Professor of Rock

Coming up next, a conversation with The Stylistics, a band that helped carve out an Incredible Musical Movement in the 70s. One that would influence everyone from Prince to Judas Priest to Daryl Hall and John Oates with some of the best baby-making music of all time. In fact, the members of this group told me that a couple told them that they have 3 kids and all were conceived to each of their 3 h...

Coming up, the story of the 80s classic that just gets bigger every year, and it almost didn’t get recorded. Today’s singer-songwriter Robbie Dupree moved to LA and began to pay his dues, and he did for years, but he got nowhere. He submitted demos, including his song that would become an all-time classic: Steal Away. But it was rejected by every single label outright. So Robbie decided to move ba...

There’s no shortage of opinions when it comes to the greatest Male rock singer of all time—critics, fans, and forums have debated it endlessly. And while we don’t necessarily disagree with the usual names, there are some incredible voices that rarely get the recognition they deserve. So on this episode, we're shining a light on the unsung heroes—the vocalists who should absolutely be in the conver...

Today’s year was something else. Where it was the last hurrah for one Genre… Rock made a huge comeback with songs that have become like old friends. Including Who Are You by The Who that dropped the F-bomb clearly several times, but somehow got past the censors and is still played today…Then there was the Punk Icon that questioned Freddie Mercury's masculinity, and then Mercury turned around and w...

Coming up, the unbelievable story of the quintessential 80s classic that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest hike to #1... from the strange and entraining band Dead or Alive, led by larger than life frontman Pete Burns, whose botched plastic surgery became his downfall. He started out as a militant record store clerk berating customers whose musical tastes didn’t align...

Writing songs that felt like letters from a lonely highway or the deck of a sinking ship, Gordon Lightfoot turned heartbreak and history into chart-topping hits. And sometimes, the stories behind the songs were just as intense as the ones he told through lyrics. On this episode, we’re telling the story of one of Canada’s finest through five defining songs. Including the chart-topping hit Sundown,...

Coming up, possibly the most likable person I’ve ever interviewed. Rupert Holmes…He’s Such a great storyteller… Well it’s a special one today as he tells the story of a beloved song that was the final #1 Hit of the 70s and would’ve been the first #1 of the 80s but Payola ruined that… Escape (the Pina Colada Song) Although he did hit #1 a week into the new decade but it’s ironic that this song was...

Coming up, the story of the nearly forgotten rockstar Adam Ant… He should be remembered more than he is… He started out destined for the top of the charts… His mother was Paul McCartney’s housekeeper, so he ended up walking McCartney’s Dog and later got the guts to sneak into his music room. Later, he formed a band, and they actually had 7 songs in the top 40 charts at the same time… He got so big...

Up next, we celebrate a magical year in our culture. See if you can guess the year. A wide-eyed alien named E.T. captured our hearts on the big screen, and the alien the Thing filled our hearts with fear—but over the airwaves, some of the most unforgettable songs of the Rock Era were blasting out of our speakers! Including New World Man, the only hit Rush ever had, and it was kind of a fluke. They...

Coming up next, Earth, Wind & Fire's September, a 70s classic that contained a date that would become the most famous in song history! Many have wondered why the legendary group or songwriter chose the particular date… We’ll find out next. September is a stone-cold classic song that, whenever played, is a guaranteed floor flooder from a group that grooves like no other. It was a song written b...

Before streaming, before binge-watching, and long before the skip-intro button… there was the TV theme song. And in the 1970s, they weren’t just an afterthought—theme songs were an art form. A great theme could sell you on a show before the first line of dialogue. On today’s countdown, we’re rewinding back to the golden age of polyester and primetime to bring you the Top 12 TV themes of the 70s. A...

Coming up next: one of the greatest singer-songwriters of the '80s and beyond, Neil Finn, tells the story of his first band, Split Enz. They were underground heroes who would later conquer the mainstream with some of the best songs of the decade, including their 1980 single I Got You that became the biggest-selling single in Australian history, even though Neil thought the chorus was Corny an...

