Professor of Rock

Up next, an interview with a singer-songwriter that many gen-exers had a crush on. Lisa Loeb! She was in a duo and then they broke up… She actually played music for 10 years and sold indie cassettes of her music but never caught a break until she met an up-and-coming actor, Ethan Hawke… He lived near her. He caught a show and gave a cassette of one of her songs to a director for consideration for...

While trying to finish their second album, today’s band Thompson Twins needed one more song. But they needed it quick. So their frontman Tom Bailey wrote a last-minute filler track overnight… just something to tack on the end of the record, But as it turned out, it was an accidental #1 hit. It was the 80s smash In the Name Of Love And it turned the band upside down: changing their musical directio...

Coming up the story of a song released under a heavy dispute between a Glam Rock God, and the King of early 90s Soft Rock. It was Paul Stanley of Kiss vs. Michael Bolton. The Co-writing credits read that both wrote the power ballad Forever. It was also the first hit by Kiss in more than 12 years. During that dry spell, two members of the original lineup were gone Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, and s...

When today’s legendary band came out, they were unlike anything anyone had ever heard back in… Black Sabbath! Their music was hardcore and at first, they almost called themselves a three-word title that started with Polka, thankfully they saw a horror movie around that time and took its much cooler title as their name.. Their first record was destroyed by the critics but out of nowhere fans bought...

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Coming up an interview with iconic guitar player George Thorogood who’s 1982 laid back full throttle riff of Bad to the Bone has dominated our society for decades and it wasn’t even a hit when it first came out. He wrote it when he got to open for his own rock and roll heroes the Rolling Stones… He tried to emulate Keith Richard’s typical, legendary, can’t get it out of your head riff style… and H...

Mick Hucknall of Simply Red was abandoned by his mother when he was only 2 years old... Later in high school his art teacher said something that inspired him to attempt writing songs. His first try was a song about Ice Cream but The second song was so far ahead his 17 years it was shocking. Holding Back the Years was and is a deeply methodical song about loss, regret and abandonment. He worked har...

In the 70s, Cheap Trick went on a crazy commercial rollercoaster through the music industry. Starting off slow with their first few records, they unexpectedly rose to the top of the tracks with a foreign import Live at Budokan. From there this band with the scorching duo of singer Robin Zander and Guitarist Rick Nielsen piled up platinum hits consistently and it seemed like they would coast right...

Was this 1983 hit record, recorded by the #1 band of the time actually a solo album in disguise? Synchronicity by the Police with Sting taking center stage: the #1 album was composed almost singlehandedly by this frontman, the 1983 record featured four hit songs, including the massive #1 hit Every Breath You Take. But as good as that one is, it may not be the album’s defining track. Rather, I’d sa...

Coming up...The story of two brothers who lost their father to the gun of a drifter when they were mere toddlers. Gregg and Duane Allman lost their father at an early. age. They learned how to make music and formed a band together as teenagers that would become the stuff of legends… the Allman Brothers Band. They would rule rock radio and help invent southern rock as know it. In the 70s the band w...

COMING UP, the story behind an absolute classic of Rock told by its iconic singer. Joy to the World by Three Dog Night became the #1 song of 1971. Chuck Negron who was one of their singers at the time sang those perfect opening lyrics….4 words that would change everything. Jeremiah was a bullfrog. and the rest is history. The song was actually a discarded song from a silly kid’s show that failed....

In 1983 at the height of MTV #1 female rocker Pat Benatar took POP radio hostage with this explosive anthem…Love is a Battlefield. Today I sit down with the famous co-writer of this classic…Holly Knight... It started out when her legendary songwriting partner, Mike Champman blurted out a weird title and then the 2 songwriters sat across from each other with a swimming pool between them and shot a...

Coming up… In 1985 legendary band Genesis took some time off when their lead singer Phil Collins was working on his solo album No Jacket Required. So the band's other prolific songwriter and guitarist Mike Rutherford started his own band… He called it Mike and the Mechanics. They recruited two different singers Paul Young and Paul Carrack and out of nowhere they had a hit album that contained 3 bi...

