Professor of Rock

Coming up, an interview with the singer and guitarist from a hard rock band that exploded onto Radio and MTV in the 80s with a song that changed everything. Cult of Personality by Living Colour. Written by Singer Corey Glover and guitarist Vernon Reid. The opening riff blew minds and speakers… This band challenged the party all the time pop-metal bands of the moment giving us a dose of reality that set the stage for thinking man's rock and metal. and as we’ll hear in the exclusive interview that follows, They got their big break because the biggest star on the planet who loved their music told MTV if they didn’t put ‘em in heavy rotation he wouldn’t give them his new #1 hit video. The story Cult of Personality from the 1988 album Vivid by Living Colour is next! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Pink Floyd’s leader Syd Barrett descended into madness due to a break from reality and using drugs. The band was concerned that losing their frontman could be the end of their career so Roger Waters stepped up and took over songwriting duties. Then they pulled off the massive album Dark Side of the Moon with the help of a brilliant young engineer named Alan Parsons who decided not to do their follow-up. Was it luck or could they create a compelling follow-up themselves? today’s song is the result. Wish You Were Here from the 70s classic of the same name was partly written about their lost frontman. It was also one of the only songs that the two principal songwriters of this legendary group Roger Waters and David Gilmour truly collaborated on. Waters would call it a simple little country song… What? Prog Rock's Elite band gone country? it may be the greatest acoustic riff ever recorded and it contained screw-ups like David Gilmour coughing and wheezing because he was quitting smoking… This song and its album also prove that even though this legendary band has written some of the greatest songs ever a greatest hits album would be a disaster find out why next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today, it’s a band that started off strong in the 60s continued to dominate in the 70s with great songs like Night In White Satin...then Went away for a bit only to make a huge comeback in the 80s with an entirely new sound The Moody Blues… and in the process released one of their most successful songs ever. Your Wildest Dreams…a #1 AC hit from 1986 and #9 on the Hot 100... It’s a nostalgic track that will have you wondering whatever happened to the one that got away… And in fact, it had the songwriter Rock icon Justin Hayward wondering the exact same thing. It was an old Girlfriend he couldn’t forget. So believe it or not, decades later Justin tried to track her down. But was that a good idea? Find out what happened… if this shot in the dark turned into a happy ending or an all-out train wreck. No matter what though he got a #1 hit out of it. The story of the band, this comeback song, and this songwriter’s leap of faith is coming up… NEXT on the Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One day Dire Straits Frontman Mark Knopfler was shopping in a retail store and he happened to eavesdrop on two meathead workers ranting about Rockstars and how easy they have it. It was such an interesting conversation that he borrowed a piece of paper and wrote down what they said verbatim. He turned it into one of the biggest hits ever. Yet this frontman got lambasted by critics for using their exact conversation… It was controversial for sure but it was also meant to be satire…Later the song was banned… Earlier a happy accident in the studio created the iconic guitar sound that’s become a part of our culture and then the band had an idea to get Sting to sing on the song. He happened to be in town windsurfing and was able to record an iconic line I Want My MTV that would make it very simple to market especially on MTV. Later Weird Al Yankovic would parody it with Knopfler playing the guitar. It would be the defining track on Dire Straits 1985 masterpiece blockbuster Brothers In Arms. The story is next on Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up next Rock’s most notorious bad boy Axl Rose had been working on a piano song for about 8 years… It was actually the only song he knew how to play on the piano and he wanted his band Guns N’ Roses to record it. But as guitarist Slash would point out...they weren’t a Ballad Band.. they wanted to rock. It would be called November Rain. They tried recording this epic that had more in common with classical music than rock… at one point it was 25 minutes long. In the end, Slash added 3 bold solos, then they added a choir that included a future rock frontman by the name of Shannon Hoon who was in Blind Melon. And together they created the most expensive video ever with a leading lady the singer had hand-picked from a magazine cover…Stephanie Seymour. He would ask her to marry him before it was over. Up next, the unbelievable story of one of the biggest songs ever... November Rain from Use Your