Welcome And Guest Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:45

My guest on the show this evening is a radio host, an author, a podcaster, a hall of fame broadcaster, and a mastermind of classic rock and roll. Hey everyone, it's Randy Holsey with Backstage Pass Radio, and today we will be on a journey through rock history with the voice behind the Lost 45s. Whether you're a diehard classic rock fan or just discovering the depths of the rock's golden era, my guest has the stories, the sounds, and the history that will make you listen in a whole new way. Don't go anywhere because when we come back, I will introduce you to my pal Denny Somak, and we will do that right after this.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

This is Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio, a podcast by an artist for the artist. Each week we take you behind the scenes of some of your favorite musicians and the music they created. From chart-topping hits to underground gems, we explore the sounds that move us and the people who make it all happen. Remember to please subscribe, rate, and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. So whether you're a casual listener or a die hard music fan, tune in and discover the magic behind the melodies. Here is your host of Backstage Pass Radio, Randy Holsey.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Denny, welcome to the show, bud. How are you doing, man? I'm doing okay. Thanks for having me on. It's my pleasure. Where are you calling in with me today? You're in where?

SPEAKER_04 2:19

I'm in South Florida, Boynton Beach, outside of West Palm. All right. Well, the weather is great.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Well, we get that that we get that time of the year when it's nice to be outside, but then it gets hot in the summertime, right? And uh, which is not a a bad thing. I I like the cooler weather myself, but um yeah, Florida and Texas have uh some pretty common weather for sure. I like your uh guitar collection there. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Well, how's life there? Keeping busy these days?

SPEAKER_04 2:49

Yeah, I uh obviously uh my new book is out and I'm out promoting it. Great. It's Get the Let Out, How Led Zeppelin Became the Biggest Band in the World. And the foreword was written by uh Carmine Apeace. Um I don't know if people know this, but uh uh he was John Bonham's mentor. Yes, yes. And coincidentally enough, he was the first person to ever hear them because they were opening act on the vanilla fudge tour in late um uh 68. And so they got an advanced pressing, and then obviously they you know played on shows, so he was not only the first person to hear him, he was the first person to see him play. That's super so he gives a great great perspective uh on that.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Well well, Carmine's a good guy. I had Carmine on my show probably um, I don't know, you know, Carmine probably six months or so ago, and I did that with a co-host who is a drummer uh with a little band out of Louisiana called Zebra. And uh Guy Gelso, the drummer of Zebra, co-hosted that show with with myself. And uh, we did that with Carmine, and we had a great time, and he's a great guy. So he lives right near me.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

Yes, down the road, and this is a place that's full of musicians across the street. Uh my other neighbor is the lead singer of Blue Oyster Cult. No kidding. And Mark Stein from the Vanilla Fudge lives in right outside Fort Lauderdale. Well, you're amongst royalty, man.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah, well, they all come they all come down here eventually. You know, of course, of course they want to get out of that that white stuff up north, right? Well, I guess before we get started, real quick, a quick shout out to our mutual friend Dana Steele for putting us in in contact with one another. I think Dana looped me in on a uh, if my old brain remembers correctly, she included you and me in the same thread and said, Diddy, you need to meet my friend Randy, and Randy, you need to meet my friend Danny, and here we are. So thanks to Dana Steele for that.

SPEAKER_04 4:53

Yeah, thank you, Dana.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

That's great.

SPEAKER_04 4:55

Now you're uh you're I've I've known her for a long time, but never actually met her.

Early Radio Roots And Breaks

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Isn't that funny how how like radio and the internet and social media goes? Like I know a lot of people that follow my show, and I I do the I converse with them here and there, and I feel like I know these people. It's almost like uh somebody on TV. You know, you you watch them in so many TV shows, you feel like you know them somehow when you've never really met them, right? It's it's a it's a kind of a funny phenomenon, but you're originally from from Philly, are you not? I saw the Philly shirt, but I believe you come from Philly, right?

SPEAKER_04 5:33

Yeah, I'm Philadelphia, but I was I was born in Allentown, and after college I moved to Philadelphia. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Well, take me back some years, Denny, to you know, tell tell the listeners a little bit when you were hit with the um rock and roll bug. And do you remember when that was and how it all came about for you falling in love with rock and roll?

SPEAKER_04 5:57

Oh my god. Um I remember, you know, some of the first records I bought, there were singles. Obviously, one was uh an Elvis Presley, believe it or not, another was a Leslie Gore. Uh there was a third one. I guess that's when I first started listening to records. When I first got into rock and roll, obviously the Beatles. Okay. Um, and uh and from there, we had a very, very good uh progressive rock station in Philadelphia, uh WMMR. And they used to play I mean, it's the first time I uh I ever heard King Crimson, ever heard Yes, Springsteen, and I listened to them all the time. So they were early on a lot of stuff. So that's how I really got turned on. And I was gonna be a business major in college. I joined the college radio station and through a series of incidences, I ended up getting a job at a radio station in the town where I was going to school. Okay. And um, you know, when I was doing weekends or something, and you know whatever evident what always happens in radio. Somebody gets fired and they come and say, Hey, can you fill in for the week until you get the new guy? Blah, blah, blah, blah. So I filled in, and next thing you know, I'm I'm there and I rearrange my schedule so I can go to school and do the morning show. Sure. Uh, it was great. I I so I said, you know what, I could do this for a few years and then I'll get back to business. But that never happened. No, because I I then met um the program director of WYSP in Philadelphia, which was the competitor to MMR. And he asked me, uh he had a weekend gig, you know, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday night. Yeah. And I said, sure. And of course, a couple months later, somebody gets fired. Next thing you know, I'm the midday guy.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

You know, I think Dana, it's funny. I think Dana's story is a lot like that. You know, she goes to, I think it was KLOL, if my if my memory serves me correctly. Somebody gets fired, she sits in, and then next thing you know, she's sitting in the same seat 20 years later, right? Yeah. So it's funny. KLOL is a great station. Funny how that works. Well, wasn't it uh W S A N and Allentown? Is that where the radio thing kicked off for you, or was there something before that?

SPEAKER_04 8:25

That's the station I got. No, that's the station. I'll tell I'll tell you real quick. Okay, friend of mine in my dorm uh was a musician in a band, and they actually had a record deal. They were on MGM and they released a single. And he said, Look, you're in the college radio station. Uh, can you get this played anywhere? So I said, Sure, I didn't know how it worked. So I said, in fact, I'll take it to the commercial station here in Allentown. So, not knowing anything about anything, the guy at night played the album cuts and stuff. So I went up there in the evening. I didn't think to go during the daytime. I went up there in the evening and he played the record and we started talking. And next thing you know, he says, Hey, listen, I'm going on vacation for a week. Would you like to fill in for me? Okay. Uh I, you know, I I had a college radio show, and next thing you know, I'm doing this thing. So that was the start for me. Yeah, that was a great station. That was a uh an AM station that played album tracks.

