The best podcasts for music interviews with the stars of the 60s 70s and 80s

A Breath of Fresh Air is my podcast. It is a highly produced, professional series that features some incredibly talented musicians mainly from the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand who tell their stories casually and warmly, as though sitting with me over a cup of tea or a drink. The artists take off their rock star robes and provide us a sense of who they are as people. Each week I choose an artist and get stuck into their musical (and often personal) lives and passions. I discover their stories and unravel their life journeys. As long as they were the hitmakers of the 60s 70s and 80s they qualify. The show is relaxed and easy to listen to and it features snippets of the music that these musicians are most famous for too.

My friend Jason does a wonderful job with his podcast. While he specialises in covering the same era that I do, he usually only interviews guests from the UK. I love his easy style and his diligent research. Well worth listening to! The Strange Brew highlights particular themes in rock music from the mid 1960s to the present day. It is one of the The Daily Telegraph’s podcasts you need to be listening to, one of Podcast & Radio’s Best Music Podcasts to Listen to in 2022, in Radio Today’s five of the best classic rock podcasts, preserved in the British Library Sound Archive and one of the Top 30 Rock and Roll Podcasts You Must Follow in 2022.

Robert Miller in New York is a musician who has followed his own youthful dream to become a Rock Star. He came from a musical family - his father played the trumpet and Robert played trumpet as well through high school. He came of age musically during the British Invasion era of the 1960s. He taught himself guitar and bass. He played in rock bands though high school, studied bass with Jimmy Garrison, John Coltrane’s bassist, and then returned to college in Boston and became a mainstay of the music scene there in the 1970s with his fusion band, Sagov. He was sure that he was on track for stardom in music. But like for many people, life then got in the way of his dream. Marriage, kids, job, obligations. He thought he could work a day job and play music at night, but that became impossible. He actually stopped playing music altogether for 15 years. He woke up one day and realized that his dream had slipped away. But the dream continued to burn inside him. He got back into music in his 40s, recording his first album (“Child’s Play”) and performing at clubs and festivals with his band, The Robert Miller Group. but it was part-time and more like an avocation or hobby. It was only when he turned 60 years old that he realized it was now or never to really go after his dream. How many more chances would he have? So he made a decision. He gave up everything else and figuratively jumped into the deep end of the pool. First thing, he reorganized his band, Project Grand Slam. He surrounded himself with a group of young, extremely talented musicians - mainly from foreign countries - who had come to NYC to make their mark. He began writing music again and rehearsing with the band. Slowly but surely the band began to make progress - bigger and better gigs, openers for several major stars, festivals and concerts. In less than a decade Robert and PGS have released 12 albums including a Billboard #1, have had millions of video views and streams, over 50,000 Facebook fans, played festivals and concerts around the world, and opened for Edgar Winter, Blues Traveler, Boney James and Mindi Abair. Robert realized that he had accomplished something that was unique and inspiring - becoming a successful musician in his 60s, an age when most Baby Boomers were planning their retirement. Along the way he had developed a path into pursuing and succeeding at one’s dream, and felt that he could inspire others to follow and succeed at their dream. Follow Your Dream Podcast During the depths of the pandemic musicians were frozen in time - they couldn’t perform, rehearse or record. Robert knew that he needed to do something creative. He became convinced that starting a podcast would enable him to communicate with his fans and others at a much deeper level than with the usual social media. So in March 2021 he launched his Follow Your Dream Podcast. The theme of the podcast is to inspire and motivate people to follow their dream, just as Robert had done. The podcast features a variety of guests from different walks of life who have in common that they followed their dream to success. Many of the guests are famous musicians, and with them Robert likes to do what he calls a Songfest where they pick out a handful of their songs and Robert and his guest play them and talk about the backstories. Great fun and no other podcast does this! The podcast has become a much bigger success than Robert could ever have imagined. Robert infuses his music into the podcast. Each episode features a different one of Robert’s 100+ songs which he selects in order to fit with the guest or theme of that episode. From time to time he also does Bonus Music Episodes and also Special Episodes and solo episodes. He uses the podcast to release his new music. And the icing on the cake is that Robert has begun to collaborate with a number of his musical guests.

INTERVIEWING THE LEGENDS is devoted to promoting musicians worldwide. Rock spotlights exclusive in-depth interviews with both legendary and up and coming music artists and celebrities. He also features the movers and shakers of the music and publishing industries. WHERE HAVE ALL THE ROCK STARS GONE? Rock and Roll, the Blues, and Jazz are America’s contribution to the arts, so why are we not fighting to preserve our own musical legacy and culture? With roots from the early blues pioneers, the longevity of rock and roll is second to none. But strangely enough, those legendary rock heroes that we were so accustomed to hearing every time we turned our radios on, had mysteriously vanished from the mainstream. The music of the 1960s, 70s, and even the 80s was an important juncture in all of our lives. So many of us timeline life’s precious moments with the music we remember, when the music was so great, when the music mattered. The baby boomer generation is financially imperative to many, yet many of its entertainment standards have been renounced. One day, the plug was pulled on those legendary music artists. Hackers began stealing music across the internet. Online music stores popularized cheap digital singles and neglected to promote full-length albums. Radio stations changed formats to accommodate talk show radio jocks, while rappers and electronic dance music menaced the airwaves. Notorious record companies began folding in droves. Record companies and radio stations that were once owned and operated by visionaries, were now run by accountants and lawyers, and the music world began promoting untalented wannabes. The economy plummeted, and radio stations became more concerned about how many consecutive commercials they could run instead of providing quality radio programming and entertainment value. Radio stations became corporate machines leaving no room for innovation. Throughout the 2000s, recording studios and live performances began using an audio processor called “Auto-Tune” to disguise off-key inaccuracies in vocal tracks. The device allowed virtually anyone without music skills to become a singer and new waves of mainstream radio stars were instantly fabricated. The business of music became stronger and more important than the art of music. For more than a decade, Rock has been on a rock and roll pilgrimage to help promote and save the greatest music the world has ever known. Before the internet and Napster, virtuoso musicians traditionally introduced their music by way of mainstream radio stations while anxious music enthusiasts hurried to their favourite record stores and purchased a copy of the artist’s latest release. Talk radio wasn’t popular because there was way too much great music to play over the airwaves. Advertisers didn’t rule the airwaves, the music did. Rock legends toured the world to promote their latest albums and prices of concert tickets were extremely affordable. Proficient musicians, singers, and songwriters are what made the music so great.

This is a podcast where Mike and Jeremy delve into anything and everything classic rock. They have had so many great classic rock artists and bands as guests on the podcast. These artists and bands are all out there still rocking to audiences all over the world. Many are also writing some great new music. The podcast is an easy, relaxing and informative listen.