Go with Elmo Lovano

Episode 119: Darryl Jones is the bassist legends call. Miles Davis hired him at 21. Then came Sting, Herbie Hancock, Madonna, Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton, and more than 30 years holding down the low end for The Rolling Stones.

In this full interview, Darryl tells Elmo how he won over Miles Davis, introduced Sting to Miles, landed the Rolling Stones bass player gig, and built an extraordinary musical relationship with Charlie Watts. He also shares stories about Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Herbie Hancock, Omar Hakim, Steve Jordan, and the night Charlie and Keith finally decided to tell him he had the job.

Darryl even picks up his bass to demonstrate the difference between playing with Miles Davis and The Rolling Stones, explains the hidden reggae roots of “Start Me Up,” and reveals what makes Keith Richards’ rhythm feel unlike anyone else.

From Miles to Sting to Mick, this is a funny, intimate, and deeply musical conversation with one of the greatest bass players alive. I hope you enjoy my conversation with the legend, Darryl Jones!

Filmed live in front of a studio audience at The Recording Club in Santa Monica

Go With Elmo Lovano is the #1 music professional podcast, featuring deep, honest conversations with the legends, artists, musicians, producers, songwriters, and industry leaders shaping music today about how they got where they are and how they keep pushing forward.

Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year!

Elmo Lovano drinks Intelligentsia coffee because he’s an Iced Angeleno. https://www.intelligentsia.com

Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo

Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated!

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#darryljones #milesdavis #sting #rollingstones
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GWAR: Insane and Surprisingly Deep. Music, Money, AI & Chappell Roan | Blothar & Michael Bishop

Episode 118: GWAR’s lead singer Blothar the Berserker and his human Michael Bishop sit down for the first time ever in a single interview! This is a full career-spanning interview across Gwar. Never before have Blothar and Michael been seen together.

Michael Bishop has one of the strangest résumés in music. He joined GWAR in the late 1980s as the first Beefcake the Mighty, played bass on the band’s earliest records, and walked away in the mid-90s at the exact moment GWAR broke into the mainstream through MTV and Beavis and Butt-Head. He went on to front his own band, Kepone, drove trucks for a living, and then earned a PhD in music from the University of Virginia’s Department of Music in Critical and Comparative Studies, where he studied ethnomusicology, performance studies and music history, and taught. In 2014, after the death of his friend Dave Brockie, GWAR’s founding frontman Oderus Urungus, Michael returned to the band as its lead singer: Blothar the Berserker.

In the first half of this episode, Michael tells the whole story as himself. How GWAR began in Richmond, Virginia as an art collective in an abandoned dairy in Jackson Ward, a band that came second, after the costumes. The VCU sculpture and printmaking scene that built it. Hunter’s rule: don’t talk about it, do it. The school bus they toured in until the mid-90s, the time Dave Brockie borrowed Suicidal Tendencies’ backline even though they said no. Opening Danzig’s first show. Jello Biafra, Joey Ramone, Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, Fat Mike and NOFX, Mike Judge, Kurt Loder and Matt Pinfield. Why he left at the peak, what academia taught him about punk, and what it was actually like to be handed the job of replacing a frontman who was, by design, irreplaceable. That includes how he built Blothar’s voice by studying Brockie’s, as a tribute to someone he loved.

In the second half, Blothar the Berserker takes the chair, and Elmo keeps a straight face. Money, AI and the state of music making. How you actually keep a band together for forty years, with a genuinely good answer about Duke Ellington. Why you shouldn’t rehearse. Covering Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” and the matter of a borrowed Grammys dress. Playing NPR’s Tiny Desk. Forty years of blood, 100 gallons a night, sixteen albums, Gor Gor, the Scumdogs, and what GWAR is actually saying about humanity underneath all of it. This is one for the books. Lets go!!

Go With Elmo Lovano is the #1 music professional podcast, featuring deep, honest conversations with the legends, artists, musicians, producers, songwriters, and industry leaders shaping music today about how they got where they are and how they keep pushing forward.

Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year!

Elmo Lovano drinks Intelligentsia coffee because he’s an Iced Angeleno. https://www.intelligentsia.com

Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo

Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated!

Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/

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#gwar #blothar #heavymetal #rock
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Episode 117: Zakk Wylde is one of the greatest metal guitarists of all time. He's Ozzy Osbourne's longtime guitarist and co-writer, the founder of Black Label Society, and the man Phil Anselmo called to honor Dimebag Darrell in Pantera. In this deep dive, Zakk takes us through his entire career, from a Jersey kid learning Black Sabbath riffs to writing metal anthems with Ozzy and shredding in stadiums with Pantera and Metallica. Zakk tells the story of how a wedding gig with Sebastian Bach and a Polaroid on Sharon Osbourne's kitchen counter led to the call that changed his life. He breaks down writing "Miracle Man," "No More Tears," and "Mama, I'm Coming Home" with Ozzy and Lemmy, and reveals how a goofy rehearsal joke became the Grammy-winning "I Don't Want to Change the World." Plus his wildest Ozzy tour stories: the first gig in Wormwood Scrubs prison, Ozzy passing out before the Buster Douglas vs. Holyfield fight, sneaking him a beer at the Budokan, and the night Eddie Van Halen played "Heartbreaker" on Zakk's bullseye Les Paul in Japan. We go deep on his friendship with Dimebag Darrell, the day Phil Anselmo called him to join Pantera with Charlie Benante, what it feels like to play Dime's guitar parts, and touring stadiums with Metallica. Zakk also opens up about Ozzy's final show, Back to the Beginning, the text Ozzy sent about making one more album, writing "Ozzy's Song" on the new Black Label Society album Engines of Demolition, and getting sober after a doctor's warning. We also get into how he writes guitar solos, pinch harmonics, his favorite guitar solos of all time, Generation Axe with Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen, Zakk Sabbath, Guns N' Roses, Pride & Glory, Book of Shadows, building his own guitar company Wylde Audio, and the Black Label Society family. Zakk is hilarious, generous and full of crazy stories. This one is a blast. Let's go!

