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PODCAST

Prisoners of Rock and Roll

Prisoners of Rock and Roll

Prisoners of Rock and Roll is a bi-weekly podcast about music, the people who make it, and the almighty, ever-lasting power it has over all of us. We"ve covered everything from Anthrax to Frank Sinatra, the history of the blues to the history of punk, and from Johnny Cash to the Joshua Tree. We also play clips, discuss music news, and sentence a song every week to The Electric Chair for being terrible. Check us out -- you might learn something! Check us out at www.prisonersofrockandroll.com.

music music history

All Episodes

115:27

125 -- More Than a Song: The Healing Power of Music...

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/10/05

Prisoners of Rock and Roll is a podcast about music, the people who make it, and the almighty power it has over so many parts of our lives. We love music, and we love talking about the records that changed us, the songs that remind us of a particular time in our lives, and the tunes that have helped us get through some pretty rough times. Music is therapeutic in a lot of ways.But today, we're taking that idea a whole lot deeper by exploring the actual therapeutic benefits of music, especially for

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104:22

124 -- Alan Freed: Rock's Original Hype Man

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/09/14

Before Elvis shook his hips, before Chuck Berry duck-walked across a stage, and before anyone had smashed a guitar or pissed off their parents with a Beatles haircut, there was a DJ in Cleveland spinning records that weren’t supposed to be for white kids.His name was Alan Freed. Contrary to legend, Freed didn’t invent the term rock and roll. And he sure as hell didn’t invent the music. Black artists had been rocking and rolling long before he ever stepped behind a microphone. But Alan Freed

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81:20

123 -- Down In A Hole With Alice In Chains MTV Unplugged

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/08/03

Alice in Chains is one of the biggest bands from the 90s. But by 1996, they were ghosts.Over two and a half years had passed since their last real concert. Layne Staley’s heroin addiction had derailed the band’s touring schedule. Yeah, they dropped their self-titled album in 1996 and it went to number one, but they couldn’t go on the road behind it. The band was out of the spotlight and the rumors about Layne’s addiction were deafening. MTV had chased them Unplugged for years and, in 1996, the

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72:06

122 -- Ace In The Hole: KISS’s Secret Weapon

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/07/06

KISS was well known for their image, the characters, and the merch. But behind the makeup and pyrotechnics, Ace Frehley brought the fire.Ace was the secret weapon: a Bronx-bred, unschooled guitar slinger whose wild bends, dinosaur vibrato, and pentatonic mayhem gave KISS songs their teeth. No formal lessons, just a Les Paul through a Marshall on ten, loose picking, and pure feel. He didn't just play solos—he sang through the guitar. Episode Playlist Check out this week's ⁠⁠⁠Episode

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88:34

121 -- How Dr. Dre Reshaped Hip Hop 3 Times with...

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/06/22

You guys ready for this one? Dr. Dre didn’t just have a great run in hip-hop… he reshaped the entire genre three separate times in less than thirty years. First, as the driving force behind N.W.A. He helped take raw, unfiltered gangsta rap out of the streets of Compton and slam it onto the national stage. Straight Outta Compton, an actual FBI warning letter — the whole thing was a cultural explosion. Then, after leaving N.W.A., Dre basically invents the G-Funk sound. The Chronic, Snoop Dogg,

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96:30

120 -- Hang Ten With the History of Surf Music

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/06/01

Summer’s coming in hot, and so are we. In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re checking out one of the coolest, most American sounds in rock history: surf music. It’s a sound designed to imitate the ocean — dripping wet reverb, a clean glowing tone, and that lightning-fast, machine-gun guitar picking you instantly recognize. It exploded right in the gap between the first wave of rock ‘n’ rollers and the British Invasion, when the music charts had gone soft. But while surf rock as

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87:57

119 -- Jerry Garcia: Reluctant Captain of the Long...

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/05/18

Jerry Garcia never wanted to be the leader. He was the reluctant heart of the Grateful Dead — the quiet, bearded wizard whose guitar could take a song and stretch it into an all-night cosmic journey.But whether he liked it or not, the band revolved around him, and the counterculture found its soundtrack in his hands. Garcia was a profoundly complicated man. A devoted family guy who cherished his children, yet locked in a lifelong battle with addiction that would ultimately claim his life in

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87:38

118 -- The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Got It Right...

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/05/04

It’s easy and honestly fun to complain about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Every year, they announce a class of inductees and music fans rise up in anger asking “how is so and so not in yet” or “how did this person get in before that person.” Or, my favorite, “what? That person isn’t even rock and roll.” We all do it. Hell, we’ve done entire episodes on how the Rock Hall screwed up. But the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced the inductees for the class of 2026 and they pretty much got it

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76:35

117 -- I Wanna Rock! Twisted Sister

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/04/20

Twisted Sister started as a hard-working bar band in the New York/New Jersey club scene. These guys played thousands of shows—eight thousand performances—grinding it out night after night in dive bars long before anyone knew their names. They perfected their wild theatrical metal sound the old-fashioned way: pure sweat and persistence.Then came 1984. Stay Hungry exploded, and MTV turned 'We're Not Gonna Take It' and 'I Wanna Rock' into anthems. Those over-the-top videos launched the band from club

