Tommy Solo's famous friends

Terry Draper of Klaatu fame has been releasing solo albums for years. His regular routine is to release a new record every year in time for Christmas. His usual process was interupted last year by health issues which he is now recovering from. So for this current project, he dug into the vault and resurrected several old demos from decades ago, along with a fresh crop of new material. This time ar...

Chris Birkett is a world renowned musician/record producer who has worked with such top shelf artists as Sinead O'Connor (he produced Nothing compares 2U) , Mel Brooks & Def Leppard. His own music has often taken a back seat to his work helping others to create hits, but now he has a brand new album of his own to celebrate.  "She's my guitar" is a blend of neo soul/Latin flavoured original mat...

Carmine Appice is a legendary drummer known for his work with Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Beck Bogert & Appice, and Rod Stewart.  Rising to prominence after appearing on the Ed Sullivan show in 1968 with Vanilla Fudge, he hasn't ever slowed down. In fact, he often has several projects on the go at the same time, these days. He has recently released an all star album with Cactus, Temple of blues, fe...

Aaron Badgley has been a huge fan of the Beatles since he was a kid in the early 1970s. His fascination with music, inspired by his love of the Fab Four lead him to a life in radio broadcasting and music journalism.  He has a new book entitled "Dark Horse the story of George Harrison's post Beatles record label".  we discussed this and a lot more in this episode.  If you enjoy my podcast & wou...

Ever since the band called UFO was formed in 1968, lead singer Phil Mogg has been a force in rock music. Inspired by seeing artists like Eric Clapton, Eric Burdon & the Animals and more performing live in nearby Tottenham England, Phil was bitten by the rock & roll bug. There have been over 40 UFO albums released featuring Phil with band mates that have included Pete Way, Michael Schenker,...

Ronnie Dawg Robson is a highly sought after session musician. While he is primarly known as a top shelf bassist, and is listed in "The Titans of Bass" as one of the top 130 bassists the world over, he has a much broader resume than that. This is from his own website:   To date, Ronnie's resume is outstanding for he has recorded bass tracks with current and/or ex members of; Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sa...

LA session guitarist/producer, Fernando Perdomo has a new solo album out called "Self". It's a wonderful mix of songs that I thought to myself, if the Beatles, Burt Bacharach & Frank Zappa had a baby it would be this album.  In this episode we discuss the album, his work with Marshall Crenshaw, personal experiences at Abbey Road studio two & a lot more!  Find out more about Fernando at the...

Uli Jon Roth has been a force to be reckoned with as a master of the guitar for decades. While he first made his mark with German rockers, the Scorpions, he has been blazing new trails for himself ever since.  He is known as an early innovator of neo classical rock and has gone beyond the norm with his creation of the Sky guitar, a very unique guitar with extra frets to emulate the violin and adva...

David McPherson is a Canadian author based in Waterloo Ontario. He is a regular magazine contributor to Canadian musician, Exclaim! etc., and along with his previous book the legendary Horseshoe tavern: a complete history, he's recently published 101 Fascinating Canadian Music Facts.  Based on his extensive knowledge of Canadian pop music, I figured he would make a great guest on my Pop Trivia ser...

Terry Draper has released one new album per year for the longest time without missing a beat. It's his routine to winter in Florida & write songs to record over the summer back at his recording studio Swamp Manor North of Toronto. This year he threw a wrench in his machine when he discovered lost 80's tapes in various boxes etc.. This was a project that Terry had done with Toronto based singer...

Honey Moon Suite started gaining momentum globally in the early 1980s & they've barely looked back since then.  They've released over a dozen albums over the years & have just released the fruits of their labour over two years in a global pandemic. Teaming with American producer Mike Krompass, known for his work with Steven Tyler, Smash Mouth etc. Honey Moon Suite have once again broken th...

Formed from the ashes of the Hillbilly Headhunters & Moon MD in 1998, the Hillbilly Moon Explosion have since released several successful albums culminating with their latest album "Back in time" featuring the singles "Sometimes at night" & "Knocked down" .  In this episode I discussed with Oliver Baroni how his Hillbilly Headhunters merged with Emanuela Hutter's Moon MD so many years ago,...

