Professor of Rock

We're serving up another Vault classic in honor of POR's Sammy Hagar giveaway. In this classic episode, the Red Rocker himself, Sammy Hagar tells us how he joined Van Halen and the resulting Music. He also tells the story behind creating the game changing song Dreams, the second single from their 1986 album 5150 which was the first Van Halen album to go to #1. The album 5150 is named after Eddie V...

Coming up, we just hit 1.5 million subscribers! And to celebrate I’m giving some love to a “lost art” in the music biz, the Greatest Hits Record… but with a twist! Back in the day, these compilations were a vital part of our collections: Beatles Red and Blue, Eagles (1971-1975), Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Journey,… we all loved having all the hits in one place. Today I’ve got my picks for the 9 gr...

Up next, a true story of resilience and redemption as we tell the story of STEVE MILLER BAND and their classic song Jet Airliner… a song that was trapped on an unreleased album by a guy named Paul Pena, who was stopped by legal battles and a ruthless manager, who was hell-bent on destroying his career. But hope emerged from an unexpected source when legendary rock star and "gangster of love" Steve...

Today, the name of the game is “Sabotage!” And it's sabotage in every sense of the word. And on this episode, we've got stories of self-destruction, tales of bands mutilating their songs in concert, and even undercutting rival bands onstage. We’ll tell the story of Liam Gallagher, who refused to perform Oasis's MTV Unplugged gig. And instead, he actually heckled his bandmates from the balcony thro...

Coming up next an interview with one of the greatest voices of the 80s…Tony Hadley who fronted new romantic band Spandau Ballet. He tells the story of their greatest songs including the classic TRUE and in the middle of the interview I shock him with the news that a boy band totally ripped off his classic song plus their other classics like Gold and his story of meeting Frank Sinatra. Let’s do it....

Rock has always had a rebellious streak… that’s why we love it, right? Well, coming up, I’m counting down 6 songs that stirred up controversy and pissed off all the wrong people. These are tracks that got banned, blacklisted, and canceled by gatekeepers and tastemakers. We’re back at it again with another edition of Taboo Songs! And one of these tracks by George Michael was one of the most talked-...

In 1986 Van Halen released their first album with new lead singer Sammy Hagar. 5150 became the band’s first number one album in the US and included three top 25 hits. It also contained a mind blowing rocker, Best of Both Worlds was a perfect pairing of Eddie’s guitar and Sammy’s voice that should’ve been a massive hit. Next up the story of this Van Halen classic with commentary by Sammy Hagar. See...

Coming up….we celebrate songs from one of the greatest years in music. These songs were HUGE back in the day, but decades later, sound really DATED. Just because they haven’t held up well doesn’t diminish our love for the songs, but it makes for an interesting study in music. One of the songs, Turn Up the Radio, came from a bunch of drinking buddies who were all in other bands but jammed for fun o...

We lost another great one, and for me, this one really hurt. I was honored to spend several hours with the legendary singer-songwriter and comeback kid Neil Sedaka several years ago, and we really hit it off. In fact, he sent me Christmas cards and kept in touch in the years after that. I was honored to call him a friend. Neil was definitely one of the good guys in music. He wrote so many classics...

Coming up, it’s never over until it’s over. On this episode, we’re featuring 6 bands and artists whose careers were buried 6 feet deep. All of them had already made it big. Fame and fortune, chart-topping hits, best-selling albums, legions of adoring fans… they had it all… well, until they didn’t. The music industry is very fickle, and even the best can fall on hard times. But today, we’re all abo...

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...

Coming up, another great song mystery. It’s a famous song everyone knows: House of the Rising Sun. But Nobody really knows who wrote it or what it’s specifically about. Today we have a special guest to help us solve it, The Animals Eric Burdon. It was either about a hooker or a prisoner. It’s centuries old but became a #1 hit when the lead singer of today’s Hall of Fame band covered it and may hav...

Today, we're diving into one of the most turbulent, passionate, and creatively explosive sagas in rock history. This British-American supergroup, Fleetwood Mac, turned their personal disasters into platinum records. But somehow, through all the substance abuse and betrayal, they channeled their misery into one of the most epic rock careers ever. For this episode, we’ve got the story of two songs t...