Booking A Young Billy Joel

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Okay. Well, I just I I don't I don't know why my mind just ventured off a little. Of course, I heard everything you said, but my mind ventured off for just a second. And Billy Joel had a big hit with a song called Allen Town, right?

SPEAKER_04 9:37

That's a story. Do you know that story? I don't know the story.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

No.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

It's that's why I have you on, Danny, so you can so you can set me straight on the story.

SPEAKER_04 9:46

Okay, real quick, real quick. I was at a broadcasting convention in New York in January of 70 uh 71. Okay. And you know, all college broadcasters in our collegiate broadcasting system in New York. And they had some talent that was playing there. Todd Rundren, the Hello People, group called uh Jake and the Family Jules, and this guy, Billy Joel. So I stayed, Long hasn't been seeing him play too. So I stayed for, you know, see all the showcases, and I see this guy sit down at the piano and play for a half hour. And I am absolutely flabbergasted. I couldn't believe how good this guy was. And we were doing concerts at WSAN in a small theater. So I said, Well, I gotta book him. Uh, you know, uh I'll find out who his agent is, which I did. I called him, and his agent said to me, Billy Joel, are you sure you you're not you don't mean Billy Joel Royal, don't you? I said, No, Billy Joel, Billy Joel. Because no one's ever called for this guy. I said, Well, he's a big star here in Allentown. We play him like crazy. Cold Spring Harbor had come out. And apparently he said, Well, his record didn't do well. And he went to Los Angeles, and I haven't spoken to him, but I'll mark it down if I ever hear from him and he records again. I'll make sure that you know I call you. Wow. Well, about two years later, I get a call. Billy Joel's got a new album coming out called Piano Man. Um, I've got one, he's I I put him out with my my other acts that I book, which happened to be like, you know, uh Jay Giles band, Doopy Brothers, and and poor Billy is you know, he's getting booed everywhere. So he's doing his 20 minutes, but it's it's not working out. So they said, you know, we really want someone to try out headlining him at a theater. And I said, Well, I have a theater, uh, holds 500 people, and he said, Okay, well, uh, I got one night, November 25th, he has an off day. I said, I'll take it uh and I'll headline him. And he said, Uh, how much do you want to pay him? And I said, Well, our usual usual fee is$500, and it's two shows, seven and ten. So he hesitated for about a second. He said, Okay, and you got to put Henry Gross on as the opening act. I said, Okay, what does that cost me?$250. So for$750, I headline Billy Joel for the first time anywhere. Anyway, the day of the show, he comes to my uh station in Allentown and I interview him. Road manager gets a call. Listen, I got to go to the theater. There's something wrong with the piano. Denny, would you mind driving Billy to the theater after your show? No problem. So Billy gets in my green challenger. Um, and we take uh I know the theater's actually in Northampton, Pennsylvania, which is right outside of Allentown. And we're going, and I'm taking the back way because I know how to get there. And we're going by, and this is at the time that Mack Truck was going out of business, and Bethlehem Steel was going out of business, and it was it looked like a you know, like the song. And he was just looking around. He goes, Where are we? I go, Well, this is Northampton, but Allentown is the big city. And he said, Well, what's going on here? And I said, Well, Mac truck's closed up, Bethlehem Steel, there's all sorts of stuff going on. He obviously remembered it, and uh it ended up in the song. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Yeah, he says they're shutting shutting all the factories down, right?

SPEAKER_04 13:44

And and uh uh he got the first, and uh as I'm what taking him over to the theater, I'm going, Billy, they're gonna love you. Uh you we've been playing you here since Cold Spring Harbor came out. He goes, Really? I go, Yeah, it's both shows sold out in three hours. Wow. He said, I can't believe it. I said, Yep, we get to the theater, and there's a big sign. It's welcome, piano man, Billy Joel. And he goes, No one's ever given me a sign before. That's amazing. I said, Billy, you don't understand. These people know every song on Cold Spring Harbor, and they're gonna be singing along and they're gonna be going crazy, and you're gonna people afterwards wanting your autograph. And he's like, This never happened to me. Uh, well, we'll see. And of course, that's what happened. The audience knew every song. Wow. And he, in fact, uh on the second show, he had changed the set list around, and he goes, Oh, um, and he was used to doing a half hour as an opening act for these other bands. So he he's got 45 minutes done, and he goes, What? Oh, manager says 15 more minutes. Uh, okay, well, I can either do start over again, or uh I got some uh some things you might like, and he starts doing Beatles and Joe Cocker and all this stuff. Meanwhile, I had a brand new Sony stereo cassette player, and I put it right on the piano in front of him. So I got the whole thing on tape.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

It sounds amazing. What a great thing.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

And I what happened was I I played it for people at the station, and they said, Oh, that's cool. That's and then I threw it in the box because it was Billy Joel. Sure. And 20 years later, I I find this tape, it says BJ at Roxy, and I put it on, and boom, there it is.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Wow. Well, then you then you had, you know, you had uh uh of course uh piano man came out, and then you know he had glass houses, and that was a big one for him, like it it only went up from there, right? For him.

SPEAKER_04 15:45

I mean, he's he's obviously he's the the biggest uh act in the world. Sure. To be honest. In fact, he has a house down here, and there was a Billy Joel cover band called Turnstiles playing. Oh, and he came out, got on stage, and played two songs with him. Okay. First time he's played in a year or two, just to let people know that he's okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

That's super cool. Well, you meant you you dropped the name there a minute ago. You said uh Henry Gross open. Wasn't he the one that had the hit song Shannon? Am I thinking about the same dog? Yeah, about the dog.

