Professor of Rock

Coming up next, one of the most incredible bottled lightning stories ever. Today’s artist Billy Vera released what he felt was a huge hit, At The Moment. But it failed in 1981… Years went by and Billy’s prospects dwindled… he thought his career was over. But then in the mid-80s, he caught a lucky break. A popular TV show, Family Ties, played At This Moment on an episode and millions of viewers wer...

After Led Zeppelin dropped their fourth album, arguably the greatest rock album of all time, at the tail end of 1971... the world braced for what came next. Expectations for the next record were through the roof. with everyone assuming it would be a hard-hitting and heavy sequel. But everyone was wrong. Zeppelin’s 1973 follow-up Houses of Holy was a diverse and experimental collection of unconvent...

If you're free tonight, I'd love to invite you to an exclusive party. It's going to be packed with 'A-list' celebrities, and we'll be living it up like rock stars... Doesn't that sound like a blast? Maybe… But for Pete Townsend, a musician who could easily be carved into the Mt. Rushmore of guitar heroes, the glitzy lives of the rich and famous aren't all they're cracked up to be. In fact, for thi...

Coming up, an interview with Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply, a band that got into music because of the Beatles. And then in the 80s, they quietly equaled them with so many hits that they had a greatest hits album 3 years into their career. When Air Supply started out they were so poor they were couch diving to find change just to eat. Just a few years later their first 7 single...

Coming up, the story of the immensely talented yet unsettled vocalist Sinead O’Connor, who had a fleeting moment of fame in 1990 with a massive hit single Nothing Compares 2 U—a stunning remake of a song written by Prince, one of the true musical geniuses of our time. However, Sinead’s encounter with Prince turned into something straight out of the Twilight Zone. Despite the incredible success of...

Coming up… an interview with the most underappreciated band of the first half of the 90s, the Gin Blossoms. They created a newly flawless major label debut New Miserable Experience, but during the recording of it, their primary songwriter and guitarist Doug Hopkins had to be fired due to his out-of-control drinking. Then their debut album imploded when it was first released in the summer of 92. Th...

Next, Berlin’s Terri Nunn was an up-and-coming actress who had some great roles on TV and was a finalist to play the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars. She even auditioned with Harrison Ford. But as she’ll tell you in our interview next he didn’t like her. Terri also managed to piss off William Shatner in another appearance... So she didn’t get the role and turns out her acting career would be sh...

It was a trans-Atlantic musical arms race… two titanic rock and roll bands — The Beach Boys and The Beatles — trading punches and landmark records. Each chasing perfection and forever changing how we listen to music. In the midst of this musical battle, genius whizkid Brian Wilson envisioned the perfect album, a record to end all records. An innovative masterpiece he called SMiLE. The symphony was...

Up next… I used to Hate ABBA’s music. But you all convinced me to give them another chance. So I took your advice and today’s song The Winner Takes It All has become a favorite… and the story behind it is just as rich! It was written by the group’s main songwriter Bjorn Ulvaeus as he was going through a tough breakup with one of the singers of the band, Agnetha Faltskog… It was a heart-wrenching,...

Coming up, we’re headed back to 1984 for our latest episode of the Hit Song Redux. Except this time there’s a twist. See what I mean next. I gotta say I’m excited to get into this one because I believe 1984 was the greatest year in music history. But get this… only 5 records reached #1 that entire year… that’s how competitive it was. It was insane. Records by MJ, Prince, Springsteen, Huey Lewis, a...

Sylvester Stallone called the Rookie Band Survivor up and hired them to write the lead song for Rocky 3. Survivor responded with Eye of the Tiger and is was a smash on rock radio in 1982 when it hit #1 for 6 weeks. Then lead singer Dave Bickler went down with throat issues and the band thought they might be finished. After a FAILED album, in stepped Jimi Jamison who nailed the audition and became...

Coming up, the story of Mony Mony, a song that was a major hit twice for two different iconic artists: Tommy James and Billy Idol. It was a smash in the late 60s and the late 80s and the iconic title came when the band had the song finished but couldn’t figure out a singable chorus with a filler word. Then they looked out the window and saw the iconic words flashing on a building. Years later Mony...