Coming up… Another helping from Two of rock and roll’s greatest storytellers. Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman wrote the biggest 60s and 70s hits when they were part of the Guess Who...They had already had a couple of hits with These Eyes and Laughing when they released a monster record in the early 70s American Woman that included two #1 hits and a top 5. They were American Woman and No Sugar To...

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Today’s aspiring songwriters and lovers were so dirt poor that at times they struggled to even feed themselves. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were down and out before the joined Mick Fleetwood…Just between them, they couldn’t even afford a bed frame and slept on a mattress on the floor. as it turns out, that would be a key memory years later… after they had sold millions of records with one...

Coming up, an interview with one of the 80s great hitmakers. The most successful duo of the rock era, Daryl Hall and John Oates Everything they touched turned to Gold and Platinum. Here, John Oates tells the story of a number-one hit from the mid-80s that came at the crossroads of Analog and digital… Out of Touch, it was their final #1 hit after ruling the neon decade with 11 hits, and this one wa...

Coming up…A story of scorned passion…revenge, and arson. It sounds like a film noir thriller, but it was actually an innocent 2-minute song called Norwegian Wood by a little band called the Beatles! The song was based on a cheating husband (John Lennon) whose finished masterpiece managed to offend one of the most influential artists of the Rock Era and change the landscape of popular music for gen...

Up next The Electric story of one of the 70s greatest masterpieces. Bennie and the Jets by Elton John. A song that was truly a happy accident… as Elton stuttered a word in the chorus and it became the best part of the song… along with some misheard lyrics that most have been singing incorrectly for years. It was a hodge podge of Glam rock and fantasy to create a song that Elton was pissed off at t...

When Bad Songs Happen to Great Bands… Did one of the greatest bands of all time, the Beach Boys release one of the worst songs of all time in Kokomo? Today we’re telling the story of that chart-topping hit that polarized music fans. You’ve seen our #1 in Our Hearts episodes? Well, today’s episode could be the reverse of that. it’s made too many Worst Song of All-Time lists to count! How could one...

Coming up. It may be the most famous opening monologue from a classic song ever …a brave sermon every 80s kid knows by heart. Prince Let’s Go Crazy, the #1 smash from the Purple Rain Soundtrack that blew up 1984. Just by its first few words: Dearly Beloved we are gathered here today to get through this thing called Life! Let’s Go Crazy is a high-energy, savage synth-rock masterpiece that will have...

Coming up next, a star-studded event with a diverse group of legends telling the story behind one of the Biggest movie soundtracks of the 80s. Footloose. It was one of only 5 albums to hit #1 the year it came out. A record that still stands and as a soundtrack it had 6 top 40 hits Footloose by Kenny Loggins, Let’s Hear it For the Boy by Deniece Williams, Almost Paradise by Mike Reno of Loverboy an...

Two of most cerebral rockers and known perfectionists Donald Fagen and Walter Becker AKA Steely Dan, just knew they had a song for their debut album with Hit potential. It was called Reeling in the Years and was a bitter retort against Donald’s girlfriend who had ripped his heart out so he wrote a “get even” song that was missing one little thing... it lacked vibrancy and passion. So, the duo foll...

Up next the Mike Reno singer from the 80s rock band Loverboy breaks down one of their signature songs. It rocked the 80s. It’s a song that put ‘em on the map and started their rise to play stadiums. Mike Reno and guitarist Paul Dean met at a warehouse where the guitarist was jamming with his new band. Reno asked if he could belt out a few songs and it was so electrifying the two decided to collabo...

Paul Simon wrote the title track to the best-selling album of 1970, 71, and 72 as half of one of the biggest groups of the Rock Era, Simon and Garfunkel When the duo broke up, he embarked on a very successful solo career that burned hot through the 70s. But by the early 80s, his star had cooled, and he dug deep within his artistic soul for inspiration that took him to a faraway continent… Africa....