Hall Of Fame And Podcast Origins

SPEAKER_04 16:17

Yeah, he was also he was originally in um Shanana, believe it or not. No, I did not know that. Yeah, and then when he left, um he started a solo career and he had a couple albums out. And yeah, Shannon was a top 10 song.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Well, I I have to I have to admit to you that um a lot of people that know me say, Randy, you've got you've got such a savant mind with music trivia. You know stuff that people don't know. And I said, you know, I guess I do. I was the guy that read the liner notes before I even played the music. And and then as this interview with you got closer, I said, I think Denny's probably the same kind of guy like me that has this plethora of knowledge in his brain that is just aching to get out somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_04 17:04

Next time I get down to Houston, we'll have dinner.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Let's do it, man. Well, listen, so in I think it was you set me right on the dates, but I think it was 2005. You were inducted into the broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame. Talk to me about that induction and what that accolade means to you.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

Well, it means a lot because uh all sorts of people that I idolize, Scott Muni from the old WNEW, legendary broadcaster. I mean, these people are in there, Jerry Blavitt. I don't know if you know who he is. Nope. So it's exciting to be included um in in that same, you know, group of people.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

And I wanted to talk a little bit too about the uh the rock podcast. Now, is this is the rock podcast for you, is this an old project? Is this a current project? Or talk talk to me about that.

SPEAKER_04 18:02

I got a call when podcasting was just getting started in 70 uh right before COVID. Okay, I got a call from a guy named Norm Patitz, who used to be uh head of Westwood One, and he was going into the podcast business, and I'd worked for him, produced shows for him and stuff. So he called me up and he said, Um, you want to do a podcast? I said, Yeah, because I got thousands of interviews in my library. I saved everything, and I know everybody. I said, Yeah, okay, yeah, I'll do the rock podcast. And that's what started me. And the podcast proceeded. And here we are five years later, and I'm still doing it.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Wow. Now, are these for these uh for for this? So I'm just finding out about the podcast, and I I would love to uh support that. But are these are these archived interviews that were done? Are you doing live interviews?

Mining A Legendary Interview Archive

SPEAKER_04 18:51

Talk to me about your I do both because I have a tremendous library. Okay, when you know, uh I I'm not gonna get Freddie Mercury, but I have Freddie Mercury, so he'll be on the course, but no, um I've done some of the recent ones. I did Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath, um uh the guy Billy Gibbons from uh C Z Top, yeah. Top I had the zombies on because they had a new documentary out.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

Um I'm trying to think of who uh I I had my friend from Bloyster Cult on. Yeah, wow. Uh I've had Carmine on. I've had um I've had some of the couple of the doors on, I've had uh Ann Wilson.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Um cool guests there, very cool.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

Yeah, I see I know everybody from doing producing syndicated shows and things for years. I did it at an NBC and and I ended up doing stuff for Rolling Stone magazine. They started a radio division and produced a show for them and ABC and Westwood One. So I I had great contacts because I was in touch with all the press people, and many of them are still around to my amazement. Imagine that, yeah. So I'm on every list. I know about every album that comes. I just did Lou Graham from Foreigner the other day.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

One of the top singers of all time, and my book.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

Top singers of all time. I swear I tell people Lou Graham and um Paul Rogers is up there somewhere, right? Yeah, you got it. Paul Rogers, who I also had on about two months ago.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:20

But um, Lou was great. He's gonna announce his retirement. He's doing a month of shows with Foreigner, and they all happen to be down here in Florida. Wow. And then the new Foreigner band is going out, and there's nobody original in it. Yeah, but you know, they're doing foreigner music, and they've been doing it for a number of years, and Mick Jones was with them, but now Mick's health is not that good. So they can't.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Well, I've seen him a couple of times with Kelly Hansen singing, and and Kelly Hansen's an animal vocalist. I mean, he's a great vocalist. And but Lou Graham is Lou Graham at the end of the day, and I'll tell you where I I've always been a Lou Graham fan, but I was a big Lou Graham fan when he was with a uh a band that many people don't know about, which was Shadow King, right? And he played with Vivian Campbell in Shadow King. And I think they only put out one album, and I I listened to that thing over and over all the time, even till this day. And I think it came out in the 90s sometime, right? If I if my yeah, if my memory serves me correctly.

SPEAKER_04 21:18

Yeah, before that he was in a band. Um I'm forgetting the name now. They had two albums on Capitol, and I can't remember their name. Yes. Uh, but anyway, yeah, Farner. So he told some great stories. So I these are the kind of people we get.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

That's super cool.

SPEAKER_04 21:33

Uh I had Dion on. That was interesting. I had um it's five years worth, so you know, but I have classic interviews with Jeff Beck, with um uh back from the Yardbird days.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

Yeah, the guy from Tim Liz Tin Lizzie, uh, what's his name? Phil. Phil Nineye.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

Uh I have, believe it or not, I have a Kate Bush interview from her when her first album came out.

unknown 22:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

And I was the only person that had a Kate Bush interview when that whole thing running up the hill came. You know, no kidding. We brought her back. So I mix it up, uh, do a lot of yes stuff because they're friends of mine. I have all of them, tons of stuff on them. And um, you know, it's just fun to do.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Well, I have to ask you a question about the podcast, and I know I will not, I already know I will not get a straight answer out of you because I've been asked this very same question before. And the question is, is there an interview that was your favorite? And I don't even know how to answer that, but I said, let me just ask Denny that and and see what he says about it, right?

SPEAKER_04 22:45

It may not be. One specific interview. My favorite person to interview is Pete Townsend.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Really? Okay.

SPEAKER_04 22:51

And I've done him a number of times, and he's just a regular guy. He likes to, oh, you'd love he likes to do rock and roll trivia. Um, and I can ask him the most craziest questions and he'll answer them.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

Really?

Favorite Interviews And Why

SPEAKER_04 23:06

You know, I I asked him stuff stuff about the Who, but then I try and go deeper. I knew he he produced um that Thunderclap Newman song. Yep, yep. Uh, and I uh so I asked him about it, and he told me the whole story on it, and I'd never heard the story about how that happened. Yeah, wow. Uh so he's always good. Um Ian Anderson's a great interview. I've done him a couple of times, and and he answers everything. And the Moody Blues on, and you know. But I since I know these people, many of them I've interviewed in the past, uh, I I I get away with asking him just about anything.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

So well, that's cool. I think I think in 160 plus interviews for me, I've only had one guest that has asked me not to bring up a specific topic, but every other guest, it's been like just a free-for-all. And the interesting thing about that, I don't know if you were a follower or you remember the band Great White from the 80s and the whole the fire, you know.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

I didn't want you to talk about the fire.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Jack didn't he and I talked to him right before he passed. Um, but yeah, didn't want it, and I wasn't even going to bring up the fire. Like, that's still probably gonna be a very tender subject. And and he he just made it clear like I don't, you know, we can talk about anything, the drugs, the whatever, but let's not talk about the fire. And I said, no, I have too much respect for my guest to go down that that path, right?