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86:47

116 -- Whip It Good! New Wave Music

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/03/23

Rock and roll started to lose its way in the late 1970s. The bands that once sounded dangerous were now playing 10-minute guitar solos in hockey arenas. Progressive rock groups were building entire albums around fantasy epics. Disco had taken over the charts and dance floors. Punk exploded then quickly burned out. If you were a kid looking for something fresh, rock and roll felt a little…tired. Then something strange started happening in clubs in New York and London. Bands were showing up

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98:30

115 -- The Music of 1976

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/03/02

In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re diving into 1976 – that wild year where America turned 200 with fireworks, flags, and music exploding everywhere. It is also the year where Ryan and I were born. And the music world celebrated us joining the party by releasing Hotel California from the Eagles, Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, and Boston’s Debut Album. David Bowie was The Thin White Duke. Disco was taking over the dance floors, while the Sex Pistols, Ramones, and The

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88:58

114 -- Rockin’ Reinventions: Killer Covers (Vol 2)

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/02/02

In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re talking about covers – those magical moments where one artist takes another’s song and makes it their own…Wait, we said that in the monologue of last episode. Well it’s true! We had so many songs to talk about that we decided to jump back into the trenches and talk about more of those moments where one artist grabs a song and turns it upside down, inside out, or straight into gold…or garbage.We still have a lot to say on this topic since we

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82:37

113 -- Rockin’ Reinventions: Killer Covers (Vol 1)

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2026/01/19

In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re talking about covers – those magical moments where one artist takes another’s song and makes it their own. Sometimes they stay faithful to the original. Sometimes they completely blow it up and rebuild it into something fresh. We’re going to talk about covers that cross genres like Johnny Cash turning Nine Inch Nails into a heartbreaking confession to Sid Vicious giving us a punk rock version of Frank Sinatra. Covers that became more famous

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86:47

112 -- Sleigh Ride to Nowhere: Christmas Songs That...

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2025/12/15

It's that time of year again: our 6th annual Christmas Episode! We've roasted bad holiday tunes, thrown epic Christmas parties with rock legends, and even had a blue Christmas diving into the blues. But this year, we're sneaking around the holiday playlist like a couple of grinches with a twist. We're talking about those classic "Christmas" songs that get blasted every December... but if you listen closely to the lyrics, they never once say the word "Christmas." No Santa, no manger, no ho-ho-ho –

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79:08

111 - Bruce Springsteen & Electric Nebraska

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2025/12/08

We’re opening the vault on the single most mythical recording in Bruce Springsteen’s long career: Electric Nebraska.In January 1982: Bruce locked himself in a bedroom with a four-track and cut ten of the bleakest songs he’s ever written. A few months later, he took those songs into the studio with the E Street Band and tried them loud. They didn’t work. Bruce ultimately released the original demos, and Nebraska became one of the bleakest albums in the Springsteen catalogue. But what about

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98:32

110 -- High Notes: The Best Songs About Weed

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2025/11/17

Hey there, groove rebels, light one up and crank it loud. In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re blazing through songs about weed.From Willie Nelson’s outlaw anthems to Snoop Dogg’s chronic classics, the Grateful Dead’s tie-dye jams, and Cypress Hill’s hazy hits, pot’s been music’s smoky sidekick for decades. But we’re not just name-dropping—we’re digging deep into tracks that tell America’s weed story as it’s gone from counter culture to more mainstream – and legal – form of

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93:00

109 -- One Hit Wonders of the 1990s

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2025/11/03

In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re reliving the one hit wonders of the 1990s. This was a defining decade for us because it’s when we graduated high school and college, and we spent a lot of it slinging CDs in a record store, back when your local mall had record stores.Music was literally in the background all the time, whether we were watching MTV, sitting in our rooms rocking out, cranking it up while driving our first cars, or helping customers find the cassette single of

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75:00

108 -- A Magical Mystery Tour to Abbey Road Studios

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2025/10/20

Abbey Road Studios in London, England was the world’s first purpose-built recording studio. Opened way back in 1931, this building and the people inside have been at the cutting edge of recording technology for over 90s years. Abbey Road Studios is most famous for being where The Beatles recorded almost all of their music, but it also drove innovation with stereo recording, multitracks, editing, and the shift from analog to digital recording. In addition to all of those amazing Beatles records –

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108:18

107 -- Rebels With A Cause: Good People In Music

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2025/10/06

After doing a few episodes on scandals and artists who did time in prison, we’re flipping the script and shining a light on the good people in music – artists who pay it forward and have a reputation for just being good people. We’ve got Dolly Parton sending books to kids through her Imagination Library and Alice Cooper swinging his golf clubs to fund youth programs. Ludacris donating school supplies and clothes to thousands of kids and Jon Bon Jovi fighting poverty through his Soul Foundation

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103:26

106 -- Sun Records and the Beginning of Rock and Roll

Prisoners of Rock and Roll ·

2025/09/16

In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re going all the way back to the beginning of rock and roll – and our back catalogue – by taking another look at Sun Records. In January 1950, Sam Phillips and his assistant Mario Keisker opened a small recording studio in a former auto glass repair shop in Memphis, Tennessee and the rest is rock and roll history. Sun Records brought us the first rock and roll song Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. They also introduced the world to

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