Professor of Rock

A few weeks ago, we had our first episode of Unsolved Mysteries of Rock and Roll, and I got hundreds of requests for another episode. So today, we're pulling back the curtain on some of the most jaw-dropping true crime tales from the archives of popular music. Including one guitar legend who rolled up on the front lawn of a Beverly Hills mansion in a fully armed military assault vehicle… He had left his gear there during an audition, and the lead singer wouldn’t return his calls. When you find out what happened next, you’ll be blown away… this other musician nearly was. Then there’s the 80s music video that ignited a citywide crime epidemic. Thousands of emblems from a famous car brand were being stolen from car hoods every day because of this band. These three New Yorker musicians had no idea they’d started a crime wave. And finally… a female rocker was on her way to superstardom when she was found strangled in an alley with her own Merch. After years of painstaking investigations, the culprit was finally found. Find out what happened. Let’s get into it.

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Let's run it back!
It’s a song with a storied history and a bittersweet legacy. But you’d never know just listening to it. That’s because this is one of those happy-go-lucky pop tunes we were all singing along with back in the 80s. However, in the studio and behind the scenes… it was a different story. Walk Like An Egyptian by the Bangles.
This song was actually the catalyst for this band’s breakup. It all fell apart when their producer forced each member to audition to sing on the song… their own song! With four musicians and just three verses… I’m sure you can do the math. Someone was getting the shaft. And then there was the music video, which has this iconic moment, that all of us remember. Susanna Hoffs and the iconic eye roll that made every boy a man... A moment that turned one of the singers into America’s sweetheart and left the others out in the cold. With the press and fans calling her the band’s lead singer, things got ugly fast.
Stick around to find out if there is any way this divisive track could have a happy ending. The story’s coming up… NEXT on the Professor of Rock.
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Coming up, we’re going back to a year that was all over the place with some wonderful variety and unconventional songs that became beloved, hits that defined the year they came out. It’s our latest time in a bottle countdown! There’s a party classic KC and the Sunshine Band's Get Down Tonight that made a writing collaboration a ton of money, but they blew it all on blow, an instrumental by the Average White Band whose founding member died from a weird accident after ingesting a lethal cocktail at a party in Hollywood, yet, his bandmate, who had the same concoction, was miraculously saved, because of the quick action by Cher, yes, that Cher! One of the best-selling singles came out in ’75, and the track was “a little bit frightening.” The song Angie Baby about a mentally unstable girl who was mysteriously disposed of by a predator that’s one of the creepiest songs to hit the top of the charts, and the song Lady that saved one of the most enduring classic rock bands, Styx that became, what many call, the first power ballad, plus the biggest-selling one-hit wonder ever, Carl Douglas's Kung Fu Fighting… It was a throwaway B-side, and now it has sold 11 million, even though many claim it’s racist. Let’s do it.

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Coming up, we're taking an in-depth look at one of rock's most entertaining topics… The “crazy ex” song… as in crazy ex-girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives, whatever….we’ve all been there… or at least know someone who has. If you’ve ever had someone take a baseball bat to a windshield or go completely scorched earth on you for reasons you’re still trying to understand, this countdown is for you.
We’ve got the story of Axl Rose, who showed up at his girlfriend’s door at 4 AM, threatening to take his own life right there if she didn’t marry him. What a proposal! Then there’s Justin Timberlake, who made a music video about him breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s home and doing some pretty messed-up stuff. An MTV host called him an "American Psycho,” you know, like the movie. And he pretty much fessed up to it. Also, there’s the popstar Lisa Lopes, who burned down her boyfriend’s million-dollar mansion because he didn’t shoes… For real? You can’t even make this stuff up.

Let’s get started.
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Coming up, it’s a duo from Lincoln, Nebraska - Zager & Evans - who transfixed listeners everywhere with a prophecy that there will come a time when machines will completely take over…. humans won’t need teeth…legs…or eyes….that’s if man can even survive… The story of “In the Year 2525” is a truly strange song that foretold the future of mankind, more than 500 years from now. The band recorded in the middle of a cow pasture and sold it out of the trunk of their cars… It ended up going to #1 for 6 weeks, and it sold 5 million copies. The craziest part is that after the massive success, it’s as if aliens abducted them, because the band just vanished… after foretelling the future they were never heard from again.

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