SPEAKER_04 24:38

So um, with Get the Let Out, I'll give you the background. Uh, I produced uh a show called Get the Let Out, which a lot of radio stations do across the country. Sure. They played three Zeppelin songs, and yeah, but I decided to make an hour show out of it.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:53

So it was called Get the Let Out. It was an hour, and I had interviews with all four of the guys. Plus, I would get other all sorts of other people to come on and tell Led Zeppelin stories, like Joe Perry, who's a big fan, uh Alice Cooper, who played the whiskey of go-go in Led Zeppelin. And his story was outrageous. He says, you know, we're uh, you know, playing the whiskey of go go. If you know anything about the whiskey of go-go, well, it's like 200 and some people.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Sure, it's small. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

So he says, we get there, and we don't know who this band is, Led Zeppelin, never heard of him. And uh walked over and all of a sudden we recognized Jimmy Page. We knew who Jimmy Page was. He was a yard bird. And uh, so we we were we were ecstatic. So we went over and said, Well, who's how are we gonna do this? Who's gonna open? Who's so you open one night, we'll close and we'll switch it around the next night. And that's what they did. And Alice, you know, for him it was unbelievable because his band, right before Alice Cooper, uh, forget what they were called, but half their set was Yardbird songs.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Really? I didn't I would have not known that. Wow. Well, for the so for the listeners, you you you kind of you segued into the book, and for the listeners, Denny is the well-known artist or the author behind the book Get the Let Out. And this is a book that dives deep into Led Zeppelin history and music and culture and the whole nine yards, right, Denny?

Led Zeppelin: Why The Story Matters

SPEAKER_04 26:28

What happened was uh I had all these great interviews. I only used part of them on the radio, and somebody said, you know, can we ever hear the rest of those interviews? And went out and got a book deal and wrote a book.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

That's super cool. Well, I guess the so the original book, I think, came out in was it 1212, right? 2012. 2012. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 26:51

It's very unusual to reissue it this many years later, but you know what? The name of the book is Get the Let Out, How Led Zeppelin became the biggest band in the world. And my old editor called me up and she said, you know, Led Zeppelin, still the biggest band in the world. Maybe we should update the book. I said, Great, let me pick my 10 favorite interviews that are in this book, and I'll do all new stuff, and I'll add 200 and some pages, and I'll add more memorabilia, and I'll bring the discographies up to date. And that's really what happened. But I was able to interview people that I was never able to interview before. And I'll tell you some of the little stories. Um Zeppelin was signed to Atlantic by Ahmed Erdogan and Jerry Wexler, and I never knew how they got there. But um Wexler, I got the story. Uh he he lived next door to, I forget the guy's name, is a lawyer for Led Zeppelin.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

Oh, yeah, I know who you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 27:57

Yeah, and he was Hendrix's lawyer.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

So Jerry says, I was out getting my mail one day, and he comes along and he says, uh, hey Jerry, I got this band. You know who Jimmy Page is? He goes, Oh, yeah, we know who Jimmy Page is. He's virtuoso. So um the lawyer says, Well, would you be interested in signing him? Because I'm making a deal for him, and I met with two labels, and one guy was obnoxious, and the other guy uh just didn't pay attention. I don't like him. So if you want him, you got him. And that's what yeah, are you kidding? We'll take him. So they got him. That's how they got him. They got the biggest advance in history at that time, which was uh close to 200,000. This is 1968 money. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:47

And they uh Jimmy said, now here's the rules. He was dictating to them because that I mean, you know, the album was great. He'd already brought the whole album with him because they recorded it in 10 days. What happened was there were some dates in Scandinavia left over from the Yardbirds, and they had to go play them as the new Yardbirds. And they played all the new Zeppelin stuff, and they played For Your Love just to keep the connection.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:13

Um, and but when that tour was over, they came back and Jimmy said, Let's go in the studio and just cut our live show, because that's going to be the album. And they cut the songs that they were doing, Days to Confused, and you know, all that stuff, and that turned out to be the first album. And Jimmy says, Yeah, it cost me 1700 pounds. I still have the receipt. So um uh he says to uh Erdogan and to Wexter, now look, we we don't do television, and Peter Grant was with him. Peter Grant's a legendary manager, he was with him. Uh, we don't allow singles to be released from the albums because then we feel that uh people won't buy the album. And if people see us on TV, they won't come to the shows. And he's he's and no one from the stud uh from the record company is ever allowed in the studio when we're in there. And we pick our own cover art. I mean, it's all this.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Which is unheard of, right? Which is all unheard of.

Atlantic Deal, No Singles, No TV

SPEAKER_04 30:11

They said yes to everything. Wow. Because, you know, they knew who he was. Sure. And Wexler's whole thing was if when you find a virtuoso that's starting a group, sign him. Because virtuosos look for other virtuosos. Sure, they do. You know the group is going to be great. Of course. So that was his uh thing. Now it's funny is the publicist for them was a guy named Bill Harry. He's in the book. He was a publicist, he was a newspaper columnist in Liverpool. He ran the uh Liverpool Times, where wrote about the Beatles, and you know, help get them known. So when the Beatles came down to London and got signed, he decided to move down to London and open a PR agency. So he did. And he got everybody broke him. Everybody wanted the guy who was a PR guy for the Beatles. He gets a call from Peter Grant, the manager, and he says, Listen, I want you to come over here. I want to talk to you. Okay. So, of course, Bill thinks, oh, he wants to hire me, maybe, publish this for Led Zeppelin. That would be really cool. Um, and he gets there, it's in the book, and uh Peter Grant says, uh, okay, I want you to handle the press for Led Zeppelin. And Bill Harry goes, Okay, well, what do you want me to do? I want you to keep the press away.

unknown 31:32

What?

SPEAKER_04 31:33

No press. You keep them away. No TV, no interviews, nothing. You're the one that's gonna stop them. He couldn't believe it. That was his job to keep the press away.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Was that because they wanted to be more of a mythical kind of band? Like they just didn't want people to.

