Professor of Rock

Coming up… the story of Eagles, one of the biggest-selling rock bands ever... and their all-important third album On the Border, as told by 2 great interviewees J.D. Souther and Jack Tempchin who co-wrote the 2 hits that transformed Eagles into rock royalty: Already Gone and Best of My Love. Their first 2 albums established them as a force to be reckoned with but it also typecast them as soft rock...

Coming up, a tale of one of the most misjudged, underrated, and overlooked tracks that evolved into a classic rock favorite, Old Time Rock and Roll by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. This song was sent to Hall of Fame rocker Bob Seger by a legendary group of session musicians searching for the perfect performer to bring it to life. When Seger recorded Old Time Rock and Roll, he says he rewro...

Just a word of advice. Don’t rush this guy. Today we’re telling the story of Boston's perfectionist rock savant Tom Scholz whose attention to detail is the secret ingredient to some of the rock era’s most iconic tracks. After spending six years working on demos in his basement studio, Tom Scholz and Boston released one of the best-selling records of the 70s. Its lead single More Than a Feeling ble...

Coming up next, an interview with Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom of Blue Oyster Cult, a band that haunted radio in the 70s with the CHILLING ROCK CLASSIC Don't Fear the Reaper. It was written as a spiritual song, but its hypnotic guitars, thrilling percussion, and stirring harmonies led to so many urban legends and false narratives about its real meaning. Don't Fear the Reaper was unfairly painted as...

Alright, get this. So in an effort to perfect today’s featured song All Night Long (All Night), Lionel Richie stalked his wife’s gynecologist. That’s right, you heard me. Lionel repeatedly called up his wife’s doctor because he wanted to learn how to emulate a Jamaican accent for All Night Long. Finally, this doctor had to tell Lionel to stop calling because it was interfering with his work. But t...

Coming up. Today’s guitarist Mike Campbell was elated. He thought he’d written the best song of his career, The Boys of Summer. He was over the moon to show it to his band The Heartbreakers and their legendary singer Tom Petty. When Mike brought it in to show Tom and their producer, Jimmy Iovine. They both passed on it. They didn’t hear. it. Mike Campbell was crushed. Jimmy Iovine felt bad so he s...

Coming up next, interviews with Eric Burdon and Harold Brown of the 70s group Eric Burdon and War... on their hit debut single Spill the Wine. It was one of the biggest songs of 1970. It was also one of the strangest. So many urban legends behind this one. Spill the Wine is rumored to have been inspired by the band members knocking over a bottle of wine on the studio console. The song was hard to...

Up next one of rock’s most mesmerizing frontmen, Jim Morrison, was playing one of The Doors's new songs "The End" as the house band for one of California’s most happening clubs... when Jim suddenly went off on a creative tangent that hearkened back to a story from Greek mythology. But the audience had no idea what was going on… Jim Morrison took a song that was already about death, birth, freedom,...

Coming up… an interview with the singer and songwriter Don McLean… an all-time legend on the story behind the most storied rock and roll song ever, American Pie. Its lyrics have fostered debate and conjecture for over 50 years, with a chorus that everyone knows by heart and never gets tired of. American Pie is probably the song that will live on the longest because of its message. It was the longe...

While gazing out from a hilltop in the English countryside, for the first time in forever, Peter Gabriel saw his life clearly. Seven years, six albums, mega-superstardom, and masses of fans with his band Genesis.. yet it had all run its course. Fame wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Peter left it all for a time to focus inward… In fact, this Genesis kept their break up a secret for a year… After...

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Coming up next, one of the most powerful moments with an artist that I’ve ever had in an interview. You’ll see why. Kenny Loggins has had huge hits in every decade since the 70s. Up next Kenny tells the story of two of his classic songs including one about the first song he wrote as a teenager, House at Pooh Corner, and how Disney had their lawyers block it... until a twist of fate willed it to th...

When one of the biggest bands in history, The Beatles, broke up, all the members of the band released solo projects almost immediately. The first of the band to have a number-one hit was a bit of a surprise thought... George Harrison. He ended up having one hell of a solo run but his biggest hit My Sweet Lord would also become his greatest trial. Harrison got sued for sounding too much like anothe...

