Let's Talk About Rock

In celebration of Metallica celebrating 40 years as a band, Vinnie chronicles their musical evolution over the course of their 10 studio albums, as well as behind the scenes hardship, tragedy and struggles with a devoted fanbase cementing their status in pop culture. 

After Don Everly's passing on August 21, 2021 joining his brother Phil Everly in rock and roll heaven, Vinnie gives a summarized history of the original fighting rock and roll brother duo the Everly Brothers from their musical back story to their success in the 1950's, faltering success in the 60's, and their ugly breakup in the 70's all the way up to their modern reunion and resurgence in the 1980's as a rock and roll force to be reckoned with preserving their legacies all the way up until Phil's death in 2014 and Don's recent death respectively.

Vinnie heads on down to the 1990's California ska punk scene to discuss one of the most iconic bands of that era Sublime, looking into the history of the band and singer Bradley Nowell's futile struggles with addiction leading to his passing too soon at the age of 28 from a heroin overdose before Sublime could become a huge success with their self titled 3rd album and how the members of Sublime have carried on their fallen singer's legacy over the past 25 years including with the reincarnation of Sublime called Sublime with Rome.

One of heavy metal's iconic legends, Vinnie delves into Ronnie James Dio's life story, talking about the origins of the horns sign, to his musical roots, leading to his stints in Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio discussing his stints in those bands and his legacy in the metal world. 

50 years after the loss of iconic singer Jim Morrison (1943-1971) at the age of 27, Vinnie talks about the life of Jim Morrison and the history of the Doors discussing the making of their albums, their many controversial concerts, and all the Lizard King antics you can name.

Continuing where the podcast left off last year with AC/DC, Vinnie talks about the band's history over the last 40 years with Brian Johnson as singer leading up to the release of their most recent record PWR/UP. 

For Let's Talk About Rock's 75th episode, Vinnie goes heavy metal this pride month by talking about LGBTQ+ metal icon Rob Halford and of course the band he sings with, Judas Priest who have been around for 5 decades influencing many heavy metal bands over the years and continues to this day, making their mark in rock history with timeless albums like British Steel and Screaming for Vengeance. 

Given Bob Dylan's long legacy in rock and folk music, Vinnie talks about Bob Dylan one more time going through some of Bob Dylan's discography and ventures from 1981-present as well as how he preserved his legacy during this time frame with his Bootleg Series alongside other iconic box sets, his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Presidential Medal of Freedom and Nobel Prize for Literature. 

Bob Dylan's legacy over the course of his 80 years on this planet, it was not enough to fit into one episode so Vinnie talks more about Bob Dylan starting from his recovering from his motorcycle accident to this resurgence to popularity with albums like Blood on the Tracks and songs like Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Tangled Up in Blue and Hurricane, all the way up to him becoming a born-again Christian releasing 3 Christian albums between 1979 and 1981 starting with the most notably one of those Slow Train Coming from 1979 with the hit song Gotta Serve Somebody. Eventually, he went back to secular music. 

To celebrate the 80th birthday of folk legend Bob Dylan, Vinnie goes into detail about Bob Dylan's musical history focusing on his first seven albums between 1962 & 66, his prominence in the Civil Rights Movement, going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and more. So much to cover, we had to split into multiple parts.