SPEAKER_04 31:50

They were experienced. They they they uh knew all the tricks. For instance, when you release a single in England, it's generally not on the album that comes out, it's the other way around here. Put a single out to sell the album. Yep. So they didn't want to do singles because then you know that would affect people were either paying twice for the, you know, they just they just knew what was going on. Now, Jimmy, having been in the Yardbirds, and Peter Grant, having managed a couple of American bands and a band called the New Vaudeville Band. I don't know if you remember them. I don't. Um, they sort of knew America. And what they noticed was, you know, the Yardbirds, they had a few hits, but um they didn't really sell big places, and neither did the Beatles, actually, because the biggest place to play was the Royal Albert Hall, 3,000 seats. There were no big college auditoriums, no stadiums, no, you know, facilities uh to play. And in fact, that's where Beatlemania, there was no Beatlemania in in Britain. It wasn't until they came to America and people were going nuts and they were playing Shea Stadium, and that's where Beatlemania started and then went back to England. So they had experience and they said, you know what, we're gonna concentrate on touring. We're gonna play every college we can get, every you know, major, like we'll do the filmmores, but I want to play every college, 2,000 seeders, whatever we can get. And that's what made their reputation. And when I talked to Carmine, he said, Yeah, we had them on as the opening act, and the middle act was a group called Spirit. Yeah. I got a line on you. More about that later, Tars. Um, and uh Carmine said they were unbelievable. They, you know, they played like two weeks, and they went back to uh England and then came back two months later, and they were equal headliner size. So it's vanilla fudge, Led Zeppelin. Wow, nobody else. Then he said, um, about five months after that, they came back and it's Led Zeppelin opening Vanilla Fudge. And Carmine said to me, he goes, I've never admitted this, but I gotta tell you, the only band that ever blew us off the stage, and we were pretty good, was Led Zeppelin. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

So well, I think I I think you you you kind of said it, but to ask a more pointed question about the book, what inspired you initially to write about Led Zeppelin? What why not Proclo Harem? Why not, why not, why not vanilla fudge? Why not why not Jethro Toll? Like why why wasn't Zeppelin for you, right?

SPEAKER_04 34:33

The reason is the second half of my title, how Led Zeppel became the biggest band in the world, which they are. Excuse me. And I was a big Yardbirds fan. People don't think about this, but next to the Beatles and the Stones, the Yardbirds are the most important band to ever come out of England. Reason being, their first guitar player was Eric Clapton, their second was Jeff Beck, and their third was Jimmy Page. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Three of the greatest.

Touring Strategy And Rapid Ascent

SPEAKER_04 35:01

But they that's how important they are in the history of rock, right after the Beatles and the Stones, Yardbirds. Now they didn't mean very much in England. They had a few top 40 hits, they toured a little bit, but you know, America was what they focused on. Yes. And that's that's what happened. So there's another story in here. You know who Nikki Hopkins is, the piano, the session player, keyboard player. All right, he just got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the you know, the extra, the non the ghost, the ghost musician. Yeah, yeah. Al Cooper got in and and and and Nikki Hopkins, keyboard player for everybody's stone, thousands of sessions. Let it bleed, even even a Beatles album. Everybody used them, Quicksilver. And um, I interviewed him. This was done a while ago because he he passed away a few years back. Um, and he said, you know, I'll tell you a story. Uh Jimmy Page asked me if I wanted to play keyboards. And he's putting a new band together, a new Yardbirds, and he asked me if I wanted to play keyboards. And I said, Jimmy, I don't want to be in the Yardbirds. Are you kidding? No way. And uh he goes, I'm joining Jeff Beck because he asked me, which he did. Biggest mistake I ever made. So there's all these kinds of stories in there.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

That's crazy, man.

SPEAKER_04 36:27

There's a story about Geezer Butler told me that um he and Tony Iomi, they were both from Birmingham, as is plant and uh uh bottom. They came down to the studio and jammed one day. And uh uh they said to the engineer, now don't run any tape. Well, that means run tape. So somebody ran tape. They don't know where it is, but there somewhere out there, there is a Black Zeppelin album. And it hasn't surfaced yet, but Tony thinks it will at some point. So that was kind of cool. I never heard about that. Yeah um and uh that's that that was really something interesting.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

How did writing, how did writing the book change your own, did it change your perception of the band at all uh during the writing of the book?

SPEAKER_04 37:19

Here's the thing the real reason I wrote the book, there's a hundred books on Led Zeppelin. Every one of them is, well, they were born here and they went to school there, and they did this band. I don't want any of that. All the other books, you can get that information. There's nothing in here about where they grew up, where they went to school. This is all discussions and interviews with people who played with them, who worked with them, uh, who actually interacted with them so they would give you the stories that none of the other books would have. Sure. And um that's really that's really what I was trying to do is put across on not another Led Zeppelin book, but the ultimate book, and get all these stories and get all these pictures of memorabilia. Oh, I interviewed the chairman of Atlantic Records, um, Craig Kalman, okay, who happens to be a big Led Zeppelin fan. And in his office, he goes, you know, Led Zeppelin didn't allow any singles except for a whole lot of love in America. We have 38 licensees around the around the world, and they were prepping singles and picture sleeves, and they had to send them here to get approved. He said they were all immediately destroyed or pulled off the market because these guys didn't know they weren't allowed to put singles out. Now you see this, and he pointed to his wall. He had every picture sleeve frame from every country on his wall. Interesting. And he says, You want to shoot this? You can. So I shot it. That's in there. Collectors will go crazy. No one's ever seen these before. Picture sleeves of all the Zeppelin singles.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

That's super cool.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

So it's, you know, I was trying to think like a fan. The other thing is, most books written about Led Zeppelin were written by people who weren't even born when they came out, who never saw them live, who never met any of them. And I checked off all those boxes.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

So you're one of the you're you're you're one of the fortunate ones. And you know what? I'll have to say that uh I I've never seen Zeppelin, but probably top three bands for me of all time. And I'm I'm a tattoo guy, and it's probably hard to see it. But if you look right there, that's the hermit from the Led Zeppelin. Oh yeah. So uh yeah, I'm a huge Zeppelin fan, always have been. Uh, was there a was there a record that they put out that resonated with you? Is there a a go-to record, Led Zeppelin, for you that you can think of just to put you on the spot?

SPEAKER_04 39:44

Yeah, it's physical graffiti.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 39:46

Because that's really, I mean, even nowadays, and even Robert Plant, you know, everyone says uh Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven, greatest song they ever did. No, no, no, cashmere.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

Cashmere. Greatest song they ever did. Yeah, I I would agree with you. Yeah.