David Bowie was the foremost musical chameleon, changing his style and persona numerous times and was always ahead of the times. But in the 80s, did he finally succumb to the fad of the times? Many called his catchy 1983 #1 smash Let's Dance a sellout… but no matter, there’s no doubt this single marked a major turning point in Bowie’s career putting his face all over the new medium of music videos...

This would NEVER happen today. How about this for a cool rock story? So The Rascals coming off a big #1, wrote Groovin', what they thought was another hit. But one of the most famous record men in history, Jerry Wexler, didn’t like it. 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 cornered the iconic labe...

Coming up… the story behind the signature song Locomotive Breath by Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, a figure who was disenchanted by the rock n’ roll stars of the 50s. Even Elvis repelled him… In an effort to forge his own path, and be like no other performer, Ian learned to play an instrument not normally associated with rock music as his hallmark for distinction and played it on stage in a style th...

Today, we’re on a two-song collision course with two irresistible, big-time #1 hits by Chic that ruled radio for years. The first song Le Freak was inspired by a New Year’s Eve outing gone horribly wrong. Standing in the freezing cold outside an iconic nightclub, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were humiliated as they were barred from entering… while their music was blasting inside. So they got r...

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Coming up next, we're covering Duran Duran, the band that epitomized the 80s. In fact, you couldn’t really call the 80s the 80s without these guys, the identity of the 80s is wrapped up in this band. Duran Duran made a revolutionary music video for Hungry Like the Wolf that was initially rejected by American audiences. But the timing was perfect because MTV was a fledgling channel and when the two...

Coming up next … Over the last few years I’ve shared hundreds of interviews… And in celebration of hitting 1 million subs, today, I’m sharing my favorite interview of all time. One that I personally watch every month, you’ll find out why next… It’s my most personal episode of Professor of Rock and it's coming up next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices See Privacy...

Before REO Speedwagon became a household name, they had two big songs that changed everything for them: Roll With the Changes and Time for Me to Fly. As you‘ll see in the upcoming interview with lead singer Kevin Cronin, their breakthrough hit came while he was driving his Ford Pinto from his home in the Midwest to LA to make it in the music industry… As he was driving he had a paper bag full of s...

From studio gopher to global superstar, Jon Bon Jovi spent years chasing his big break. Working the club circuit as an underage teenager, Jon was shocked one night when his musical idol Bruce Springsteen jumped on stage and started duetting with him! Actually, he was singing The Boss's song at the time. Pretty cool. Later when Bon Jovi finally got a demo for his song Runaway recorded, he was rejec...

Coming up…. the story of Fox on the Run by 70s British supergroup Sweet. This band had relied heavily on a famous production team to write all of their big hits, but Sweet was sick of singing only the songs they wrote. So the band decided to show what they could do. They had written a good song but no one thought the song had potential to be a single, except for this one executive at the band’s re...

Coming up… We take the time machine back to the golden days of glam rock n’ roll... and the psychic artist who created the genre…. Marc Bolan of T Rex was one of a kind. When he was 8 years old, he foretold that he was going to be a rock star, He broke through in the US with the classic song Bang A Gong (Get it On). Between 1970 & 74, he became the biggest rock star in the UK. He also predicte...

In 1981 at the forefront of the MTV Revolution, a straight-ahead rocking bar band called Tommy Tutone released a song that would become an all-time touchstone of pop culture... 867-5309/Jenny. And it came to the songwriter from a message scrawled on a bathroom stall. After being sung just one time, 867-5309/Jenny it became the most famous digits ever sung in a pop song. Up next 2 members from the...

Coming up, an interview with Norman Greenbaum. He is a rockstar that I’ve been trying to track down for almost 8 years to get the story of what I believe is the greatest one-hit wonder in the history of music... Spirit in the Sky. But I couldn’t find him. I had heard rumors that he had just disappeared and couldn’t be found. Then fate stepped in and I met him at a concert. To celebrate a million s...