Professor of Rock

A few weeks ago, we had our first episode of Unsolved Mysteries of Rock and Roll, and I got hundreds of requests for another episode. So today, we're pulling back the curtain on some of the most jaw-dropping true crime tales from the archives of popular music. Including one guitar legend who rolled up on the front lawn of a Beverly Hills mansion in a fully armed military assault vehicle… He had le...

Let's run it back! It’s a song with a storied history and a bittersweet legacy. But you’d never know just listening to it. That’s because this is one of those happy-go-lucky pop tunes we were all singing along with back in the 80s. However, in the studio and behind the scenes… it was a different story. Walk Like An Egyptian by the Bangles. This song was actually the catalyst for this band’s breaku...

Coming up, we’re going back to a year that was all over the place with some wonderful variety and unconventional songs that became beloved, hits that defined the year they came out. It’s our latest time in a bottle countdown! There’s a party classic KC and the Sunshine Band's Get Down Tonight that made a writing collaboration a ton of money, but they blew it all on blow, an instrumental by the Ave...

Coming up, we're taking an in-depth look at one of rock's most entertaining topics… The “crazy ex” song… as in crazy ex-girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives, whatever….we’ve all been there… or at least know someone who has. If you’ve ever had someone take a baseball bat to a windshield or go completely scorched earth on you for reasons you’re still trying to understand, this countdown is for y...

Coming up, it’s a duo from Lincoln, Nebraska - Zager & Evans - who transfixed listeners everywhere with a prophecy that there will come a time when machines will completely take over…. humans won’t need teeth…legs…or eyes….that’s if man can even survive… The story of “In the Year 2525” is a truly strange song that foretold the future of mankind, more than 500 years from now. The band recorded...

In rock, the voice is just as important as any other instrument in the band. But what happens when those vocals begin to fade or even fail? It’s a singer’s worst nightmare. Well, on today’s episode, we’re calling attention to three singers who have had an incredible run, but it may be time to ride off into the sunset. In the words of The Clash… It’s time to ask Should I Stay or Should I Go? On the...

Coming up, we’re telling the stories of songs that shaped one of the best years in popular music, songs that define today's year more than any other... including Icehouse's Electric Blue that was inspired while an artist was nervously walking along a topless beach. Plus, the breakout song Wishing Well by Terrance Trent D'Arby, who thought the industry was conspiring against him so that he wouldn’t...

We're bringing it back! Standing at the crossroads of her career, Stevie Nicks traded in the surefire success of Fleetwood Mac after Rumors and Tusk for a shot to prove she could do it on her own. But solo success wouldn’t come easy. Especially when two tragedies affected the progress of her album. The first of these would shake us all. The death of Beatle John Lennon The other was more personal,...

Sometimes the most powerful voices in music stay silent for years and decades… never getting their due until after they’ve left this planet. You could call them post-mortem hitmakers. Today, we’re covering 5 artists who poured their hearts into their craft only to face rejection and obscurity while they were alive… but then their music went viral after their deaths. We’ve got a singer Chris Rainbo...

How about this for an amazing rock story? So The Rascals coming off a big #1, in Good Lovin’ the band wrote Groovin', they truly believed it would be another hit for them. But one of the most famous record men in history, Jerry Wexler, didn’t like it at all. So he discouraged Atlantic Records from releasing it. Well, the famous DJ Murray the K was STUNNED because he knew Groovin' was a #1. So he c...

With the state of the world right now, today I’m going to take you back to the good old days. Nostalgia overload. We're going to celebrate a group of songs that freeze a specific moment in time, preserving it for the future, much like the expression time in a bottle. One of the songs, Escape (The Pina Colada Song), began as a nod to the golden movie era of Humphrey Bogart, before the singer Rupert...

Coming up…Its' Another Volume of Songs that have become PUNCHLINES! Today we’re back with more pop culture jabs, left hooks, and knockout blows… That’s right, it’s another edition of the fan favorite “Punchlines.” And for this one, we’ve got memes, parodies, and some late-night show mockery all combining to poke fun at musicians who may or may not have had it coming. For this one, we’ve got the gr...

