It's the summer of 2025 & Bruce Springsteen has just released 7 - yes, seven - new albums containing 83 unreleased songs! And he's on a global tour. Learn his incredible backstory from our classic episode from our archives. Experience his hardscrabble New Jersey childhood to becoming what Bono of U2 called the "John Steinbeck" of music with his lyrics on life in working class towns and the hopes, dreams and struggles of everyday people. Our guest was Peter Ames Carlin, author of the New York Times bestselling book Bruce and the upcoming book Jungleland, the story of the making of the classic Bruce album Born to Run.

In this episode, you'll hear:

1. How Bruce grew up poor in a dysfunctional family with significant mental health issues
2. The proto-metal music that he played in a previous band
3. How his record label threatened to cut him unless he delivered a hit - resulting in one the top albums of the 1970's
4. How a Rolling Stone writer not only changed his destiny but became his manager
5. How the characters in his town infused his many poignant songs
6. How he played a vital role in both AIDs awareness and New York's 9/11 recovery

Guest Bio:
Peter Ames Carlin is a journalist, critic and author of the New York Times best-seller called Bruce and is working on an upcoming book on the 50th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run album. His work has been published in the New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and the Times in the UK.

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1. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums Bruce Springsteen playlist on Apple Music or Spotify
2. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content on Bruce Springsteen, including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.

Written from the everyday person's perspective, Springsteen songs like Born to Run, Thunder Road, Promised Land and Hungry Heart are mini-movies that put you squarely inside the main character's mind as they navigate life. As Bono of U2 said when he inducted Bruce into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, "if John Steinbeck could sing…".

The themes are as familiar as the American fabric: racing cars, highways, run-down factories, failed relationships, hopeful dreams, desperation, and redemption. Bruce helped create the American songbook of the ordinary person facing life milestones and challenges.

As you will hear, his songwriting was driven home with legendary concert performances that leave audiences in awe, lasting at least three hours and sometimes stretching to four. Bruce's philosophy seems to be: if hard-working people are going to spend hard-earned dollars to see me play, I'll make sure they get their money's worth. His work ethic on stage fits his working-class image. Or, as our guest, Peter Ames Carlin calls him, "a blue-collar troubadour".

Peter also describes in detail the impact of Bruce's father's mental health challenges on the family, which affected the family's finances and reputation in the community. He also outlines Bruce's later mental health struggles, as Bruce describes in this interview.

Incredibly 40 years ago this week in July 1985, Queen and Freddie Mercury astonished a global audience at the Live Aid concerts for African famine relief. An all star cast of the world's greatest bands performed that day, yet this was the moment that Freddie Mercury and crew blew everyone away and demonstrated that they remained one of the best live bands ever. As part of our summer programming, we are dropping some of our classic episodes and The Story of Queen is one of them.

Hear the incredible story of how Queen was started by a refugee immigrant and his new English friends and went from college band to stadium juggernaut selling 300 million albums worldwide. This versatile band moved effortlessly across genres like heavy rock, sumptuous ballads, funk & dance sounds, and even pop sounds. In this episode:

• How a family desperately fleeing an African revolution brought the future lead singer to England
• How a astronomer, dentist and engineer each wrote multiple hit songs for the band
• When Freddie's early voice was compared to a "bleating sheep" by a fellow band member
• How Queen was duped into a questionable management contract and the vicious hit song that resulted
• How one of their biggest hits resulted from a chance encounter with a famous studio visitor
• The backstory of the legendary performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert
• The details of why Freddie Mercury acted as an emergency roadie for David Bowie early in Bowie's career

Guest Bio - Mark Blake, journalist & author
Author and music journalist Mark Blake is the author of several books on Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Who. He is an authority on the band Queen spending countless hours interviewing members of the band for his books Is this the Real Life: The Untold Story of Queen and Magnifico: The A to Z of Queen.

About Garage to Stadiums
One of the Top 5% podcasts in the world, Garage to Stadiums is a podcast for true music fans — the ones who want more than just headlines and hype. This show is for listeners who care about the full story behind the artists: their childhoods, musical influences, early gigs, personal battles, journey to stadium-level fame and the drama in between.