Fleetwood Mac was a true supergroup in the ultra-competitive 70s and became the most enduring soap opera in rock history where it seemed like every band member was sleeping with each other at one time or another, and it actually enhanced the music. But fast forward to the 80s, and it got progressively worse and came to a nasty conclusion in 1987 while recording Tango in the Night, a record that ha...

OK, everybody! It’s time to shift into high gear with the ultimate soundtrack to power your next road trip. On this episode, we’re cranking up the volume and celebrating the Top 5 Driving Songs that turn every journey into an epic adventure. Along the way, we have Radar Love, a song that caused the most speeding tickets in history. Another song called Driver's Seat that was held out of #1 bec...

It was the end of a decade and the beginning of a brand-new era in music. It was the year the Beatles said goodbye, and a new wave of singer-songwriters took center stage... and rock, soul, and pop collided in revolutionary ways. So many classics with incredible stories and legendary guests, from No Sugar Tonight, a song inspired by Randy Bachman witnessing a wife cussing out her husband in public...

Desperado was the first song the Eagles actually wrote together and it ended up being the last song they ever played tougher before they broke up. And to think that this complex classic was written by Don Henley when he was only 17 years old and it became a true classic for a band that had at least a dozen of them from Hotel California to Take it Easy but this became their crem de la cre...

You know, some of rock’s best tracks just don’t get their due for a lot of different reasons. Maybe they were buried too deep on the album or overshadowed by a hit single. Or maybe they didn’t fit the mold for radio airplay. But these are the tracks that fans hold close to the vest—the ones you brag about knowing before anyone else caught on. They are true hidden gems. And these songs hit just as...

Coming up next…Do you ever need a short rest from some of the most overplayed songs of the 80s? Well, I got your remedy today with 5 classic hidden gems. Today, I have all five artists behind these songs here to tell the stories, including legendary singer-songwriter JD Souther, who wrote a load of classics for different artists, and we just lost him even though the media virtually ignored it...

Coming up, a legendary song by The Little River Band that had the same title as several big songs that came out at the same time: Lady. It managed to hit the top 10 due to this band’s incredible harmonies and infectious melodies. Graeham Goble, the man who wrote the song, is here to tell the tale. He wrote Lady about a beautiful girl he saw dancing at one of the band's live shows. And to this day...

Coming up… I’m trying to keep my cool and not throw a chair through the window as I give you my top 6 picks for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 14 are nominated, and like many of you, I’m livid that Paul Rodgers has been eligible for induction for over 30 years and isn’t in. He only happens to be the blueprint that God created for the perfect Rock Singer and a favorite of Legends like Robert Plant...

It was a year of BIG moments—Ronald Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall, on Black Monday the stock Market Crashed, and scientists spotted a supernova exploding in the depths of space. But back on Earth, music was having a supernova of its own. Some of the biggest albums ever to hit the charts made 1987 a candidate for the greatest year in music history, from Def Lepp...

Coming up, Simple Man was a track on one of the greatest debut albums of the rock era, Lynyrd Skynyrd's (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd). And it’s been streamed over a billion times and is one of the most beloved songs of rock’s most storied genres. But despite its popularity, Simple Man never actually charted on the Hot 100. The only reason it wasn’t a hit is that the band failed to release it...

Coming up next was Human League, a new wave band that came out of nowhere to rule the charts in 1982 with the #1 hit Don't You Want Me, which kicked off the second British invasion. But 4 years later, the pressure was on to replicate the success in America after a failed album and a song that didn't make the top 50. So they came up with another left-field idea, trading in their robotic sound for a...

Coming up, it’s the latest edition of our Taboo Songs countdown. That’s right today we’re exploring the stories behind five controversial tracks that deeply offended certain segments of society. One was a hilarious double entendre song by Chuck Berry that sounded like a nursery rhyme, and it came under fire from a teacher-turned-crusader who tried to ban it from the airwaves. But it only made it h...