Singer/songwriter Rik Emmett was known as the virtuostic guitarist & singer with iconic Canadian band Triumph, and he has been an independant solo artist since the 1990s. In this episode we discuss his new memoire "Lay it on the line" which is as he describes it "A backstage pass to rockstar adventure, conflict & triumph" . But that's not all we talked about. This is a fun one! https://www...

Legendary Canadian rocker Myles Goodwyn left this mortal coil on December 3rd 2023 after a lenghty battle with various illnesses. On December 18th 2023, I was fortunate to share memories from the life & times of Myles Goodwyn with his three surviving original co founding members of April Wine. David, Ritchie & Jim Henman gave their individual & personal thoughts in memory their fallen...

You may know Terry Draper from his tenure with the classic Canadian band Klaatu. Did you know he has just released his 20th solo record? His new release "In the beginning" is a quirky prog pop collection featuring solid songwriting & solid performances throughout. And this time Terry harkens back to the glory days of album packaging as inspired by the classic albums from the Beatles, Pink Floy...

This is part two of my 2020 conversation with seminal singer/guitarist/songwriter Frank Soda. In this part of our chat Frank talks about how he survived the music business by widening his horizons & not being afraid to diversify his act. As this episode was originally recorded during the big Covid lockdown, he also reflected on expanding his musical horizons further & his plans to return t...

In part one of my classic interview with Seminal Canadian rocker Frank Soda we discuss his early years starting out in the Canadian bar circuit in the 1970s. From his time with Buddy Knox to muscle rocker Thor & beyond, Frank shares his experiences leading up to Frank Soda & the Imps signing with Quality records. I met Frank Soda while he & the Imps were backing up Thor at the St. Regi...

On November 10th 2023 Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman launched a false advertising law suit against former bandmates Jim Cale & Garry Peterson. In this episode I spoke with one of the leading experts on all things "The Guess Who", Robert Lawson about this news. Robert's book "Wheatfield Empire" details pretty much everyone you could ask about the history of one of Canada's most successful...

When I interviewed Ronnie Hawkins in 2021 he was already 86 years old, but he proved that he was still the king of one liners & had me laughing throughout our conversation. Growing up in Arkansas he was influenced by the music he was raised on & when he brought his brand of Rockabilly music to Canada, he quickly became a seminal figure in the musical landscape here. The list of musicians,...

John McGale was one of my hometown guitar heroes. He was a couple of years older than me & my neighbourhood pals & was playing in a working band around the time I learned to ride a bicycle. He was very popular both in the neighbourhood & at our highschool where he was elected to the student's council as social convenor. He would often entertain us at school assemblies playing guitar, f...

In part two of my chat with Alex Machin, we pick it up from where he was a staff songwriter with United artists in LA. While he would inevitably reunite with A Foot in cold water, there was a lot more to his story in the in between years. Did you know that Alex was the lead singer with Moxy for a few years? We discuss all that & more as we continue our conversation here. And hey...if you like...

Alex Machin is the voice behind one of Canada's most iconic classic radio hits, "Make me do anything you want." When he & guitarist extraorinaire Paul Naumann joined forces with the remaining members of Nucleus; Bob Horne, Danny Taylor & Hughie Leggat, musical magic happened. A foot in cold water was signed to Daffodil records & they were off & running with Make me do anything you...

Jaimie Vernon has been a music business insider for decades serving as a musician, record company president & author among other things. He has been described as a walking pop music encyclopedia & in fact, is the author of the "Canadian pop music encyclopedia". The following is how this episode was described when it was originally published in 2021: Jaimie Vernon makes a return visit to To...

This is a reissue of my interview with Canada's Country Gentleman, Tommy Hunter. When I reached out to him in the summer of 2020, he was more than accomodating with me & we had an awesome discussion about his early beginnings & his 30 plus years on both CBC TV & on the Nashville network. This was one of my most applauded interviews & I'm proud to feature the legendary Tommy Hunter...

In part two of my conversation with Danny Taylor, we discuss how the iconic Canadian band "A foot in cold water" was formed, the creation of their biggest hit & more. Danny started in the music business as a teenager still in highschool & he has a lot of interesting stories to share. And Danny along with original lead singer Alex Machin have new A foot in cold water music to share with the...