If there's one band that has shown great perseverance over the years it's Dragon. At one stage early in their career they were in danger of losing their recording contract, so their manager locked them in a room until they came up with a hit. Plus as Dragon's Todd Hunter explains the band has had more than it's fair share of tragedy.
Ian Keenan calls his interview with Andrew Gold "an all-time favourite". It's a fascinating chat with a man who came from a show business background and then carved his own fantastic musical career. The multi-instrumentalist played a major role in the career of Linda Ronstadt before launching himself as a soloist. He also gave us two of the best TV theme songs of the 80's!
"We Built This City", "Sara" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" were all huge hits featuring the voice of Starship's Mickey Thomas, but did you known he sang another huge hit before he joined Starship?
Their debut show was on the day we learnt that Elvis Presley died and since then Mental As Anything has become one of Australia's longest serving bands. Here two founding members reveal some embarrassing (and funny) on-stage moments. They tell which superstar challenged Greedy to a boxing match and name the Mental As Anything hit that Martin wrote by drawing chords out of a hat!
Singer/songwriter Janis Ian has had a wide ranging career. She's won two Grammy Awards, one for singing "At Seventeen" and the other for her spoken-word autobiography. She has been a magazine columnist, a science fiction author and she's said "no" to some amazing acting roles. Janis Ian also explains the meaning behind her album "God and the FBI" as we hear her hit stories.
New Zealand's Tim Finn looks back on a very varied musical career. With Ian Keenan he discusses his bad-hair days with Split Enz and the continued partnership with his brother Neil in Crowded House. There's the great start to his solo career to reminisce about while Tim also reveals some disappointments and the one thing he would NEVER do with his music.
It is amazing how many famous singers cite Paul Rodgers as their major inspiration. John Mellencamp went so far as to call him "the best rock singer EVER"! In the 70's he led two of the UK's greatest rock bands in Free and Bad Company. Free's "All Right Now" is just one of his huge hits, but wait until you hear how it came about.
There's a great tale behind the career of Diesel. In fact, there's many great stories from a life that's taken him half-way around the world. American Mark Lizotte began playing in bands at a young age but it was in Australia he found fame with "Johnny Diesel and The Injectors". He talks about his career challenges as well as working with his famous brother-in-law.
Do you know which song was given the only Grammy ever awarded for "Best Disco Recording"? If you knew it was a Gloria Gaynor hit then you get full points! In the interview with Ian Keenan you'll hear other reasons why that particular song means so much to her. Gloria Gaynor also reveals something that is common to all her hit cover versions.
Singer/songwriter Richard Clapton has always been a Bob Dylan fan....and boy does he have a great Bob Dylan anecdote! If you grew up in Australia in the 70's his songs like "Girls On The Avenue", "Deep Water", "Capricorn Dancer" and "Down In The Lucky Country" will form part of your personal soundtrack and here you can discover the stories behind those hits.
