Everything Fab Four

"Weird Al" Yankovic has come a long way since his days making music in his bedroom with an accordion and a "cheesy little cassette tape recorder" and submitting to the Dr. Demento Show. On this episode, he and Ken talk about how Al's songwriting process has become more elaborate over the years, the story behind why Paul McCartney vetoed his "Live and Let Die" parody, getting a cease and desist fro...

English actress Hayley Mills was a child screen prodigy. During her initial six-year run at Disney, she appeared in six films, including a career-making turn as twins in "The Parent Trap." Her memoir "Forever Young" is out now. In this conversation with host Ken Womack, Mills recounts being a Beatles fan from the early days — including the time she went on a date with George Harrison — and now one...

Margaret Cho is a Grammy and Emmy Award nominated stand-up comedian, actress, and singer-songwriter. In this episode, she and host Ken Womack talk about her journey to becoming a comic, her gateway album into Beatles fandom, and why her favorite Beatle — of, she suggests, up to ten Beatles in total — would have been Brian Epstein. 

Season 3 launches with actor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. ("Better Call Saul," "Ghostbusters: Answer the Call," "A Mighty Wind"). Our host Kenneth Womack sits down with Begley to talk about a night out with Harry Nilsson that led to dinner at the Dakota with John Lennon and Yoko Ono and how that led to Begley playing a role in the "Saturday Night Live" on-air campaign to try to reunite...

Richard Marx's self-titled first album went triple platinum in 1987. Between then and 1994, he racked up 14 top 20 hits, including radio classics like "Endless Summer Nights" and "Right Here Waiting." The prolific songwriter and musical collaborator is also now an author —  Stories to Tell , his candid and entertaining memoir about the art and business of music, is out now. In this episode of "Eve...

Genre-defying singer/songwriter K. Flay was raised by parents who were "Beatles over Stones, one hundred percent," and as a kid she was drawn to "acid trip Beatles-ness" songs. In this wide-ranging conversation with host Ken Womack about creativity and creation, K. Flay discusses why genre doesn't matter, Baby Boomers, her approach to songwriting, collaborating with Tom Morello, and how the Beatle...

Ethan Russell is one of rock's most influential photographers — and the only one to shoot album covers for the Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones, whose work he also chronicled as the band's primary photographer from 1968-72, including their ill-fated Altamont show. Pete Townshend once called him "the civilized eye of an uncivilized art form — rock and roll." Through his camera, Russell has h...

When Sananda Maitreya first heard the Beatles, he felt a spiritual awakening. The son of gospel singer Frances Howard wasn't allowed to listen to music that wasn't gospel until he was 15 years old, but the Beatles were so ubiquitous, he says, that they couldn't be contained. When he first heard "She Loves You," the American singer/songwriter (formerly known under the stage name Terence Trent D'Arb...

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Nancy Wilson rose to fame as the guitarist of Heart, the first hard rock band fronted by women. With hits like "Magic Man" and "Crazy On You" to "These Dreams" and "What About Love?" Wilson and her sister Ann, Heart's lead singer, sold more than 35 million records and along the way, changed perceptions of who can lead a hard rock band. In this episode, Nancy and host Ke...

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. made their names as members of the Grammy Award-winning group The Fifth Dimension. Together they've logged nearly six decades as pop music stalwarts, while also celebrating their golden wedding anniversary in 2019. And now the iconic duo is back with their first studio album in 30 years, "Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons." In their conversation with "Everything F...

 John Roberts is best known as the voice of Linda Belcher, doting matriarch of the beloved Fox animated sitcom "Bob's Burgers," but he's also a musician — you may have heard his new collaboration with Blondie's Debbie Harry, "Lights Out." On this episode, he and host Ken Womack talk about the TV pilots Roberts has made that you haven't seen yet, his upcoming musical releases, and which Beatle Lind...

Kathy Valentine made history as the bassist for the Go-Go's, the first multiplatinum all-female band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to have a #1 album in the U.S. And her first relationship with music? Was with the Beatles. In this episode, Valentine and host Ken Womack talk about her Beatles and British influences, what she and fellow bass player Paul McCartney have in...

