1on1 with Jon Evans

REO Speedwagon has sold more than 40 million records since its’ debut in 1971, and Kevin Cronin has been the front man for the past 45 years. After a mandatory, unscheduled hiatus from touring because of the pandemic, Cronin and the band are ‘Back on the Road Again’ in 2022, with live shows packed with fan favorites, while the singer-songwriter also finishes writing a book about his career.

Brantley Gilbert has toured with some of the biggest names in country music. The rock star has hundreds of sold-out shows and more than a half-dozen #1 records to his credit. But, like many singer-songwriters, the pandemic has kept the self-proclaimed ‘road dog’ from performing live as often as he wanted. In our conversation, Gilbert talks about getting back out on tour in 2022, the love-letter he wrote to his wife and daughter, and the first time he ever picked up a guitar.

At just 13-years-old, Carson Holmes experienced what he now calls a “life-changing” event. He auditioned for and got the part of Three Langmore on the Netflix series Ozark, which has become one of the streaming service’s biggest hits. The Wilmington actor talks about working alongside the award-winning cast, the scripts his parents wouldn’t let him read, and the cliffhangers still ahead for fans of the show.

Michelle Li is an excellent journalist. Several Murrow and Emmy awards are proof of her skills. But nothing in her two decades of television news could have prepared Michelle for the racist voicemail a viewer left her on New Year’s Day. By gracefully sharing her pain, and letting the world hear the viewer’s rant, Michelle started a conversation about race and discrimination against Asian Americans that has turned into the positive #veryasian movement.

The fifth season of the award-winning “1on1 with Jon Evans” podcast is in the books. Season five featured interviews with authors, actors, athletes, directors, television personalities, comedians and newsmakers with ties to southeastern North Carolina. This end-of-the-year compilation features several of the most interesting excerpts from some of the year’s conversations.

Reporters Nick Ochsner and Michael Graff covered the 2018 election fraud scandal in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District for different news organizations. The more time they spent in Bladen County, uncovering networks and identifying individuals working to influence elections, the more they realized politics in this rural county has its’ own set of rules. Their book The Vote Collectors is a deep dive into how it worked and nearly won a seat in Congress.

Wiley Cash’s fourth novel, When Ghosts Come Home, represents several firsts in the New York Times best-selling author’s career. He’s crafted a murder-mystery and set it along the coast of his native North Carolina. Despite the mid-1980s timeframe, Cash’s characters deal with many of the same social issues making today’s headlines, while they work to exorcise the ghosts of their past. It’s an engaging story that will make readers think, with an ending that turns on the answer to a simple question.

Meredith Viera’s current project, the Fox-syndicated game show 25 Words or Less is now in its’ third season and seen on television stations across the country. It’s another success in Viera’s award-winning career that began in local radio more than four decades ago, and has taken her around the world to cover the biggest stories and newsmakers.

They came out of Chicago and put the city’s name at the top of the music charts, where it stayed for decades. Trumpet player Lee Loughnane is one of three founding members of Chicago still touring with the rock and roll band 52 years after releasing their first album in 1969. Now back on the road after a pandemic-forced break, Loughnane talks about the excitement of performing live, what fans can expect to hear at the shows, and why he has no plans to stop playing any time soon.

Actress Yaya DaCosta left NBC’s Chicago Med after six seasons to play the lead character of Angela Vaughn in Our Kind of People. The new Fox show, which shoots in Wilmington, NC, is inspired by Lawrence Otis Graham’s bestseller that goes inside America’s Black Upper Class. DaCosta talks about the importance of the show, what drew her to the project, and how her experience in Reality TV nearly sidetracked her acting career.