Illusion on Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s quite possibly the most vulnerable song about a broken relationship of the Rock Era. The late Gordon Lightfoot wrote an absolutely gut-wrenching ballad where a man, who was once a hero, calls himself out as the culprit for a failed marriage, and pleads with his wife not for forgiveness, but for empathy. It’s the story of the 70s classic If You Could Read My Mind. Years later Gordon’s daughter pled with him to change the lyrics to this heart-wrenching ballad. We also tell the story of Gordon’s rise to fame and pay our respects to the singer/ songwriter who was on Bob Dylan’s Favorites. An institution. Mr. Gordon Lightfoot. ...NEXT…on Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Okay, so this one’s an episode I’ve been needing to do for a long time. And I’ll be upfront with you. It’s a topic that really gets under my skin, so I’ll try to be positive. Today we’re counting down my all-time, Top 5 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame snubs… bands and artists who are well overdue for the so-called honor, but routinely get passed over year after year. There is a long list of rock hall snubs…From Iron Maiden to The Guess Who from Pixies to Motorhead from New York Dolls to the Smiths from Joy Division/New Order to Slayer from Styx to Foreigner to Jethro Tull and Thin Lizzy, Motley Crue, Toto the list goes on and on. We’re also going to try to figure out why the Rock Hall routinely refuses to induct actual rock artists into their ranks. They’re called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but they seem to have a bias against rock and Roll? I’m not going to be pulling any punches here. I just want to give some love to some classic rock icons that I think we all admire and I want to hear yours too… It’s all coming up… NEXT on the Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A flare gun fired by an idiot attending a concert led to the burning of a casino and a towering fire in the sky. The rock band Deep Purple happened to be in attendance and was supposed to record their new record Machine Head there the next day…they saw the whole thing. A few days later the band’s bassist Roger Glover had a nightmare about the fire and a legendary song title came to him Smoke on the Water…. sometime later a riff just as iconic came to guitarist Ritchie Blackmore that he borrowed from a famous classical piece… It would be a chore to record. They were shut down by the Police for playing too loud. Then they had to move to an abandoned hotel to record…It was a disaster. Once they recorded this legendary song. they didn’t think much of it. Ian Gillen sang the hell out of it. One day Deep Purple played it live and got a massive reaction. They decided to release it as the last single off the album and it became their biggest hit. The riveting story of the disaster in Montreux NEXT on Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today’s song was a comeback #1 hit for a legendary band named the Doobie Brothers who lost their iconic singer, Tom Johnston to Sickness. What A Fool Believes was written in a cool way… It was actually a collaboration between 2 legends Michel McDonald and Kenny Loggins. There were both aware of one another and wanted to write together. So a meeting was set… Kenny Loggins pulled up to Michael McDonald's house he could hear that the smooth voiced yacht rocker was at the piano trying to work out a song part he was stuck on… It was “What a Fool Believes” As Kenny made his way to the door the rest of the song came to him and he immediately said I know how the rest of the song should go and he sad this right before he shook hands and met him for the first time and they nailed the song in just a short time. up next we have interviews with both legends and get the real story of the definitive Yacht rock song ever! It went to #1 in 1979 one of the only non disco song to do so and won a grammy for song of the year! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

So here’s one for you. How many songs do you know that were cut from a ground-breaking album, turned into a B-side several times, and then placed on a movie soundtrack as an afterthought… only to then rocket up the charts to become a #1 single? Doesn’t happen very often, right? Well, the Red Hot Chili Peppers did just that with their 90s rock classic Soul to Squeeze. Actually, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith, the Red Hot Chili Peppers had it all ready to go as a part of a double album which was to be BloodSugarSexMagik, but their label demanded they cut the record in half. And since they’d already written another song like it the #1 hit Under the Bridge, they just dropped it. But as it turns out this song resonated with a lot of people who felt like outcasts. I guess everybody loves an underdog. Get ready, it’s the incredible story of the #1 Alternative Rock hit that never should have happened. And it’s coming up… NEXT on the Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.