Lots of news to share today...
Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom return to celebrate their 40TH Anniversary this year with new album and tour
Original founding members of the acclaimed American rock and roll trio set off sparks on '40,'
their first new album in 26 years!
CATCH UP WITH BAND IN STUDIO HERE
All revved up and red hot, The Stray Cats are back.
Brian Setzer (guitar, vocals), Lee Rocker (bass, vocals) and Slim Jim Phantom (drums, vocals)--original founding members of the iconic and acclaimed American rock and roll trio--are celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2019 with a new album and tour (*see tour dates below).
The STRAY CATS have titled the album 40. Marking their first new album in 26 years, it will be released May 24 via Surfdog Records and distributed by BMG (CD, vinyl, digital). The song titles alone--including "Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me)," "Rock It Off," "Mean Pickin' Mama" and "Devil Train"--instantly let listeners know they're in for a non-stop rocking time.
Watch the band and album producer Peter Collins in the studio discussing the making of the album here.
The first instant grat track
, "Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me)," is available now with a pre-order of the album. The song is also streaming on Spotify. An exclusive indie-store edition of the album--colored vinyl, with a double-sided 24x12 poster--will arrive on
May 24: http://smarturl.it/StrayCats
In addition, The STRAY CATS are releasing an exclusive 12" picture disc with three songs--"Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me), "When Nothing's Going Right" and "Rock It Off"--on April 13, Record Store Day.
The STRAY CATS begin their select U.S. dates on August 3 on the heels of June and July overseas shows. Tickets for the shows go on sale Friday, March 8 at 10:00 AM (local time).
The STRAY CATS recorded 40 at Blackbird Studios in Nashville in late 2018 following their first North American shows in 10 years, with four concerts including sold-out headlining shows in Las Vegas and the PacificAmphitheatre in Costa Mesa, CA before wildly enthusiastic audiences. Still buzzing from the thrill of playing together again and the crowd response, they went into the studio with producer Peter Collins (Rush, Bon Jovi, The Brian Setzer Orchestra) and engineer Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton, Arctic Monkeys). There are a dozen original songs that comprise the album.
Here's what the guys have to say:
Brian Setzer: "You have to understand how unique the Stray Cats are. It's me playing an old hollow body guitar, Slim Jim playing two or three drums, and Lee Rocker slapping a stand-up acoustic bass. I get to write new songs and then play them with my buddies. Somehow we created a new and exciting sound with this simple idea. And you know what? A lot of people agree!"
Lee Rocker: "This new album really feels like the first record we did, it's really natural and comfortable. For the recording, we went live--like doing a gig, we recorded in a real, organic way. We were all in one room standing next to each other recording live, with the amps turned up to 10, it captured the undefinable things that happen when a band is great, it captured the magic that takes place and an undefined spark."
Slim Jim Phantom: "We're very, very focused when we get into the studio, it didn't feel like a long time had passed since we had done this, it felt very natural and familiar. We were all in a row with everyone watching each other, so it felt like a gig in the set-up. We really embraced that a little bit for the album, it's like an old way of making records. The modern is meeting the vintage, which has always been our inspiration."