Go With Elmo Lovano is the #1 music professional podcast, featuring deep, honest conversations with the legends, artists, musicians, producers, songwriters, and industry leaders shaping music today about how they got where they are and how they keep pushing forward.

Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year!

Elmo Lovano drinks Intelligentsia coffee because he’s an Iced Angeleno. https://www.intelligentsia.com

Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo

Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated!

Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/

Follow Zakk:

https://www.instagram.com/zakkwyldebls/

Follow Go With Elmo:

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Episode 116: French Montana sits down with Elmo Lovano for what may be the most profound interview of his career. It’s a deep, honest conversation about life, survival, money, faith, collaborations, relationships, and how he makes hits.

French takes us from Casablanca, Morocco, to the South Bronx at 13 years old, speaking no English, to becoming the first African-born artist with a Diamond-certified single. He opens up about his mother’s sacrifice, surviving the streets, building Coke Boys from the ground up, and what it really takes to write a hit record.

We get into the story behind “Unforgettable” with Swae Lee, his brotherhood with Drake, the records that built his career including “Pop That,” “Stay Schemin’,” “All the Way Up,” “Ain’t Worried About Nothin’” and his reunion with Max B, who came home after 16 years on French’s birthday. Plus his new music with Max and their hit “Ever Since U Left Me (I Went Deaf)”.

French also talks about faith, money, fatherhood, writing hooks vs. writing verses, how to get features, his fiancée Sheikha Mahra, and the lessons that kept him going and brought him to where he is today. Hope you love this one as much as we do. Lets go!

Go With Elmo Lovano is the #1 music professional podcast, featuring deep, honest conversations with the legends, artists, musicians, producers, songwriters, and industry leaders shaping music today about how they got where they are and how they keep pushing forward.

Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year!

Big thanks to our friends Moises for supporting the show! If you need stems, they’re the best in the game. Check them out! https://moises.ai/

Elmo Lovano drinks Intelligentsia coffee because he’s an Iced Angeleno. https://www.intelligentsia.com

Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo

Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated!

Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/

Follow Dwayne:

https://www.instagram.com/therock/

Follow Go With Elmo:

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https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo

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Episode 115: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

Long before he was one of the biggest stars on the planet, Dwayne was a kid in the backseat of his dad's car, singing along to country and soul, and a Polynesian boy whose family never let anyone sit out a song. That love of music never left him. In this conversation, he leads with the warmth, humility and gratitude that make him who he is, and he speaks with deep pride about his family, his culture and the artists carrying Polynesian music forward.

Dwayne opens up about his new album Moana: Voices Across the Ocean, a project he and his wife Lauren Hashian dreamed up 10 years ago that gives 25 Polynesian artists a global stage. He tells the emotional story behind his song "Your Dad," written for his three daughters with Iam Tongi. He shares life lessons from his mom, Ata, and talks about how he leads his teams, his first time in a recording booth with Lin-Manuel Miranda for "You're Welcome," and the time he tried to become a country singer in Nashville at 15.

The album brings together some of the most exciting voices in Pacific music, including Dinah Jane, Stan Walker, Iam Tongi, Common Kings and Josh Tatofi, with production and songwriting from heavy hitters like Mike Zombie, Poo Bear, The Audibles, TrapMoneyBenny and Eric Zayne. Dwayne breaks down how it all came together, from the very first song that set the tone to the six-island anthem "TĀTOU" that closes the record.

Elmo Lovano and Dwayne have a great energy together from the very first minute. They laugh a lot, reflect on the mothers who shaped them, bond over their musical passions, and share what they've learned about leadership, gratitude and lifting others up. Elmo, a drummer who spent 15 years on the road and founded Jammcard to shine a light on the musicians behind the stars, brings a musician-to-musician perspective that lets Dwayne go deeper than ever on the music that made him.

Go With Elmo Lovano is the #1 music professional podcast, featuring deep, honest conversations with the legends, artists, musicians, producers, songwriters, and industry leaders shaping music today about how they got where they are and how they keep pushing forward.

Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year!

Big thanks to our friends Moises for supporting the show! If you need stems, they’re the best in the game. Check them out! https://moises.ai/

Elmo Lovano drinks Intelligentsia coffee because he’s an Iced Angeleno. https://www.intelligentsia.com

Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo

Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated!

Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/

Follow Dwayne:https://www.instagram.com/therock/

Follow Go With Elmo:

https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/

https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo

https://x.com/gowithelmopod

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