Rare Collabs, Myths, And Tapes

SPEAKER_04 40:04

And so I think it's it was that album, uh, because it just had so many great songs on it, so many different styles. Uh, they recorded it uh at this place called Headley Grange, which was an old warehouse, and John Bonham's drums were recorded from the top of the stairs and just they did all sorts of crazy stuff. And uh Ron Nevison was the engineer, so uh he's in the book. Yeah, and he tells the whole story of the making of that. One of the songs, in fact, I can't remember which one it is, they would go outside occasionally and record because they were in the middle of the country, and they had the Stones Mobile, which is what they were recording the album on. And they're outside and they're singing, and a plane goes overhead, and you can hear Robert say, Leave it in. And Ron says, So we left it in. So I if you I I can't remember the song. If you ever hear a song in the beginning, there's an airplane flying. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

Yeah. There's so many cool songs like that where there's these nuances that you hear. There was one by Elvis when he was recording where he bumped his head on the microphone, and I can't think of the song now, and they never took that bump out, but you can still hear him bumping his head because the they said that he liked this um the lights out with like green and red lights. So you could hardly see anything when he did his vocal tracks. And and because it was so dark, he he hit the mic in front of him, and they just never took it out. So little things like that that you would never know, and you'd probably never even hear in the record unless you're listening for those things. Really cool, yeah. It's good stuff. Um real real quick, um, I I want to make sure that I keep you on track. Um, I I did want to open up the floor for any projects that you you may be working on now, maybe coming up in the future that you would like to divulge or talk to my listeners of Backstage Pass Radio.

SPEAKER_04 42:03

I think this will be the last Led Zeppelin book that I do. Okay. It's got my life in it. It's uh you know, came out in 12, came out 13 years later, they put it out again. And so it's like brand new. Yep. And it's got all these great interviews. I didn't know Led Zeppelin played the Newport Jazz Festival, did you?

SPEAKER_03 42:22

No, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_04 42:24

And I got the guy that used to do all the light shows in New York at the Fillmore, and he did in the Newport, was a guy named uh Josh White, who's light spy with Josh. Uh all the Fillmore shows. So he was with them in Newport, and he was with them when they played the Fillmore and wherever else they played. So he actually saw them more times than anybody, but he didn't really see them. He did the lights, which means he was behind the stage, so he heard every show. Yes. Uh so his interviews in there, and it's really good. Wow. These are the kind of people that you just, you know, you don't think of to get.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

Yeah.

Crafting A Different Kind Of Zep Book

SPEAKER_04 43:04

Um, I have their old road manager in here. I got Paul Rogers in the book, uh, Simon Kirk, Bad Company, and he tells a story about how one day he was like, just bored, Bad Company was on a break, and they were managed by Peter Grant as well. So he called up Peter. Uh Zeppelin was touring Germany, it would be their final tour. And Peter said, Well, why don't you hop on a plane, come over to Germany? We're got two shows coming up, and that's the end of the tour. So he he takes the plane over and he gets there, you know, a couple days early. And Bonham says to him, How'd you like to play a whole lot of love with me on the stage? And so he goes, Are you kidding? No one's ever played with you. He says, Well, you want to or not? He said, Absolutely. Okay. Um, so where are we going to rehearse? There must be, where's the room where there were the I I figured there'd be two sets of drums and we'd rehearse them next day. And he goes, No, no, no, no. My bed. This is how it goes. And he showed him on the bed how the song goes. And the next night he was out there playing a whole lot of room with John Bottom. I'll be down. So, you know, and that turned out the next day was the last show they ever did.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Goodness. What a great band.

SPEAKER_04 44:22

Yeah. So um, you know, it's all these things. So what I've get back to your question. I'm sorry. I have thousands of interviews with all classic rock people, one of the largest in the world. I started a radio show called Rock and Roll for Grown Ups. Okay. And the reason I did that is if you ever see AARP magazine, they have movies for grown ups. Grown-ups. Okay. I figured, well, why not rock and roll for grown-ups? I don't know people like my age, we don't know what to buy. We don't know these new these records being reissued with extra tracks. Somebody should be telling them.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 44:58

Plus, on the regular radio, you know, terrestrial. Classic rock, just about everything from late 60s to mid-80s has been taken off the air. Give me an example. Eric Clapton has recorded 600 songs. You only ever hear who I shot the sheriff and Wonderful Tonight.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:23

Yeah. And the Beatles, you know, recorded 300 songs, and all you ever hear is Hey Jude. Maybe you hear something on an anniversary.

SPEAKER_03 45:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:33

You know, dire straits. You only hear two songs. So all that music has disappeared. So I'm bringing it back because it's familiar to people and they love it. And I put it together with my interviews where they talk about the songs, and that's Rock and Roll for Grown Ups. And you can listen to it. It's on this station, New H D, and it's based on the old WNEWFM in New York, which was the really big progressive station. So it's new HD.com, is where you can find the app and listen to Rock and Roll for Grown Ups. There's other shows on there. Right. And you can listen to older, older episodes. I got Pete Townsend on there talking about Thunderclap Newman and how that song came about. And since it's uh, you know, it I don't have to worry about at this point, I I I don't have to worry about an interview going longer than 30 seconds and you know all the normal things they tell you you can't do. Of course. So I play these interviews, you know, usually not more than than two minutes, but yeah, I get the whole story in. And, you know, I had this interview with Freddie Mercury, and it was an hour and a half long, and I didn't know what to do because I and he talked about he was gonna record a single with Michael Jackson, which I never heard of. Anyway, so that's what that's what I present on this show is the music that's disappeared, plus interviews. Uh it's basically stories and songs.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

So correct me, so so correct me where I'm wrong here. So, you know, you you talked about some of the bigger tracks, right? The Layla's, the uh, you know, Sultan's the Swing from the Dire Straits. Right. Those are the all the commercial ones that everybody's heard a million times. But you're talking about the deep cuts, the things that we don't hear anymore. And you're a deep cuts guy, are you not?

SPEAKER_04 47:26

It's not even that really, it's not even a deep cut. Okay. I mean, I don't think uh um I shot the sheriff. What's the other one that he does? Uh Knocking on Heaven's Door. Sure. Which, you know, uh there's tons of Eric Clapton songs, you know, bell bottom blues, I mean, I can go on and on and on. Um but there's no place to play them.

SPEAKER_03 47:47

Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 47:48

Uh because there's just so many songs an hour.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 47:53

And, you know, uh they moved classic rock up to mid-80s to present day.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 47:59

So that whole thing's been wiped out.

SPEAKER_01 48:02

So I'm trying to Well, you're doing a great you're doing a great justice to bring back the the the good old stuff. What advice would you give to someone that's looking to start a radio show or or a podcast, right? You've been a podcaster and are a podcaster and all the things. What what would what advice would Denny Somak give to a person to get something? I mean, this is something you you might give the same advice.

