Coming up an amazing story of true musical genius. Today’s Legend was a young rookie at the top of his game as the new guitar genius stepping forward to play for David Lee Roth after the singer quit Van Halen… They hit back with a big record that had everybody talking and hit the top 5. He co-produced the next album, which was also a hit, but then he shocked everyone when he quit to play guitar for God, creating a sonic masterpiece that came from fasting for 10 days. He was in a spiritual flow and the result was what many have called the great guitar song ever written. he was playing in a higher vibration then he could have ever imagined and today he is here with me to tell the story of this once in life time track and he also explains how he was challenge by his young son on the video game guitar hero and lost to him on his own song. It’s a great interview next on Professor of Rock.

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Today, we’re counting down seven landmark performances that, for one day, turned stadiums into sanctuaries. Starting in the neon decade, we’ll revisit a Pink Floyd lightning-strike reunion that nobody believed would ever happen—a moment where bitter grudges melted away under the weight of a single setlist. We’ll witness a once-in-a-lifetime farewell, where Ozzy Osbourne literally ruled the venue from a throne. We’ll drop in on a confessional acoustic set that followed years of silence from Alice in Chains, whose scene had pretty much died, and it became one of the most gut-wrenching and unforgettable concerts of its era. And we’ll relive a rain-soaked halftime show where Prince didn’t just deliver the greatest Super Bowl performance of all time—he seemed to command the weather itself, turning a torrential downpour into a perfect storm. Nobody cared who played or won; they remember this legend. And then, 3 years before that, Prince blew half a dozen legends off the stage with a life-changing solo after a lame magazine had left him off their top guitarist list. Boy, did he ever get even. The stories are coming up NEXT on the Professor of Rock. 

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They were likely Rock’s first supergroup and it all started when these virtuosos who went by the name of CREAM starring Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker all took in a Jimi Hendrix concert, and the bassist Jack Bruce was so juiced with inspiration by what he saw, he went home and created one of rock music’s most familiar and magical riffs. Sunshine of Your Love One that gets stuck in your head for days and that’s a good thing. However when they showed the guaranteed hit to the label head, legend Ahmet Ertegun he hated it. He thought it was crap. Some famous artists outside of the band had to talk him into putting it out. The supergroup was only together for a couple of years and they almost killed each other but their music will last a millennia creating genres and subgenera’s in the process. The story is next.

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Coming up we’re counting down the Top 10 songs from an unbelievable year. Some of the biggest rock songs ever, but they were never actually hits, and truly, most of these are even better than the hit singles of the day. We’ve got some wild backstories on this one, including how Queen's album Jazz was shredded in a nasty hit piece that called the band sexist. Then their big single Don't Stop Me Now from the album FLOPPED at #86. But decades later it became the biggest song from that year with almost 5 billion streams. Or how about Moving in Stereo from one of the best debut albums of the 70s that soundtracked the most rewinded movie scene of the 80s. It was rewinded and it broke a record amount of VCRs. We also have Devo album opener Uncontrollable Urge that was never even released as a single, but it’s made a million a year for the last 16 years straight because of a cable clip show. And last, but not least, how Steve Perry as a temporary roadie was promoted to Journey's lead singer and became one of the greatest rock singers ever... next on POR.

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The Foo Fighters spent over a million dollars on their hyped new album, but they had to throw it away to write their opus: Times Like These. Coming up, they wrestled, creating an album that should have been the biggest of its time. But after a year of work, they trashed it because the band hated it. The songs were infamously called the Million Dollars Demo, but to make matters even worse, the band was about to kill each other. They were about to throw down. So here they were, 3 albums into their career, and it seemed like they were done. Dave Grohl was touring with Queens of the Stone Age, then somehow they found their magic and recorded 14 songs in a few days... including their magnum opus Times Like These, which wouldn’t have happened without all the adversity. But years later, the song means even more… Find out why next on Professor of Rock.

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Coming up, we’re going to have fun with the stories of songs that were denied the coveted position of reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, settling for #2. I always call them the bridesmaids. Well, today they really are the bridesmaid to the bride, as in the greatest female #2 hits of the 70s, with some of your favorite singers ever. Including the legendary Linda Ronstadt, who had 21 Big hits in her career, and most people are shocked when they realize they were all written by someone else, and most were cover songs! Then there’s the story of a Crystal Gayle song that was inspired by an unfortunate incident where a beloved pet was nearly blinded in one eye from a rock thrown by a garbage man. That incident inspired a song that brought Crystal out of the shadow of her legendary sister. Then there was the song Fire that was written especially for a comeback for ELVIS, but he passed away before he could record it. And it was almost buried forever until the Pointer Sisters turned it from a male perspective to a sensual female smash. And finally Karen Carpenter, who turned a jingle written for a bank commercial into an all-time standard…and then 3 years later she did the same thing with a song written for a toddler’s TV show… It’s coming next on Professor of Rock.

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It began with a simple remark during a lover’s quarrel—and became one of the most iconic anthems in rock history. Ronnie Van Zant didn’t think much of it at first, until one night he laid on his back in the studio and wrote the lyrics in minutes.

The song eventually stretched to 17 minutes and was nearly cut from the album after the label pushed back. But “Free Bird” went on to become a symbol of freedom and a must-play at rock shows for decades.

This is the origin and legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Southern rock masterpiece, created by a band both blessed and cursed—and forever legendary.

NEXT on Professor of Rock.

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Coming up an interview with a legend about a song that came into his head from the sound of his tires rolling over a bridge. He was on his way to record with his famous band, they were expecting him to bring them a song for their new album but he didn’t have one well as soon as the he heard it in his head he kept humming it over and over until he ran into the studio and yelled at the band to grab their instruments and he wrote the song from the tune in his head in like 3 minutes...

We also talk about the supergroup that he joined years later that after several hits the record label paid his band Millions to not release another album and his reaction to that is priceless…

A FUN interview is next on Professor of Rock.

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Today, we are going back to the 80s for a countdown you are gonna love. See if you can guess the year. Raiders of the Lost Ark ruled the box office, and Donkey Kong dominated the arcades. And the best songs missed the charts. We’ve got some crazy stories behind these classics. Like the guitar genius Eddie Van Halen who was so fed up with frontman David Lee Roth, he started sneaking into the studio in the middle of the night to overdub new parts onto songs that they had already recorded. Or how about Joe Elliot who was driven insane by his perfectionist producer Mutt Lange, who made him sing just two words over and over for 45 straight minutes. 100s of takes, so he got so drunk he PUKED his guts out and then nailed it. Then there was the Flying High Again that came from Ozzy Osbourne getting banned from the Alamo for 12 years for urinating on it. Plus, the Duran Duran Music Video that was made for Adult Channels, and then there was the classic Stone in Love that came when a band dropped one letter from the song title. and the Greatest song never to chart. It’s next on Professor of Rock.

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FROM THE VAULT: Metallica’s 1986 masterpiece “Master of Puppets” wasn’t a chart-topper when it was first released, but it became the band’s defining anthem—a dark parable about control, addiction, and power set to one of the heaviest riffs of the ‘80s.

Decades later, the song exploded back into pop culture thanks to its unforgettable placement in Stranger Things Season 4, when Eddie Munson shredded it to save the world. In this episode, Professor of Rock breaks down the story behind the track, the brilliance of James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and the late Cliff Burton, and how “Master of Puppets” roared back to hit #1 nearly 40 years after its debut.

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