Each episode features guests who know their stuff and bring real insights from their time with the performers — from respected rock journalists to documentary filmmakers. If you want smarter music commentary and behind-the-scenes stories you won’t hear anywhere else, subscribe now and get your backstage pass to music history.

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Bonus Content:

• Download the Official Garage to Stadiums The Doors playlist on Apple Music or Spotify
• Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.

A top 5% of podcasts in the world, Garage to Stadiums is a podcast for true music fans — the ones who want more than just headlines and hype. This show is for listeners who care about the full story behind the artists: their childhoods, musical influences, early gigs, personal battles, journey to stadium-level fame and the drama in between.

Why are we different? In each episode host Dave Anthony features guests who know their stuff and bring real insights from their time with the performers — from respected rock journalists to documentary filmmakers.

If you want smarter music commentary and behind-the-scenes stories you won’t hear anywhere else, subscribe now and get your backstage pass to music history.

As Oasis hits the road for their global ‘Oasis Live ‘25 Tour’ we revisit the chaos, charisma, and culture-shifting moments of their original rise with this 2024 episode from our archives. Our guest is music journalist and author Paolo Hewitt, who had a front-row seat—literally and figuratively—on Oasis’ 1994–1996 world tour. He didn’t just cover the story; he lived it. As Noel Gallagher put it, “Paolo is the only person to speak about what it was like on the road with us because he’s been there. He’s been there, he’s seen it, he’s done it.”

Paolo takes us behind the scenes of the band’s meteoric ascent, sharing what it was really like to be caught in the whirlwind of Noel and Liam Gallagher's unpredictable energy, backstage madness, and the making of rock 'n' roll history.

In this episode, you'll hear:

1. The incredible challenging childhood that the brothers overcame
2. The secret formula that allowed Oasis to attract fans across several genres of music
3. How 80's acid house dance music influenced the Oasis sound
4. How they became the hottest band in a matter of months leading the way for the rise of "Britpop"
5. Insider tales from our guest who witnessed their infamous tours and legendary brother-on-brother arguments

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Guest Bio - Paolo Hewitt, author & journalist
Author and music journalist Paolo Hewitt is the author of 26 books covering a variety of subjects, from music to football to fashion. Two of his biggest sellers are Getting High: The Adventures of Oasis when he spent considerable time with the band during the 1994 to 1996 period and Forever The People, his account of the band's notorious Be Here Now tour in 1997-98. He was even asked to write a poem that appears on the inner sleeve of the (What's the Story) Morning Glory? that sold 22 million copies.

Oasis has sold an incredible 75 million albums internationally and is now gearing up for its triumphant return to touring. Oasis is notorious for for its brashness, antics and swagger. However their talent is clear in the creation of their Britpop sound which was inspired by the music of The Beatles, David Bowie and The Who and more modern influences like The Stone Roses and The Smiths. The result: memorable, melodious stadium-ready songs that dominated the charts, and sound just as current today.

This is a popular show from our archives. We are re-dropping it because on this week in 1971 (on July 3) Jim Morrison was found dead in mysterious circumstances at age 27. As a tribute to Morrison & The Doors and given that it is July 4th week, we are re-broadcasting the story of one of the most influential American bands in history.

You will taken from the mid-1960s through the early ‘70s Los Angeles, when a band would emerge that changed all of the rules of music. Jim Cherry, author of The Doors Examined joins us to tell the mesmerizing story of a band fronted by an electrifying, handsome poet named Jim Morrison. The Doors relentlessly challenged, confronted and inspired fans with their provocative songs and performances. In this episode you'll learn:

1) About a shocking highway incident that changed the lead singer forever
2) The strange origins of how The Doors formed in Venice, California
3) The incredible secret that nobody knew about the Vietnam War and Jim Morrison
4) Why The Doors were banned from radio and concert appearances in several US states
5) The reasons for the arrest of a key member of the band during various concert performances
6) How the band played a key role in the punk music movement

Want more music history?
Subscribe to our bonus Garage to Stadium content across our social + web channels

Bonus Content:

1. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums The Doors playlist on Apple Music or Spotify
2. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content on The Doors, including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.

Guest Bio
Jim Cherry is the author of The Doors Examined and was formally a columnist for the Rants, Raves and Rock and Roll Magazine radio show. He is also a novelist, having written several novels, short stories and poems.