Alright, you’re never going to believe this one. Coming up on today’s episode, we’ve got a song that has no name, no artist, and no date as to when it was recorded. Most believe it was composed in the early to mid-80s. But really, everything about this song has been lost to history… Not even Google can figure this one out. And forget Shazam and ChatGPT. The only evidence we have that this song eve...

Quiet Riot led the charge for the popularization of metal music in the 80s with a landmark album of rebellion called Metal Health. Yet the sharp-tongued comments to the public by their outspoken frontman Kevin DuBrow, the jealousy of their peers, and altercations with fans, made them the most vilified band in rock. DuBrow had a self-proclaimed alligator mouth, and his reckless audacity ultimately...

The Story of the 1985 song Brothers in Arms by Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits. Dire Straits ruled 1985 and 1986 with their blockbuster multi-platinum classic album Brothers in Arms, pushed forward by the big hit Money For Nothing with it's bombastic MTV video and the secondary hits So Far Away and Walk of Life. But the most moving song on the album is the incredible title track Brothers in Arms. P...

Over the course of several years, Bruce Springsteen wrote around 100 songs… And somehow he whittled them down to just one epic record called Born in the U.S.A. It was a record that was more commercial than he had ever wanted to create. Exhausted and ready to move on, Springsteen was finally done with it. Only, his manager said it wasn’t enough. He told The Boss he needed a blockbuster hit. Pissed...

Coming up Rod Stewart was a gravedigger who wanted to be a rockstar. So in his spare time, he wrote music and played in a band hoping to make it. Rod wrote a song called Maggie May about the most embarrassing moment of his life. He thought the song rambled on, had no hook, and was crap. It was put onto the B-side of Reason to Believe, a song he didn’t even write. Well, it so happens that Reason to...

Coming up, an interview with the singer Phil Wright of the 70s band Paper Lace, with one of the most fascinating song stories of the 70s. Paper Lace had two #1 hits in the 70s but was a one-hit-wonder hit in America with The Night Chicago Died. There were two hits that were written by the same songwriting team. First, Paper Lace recorded Billy Don't Be a Hero and it hit #1 in the UK but out of now...

Coming up, the story of Genesis, a band that was so great at creating hits that they had multiple projects in between albums… In fact, between lead singer Phil Collins and bassist Mike Rutherford, they had over a dozen top 10 hits over just a couple of years. But today’s song Land of Confusion might be their best. It was so prophetic many now wonder if they were time travelers because this 1986 sm...

So coming up, today’s featured song Ticket to Ride is pretty loaded. And by their own admission, so were the Beatles when they wrote it. There are some conflicting accounts of what inspired this one… Paul McCartney cited just an average-ordinary train ride as its source. While John Lennon credited German prostitutes. That’s right. Bet you weren’t expecting that one. Lennon would also call Ticket t...

Man, I may be going against my better judgment on this one. In the crosshairs today, I’ve got a selection of cringe-worthy 80s novelty tracks that are “so bad, they’re good.” We’re talking songs like Pac-Man Fever, Party All the Time, and the Super Bowl Shuffle. But on the other hand, some of these songs killed it on Billboard Hot 100. So someone must have thought they were good back in the day. W...

The gripping story of one of the most CHILLING songs of the rock era … Hey You by Rock’s most mysterious band Pink Floyd. The author of this song Roger Waters found out over the phone that his wife was leaving him for another man… And so did Hey You's protangonist Pink. This emotional revelation was just one part of a devastating list of psychological daggers that nearly killed him… Choosing to is...

Coming up, it's the story of Queen and their #1 rockabilly smash, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, one of the best-selling singles of 1980. Although the song was a tribute to the King of Rock n’ Roll Elvis Presley, its genesis had nothing to do with hound dog, or a pilgrimage to Graceland… It was actually conceived while Freddie Mercury was taking… a bubble bath. He ran it into the studio immediate...

Coming up, an interview with Lou Gramm, one of the greatest rock voices in history about his biggest hit. He was in the Hall of Fame band Foreigner, and they ruled the 70s and 80s. But as they hit their peak the Lou wanted to Rock, but their guitarist and band leader Mick Jones was writing softer ballads. So Lou brought in a rock song he’d written called Midnight Blue to possibly put on their next...