Physical Graffiti And Studio Secrets

SPEAKER_04 48:25

I would tell them, listen, nobody's giving out jobs anymore today. There's no entry-level jobs for radio. You either have to be a known name, or what you do is you go to a radio station and you become an intern and you don't get paid. But you're there long enough and you learn how to do it, and somebody will get fired one day, and that's your shot. Same with the podcast. You know, work with somebody, be his assistant, do whatever, be his gopher, learn how it happens.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 48:56

And that's you can then go to your own.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Well, I think you would agree with me here, too. I'll uh I I've been asked that a lot. Like, how did you get into it? And uh, you know, all the questions. And I said, you know, the interview itself, like you and I talking, that is the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more that goes into this. The the getting the guest, the scheduling the guest, doing the promotional stuff, recording it, editing it, like like you're only seeing one little bitty part that goes on behind the scenes. And if you need if you're pressed for time, podcasting is not for the faint of heart from a time perspective, right? If if you want to have a great show, you could have the run-of-the-mill crap that nobody wants to listen to, but if you want to do it right, you got to put the work in, you gotta do the time, right?

SPEAKER_04 49:47

You gotta do your research, you gotta know the questions to ask. You know, like the other day I had the zombies on. The zombies are together, you know. They have a documentary that's out, they're doing a new album, they're touring, they're in their 70s, they're still great. So I don't know if you know this, you might be too young. But um zombies had a big hit called Time of the Season, which came out in 1967. Yep, big hit. They broke up. The single was never released in America until the end of 69, beginning of 70, and it was a big hit. And all of a sudden, zombies are back together, uh, or they're talking about getting back together. But in the meantime, these fake groups all over the country call themselves the zombies, were out because they knew nobody knows what the zombies looked like. Right. So we're gonna go out, we'll do their hits, and we'll play. And he said, We found out about this, and there was an article in Rolling Stone, and he says, and I called up one of these places where the group was playing, and I said, Oh, so you're the zombies, huh? Who's in the band? And he goes, Yeah, no, no, no, and we have this uh girl singer and what female singer in the zombies, really? Anyway, turns out one of the top two zombies bands had two guys in them named Frank Beard and um the other Dusty Hill from Z Z Talk. Sure. They were fake zombies. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

That's a cool trivia. I never knew that, right? Yeah, super cool.

SPEAKER_04 51:18

So yeah, so these are the you know, these are the kinds of stories you hear about, and this is what I put on the on the podcast. I don't do uh, you know, just straight interviews or you know, what are your hobbies or what are your this or that? Yeah, I want to know what they're into, who they listen to, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

100%. Well, you know, Denny, I I feel like uh like-minded guys, like I I could probably talk to you for four hours, but uh you can go a little longer. I I want to respect your time, but I did want to ask you where can the listeners get their hands on this latest copy of Get the Let out? Where do we find this book, right?

New Projects: Rock For Grown Ups

SPEAKER_04 51:55

First of all, you can get it at Amazon, it's on sale right now. Um it's also at Barnes Noble. Uh Hashette is my book company. They're the third largest publisher in the world. So the books are all over the place. Some Walmarts even have it. But Barnes Noble has it because I've seen it there. I've been there and I did a book signing there. Uh, but Amazon's probably the best place you'll get it the next day. Um, but you know, and any bookstore that carries any kind of a music books selection will have it. And you can also go to my website, rock and rollforgrown ups.com. That's rock and the letter N roll, the number four at foregrown ups.com.

SPEAKER_03 52:37

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 52:38

And you can see uh my podcasts are on there, my radio shows on there, all stuff about the books, stuff that I've worked on over the years, a lot of cool videos, um, things like that.

SPEAKER_01 52:50

Yeah, well, I just looked up the book for the listeners out there, uh, get the let out, is out on Amazon, just like Denny says, with a five-star rating, no less. Uh, 36 bucks, hard copy, right? This is a great$50 book. Yeah, well, this is uh, you know, those are things like that that's great coffee table uh reading, right? Like you put that on the table and it's a conversation piece at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_04 53:18

Yeah, you don't have to start from the beginning and you know, read it all the way through. You can go to your favorite artist that you want to hear about, or uh, you know, a certain year you want to look up. Uh I'm just trying to find it's got illustrations in it, it's got all this memorabilia, all the concert posters and tickets from over the years at the different places. Um and what happened was I I found out who the biggest Led Zeppelin collector in the world was. It's this guy in Virginia. This collection's worth a fortune. And even Led Zeppelin leased it from him when they did their traveling show. And I I said to him, Look, let me, I'll pay you. Let me come to your house and just take pictures for the book. And he said, Okay. And that's how I got all this great memorabilia in here.

SPEAKER_01 54:04

No kidding. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 54:05

So uh cool. Yeah. So there's a lot of good stuff in here. Um Chris Squire from Yes is in here. People may not know this, but between um when Yes did the drama album, that was the last that was the first one without John Anderson. They broke up after that. They didn't come back until 90125. But in that two-year period, Chris lived in Surrey, England, and he was Jimmy Page lived in Surrey, England. So they knew each other, they were friends. They were at a Christmas party, and Jim, and Jimmy hadn't touched a guitar since Bonham died. He was like, just I can't. So he said to Chris, he goes, Look, would you mind if I came over, we'll use your studio? And I just played. I just want to play. Nothing planned. He said, Well, yeah, that come over, because actually Alan White's is staying with me right now. So come on over. The three of us will jam and this and that. And it started to work out so well. I have the recordings from that, and it may someday be released. Um they decided to put a group together and they were gonna call it XYZ. X. And I said to Chris, I said, Well, you know, were there some problems with it? He goes, Well, um we really needed to get a singer, and we we thought maybe we'd ask Robert Plant, but he didn't want to do it. But he said the biggest problem was I went up to see Peter Grant because he was still managing Jimmy Page to get his permission. So he said, and I went up to Peter Grant's house and uh all I did was argue with him for 12 hours because he said to me, uh, well, I I don't like this idea of XYZ, of Z, you know, yes being in front of Zeppelin. But he but Peter, that's the the alphabet. That's why the name, and no, no, no. I Zeppelin should come first. I mean, stupid stuff like that. They argue for hours and hours and hours, and he realized this is never gonna happen. So he reformed yes, and Jimmy put together uh the firm. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 56:10

And a great band, too, right? Yeah, with Paul Rogers, right? Uh yeah, super, super group. Um, where can the listeners of Backstage Pass Radio? I I know you've mentioned a couple of the the websites, uh, social media specific, Facebook, Instagram, anything that you can see.