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The Stray Cats from L-R: Lee Rocker, Brian Setzer,
Slim Jim Phantom
By Russ Harrington
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'40' Tracklisting
Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me)
Rock It Off
I've Got Love If You Want It
Cry Danger
I Attract Trouble
Three Time's A Charm
That's Messed Up
When Nothing's Going Right
Desperado
Mean Pickin' Mama
I'll Be Looking Out For You
Devil Train
DAY
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DATE
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CITY/STATE
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VENUE
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Friday
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6/21
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Vitoria, Spain
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Azkena Rock Festival
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Sunday
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6/23
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Birmingham, United Kingdom
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Birmingham O2Academy
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Tuesday
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6/25
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Manchester, United Kingdom
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Manchester O2 Apollo
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Wednesday
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6/26
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London, United Kingdom
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London Eventim Apollo
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Thursday
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6/27
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London, United Kingdom
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London Eventim Apollo
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Saturday
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6/29
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Tilloloy, France
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Retro C Trop
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Monday
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7/1
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Amsterdam, Netherlands
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AFAS Live
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Wednesday
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7/3
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Berlin, Germany
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Columbiahalle
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Thursday
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7/4
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Cologne, Germany
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Palladium
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Saturday
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7/6
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Tours, France
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American Tours Festival
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Sunday
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7/7
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Belfort, France
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Les Eurockeennes
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Tuesday
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7/9
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Stuttgart, Germany
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Killesberg
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Thursday
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7/11
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Munich, Germany
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Zenith
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Saturday
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7/13
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Aix-Les-Bains, France
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Musilac Festival
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Thursday
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7/18
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Pori, Finland
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Pori Jazz Festival
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Saturday
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7/20
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Falun, Sweden
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Summer Jamboree-Falun
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Saturday
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8/3
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Atlantic City, NJ
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Ocean Resort Casino-Ovation Hall
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Tuesday
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8/6
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New York, NY
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Pier 17 at South Street Seaport
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Tuesday
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8/13
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Vienna, VA
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Wolf Trap
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Wednesday
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8/14
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Huber Heights, OH
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Rose Music Center
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*Thursday
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8/15
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Grand Rapids, MI
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Meijer Garden
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Sunday
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8/18
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Welch, MN
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Treasure Island Casino
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*Monday
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8/26
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Salt Lake City, UT
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Red Butte Garden
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Wednesday
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8/28
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Los Angeles, CA
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Greek Theatre
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*Saturday
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8/31
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San Diego, CA
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Humphrey's
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*Note: italicized dates will be on sale at a later date (TBD)
About The STRAY CATS:
The STRAY CATS, the band that put Rockabilly music back on the record charts in the early '80s, scored several big hits on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to a striking visual 1950's style brought "up to date" with exaggerated pompadours and colorful tattoos and as well as genuine musical chops that evoked the best players of rockabilly's original heyday. Formed by guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer, upright bass player Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, NY, in 1979, the trio shared a love for Rockabilly music. After banging around New York for a few months, in the summer of 1980, and seeing a pompadoured kid on the cover of UK magazine NME, they hopped a plane to London where a rockabilly revival movement was just beginning to emerge. Their massive hits and videos include "Runaway Boys," "Rock This Town," "Stray Cat Strut" "(She's) Sexy + 17," and "I Won't Stand in Your Way."
For more information on The STRAY CATS, visit:
Nils Lofgren gets 'Blue With Lou'
LOS ANGELES, Calif.— Master rock singer-songwriter-guitarist Nils Lofgren returns on April 26 with Blue With Lou, an all-new collection featuring a dozen dazzling, forceful songs, half of which were penned in collaboration with the late, legendary Lou Reed.
The 12-track collection, issued on Lofgren’s own Cattle Track Road Records in single-CD and double-LP configurations, and due out on April 26, 2019, was produced by the musician and his wife Amy. Basic tracks were recorded live at his home studio in Arizona with longtime collaborators Andy Newmark (drums) and Kevin McCormick (bass). Saxophonist Branford Marsalis is featured on a new recording of the Lofgren-Reed composition “City Lights.”
Five more songs co-written by the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers have never seen the light of day and have remained in the trunk for decades.
Producer Bob Ezrin, who had worked with Lofgren, and previously worked with Reed on his concept album Berlin suggested the collaboration, leading to Lofgren and Reed spending a long night at Lou’s New York City apartment discussing the collaboration which led to 13 songs penned together.
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Nils Lofgren
(Photo by Carl Schultz) |
“I kind of forgot about the idea,” Lofgren recalls. “About a month after that, I was sound asleep, the phone rang at 4:30 in the morning, and I answered it in the dark. ‘Hey, Nils, it’s Lou Reed.’ That woke me up. He said, ‘I’ve been listening to the tape you sent, and I love it. I’ve been up for three days and nights straight. I haven’t slept. I’ve been working on your tape. I’ve completed 13 sets of lyrics that I love.’ And I’m like, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me.’ Then he said, ‘If you wanna get a pad and pencil, I’ll dictate them to you.’ We spent two more hours on the phone. You can imagine my excitement.”
Ultimately, the co-written songs “A Fool Like Me,” “I Found Her,” and “I’ll Cry Tomorrow” (the last co-written with guitarist Dick Wagner) appeared on Nils, while Reed claimed “City Lights,” “Stupid Man,” and “With You” for his own 1979 album The Bells. The pair’s “Life” appeared on Lofgren’s Damaged Goods (1995), while “Driftin’ Man” was recorded for his Breakaway Angel (2001).
