Posts

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Tom Petty- Into the Great Wide Open

My interview with the late Tom Petty . Two significant events informed the songwriting on 1991's "Into the Great Wide Open" , Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' first post-Traveling Wilburys/ "Full Moon Fever"   effort with his own band.
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Steve Winwood- Back in the High Life

"Higher Love", the #1 seller and winner of both the "Record of the Year" and "Song of the Year" Grammys for 1986, isn't about doing it in the top bunk. It's about love on a spiritual plane, not an airplane. By his mid-twenties, Steve Winwood already may have  been on a hall of fame career pace, singing and playing hits as a mere teenager with the Spencer Davis Group ("Gimme Some Lovin' "," I'm a Man"), Traffic, and Blind Faith. Yet Winwood told me in this  classic rock interview about 1986's "Back in the High Life"  that a 1972 bout with peritonitis almost killed him...
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Genesis- Invisible Touch- Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, Phil Collins

Concerts came back just in time for the anniversary of Genesis' biggest album in their long fifty year+ career, Invisible Touch  (worldwide sales estimated at 15,000,000), so we convene Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, and Phil Collins here In the Studio  to discuss the blockbuster sales behind "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", "Land of Confusion", "In Too Deep", "Throwing It All Away", and "Invisible Touch".
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Peter Gabriel- So

(cont)...It was not until stumbling into the broadcast media/entertainment business that I got to witness, up close and personally, individual musicians who have been given enormous powers of influence through the modern phenomenon of celebrity, by the very people who they entertain. Case in point is this week's classic rock interview subject: ex-Genesis lead singer Peter Gabriel had a cult following after four studio solo albums, with his most significant creation being the ground-breaking "Shock the Monkey" video. But with the May 1986 release of So (#1 UK,#2 U.S., over 5 million sold; 4 Grammy nominations including Album and Record of the Year for the #1 hit "Sledgehammer"), Peter Gabriel was vaulted into international pop stardom with all of its attendant door-opening , barrier-eliminating amenities...(more)
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Billy Squier- Don’t Say No

My guest Billy Squier's 1981 second solo album “Don't Say No” sold over three million copies because of songs "In the Dark" , "My Kinda Lover" , "Lonely Is the Night", & the big hit " The Stroke".
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Bob Seger- Live Bullet

"It took me twelve years to make that album Live Bullet ," Bob Seger  solemnly emphasizes to me in this classic rock interview from Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band in April 1976. This  may be the only six million-seller in history which failed to make the Top Thirty in sales when initially released.
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Van Halen- 5150- Sammy Hagar, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, the late Eddie Van Halen

For the 35th anniversary, the late Eddie Van Halen's interview In the Studio is included with Sammy Hagar, brother Alex Van Halen, & Michael Anthony for the story of "5150".
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R.E.M.- Out of Time- Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills

It is clear on the thirtieth 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.

Boz Scaggs- Silk Degrees 45th Anniversary

It is the forty-fifth anniversary of Boz Scaggs "Silk Degrees" , one of the albums which musically defined America's bicentennial year in much the same way as "Frampton Comes Alive", "Fly Like an Eagle" and "Year of the Cat". More accurately this Boz Scaggs interview falls under "Ultra Rare", as the Dallas Texas native, long residing in the San Francisco Bay wine country, has led one of the more private lives in contemporary music.
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Queensryche- Empire- Geoff Tate, Chris DeGarmo

Queensryche co-founder/ composer/ guitarist Chris DeGarmo and former singer/ songwriter Geoff Tate may be gone now ( the former pilots corporate jets, the latter heads the band Operation Mindcrime ), but they tell the story of the blockbuster four million-seller Empire and the amazing songs “Best I Can”, “Jet City Woman”,”Della Brown”,” Resistance”,”Hand on Heart”, even a live performance from London’s Hammersmith Odeon just weeks after Empire’s 1990 release.