Deep Cuts And Radio’s Missing Era

SPEAKER_04 56:29

Yeah, I'm on Facebook and I respond to messages. And I respond if you send me an email at my website at that address, rock and rollforgrown ups.com, you'll get an answer. Um, or I'll answer it on the show, whatever. Yep. But you know, people want to listen to the show. It's NEWHD.com. We're on a lot of the services too, probably this some of the some the ones that you're on as well.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_04 56:54

Um, and uh, you know, I'm having fun doing it.

SPEAKER_01 56:57

Yeah. That's great, man. You know, it's a it's a it's a great thing that you're doing. And I I will I always like to support um the the artist and the people that come on my show. I'll pick up a copy of that book and I'm gonna do one better for you. I'm gonna I'm gonna buy the book and I'm gonna get an address from you. I'm gonna ship it to you, you're gonna sign it, and I'll pay for you to ship it back to me. How's that, right?

SPEAKER_04 57:22

More than happy to. And you're the that's funny, you're the fourth person this month that said that.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

I don't want I don't even want you to pay for the shipping back. I'll pay for the shipping back.

SPEAKER_04 57:33

Listen, any author that that uh gives you a book or tells you about a book that he wrote, and you don't ask him to sign it, he's insulted. I I can't ask him to sign it. I always ask people to sign books and records and fleeting.

SPEAKER_01 57:47

It's like it's like going to get your hair cut and putting your hat on right after you get your hair cut. It's insulting to the barber, right?

SPEAKER_04 57:54

So Dana told me about you. She said you were gonna be uh fun and it's a great uh podcast, and it is. Thank you. I appreciate it. And you know your stuff, I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

Thank you. So and you you play live too, right? I do. At one time I was playing about 130 shows a year, and then when the podcast really took off for me, um uh, you know, I kind of just backed off the live shows and and and put more time in into the show. I've got 25 uh billboards that fly all over Texas and Louisiana now, and it drives a lot of clicks to my website. And uh, you know, this is what I love, Denny. Like I'm the rock and roll junkie. Uh I started I started the podcast for two reasons. Number one, to give artists and people like yourself a a platform to tell their stories and and the stories behind the songs and the books and all of the things. And the other part was just because I was a junkie and I love the trivia portion hearing about it, right? It was not to monetize it, it was not for fame, it was not for anything other than just the love of the stories of music, and that's what it's all about to me.

SPEAKER_04 59:06

That is what it's all about. That's why I tell people my show is songs and stories. And if I don't have a piece of uh interview about a song that I want to talk about, I'll talk about it. Sure. Because most likely I've seen it. I was sure music director at a YSP in Philly for several years, went to New York, worked at NBC for many years, produced all these shows. So I got to hear a lot of stuff. In fact, I told Lou Graham, you'll appreciate this. I said, Lou, I gotta tell you something. I was a music director uh in Philadelphia at WYSP. There's two records that came out that I first heard in the first 20 seconds. I said, This group and this song is gonna be a monster.

SPEAKER_03 59:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:47

I said one was Foreigner, feels like the first time, and the other was Boston.

Advice For Aspiring Hosts

SPEAKER_01 59:52

Yeah, wow. One of the greatest debut selling record of all time, Boston's debut record, right? 20 seconds in, you go, holy. You just know, yeah, you just know. Well, you know, Denny, I I um I did a uh an interview recently. I don't, I'm sure you know the name, Earl Slick, right? Yeah, uh uh from John Lennon, played with David Bowie for many years. Right. You know, you you you gave me a nice compliment, and I love the compliments because it makes me feel like I've done justice to the people that I have on my show. But I I literally had Earl Slick is a famed rhythm guitarist for many big names, right? And he called me two or three times after the podcast and said, Randy, I do hundreds and hundreds of these things, and you have done one of the best interviews that I've ever had. And it you did your research, right? Because I came, I came knowing what I was gonna talk to him about, and he sat with me for over two hours, and we talked for over two hours. And to me, that that's the pay, that's the payment that I get for doing what I do. Just having the artist enjoy just talking to somebody that has a genuine interest in what they're wanting to say or or what they're doing at the time, right? So did he ever did he ever tell you how he got in Bowie's band? I don't know that that surfaced uh I don't know that that surfaced in that. Well, I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:24

I he you know, he was he'd work with Bowie on a couple of things, but never like in his band or anything. Stevie Ray Vaughn was supposed to be the guitar player on the Let's Dance tour. Okay, and he put out his first album and he quit a week before the tour is supposed to start. So Daddy didn't know what to do. Contacted Earl, Earl Slick Field in.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

No kidding. Wow, and he was with him for a long time too. Yeah, yeah, long time. Yeah, so have you have you kind of off the record here, Denny? Have you ever talked to Earl? Have you ever had Earl on your show?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:57

I did have him. Uh he wouldn't know me, but I remember he had a band uh with uh uh the two guys from Straight Cats. Straight Cats, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Phantom Rocker and Slick, yeah. Phantom Rocker and Slick, yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:10

Right. I saw I saw him then and probably and I saw him play with Bowie too. I've seen Bowie a number of times.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:15

Well, like yeah, like like Dana did uh for me. If you're interested again off the record, um I'll be happy to make an introduction if you ever care to have him on uh your show. Lots of stories to tell. Like, yeah, really cool. You're uber cool, dude. Like you would really enjoy him. Yeah. Well, Denny, listen, thanks for the wisdom and the stories and your time today. It's it's been wonderful getting to know you and learn more about your past and what you have coming up in the future. You have so many things going on, but I wish you good health and thank you and much success in everything you do. And uh I'll I'll be in touch with you about the book. I will send that book to you and get you to sign it.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:56

Um by the way, thank you so much for doing this, Dana. Dana said this was the one of the casts that I must do.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:03

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:04

And that's why I got in touch with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:05

Yeah, thank you so much for that. Well, you you guys make sure to follow Denny on all of his social media, the websites, um, and I also ask the listeners to like, share, and subscribe to the podcast on Facebook at BackstagePass Radio Podcast, on Instagram at Backstage Pass Radio, and on the website at BackstagePassradio.com. You guys remember to take care of yourselves and each other, and we'll see you right back here on the next episode of Backstage Pass Radio.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:36

Thank you for tuning into this episode of Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio. We hope you enjoyed this episode and gained some new insights into the world of music. Backstage Pass Radio is heard in over 80 countries, and the streams continue to grow each week. If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback means the world to us and helps us bring you even more amazing content. So join us next time for another deep dive into the stories and sounds that shape our musical landscape. Until then, keep listening, keep exploring, and keep the passion of music alive.