So I recently went through an inventory of all of the interviews I’ve done over the years… There’s never 800s at this point, and from memory, I realized that I’ve talked to dozens of legends, producers, and songwriters who have worked directly with Michael Jackson. Now Michael Jackson has taken over the world. The new Movie Micheal set a record for the biggest opening for a biopic ever, and many b...

Do you all remember Unsolved Mysteries? Well, today is a rock and roll unsolved mysteries episode. Today we're diving into five legendary stories of musicians who left us under circumstances that just don't add up. I’m talking about bizarre and suspicious circumstances… And we’ve got more questions than answers here. But all of them are great stories. From deathbed murder confessions to stolen bod...

The fact is Dire Straits interrupted disco in the late 70s with the classic song Sultans of Swing that would take radio hostage! with their unique sound and singer Mark Knopfler’s gruff iconic vocals. but they were victims of the sophomore slump when their 2nd record faltered and flailed on the charts. Determined to bounce back with a statement album, Knopfler heard a song on the radio that flippe...

So in the music business, the climb to the top can take years and years of grueling hard work. But a fall from grace? That can happen in the blink of an eye. Today, we are back with another episode of "Career Killers.” We haven’t done one of these in a while, so it’s time! We’ve got the story of Winger, who had to cancel their upcoming tour and call it quits after their credibility was destroyed b...

Coming up, we focus & rank a group of songs that depict a specific year in popular music so remarkably well, they sound exactly like the moment they came out. It’s our latest edition of DATED. Including singer Aimee Mann, who was kidnapped as a child, and after she was rescued, had to learn to speak again from the trauma. Her voice became a beacon to many on one of the most haunting songs of t...

Not long ago, after the channel reached 1.5 million subs, I shared a video on the Professor of Rock Greatest Hits: my top 9 picks for the greatest song stories in the history of this channel. In the comments section, I was flooded with requests for a Greatest Hits Volume 2. So here it is…. 9 more hits with new stories and insights... including the #1 rock band Def Leppard, who followed up their 19...

Today, we put one of rock’s greatest years, 1970, under the microscope and explore songs that we all know and love but failed as hits. There’s a story about Gregg Allman, who was so excited to lay down a song that came into his head, he got high and broke into a closed recording studio in the middle of the night. But he was struggling to find that one lyric to finish it, and it was his roadie who...

Rock and roll has always been a family business. And family… well, family is complicated. Growing up together, fighting together, making history together — and sometimes, destroying each other's dreams in the process. Today, we're counting down the most explosive sibling rivalries in rock history. And trust me, these stories are gonna entertain! Like the legendary Everly Brothers, whose decades of...

We started this series a month ago, and I was overwhelmed with feedback for another episode. So, for this one, I’ve got 7 more stories of rock and roll sabotage and treachery. You know, sometimes the music industry is a band’s worst enemy, but then again, sometimes a band can be their own worst enemy, too. And today’s episode is the proof. We’ll tell you about a Saturday Night Live performance whe...

So last year I was on David Letterman’s Show… Or Barbara Gaines Show. But I found out that David Letterman watches our show, and I was blown away. Well, I had the chance to interview his famous sidekick, Paul Shaffer, and was able to geek out with him on music... including some of my favorite moments on the Letterman show. So here is that interview session with Paul, including commentary about the...

Coming up, we’re celebrating the birthday of legendary KISS guitarist Ace Frehley with this classic episode from 2024. In this one, we dig deep into the catalog of one of rock’s greatest party bands—KISS—highlighting 5 essential tracks that help tell their wild story. From outrageous moments like concert car crashes to the band’s unexpected clash with disco, these songs capture the chaos, creativi...

Let's throw it back! Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were lovers who had been trying to make it in music for years. After some fiery arguments, years of failures and poverty, Stevie decided to quit music for good. One night she put all that pain into a song she called Landslide. Almost over night after writing that classic she and Lindsey met Fleetwood Mac and they were asked to join up. They...

Sometimes the most memorable songs aren't the ones that scale the charts, but the ones that defy all logic. I’m talking about tracks that stop you cold …Dead in your tracks and make you ask, "What the hell did I just listen to?" Like Angine de Poitrine. Today, we're celebrating 8 of Rock's Strangest Songs that broke every rule in the book. Including the Peter Gabriel who ruled 1986 with an iconic...