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Styx's Ricky Phillips Bottoms Out (on the Bass) for Summer Tour

By Bob Ruggiero

Jul 11, 2022

The cell phone sitting on the desk rings at the appointed time, and there’s a high-energy voice on the other end of the line. “Hey Bob, it’s Ricky Phillips! From the rock band Styx!” Hmmm…it wouldn’t seem that the band whose Classic Rock catalog includes such warhorses as “Come Sail...

Stephen Bishop's Separate Lives Come Together in Autobiography

By Bob Ruggiero

Jul 7, 2022

In those long-ago pre-online days before TikTok, YouTube, or Bandcamp, if an aspiring songwriter wanted to get their work out there for more established artists to possibly record, he or she would cut a demo tape that would hopefully be passed along. Though it might just as easily get tossed...

Don McLean Serves Up Historical Slice of "American Pie"

By Bob Ruggiero

Jun 23, 2022

There are a lot of songs in the Canon of Classic Rock, but only a handful qualify as True Epics. Think “Stairway to Heaven,” “Freebird,” “Hey Jude,” “Layla,” “Hotel California” and “Don’t Stop Believin’.” A quieter entry on that hallowed list is Don McLean’s “American Pie.” Clocking in at an...

Kenny Loggins is Still Alright

By Bob Ruggiero

Jun 6, 2022

Tom Cruise and Kenny Loggins are forever intertwined in pop culture by the 1986 high-flying action flick Top Gun. The actor as the star and driving onscreen force, and the musician for his distinctive performance of the film’s theme song, “Danger Zone.” But the pair had never actually met in...

Lennons, Lawsuits and Lawyers

By Bob Ruggiero

May 27, 2022

Over the course of his 45-year career as a lawyer, Jay Bergen has questioned or cross-examined a considerable number of litigants in open court. But there’s one in his mind that tends to stand above all others. “He was the best witness that I ever had!” the now-retired counselor says...

The Beatles' Pivotal "Middle Age" Celebrated in All-Star Show

By Bob Ruggiero

May 26, 2022

Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross, Joey Molland, Denny Laine & Jason Scheff It Was Fifty Years Ago Today: Celebrating The Beatles’ Rubber Soul & Revolver Cullen Performance Hall May 25, 2022 There are likely thousands of Beatles tribute and cover bands roaming the earth across most continents right now, with a...

Talking the Past, the Present, and the Galaxy With Tears For Fears' Curt Smith

By Cory Garcia

May 24, 2022

Make no mistake: You’re going to hear the classics when Tears For Fears takes the stage at Smart Financial Center Wednesday night. You’ll get to sing about being head over heels, about everybody wanting to rule the world; you’ll get to shout it all out. But just because those songs...

A Fab Five Pay Tribute to the Beatles on Hits-Laden Tour

By Bob Ruggiero

May 19, 2022

Glancing at his jam-packed concert schedule for 2022, it’s easy to assume that Todd Rundgren is looking to make up for stage time lost to the pandemic. He’s currently opening shows for friend Daryl Hall. Two days after that ends, he’ll embark on the second U.S. leg of a jaunt...

New Doc Details the Beatles' Indian Connections

By Bob Ruggiero

May 10, 2022

In all the nooks and crannies of Beatles Scholarship, the Fabs’ relationship to and time spent in India is one of the most interesting. In fact, it could be argued that no group did more to open Western ears, eyes, and minds to Indian music, culture, and spirituality than the...

Art Alexakis on Three Decades of Everclear, Making Noise and His Own Future Path

By Bob Ruggiero

Apr 20, 2022

When we spoke with Art Alexakis of Everclear in July of last year, the band’s founder/singer/guitarist was literally a day away from launching their Summerland package tour trek across the U.S. One that already filled him with equal amounts of excitement and nervousness, given the whole pandemic situation. “It was...

