CooperTalk – Details, episodes & analysis

After vaulting to stardom as a charismatic presence and chief collaborator in Kid Rock’s Twisted Brown Trucker Band, Uncle Kracker, kicked off a stunning solo career of his own. His 2000 major label debut, Double Wide, fittingly went double-platinum and yielded #1 smash “Follow Me”. Its 2002 follow-up No Stranger to Shame reached gold status and spawned cross-format hits such as “In A Little While” and the powerful cover of Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away” which set a Billboard record for most weeks at #1 on any chart, topping their #1 run on the Adult Contemporary radio charts for a staggering 28 weeks. Before Uncle Kracker flew up the charts for 5 weeks at #1 with “When the Sun Goes Down”, a duet with good friend Kenny Chesney, country music might’ve seemed an odd place to find the Detroit-based good-time Kid Rock alumni. But after a few summer tours with Chesney, Uncle Kracker reached country’s Top 10 with his double-platinum crossover hit “Smile”. Then, 2012 saw him fully embrace his countryside with his critically acclaimed fifth outing, Midnight Special produced by Keith Stegall which leaves no doubt this feel-good rocker is exactly where he should be. Uncle Kracker has played sold out shows across the country and appeared everywhere from the American Country Music Awards to Late Night with Conan O'Brien.”

Debbi Calton has been on the radio her whole life. Or at least it seems that way. From her beginnings in Charlotte, NC to Tampa to Orlando to Denver to Chicago, she has been a Philadelphia rock/classic rock radio mainstay for the last 37 years. She recently stepped down from her decades spanning midday shift at WMGK to see “what’s next.” Not being able to stay away from the music for long, “next” is OutsideFM.com with the freedom to truly play whatever she wants. It’s a full circle back to her early days in freeform radio.

Penelope got her big break when she co-starred in Biloxi Blues on Broadway. (And later the movie.) She has co-starred in movies such as The Freshman, Carlito's Way, Adventures in Babysitting, Kindergarten Cop, Big Top Pee-wee, Awakenings, The Shadow and Other People's Money and has worked with actors such as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Matthew Broderick, Alec Baldwin, and Danny DeVito. Recently she played Jeffrey Dahmer's mother in the hit Netflix series and can be soon starring opposite Dennis Quaid in Reagan.

www.reagan.movie

Steve Cooper talks with musician Marian Gold. Marian is best known as a founder member and lead singer of the band Alphaville. Alphaville achieved chart success with the singles Forever Young, Big in Japan, Sounds Like a Melody, The Jet Set and Dance with Me. They have released seven studio albums and have a symphonic one called Eternally Yours being released in the near future.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Five for Fighting (John Ondrasik). John is best known for his first single Superman (It's Not Easy). He is a platinum selling and Grammy nominated songwriter and has released six studio LPs, including the platinum certified America Town and The Battle for Everything and the top-10 charting Two Lights, along with an EP and live albums. He has penned major hits, including the chart-topping 100 Years, The Riddle, Chances, World and Easy Tonight which have earned tens of millions of streams and place him as a top-10 Hot Adult Contemporary artist for the 2000s. His music has also been featured in more than 350 films, television shows, and commercials, including the Oscar-winning The Blind Side, Hawaii Five-O, the Sopranos and the CBS drama Code Black. 

Steve Cooper talks with QB/writer/actor Mike Boryla. Steve interviewed Mike when he was only 12 years old (for a school project) and Mike was a Pro Bowl QB for the Philadelphia Eagles. Mike also was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was first team All-Pac-8 his senior year at Stanford. After he retired, he became a lawyer and in 2014 he made his acting debut in a one-man autobiographic theatrical performance in The Disappearing Quarterback. He also has published a Sci-Fi thriller titled Mark of the Beast.  

Steve Cooper talks with actor Patrick Fabian. Patrick is best known for his role as Howard Hamlin on Better Call Saul. His recurring roles include shows such as Black Monday, Carol's Second Act, Special, Code Black, Valentine, Big Love, Veronica Mars, Providence, Joan of Arcadia, 24, The Newsroom and Saved by the Bell: The College Years. He has also guest starred in countless series like Lucifer, Barry,The Conners, Elementary, Ugly Betty, NCIS, Will & Grace, Friends, Scandal, The Mentalist, CSI: Crime Investigation Scene, Bones, Criminal Minds, Castle, Burn Notice, Longmire and many more. On the big screen he can be seen in DriverX, Extracurricular Activities, Eat Brains Love, 30 Nights, Cloud 9, Bad Ass and the Last Exorcism.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Simon Kirke. Simon is best known for being the drummer for the band Bad Company. Bad Company enjoyed great success throughout the 1970s. Their first three albums, Bad Company, Straight Shooter and Run with the Pack, reached the top five in the album charts in both the UK and the US. Many of their singles and songs, such as Bad Company, Can't Get Enough, Good Lovin' Gone Bad, Feel Like Makin' Love, Shooting Star, Ready for Love and Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy, remain staples of classic rock radio. They have sold 20 million RIAA-certified albums in the US and 40 million worldwide. Simon was also in Free has guested on a long list of recordings by other artists over the years, including albums by Wilson Pickett, Faces, Gov’t Mule, Jim Capaldi and Ron Wood, among countless others and he is often found drumming live on tour with acts like Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band.

Steve Cooper talks with drummer Steve Smith. Steve is best known for being the drummer for Journey across three tenures. With Journey, he toured around the world and recorded numerous successful albums including the immensely popular Escape (Columbia 1981) and Frontiers (Columbia 1983), both of which garnered the band many Top 40 hits and worldwide sales of over 80 million albums. In 1985 Smith left Journey to pursue his original passion, jazz, and to continue his developing career as a session player. Over the past 30+ years, Smith has played on many hits with such diverse artists as Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey, Zucchero, Claudio Baglioni, Andrea Bocelli, Y&T, Dweezil Zappa, Ray Price, Corrado Rustici and Savage Garden. He has also recorded numerous albums with his band Vital Information and in the past Modern Drummer magazine readers have voted him the No. 1 All-Around Drummer five years in a row. In 2001, the publication named Smith one of the Top 25 Drummers of All Time, and in 2002 he was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll HOF as a member of Journey in 2017.

Steve Cooper talks with actor/writer Dave Thomas. Dave is probably best known for being part of the duo the McKenzie Brothers from the sketch show SCTV that launched John Candy, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy and Rick Moranis.  The duo became a pop culture phenomenon in both the United States and Canada. They starred in the movie Strange Brew and the characters were later revived for an animated series, Bob & Doug. Some people know Dave from the TV show Arrested Development or the movie Rat Race. Some people know him from the nineties ABC sitcom Grace Under Fire.  Most people don't know he was also one of the writer / producers for Fox's TV show Bones or ABC's The Blacklist.  Or that he acted alongside Henry Fonda, Jonathan Winters, John Cleese, Richard Pryor, Zach Galifiankis, Whoopi Goldberg, Mary Louise Parker and Ashton Kutcher.  Or that he directed John Travolta, Jean Stapleton and Max Von Sydow in theatrical motion pictures. Or that he was friends with Bob Hope, Harold Ramis and Johnny Carson and wrote Spies Like Us with Dan Aykroyd and did voices on The Simpsons and Family Guy.