In this edition of 70s Hidden Gems, we dangerously hover over some gory pulp fiction with Bloodrock’s freaky D.O.A, We drift down the sea of heartbreak with Ian Gomm’s Hold On….and come together for a union of humanity with Livingston Taylor “I Will Be In Love With You" (James Taylor’s brother) and Lindisfarne with Run For Home and Robert Palmer’s Every Kind of People. This is A showcase of 5 dive...

Coming up, some of the greatest songs of the 70s have one thing in common. Even though they are classics and you hear all the time on classic rock radio, they were never hits. Some struggled and did not make the Top 40 on the Billboard chart, and some were not even released as singles. We'll share the story of legendary singer Carole King who had 24 hits before the age of 20, but when she went sol...

On March 1st, 1973, Pink Floyd released  The Dark Side of the Moon  — an album that redefined what rock music could be. In this episode, we revisit the making of this landmark record with legendary engineer Alan Parsons, who shares firsthand stories from inside Abbey Road Studios. From the heartbeat that opens the album to classics like “Time,” “Money,” and “The Great Gig in the Sky...

Oh man, this one is going to be something else. Today we're counting down 6 songs that became pop culture punchlines… These tracks that got mocked, misunderstood, and in some cases, flat-out destroyed. I’m talking about one musical legend, Isaac Hayes, whose biggest song, the Theme from Shaft, was parodied in pop culture more times than you can count, including by the Cookie Monster. But if that w...

We've had a tough couple of weeks in the music world, with the recent passing of an incredible 80s songwriter, Billy Steinberg. He penned five number one 80s songs for some of the era's biggest female artists, making him a true legend in songwriting. Dive into this episode of the music podcast to remember his famous songs and the impact of 80s music. Songwriters Hall of Famer Billy Steinberg, wrot...

It was one of the biggest breakups in rock history. After creating a catalog of desert island albums, Pink Floyd was torn apart by bitter feuding, behind-the-scenes schemes, and as one band member described it, “borderline megalomania.” Sadly, the inability of its two principal members Roger Waters and David Gilmour to put their differences aside made it impossible to continue. Roger Waters said t...

We did the 80s, but after thousands of requests for the 60s and 70s… we are counting down the top cartoon themes of those decades… And there are some spectacular stories to tell here. Like how The Flintstones started out as a prime time show with the main animated characters selling cigarettes during the commercials and even smoking them!. Then there is the famous voice actor who fell into a coma...

Here we are… more than twenty-six years into the 21st century, and you can really feel how much has changed since the start of the 2000s. Pop culture has evolved in big ways. When you rewatch a movie or TV show from one of your favorite decades, the outfits and the way people spoke have that distinctive sound & look that perfectly reflect that era. Songs can be like that. Songs from that favor...

So today we’re coming back to a show that we did a little while back that you all absolutely loved. It was one of our most popular episodes of 2025… the funniest “non-parody” songs of the Rock Era. Well, we’re back for round two, and these tracks don’t pull any punches. And some of these are really ridiculous. Included in the ranks is one rock’s most famous “teen crush" anthems, Stacy's Mom, a Mrs...

Coming up. Let’s dive into the bizarre and sensational era of the Satanic Panic, a time when songs were accused of harboring "evil" hidden messages, and bands faced relentless scrutiny as alleged corruptors of society. While heavy metal bands were the primary targets, even the likes of today’s squeaky clean band ELO, the Electric Light Orchestra, found themselves entangled in the fanatical crusade...

Let's reach into the vault for this classic from 2021. The brothers Hawkins from the Darkness tell the story behind their evolution in music including getting inspired by Queen as well as the story behind their Rock smash I Believe in a Thing Called Love one of the last great hard rock classic. A truly hilarious take from Justin and Dan Hawkins. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

It Only HIT #105...But 40 Years Later It's CLEARLY the BEST SONG of 1987! | Professor of Rock Coming up, we are covering one of the years that’s consistently called one of the 4 or 5 best years in rock history. In fact, it was so good there were dozens of incredible songs that missed the charts that were far better than any of the biggest hits of the last 15 years! It was a year full of major labe...