Classic Rockers Nazareth Keep Surviving on 25th Album

By Bob Ruggiero

Apr 19, 2022

Ah, COVID, you bastard! You have not been a friend to so, so many Classic Rock bands who had ambitious and wonderful plans to celebrate a 50th anniversary of their founding or first album in 2020…or 2021…or 2022. That includes Scottish hard rockers Nazareth, whose self-titled debut dropped in 1971...

Felix Cavaliere: A Rascal Tells His Tale

By Bob Ruggiero

Apr 14, 2022

Otis Redding couldn’t believe his eyes when he stuck his head inside an Atlantic Records studio where a fairly-new group called the Rascals were recording. “My God!” the big soul superstar exclaimed. “They are white!” One of the label’s biggest stars couldn’t be faulted for assuming that, though. A lot...

American History: Dewey Bunnell Celebrates 50 Years (Give or Take) of Music

By Bob Ruggiero

Apr 13, 2022

Among Beatlemaniacs, there’s a famous 1963 interview clip of the Fab Four in which they’re asked what the future might hold when the bubble inevitably bursts on their showbiz career. Ringo Starr—apparently serious—said that he fancied opening a string of ladies’ hairdressing salons. The idea that a pop or rock...

Ex-Raspberry Scott McCarl on the Power of Power Pop

By Bob Ruggiero

Apr 12, 2022

In the multitude of musical genres, aficionados of Power Pop are among the most detail oriented. Whether it’s dissecting output from classic groups (Big Star, the Jam, Shoes, the Knack) or more recent bands (OK Go, Jellyfish, Fountains of Wayne) the often bright and upbeat music is a bridge between...

Bob Dylan Memories Unearthed—More Than 50 Years Later

By Bob Ruggiero

Mar 22, 2022

Today, it seems every rock musician regardless of talent or time in the spotlight has either a biography or autobiography on them. Sometimes several. But when New York Post journalist Anthony Scaduto—who covered both the Mafia and pop music beats—published Bob Dylan: An Intimate Biography in 1972, it was a...

Noel Paul Stookey and All That Fazz

By Bob Ruggiero

Mar 14, 2022

Noel Stookey remembers exactly when he first heard the term “Fazz.” It was in the mid-1960s and the folk music trio he was part of (a little act named Peter, Paul and Mary) were on tour with the jazzbos of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. At the end of each show,...

'60s Hitmaker Tony Hazzard Demonstrates His Songwriting Craft

By Bob Ruggiero

Mar 7, 2022

It was the late 1960s and Tony Hazzard was visiting his neighbor John Paul Jones one morning for coffee and conversation in the English village of Loudwater. Hazzard, an accomplished pop songwriter and sometimes performer, knew that his musically-gifted mate was playing bass in a new band. But Hazzard wasn’t...

It's Columbus Day Every Day for Little Feat

By Bob Ruggiero

Feb 25, 2022

According to The 1970s Rock Rulebook, every performer or band was required to release a double live record album. For some acts, it broke them out in terms of popularity and recognition (KISS, Peter Frampton, Cheap Trick). For others, it burnished the studio material and allowed for stretching out (The...

The Two Tastes of Ambrosia

By Bob Ruggiero

Feb 8, 2022

Sometimes, bands can have two entirely separate musical lives. There’s the group that casual listeners “know” from their successful, Top 40 hits. Then there’s a different side understood by more hardcore fans and deep cut listeners. Such is the case with Ambrosia. Ambrosia’s place in music culture is cemented by...

Debunking The Many When We Were Young Conspiracies

By Cory Garcia

Jan 21, 2022

There’s a lot of money to be made selling you your past. Long before culture critics were wringing their hands over the lack of new ideas on the big screen and the endless parade of reboots on the small screen, the music industry was reselling the masses their teen years...

Classic Rock Corner

Cheap Trick's Early Magic Detailed in New Book

REO Speedwagon's Bruce Hall Talks Licks, Links and Blazing (Hot!) Summer Tour

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