Everything Fab Four

John Roberts is best known as the voice of Linda Belcher, doting matriarch of the beloved Fox animated sitcom "Bob's Burgers," but he's also a musician — you may have heard his new collaboration with Blondie's Debbie Harry, "Lights Out." On this episode, he and host Ken Womack talk about the TV pilots Roberts has made that you haven't seen yet, his upcoming musical releases, and which Beatle Linda Belcher would like the best.

Kathy Valentine made history as the bassist for the Go-Go's, the first multiplatinum all-female band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to have a #1 album in the U.S. And her first relationship with music? Was with the Beatles. In this episode, Valentine and host Ken Womack talk about her Beatles and British influences, what she and fellow bass player Paul McCartney have in common, and her memoir, "All I Ever Wanted," a deeply personal reflection on a life in rock.

In this episode, "Little Steven" Van Zandt and our host Ken Womack go deep into the guitarist/singer/songwriter/actor's legendary musical career and his own Beatles influences, from the Ed Sullivan Show to how dues-paying in New Jersey and Hamburg shaped these bands to the night they pulled the plug on Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen in Hyde Park.

. Everything Fab Four's theme song is "Seize the Day," courtesy of Blac Rabbit: Follow them on Instagram @blacrabbit . Everything Fab Four is a WonderWall Communications production, distributed by Salon

This week's guest is drummer John Densmore, one of the founding members of the groundbreaking classic rock band The Doors. In a wide-ranging conversation with host Ken Womack, Densmore talks about the parallel tracks the Beatles and the Doors were on for the time they overlapped as bands, musical innovations the Beatles inspired the Doors to take, and how George Harrison talking about losing John Lennon helped him mourn Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek. . Everything Fab Four's theme song is "Seize the Day," courtesy of Blac Rabbit: Follow them on Instagram @blacrabbit . A WonderWall Communications production, distributed by Salon

"I think Paul McCartney's calling you": This week's guest is singer/songwriter Patty Smyth, who rocketed to fame with her band band Scandal ("Goodbye to You," "The Warrior"), followed by her acclaimed solo career ("Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough"). This week, Smyth and host Ken Womack talk about the pivotal Beatles moments that shaped her life, how pregnancy and motherhood shaped her career, and how she almost joined Van Halen. . Everything Fab Four's theme song is "Seize the Day," courtesy of Blac Rabbit: Follow them on Instagram @blacrabbit . A WonderWall Communications production, distributed by Salon

From an early age, singer/songwriter Dessa, the daughter of a classical guitar-playing father, seemed destined for music. In the final episode of season 1 of "Everything Fab Four," the Doomtree Collective member tells our host Kenneth Womack how the Beatles shaped her understanding of poetic license and creative possibility from childhood on. In this wide-ranging interview, they also dive deep into the ups and downs of creative collaboration, an exclusive clip of her "Come Together"-influenced song "Warsaw" and much more.

Jon Anderson, co-founder and former lead singer of the legendary prog rock group Yes, has enjoyed a prolific career spanning over six decades, most recently with his 2019 album "1000 Hands." Though he had a band with his brother as a teen in 1962, they were largely focused on being the Everly Brothers or Elvis Presley — that is, until they heard "Love Me Do." The brothers traveled to see the Beatles play live in April, 1963, "and it was a revelation on many levels," Anderson tells Everything Fab Four host Kenneth Womack. On this episode, go deep with Anderson and Womack into how the Beatles shaped pop music throughout the '60s, and discover the very specific musical reason why Anderson believes the band is beloved all around the world.

Author and musician Stephanie Phillips, who plays in the Black feminist punk band Big Joanie and whose writing has been featured in major outlets all over the world, grew up a music fan but for years had "a general disinterest" in the Beatles, due largely to the "sad dad army" of fans that she couldn't relate to as a young woman of color. "There wasn't really much in the Beatles for me to latch onto," Phillips tells host Ken Womack on "Everything Fab Four." "That was, I learned later, because of how their story and their myth and their music had been commandeered by a very specific white middle class elite." On this episode Phillips talks about her influential essay "On Loving the Beatles as a Black woman," finding her own way into Beatles fandom, why we shouldn't call them "geniuses," and what she doesn't hear on their albums.

John Oates, best known as half of the iconic pop duo Hall & Oates, has played guitar alongside Darryl Hall for decades, co-writing hits like "Sara Smile," "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" and "Maneater." He grew up in Philadelphia, and tells our host Ken Womack that when the Beatles first hit the U.S., his local radio stations wouldn't play their songs. "Being a teenager in Philadelphia I was right along with them. . . . To me the Beatles didn't mean that much initially." Eventually, though, his relationship to the Fab Four's music changed, starting with "Abbey Road." In this wide-ranging conversation, Oates tells the story of a fateful eviction, the impact producer Arif Mardin had on Hall & Oates, his recent solo work, what kind of neighbor Hunter S. Thompson was, and which Beatles song he'd want with him on a desert island.

Broadway star Adam Pascal is a serious Beatles fan — he even named his son Lennon. On this episode of "Everything Fab Four," host Kenneth Womack talks to the artist who originated the role of Roger in Broadway's "Rent" about what early Beatles music had in common with show tunes, how John Lennon brought an element of danger into the innocence, and even the brilliance of Barry Manilow.