While other 1960's bands warbled on about peace and love, The Doors explored the dark side of human nature with songs like People are Strange, The End, LA Woman, and Strange Days. They also possessed one of the most electrifying figures in rock history, Jim Morrison, their lead singer who was an incredibly well-read individual, and also a poet. Morrison possessed an intoxicating blend of charisma, good looks and a curiosity for the dark side of life that combined with the band's mesmerizing music, often forcing audiences to straddle that fine balance between jubilation and mayhem. Accordingly, Morrison became the very embodiment of 1960's rebellion.

The Doors have sold over 100 million albums worldwide, and have been the inspiration for many bands that followed in various genres like alternative rock and punk.

Happy Canada Day week to our Canadian listeners! Learn the fascinating story of Canadian band Rush made its journey as Canadian teenagers in a bar band to global phenomenon with our guest Sam Dunn, director of the documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. In the episode you’ll hear:

• How an incredible event launched Rush from a bar band to an opening act for Kiss
• How did diabetes lead Rush to discover one of the best drummers in rock history
• What major rock stars think of Rush’s place in music history
• The story behind Geddy Lee’s and guitarist Alex Lifeson's real names
• The incredible story of Geddy's parents as survivors of the Holocaust
• The influences on Rush’s music evolution from early days to later albums

Rush has sold the most consecutive gold/platinum albums behind only The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Sam’s documentary features an array of rock luminaries praising Rush: Gene Simmons of Kiss, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Billy Corgen of The Smashing Pumpkins and Taylor Hawkins of The Foo Fighters.

Guest Bio:
Sam Dunn owns Banger Films, the award-winning documentary producer of Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and earned the Audience Award. The film was also nominated for Best Long Form Music Video at the 53rd Grammy Award and features an array of rock luminaries commenting on the band Rush. Sam has also won the prestigious 2016 Peabody Award and International Emmy Award for his work on the Netflix original series Hip Hop Evolution.

Follow Garage to Stadiums (GTS) on social channels

• Share this episode with this link
• Follow GTS on Apple or Spotify podcasts
• Follow GTS on Instagram
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Bonus Content:

1. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums Rush playlist on Apple Music or Spotify
2. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content on Rush, including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.

Explore one of the most influential figures in modern music history - Brian Wilson leader of The Beach Boys. Known for layered orchestrations and an innovative approach to studio recording, Brian influenced artists like The Beatles, Elton John, Queen, The Eagles and more. Incredibly, Brian created one of rock’s great lost albums - Smile begun in 1966 - but it was shelved for 37 years. Decades later... our guest today, David Leaf, helped bring it to the world. You'll learn:

1) Brian's abusive upbringing and how it shaped him and his music
2) How 5 teenagers went to global stardom 6 months after forming
3) How Brian influenced The Beatles musical direction
4) The incredible story of how Brian overcame a corrupt psychologist controlling his life
5) How our guest helped rescue a "lost album" long anticipated in rock history

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Subscribe to our bonus Garage to Stadium content across our social + web channels

Guest Bio
David Leaf is the author of Smile: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Brian Wilson, chronicling Brian Wilson’s lost album masterpiece which was shelved for 37 years before release. He also directed the Brian documentary Beautiful Dreamer and teaches music history at UCLA. David has won a Peabody award for powerful and intelligent story-telling.

Billy Joel is the fourth best-selling solo artist in U.S. history, yet most fans aren’t familiar with the extremely challenging and fascinating journey he took from little Jewish boy piano prodigy on Long Island to rock and pop icon of the 1970s and ’80s. In this episode:

1. How Billy's broken home challenged his childhood
2. His intense battles with mental illness and addiction
3. The part-time job that led to one of his biggest hits
4. How his wife became a key part of charting his career
5. Overcoming a corrupt manager that threatened his livelihood
6. The resurrection of his career with one of the most successful set of gigs ever

Subscribe for more music history
Subscribe for more compelling music history with our bonus Garage to Stadium content across our social + web channels

Guest Bio
Fred Truers, author of Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography interviewed extensively a variety of people in Joel's circle to create a compelling and honest portrait of the man. Fred is a long-time feature writer for such publications as Rolling Stone and the LA Times.