In this episode, "Little Steven" Van Zandt and our host Ken Womack go deep into the guitarist/singer/songwriter/actor's legendary musical career and his own Beatles influences, from the Ed Sullivan Show to how dues-paying in New Jersey and Hamburg shaped these bands to the night they pulled the plug on Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen in Hyde Park.  . Everything Fab Four's theme song is "Seize...

This week's guest is drummer John Densmore, one of the founding members of the groundbreaking classic rock band The Doors. In a wide-ranging conversation with host Ken Womack, Densmore talks about the parallel tracks the Beatles and the Doors were on for the time they overlapped as bands, musical innovations the Beatles inspired the Doors to take, and how George Harrison talking about losing John...

"I think Paul McCartney's calling you": This week's guest is singer/songwriter Patty Smyth, who rocketed to fame with her band band Scandal ("Goodbye to You," "The Warrior"), followed by her acclaimed solo career ("Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough"). This week, Smyth and host Ken Womack talk about the pivotal Beatles moments that shaped her life, how pregnancy and motherhood shaped her career, and...

From an early age, singer/songwriter Dessa, the daughter of a classical guitar-playing father, seemed destined for music. In the final episode of season 1 of "Everything Fab Four," the Doomtree Collective member tells our host Kenneth Womack how the Beatles shaped her understanding of poetic license and creative possibility from childhood on. In this wide-ranging interview, they also dive deep int...

Jon Anderson, co-founder and former lead singer of the legendary prog rock group Yes, has enjoyed a prolific career spanning over six decades, most recently with his 2019 album "1000 Hands." Though he had a band with his brother as a teen in 1962, they were largely focused on being the Everly Brothers or Elvis Presley — that is, until they heard "Love Me Do." The brothers traveled to see the Beatl...

Author and musician Stephanie Phillips, who plays in the Black feminist punk band Big Joanie and whose writing has been featured in major outlets all over the world, grew up a music fan but for years had "a general disinterest" in the Beatles, due largely to the "sad dad army" of fans that she couldn't relate to as a young woman of color. "There wasn't really much in the Beatles for me to latch on...

John Oates, best known as half of the iconic pop duo Hall & Oates, has played guitar alongside Darryl Hall for decades, co-writing hits like "Sara Smile," "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" and "Maneater."  He grew up in Philadelphia, and tells our host Ken Womack that when the Beatles first hit the U.S., his local  radio stations wouldn't play their songs. "Being a teenager in Philadelphia I was r...

Broadway star Adam Pascal is a serious Beatles fan — he even named his son Lennon. On this episode of "Everything Fab Four," host Kenneth Womack talks to the artist who originated the role of Roger in Broadway's "Rent"  about what early Beatles music had in common with show tunes, how John Lennon brought an element of danger into the innocence, and even the brilliance of Barry Manilow.

Judy Collins is a Grammy Award-winning American singer and songwriter with an eclectic recording career spanning over 60 years that includes folk, rock, pop and show tunes. Primarily known as a folk singer until 1966, she began branching out to include other sounds with her album In My Life , in which she "took a flying leap" and recorded a cover of the eponymous Beatles song, which pushed her car...

"England needed heroes ... these four kids came out of the rubble of World War 2 and changed the world": On this episode of "Everything Fab Four" Ken and his guest Michael Des Barres go deep into the Beatles' cultural roots, plus his personal story of discovering the Beatles at 16 — at a concert filmed by the BBC. Michael Des Barres is a true polymath — a hit songwriter ("Obsession"), a dynamic fr...

Steve Lukather is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and the sole continuous founding member of the rock group Toto. He also plays with Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band. In this first episode of "Everything Fab Four," host Kenneth Womack talks to Steve about how he discovered the Beatles, how their music influenced his, his personal and professional relationship with Ringo Starr, and what it was l...

Everything Fab Four  is a podcast focused on fun and intelligent stories about the enduring cultural influence of the Beatles. No other band, or popular entity for that matter, has had the world-wide impact the Beatles have. They are part of our human fabric, they created music that still brings people together, and just about everyone has their own "Beatles story" to tell. In each episode, renown...