Let It Roll

Hosts Nate Wilcox welcomes Let It Roll intern Ivan DeHaas to kick off a mini-series on the Three Kings of Emo Rap: XXXTentacion, Lil Peep, and Juice WRLD all of whom let a movement that reached millions of young Americans in the 2010s and none of them lived to be 22. We kick off the series with a look at the most problematic and possibly the most talented of the three: XXXTentacion. Have a questio...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ed Legge continue their discussion of Michaelangelo Matos' "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" with a look at the biggest tour of 1984: The Jackson's Victory tour. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- The final 15 minutes of this episode are excl...

Host Nate Wilcox welcomes Mark Burford to discuss his book "Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field" with a focus on Mahalia's days at Apollo Records and how she navigated the music business while serving a higher calling with her music. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on T...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ed Legge continue their discussion of Michaelangelo Matos' "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" with a look at hip-hop in 1984 from the deluge of quickie exploitation movies, an attempt at a hip-hop Soul Train, the rise of Run-DMC and the meeting of Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin that resulted in Def Jam records. Buy the book and support the show. Have a...

Host Nate Wilcox welcomes back Garrett Cash to continue our discussion of gospel history with a look at the Mahalia Jackson chapter of Anthony Heilbut's classic "The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times." Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. Let...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ed Legge continue their discussion of Michaelangelo Matos' "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" with a look at country music in 1984 from Willie Nelson's collaboration with Julio Iglesias to the rising new traditionalists Reba McEntire, George Strait and the Judds. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

We're re-presenting host Nate Wilcox's second 2020 discussion with the TCBCast's Gurdip Ladhar and Justin Gausman of Peter Guralnick’s "Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley" and the HBO documentary The Searcher. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ed Legge continue their discussion of Michaelangelo Matos' "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" with a look at Island Record's success with Bob Marley's Legend compilation, the rise of reissue labels like Rhino Records and the quest for the "next Bob Marley." GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

We're re-presenting host Nate Wilcox's first 2020 discussion with the TCBCast's Gurdip Ladhar and Justin Gausman of Peter Guralnick’s "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley" and  the HBO documentary The Searcher. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ed Legge continue their discussion of Michaelangelo Matos' "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" with a look at the musical movies of 1984: Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, Flashdance, Footloose, This is Spinal Tap, Repo Man and more. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

We're re-presenting host Nate Wilcox's second 2021 interview with Frank Sinatra biographer James Kaplan as part of a new series focused on Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. This discussion focuses on Frank Sinatra reign as the king of cool in the 1950s and early 1960s and the monumental chaos that ensued after he introduced the Joe Kennedy to the bosses of the Chicago Mob. Buy the book and...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ed Legge continue their discussion of Michaelangelo Matos' "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" with a look at the incredibly glamorous 1984 Grammy awards when Michael Jackson reigned supreme (except for one surprise moment from Annie Lennox), Boy George gaffed, The Police were far away and Cyndi Lauper was primed for the next year's show. GO TO THE LET I...

We're re-presenting host Nate Wilcox's first 2021 interview with Frank Sinatra biographer James Kaplan as part of a new series focused on Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. This discussion focuses on Frank Sinatra's reign as king of the bobby soxers and bane of the red-blooded American GI in the 1940s. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person f...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ed Legge continue their discussion of Michaelangelo Matos' "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" with a look at the glam metal scene on Hollywood's Sunset Strip which was led by Van Halen, Motley Crue, & Quiet Riot as well as the international metal scene headed up by Def Leppard, Iron Maiden and the Scorpions. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FU...

We're re-presenting host Nate Wilcox's second 2020 interview with Bing Crosby biographer Gary Giddins as part of a new series focused on Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. This discussion focuses on Bing Crosby's many triumphs in the 1940s. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow u...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ed Legge continue their discussion of Michaelangelo Matos' "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" with a look at the so-called "second British invasion" of the early 1980s with a special focus in MTV's role in breaking acts like Culture Club, Eurythmics, Duran Duran and Kajagoogoo in the United States. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE...

We're re-presenting host Nate Wilcox's 2020 interview with Bing Crosby biographer Gary Giddins with a new introduction as part of a new series focused on Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. YOU HAVE SAVED...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ed Legge continue their discussion of Michaelangelo Matos' "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" with a look at the pair of music biz downturns that created the space for the new pop of 1984 to triumph: the early 80's record biz recession that followed the implosion of disco and the deeply moribund state of AOR Rock radio in the early 1980s. Buy the book a...

Host Nate Wilcox welcomes Ken Emerson, author of "Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era." Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. SAVE THE LET IT ROLL PODCAST We're $100 from our goal to fund a year's worth of pro...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ed Legge open their discussion of Michaelangelo Matos' book "Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year" with an overview of what made 1984 so special for pop music: Thriller, Purple Rain, Born in the USA, Like a Virgin, She's So Unusual and many many more beloved classics that all hit the radio at once and reinvigorated a moribund early 80's music scene. Buy the...

Host Nate Wilcox talks to Richard Aquila, author of "Rock & Roll in Kennedy's America: A Cultural History of the Early 1960s," about the four cutting edge trends in rock n' roll in the early 1960s. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. SAVE THE LET...

Host Nate Wilcox and Cooper biographer Gary Graff discuss his new book "Alice Cooper @75", the cloud of rumor and myth that swirled around the band in the early 70s, and draw distinctions between the man Vincent Furnier, the band Alice Cooper and the solo artist of the same name. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email l...

Host Nate Wilcox asks Michael Corcoran to share the stories of Texas gospel greats Arizona Dranes, Blind Willie Johnson and Washington Phillips as well as the notorious Don Robey, owner of the Duke and Peacock labels. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Fa...

Host Nate Wilcox asks John Einarson about John Kay, Steppenwolf and how the group came together out of the Toronto folk and R&B scene but had to move to California to make it in the record business. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. SAVE THE LE...

Host Nate Wilcox asks Peter Guralnick to tell the story of Sam Phillips and Sun Records. From the early days as a blues studio recording Ike Turner, B.B. King, and Howlin' Wolf to the bright yellow record label that brought Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis to the world. Buy the book and support the show. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to...