It’s another chapter in The Dialogue Series - A chill ‘n chat with authors, fellow podcasters, musicians, and more. The guest in this episode is Keith R. Higgons. He’s the host of the Abandoned Albums podcast, one of my favorites. Keith is a die-hard classic rock fan and is a great interviewer. He’s genuinely curious about the guests he has on and it shows. We’ll talk about the podcast and it turns out that Keith is a big reader and he’s got some great books we’ll talk about including a new...

Author Joel Selvin talks about his new book Drums & Demons: The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon. Jim Gordon has been called the greatest rock drummer of all time by the world-famous musicians who played with him—John Lennon, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, Joe Cocker, and many more. They knew him for his superior playing, extraordinary training and technique, preternatural intuition, perfect sense of time, and his “big fill”—the...

This episode’s guest is author Steven Blush. His book American Hairmetal: Can’t Get Enough has just been released. This is an expanded edition of the book originally released by Feral House in 2006. Interest in hair metal is as strong as it was over three decades ago. In the summer of 2022 Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard went out on a stadium tour with Poison, and Joan Jett as supporting acts. The tour brought in $173.5 million, making it the highest-grossing tour of either band’s career. In...

Writer/musician S.W. Lauden is this episode's guest to talk about a limited-edition vinyl LP compilation and oral history book called Generation Blue. The album and book explore the Hollywood Geek Rock scene of the '90s and early 2000s, featuring key bands Nerf Herder, The Rentals, Ozma, Baby Lemonade, Psoma, and Weezer who released their triple-platinum Blue Album 30 years ago this spring.  Previewed by the hit indie single “Where The Hell Is She,” a lost Geek Rock nugget by the band...

Author Geoff Harkness returns to the podcast to discuss his latest book 40-Foot Lemon: The Complete Story of U2's Pop & PopMart. U2 had been on a decade-long run of hits when they released their album Pop in 1997. That included The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. The band’s Zoo TV tour in the early 1990s was a multimedia extravaganza that dazzled critics and sold-out venues the world over. But Pop turned out to be U2’s worst-selling album, and the accompanying PopMart tour played to...

Cam Cobb is the author of Weighted Down: The Complicated Life of Skip Spence - the biography on the legendary '60s cult musician known for his time in era-defining bands Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Moby Grape. While celebrated by the likes of Tom Waits, Beck, and Robert Plant, Spence's life was sadly plagued by substance abuse, erratic behavior, and poor mental health. Spence’s story is the story of the 60s and one that has never been told in full until now....

Author Thomas "Nordy" Nordwall opens a window to the ways of the road and the extreme lengths Grateful Dead fans will go to, just to get that miracle ticket and be at one more Grateful Dead gig! His book Tour Head: "I Was an Acid-Fueled Teenage Dead Fiend!" is a humorous, yet unflinching look at a life spent in pursuit of a musical dream. Told from the perspective of someone who is not a musician in a traveling band, just a rabid fan, so obsessed that depression would set in if a few shows...

It’s another chapter in The Dialogue Series - A chill ‘n chat with authors, fellow podcasters, musicians, and more.  Our guest is award-winning filmmaker and Amazon # bestselling author Staci Layne Wilson. Stacy has written, produced, and hosted three entertainment talk shows online: This Week In Movies, Inside Horror, and Dread Central Live. She has been featured on the BBC, Bravo, Reelz, MTV, CNN, and many more as a film historian and author. She’s recently released the book titled...

Picking up where Samuel Johnson left off more than two centuries ago, Ray Robertson’s Lives of the Poets (with Guitars): Thirteen Outsiders Who Changed Modern Music offers up an amplified gathering of thirteen portraits of rock & roll, blues, folk, and alt-country’s most inimitable artists. Irreverent and riotous, Robertson explores the “greater or lesser heat” with which each musician shaped their genre while offering absorbing insight into their often tumultuous lives. Robertson...

Since exploding on the scene in the late 1970s, Journey has inspired generations of fans with hit after hit. But hidden under this rock ‘n’ roll glory is a complex story of ambition, larger-than-life personalities, and clashes. In his new book Livin' Just to Find Emotion: Journey and the Story of American Rock, David Hamilton Golland unearths the band’s true and complete biography, based on over a decade of interviews and thousands of sources. When Steve Perry joined jazz-blues progressive...

Author Gillian G. Gaar is this episode's guest to talk about her brand-new book Springsteen @ 75. Through 75 career releases, performances, and accolades, this book covers it all including Bruce’s childhood in New Jersey and his time in early garage bands, The Castiles and Steel Mill. All 20 studio albums are covered along with a selection of his greatest singles. Also included are Bruce’s relationships with notable bandmates Steven Van Zandt and the late Clarence Clemons, his legendary...

Author Chris Sutton has a new book as part of the Sonicbond On Track series called AC/DC: Every Album, Every Song. One of the greatest bands in rock history, AC/DC has released eighteen studio albums, two soundtrack albums, three live albums, and 57 singles. They’ve sold over 200 million albums worldwide and their 1980 album Back In Black became the second biggest-selling album in history with 50 million copies sold worldwide. Sutton not only gives an analysis of every track on every studio...