After Reed’s death in 2013, Lofgren revisited the idea of recording their unheard songs. He says, “They got left by the wayside. Years went by, and it kept nagging at me. I thought, look, Lou’s not here to deliver these lyrics. He was inspired when he did this. It would be a shame not to share it.”
Lofgren began shaping those tunes and refining his own new original songs during his stint with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band during the group’s tour in Australia, 2017.
“I began preparing, arranging, and practicing to be able to have every lyric written, every melody,” he recalls. “The goal was that by the time my old friends Andy Newmark and Kevin McCormick got to the house to record, I could perform every song live with no problem. I wanted to go for live takes, no matter what instrument I was playing. Then it would be fine to go in and fill in the blanks, add background vocals, add extra sounds. But I wanted to keep it a very simple record. I practiced for that a long time while I was preparing the sessions.”
Captured live in the studio following a solid week of rehearsal time with the rhythm section, the newly recorded Lofgren-Reed compositions — “Attitude City,” “Give,” “Talk Thru the Tears,” “City Lights,” “Don’t Let Your Guard Down,” and “Cut Him Up” — exhibit the combination of swagger and sensitivity that has always characterized the work of both artists.
Those taut, hard-hitting songs are complemented by six all-new Lofgren numbers, his first fresh original material since 2011’s Old School. Not unexpectedly, Blue With Lou takes its title from a song honoring his late colleague.
“I had the title and the groove,” he says, “and I worked from that like a jigsaw puzzle on this homage to Lou and what I took from him, which is, yes, we’re in a mess here, but there’s beauty and hope in all art. The theme of the record is about being expressive, keeping it live and raw, and moving forward, trusting your instincts.”
That theme and that attitude extends to the anthemic track “Rock or Not.” Lofgren says, “In the climate that we’re in, it turned into my version of a protest song — come on, talk’s cheap, sh*t or get off the pot, let’s freakin’ get some stuff done.”
Blue With Lou also features the deeply affecting ballad “Too Blue to Play,” which Lofgren describes as a metaphorical look at his relationship with wife and creative partner Amy, and two songs of loss, “Remember You” (a reminiscence about the family’s beloved dog Groucho), and “Dear Heartbreaker” (a tribute to his longtime friend Tom Petty).
He says of the latter two numbers, “All these things, these people and friends that are gone, are not forgotten. You’ve got to find their spirits and hook into them as companions moving forward. I felt those songs went together and they needed to be at the end of the album.”
Riding a sound that is straight-ahead and largely unadorned, save for a small men’s choir and the featured vocals of Cindy Mizelle, Blue With Lou is as direct and hard-hitting as any recording of Nils Lofgren’s long and distinguished career. He says, “I definitely feel a greater urgency and inspiration in the music, thanks to all that we laid out to accomplish on this heartfelt project.”
In early May, Lofgren will kick off a U.S. tour in support of the album.
NILS LOFGREN TOUR DATES
Fri., May 10 MINNEAPOLIS, MN Dakota
Sat., May 11 MILWAUKEE, WI Potawatomi Casino
Sun.-Mon., May 12-13 CHICAGO, IL City Winery
Wed., May 15 CINCINNATI, OH Longworth-Anderson Series at Memorial Hall
Thurs., May 16 KENT, OH Kent Stage
Sat., May 18 BOSTON, MA City Winery
Sun.-Mon., May 19-20 NEW YORK, NY City Winery
Tues.-Wed., May 21-22 ALEXANDRIA, VA The Birchmere
Fri.-Sat., May 24-25 NASHVILLE, TN City Winery
Sun.-Mon., May 26-27 ATLANTA, GA City Winery
Thurs., May 30 AUSTIN, TX 04 Center
Fri., May 31 HOUSTON, TX The Heights Theater
Sat., June 1 BEAUMONT, TX Jazz & Blues Fest at Jefferson Theatre
Sun., June 2 DALLAS, TX The Kessler Theater
Popular AXS TV original series 'The Big Interview' returns for a seventh season, kicking off with former Journey singer Steve Perry in a rare sitdown on Tuesday, April 16 at a new time: 8 P.M. ET
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| Dan Rather, left, with singer Steve Perry. |
Other Notable Season Seven Guests Include Paul Stanley, Cyndi Lauper, Carl and Rob Reiner, Billy Bob Thornton, Travis Tritt, REO Speedwagon, Boz Scaggs, Paul Shaffer, & More
Los Angeles, CA (March 7, 2019) – AXS TV announced today that the popular celebrity sit-down series The Big Interview has been given the greenlight for a seventh season, premiering in a new timeslot on Tuesday, April 16 at 8 p.m. ET. The upcoming season, hosted by veteran TV journalist and host Dan Rather, will feature 10 all-new episodes with some of entertainment’s most influential artists in its first cycle of shows this season.
