fiction classic "I, Robot".
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Steve Miller- Book of Dreams

Steve Miller In the Studio on the multi-million selling bookend from May 1977, "Book of Dreams" .
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Black Crowes- Southern Harmony…- Chris Robinson, Rich Robinson

Preparing this interview with Black Crowes co-founders singer Chris Robinson and his younger guitar-playing brother Rich Robinson to mark their second release, "The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion", the deja vu was uncanny and not a little bit unsettling. Constantly I had to remind myself that the trends these Atlanta natives were seeing in the mid-1990s, and the predictions they made then, sound eerily like today's headlines. Peering now into their spyglass in reverse, it is both remarkable in its accuracy but, I must admit, troubling in its sense of creeping inevitability.