It’s another chapter in The Dialogue Series - A chill ‘n chat with authors, fellow podcasters, musicians, and more.   Our guests are Darin Bristow and Brent Kinnaird, the hosts of the podcast devoted to Sammy Hagar called The Bogus Otis Show: 9 Degrees of Sammy Hagar. The guys fill us in on how they got the podcast started, what’s behind that name Bogus Otis, and what it was like having Sammy Hagar himself appear on the podcast. We discuss Sammy’s career from Montrose, to his first solo run,...

Author Greg Prato is back and this time to tell us about his brand new book World Infestation: The Ratt Story. Greg recounts Ratt's entire tale – from their beginnings as a band slugging it out on the Sunset Strip, to it's rise to fame, the breakups, the tragedy, the lawsuits that take us right up to today. This book tells the Ratt story through interviews Greg has conducted over the years with several being exclusive for this book. He also includes quotes from one of the last interviews...

Since his brother Edward’s passing on October 6th, 2020, Alex Van Halen has remained mostly silent. Aside from brief statements to commemorate his younger brother’s birthday and his passing posted to social media, we have yet to see or hear Alex speak. Instead, he’s decided to break his silence with his autobiography Brothers due out on October 22nd. I’ve asked two special guests to join the podcast to discuss Alex's upcoming book - Greg Renoff and Chris Gill. Greg Renoff is the author of...

Mark Arnold and Charles F. Rosenay are the authors of the brand new book Not Just Happy Together: The Turtles from A-Z (AM Radio to Zappa). Discover the songs and the history of one of the most successful pop rock bands ever, The Turtles, who had countless Top 40 hits including “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “Let Me Be,” “You Baby,” “She’d Rather Be with Me,” “You Know What I Mean,” “She’s My Girl,” “Elenore,” “You Showed Me” and of course, the iconic “Happy Together!” Authors Mark Arnold (Long...

Kevan Furbank is the author of 1972: When Progressive Rock Ruled The World. The year 1972 was when Progressive Rock came of age, when bands and artists still revered today produced some of their most ground-breaking, inventive, and enduring musical creations. Furbank looks at some of the artists and albums that made 1972 such a watershed in musical achievement. He follows their development from the first tentative notes and chords to the full-blown recordings that, more than 50 years later,...

Paul Simpson's story is one wild ride and it's all revealed in his memoir titled Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism. Part memoir, part social history, Revolutionary Spirit is the poignant, often hilarious story of a cult Liverpool musician’s scenic route to fame and artistic validation. If Morrissey was the Oscar Wilde of the 1980s indie scene, Simpson was its William Blake, a self destructive genius so lost in mystical visions of a new Arcadia that he couldn’t meet the rent....

Jeff Apter is the author of Don’t Dream It’s Over: The Remarkable Life Of Neil Finn. Don't Dream It's Over is the first biography to focus exclusively on Neil Finn, the man who wrote the timeless hits of Split Enz and Crowded House. In February 1980, 21-year-old Neil Mullane Finn penned the hit song 'I Got You' for Kiwi band Split Enz, co-founded by his older brother Tim. Over five decades, Neil created multiple hits for Split Enz, his band Crowded House and as a solo artist including “Don’t...

It’s another chapter in The Dialogue Series - A chill ‘n chat with authors, fellow podcasters, musicians, and more. New York City singer/songwriter and attorney Alan Chapell is our guest. Alan is a solo artist while also performing and recording with his band Chapell, whose 2016 album The Redhead’s Allegations was produced by Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads. In 2022, Chapell’s music was streamed 1.5 million times in 2022. They’re about to release a brand-new...

Jim Serger, Chris Berger, and Todd Zimmerman are here to the true, coming-of-age story of five teenagers and their experience attending a Van Halen concert back in 1984. It's all part of their brand new book Jump: 40th Anniversary of Attending the "1984" Van Halen Concert. Van Halen was at the height of their success thanks to their #1 single “Jump” and were packing arenas around the country, including the Cincinnati Gardens in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 9th, 1984. That experience was...

It’s another chapter in The Dialogue Series - A chill ‘n chat with authors, fellow podcasters, musicians, and more. Author Greg Prato is back on the podcast. He’s the author of several books, and has written for Songfacts, Consequence of Sound, Guitar World, Vintage Guitar, and Louder. Greg has been a great supporter of the Booked On Rock podcast, crediting the show in many articles he’s written for Ultimate Guitar so, as a thank you to Greg, I asked him to come on and talk about the books...

Author Michael Gray is this episode’s guest to talk about the brand new three-part 50th anniversary edition of his highly acclaimed book Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan. The first edition of Song & Dance Man was the first book to seriously examine the work of Bob Dylan, originating the realm of scholarship that put Dylan on the road to the Nobel prize. Fifty-years and hundreds of Dylan books later, many still consider it one of the very best: Rolling Stone called it...

Author Richie Unterberger is this episode’s guest. His latest book is Bob Marley and the Wailers: The Ultimate Illustrated History. Illustrated with photos and memorabilia from all phases of their journey, the book illuminates the lives and times of Bob Marley and the Wailers. From their early 60s Jamaican ska beginnings, to international stardom by the end of the 70s, right up to Bob Marley’s untimely death in 1981, it’s all covered in this book and Richie is here to share some of what’s...