Season seven puts the spotlight on a roster of superstars from across the entertainment spectrum who join with Rather each week to candidly discuss their lives, legacies, and incredible careers. The season kicks off with a rare sit-down with rock superstar—and former Journey singer— Steve Perry, who talks about his decision to leave the band at the peak of their success, a decision that was brought on by the overwhelming feeling that the passion for music had left him in this first look clip. He explains, “I could not find the honest passion for singing… and then, I think, my voice was also suffering.” Perry continues, “Eventually, the feeling just got very clear to me that I need to just stop.” Also during the interview, Perry reflects on growing up as a child of divorce and the impact it had on him, examines the highs and lows of fame, and opens up about his personal life offstage.
The new season also includes conversations with beloved KISS frontman Paul Stanley; pop pioneer Cyndi Lauper; Foreigner members Mick Jones and Lou Gramm; Kevin Cronin, Neal Doughty, Bruce Hall, Dave AmatoandBryan Hitt of REO Speedwagon; Oscar®-winning actor, writer, director, and musician Billy Bob Thornton; comedic genius Carl Reiner and acclaimed filmmaker Rob Reiner; iconic Country star Travis Tritt; celebrated singer, songwriter, and guitarist Boz Scaggs; and multi-talented musician, television personality, and radio host Paul Shaffer, among others.
“I’m incredibly proud to see The Big Interview returning for season seven,” Rather said. “It has been my honor to sit down with these entertainment trailblazers every week, as they welcome me—and viewers across the world—into their personal lives. Hitting our 100TH episode last season was truly a landmark moment, but it was only the beginning. I look forward to what the future has in store as we continue to build upon that success.”
“The Big Interview has strongly resonated with our viewers, and Dan Rather is a major reason for that,” said Evan Haiman, vice president of music programming and production, AXS TV. “He has a unique ability to get larger-than-life figures to open up in a deeply personal way, showing viewers a side of these icons that they don’t usually get to see. Season seven continues that proud legacy, offering up even more of the legendary guests and in-depth discussions that have come to define the series throughout the years.”
BROADCAST SCHEDULE* (Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET)
- April 16 – Steve Perry
- April 23 – Paul Stanley
- April 30 – Cyndi Lauper
- May 7 – Foreigner (Mick Jones & Lou Gramm)
- May 14 – REO Speedwagon (Kevin Cronin, Neal Doughty, Bruce Hall, Dave Amato & Bryan Hitt)
- May 21 – Billy Bob Thornton
- May 28 – Carl and Rob Reiner
- June 4 – Travis Tritt
- June 11 – Boz Scaggs
- June 18 – Paul Shaffer
*(subject to change)
About AXS TV
Launched in 2012 by visionary entrepreneur CEO Mark Cuban in conjunction with AEG, Ryan Seacrest Media, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and CBS, AXS TV has established itself as the premier destination for music and entertainment programming. The network delivers an eclectic programming roster that includes original series such as The Big Interview With Dan Rather,Rock & Roll Road Trip With Sammy Hagar, and Real Money, as well as hard-hitting mixed martial arts events, and a slate of acclaimed documentaries and iconic concerts from some of music’s most influential artists. AXS TV is also the U.S. home of the popular New Japan Pro Wrestling and WOW-Women Of Wrestling promotions and Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA). AXS TV is currently available nationally in the United States and parts of Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. For a list of providers, visitaxs.tv/subscribe . For more information, see www.axs.tv . Follow AXS TV on Facebook ,Twitter @axstv ; Instagram ; andYouTube .
