A (Mostly) 80s Music Podcast: What Difference Does It Make?

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Jay Jay French of Twisted Sister writes a Bizoir Sep 24, 2021

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Jay Jay French may be best known as the guitarist in Twisted Sister, but he's used all the experience he's acquired throughout the course of his life to become a columnist, author, and motivational speaker. Jay Jay, along with his business partner Steve Farber--a leadership and management expert himself, has written a "bizoir": part memoir, part business advice. It's called Twisted Business: Lessons From My Life In Rock and Roll. Both Jay Jay and Steve join us as we learn all about the (mis)adventures and the lessons learned along the way.

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Paul Rees discusses John Mellencamp Sep 17, 2021

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Journalist and author Paul Rees has previously written about Robert Plant and The Who's John Entwistle; two rock stars that kept a low personal profile. Paul completes his rock star trilogy with a biography on John Mellencamp. We talk a lot about John's grit and determination, which helps in no small part to make his artistic dreams come true. Paul immerses himself into John Mellencamp's life, and we come to really understand what continues to drive this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist.

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The Tubes' Fee Waybill Rides Again Sep 10, 2021

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Fee Waybill, lead singer of The Tubes takes us on his musical journey as the band moves from cult status to striking it big, after landing producer David Foster for their classic album, The Completion Backward Principle. His solo album, Fee Waybill Rides Again was produced by his best friend, Richard Marx. Fee has appeared in many cult film classics, from Xanadu to The Fabulous Stains to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. His next dream is to play King George in Hamilton, so he can sing "You'll Be Back". It's all true, and it's all on the What Difference Does It Make podcast.

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The Vinyl Answer Sep 03, 2021

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This week, we step back from the task of asking questions, and instead let Bob Bland of the Bend & Scoop podcast inquire into our record collection with a segment he calls, "Is That Your Vinyl Answer".

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Video clips from each episode can be found on the What Difference Does It Make YouTube page.

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Lawrence Gowan the key man in Styx Aug 27, 2021

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You might know Lawrence Gowan as the keyboardist and songwriter for Styx for the past 20 years. Canadians know Lawrence Gowan as the artist with two top-ten albums from the 80s, Strange Animal (1985) and Great Dirty World (1987), as well as numerous top ten singles, including "Criminal Mind", Juno award winner for best video of the year in 1985. Needless to say, we dig into his entire career, up to and including his latest album with Styx, Crash Of The Crown.

Listen to all music by Styx and Lawrence Gowan with a one month free subscription to Amazon Music courtesy of What Difference Does It Make. getamazonmusic.com/wddimpodcast

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Gary Myrick Adventures Aug 20, 2021

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Gary Myrick has had quite an adventurous musical journey. This Texas native left for greener pastures in Los Angeles and formed Gary Myrick & The Figures. Any fan of the film Valley Girl will remember their 80s song, "She Talks In Stereo". From there, it was on to London to meet up with former Clash bassist, Paul Simonon, and Nigel Dixon to make up the band Havana 3AM. Today, Myrick's adventures include motorcycles, his dogs, his 12 string guitars, and his love of the blues. This brings us to Gary Myrick's latest album, Forever (Adventures In 12 String) . The album covers the songs that inspired him, the songs he created with The Figures and Havana 3AM, as well as some originals all played on the 12 string guitar. You'll hear all about Gary's (mis)adventures in this episode of What Difference Does It Make.

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Kurt Larson of Information Society Aug 06, 2021

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Kurt Larson, lead singer of Information Society, is quite an interesting guy. First of all, he's only a part-time rock star, as he spends most of his days composing music for video games. We learn all about video games, the forgotten 80s music format CD +G, and of course, we get the 4-1-1 on their 1988 top ten hit "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)", and the hoops they had to jump through to get Paramount's permission to use Leonard Nimoy's voice. And, oh yeah, they have a new album out now called, "ODDfellows".

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Miles Copeland Jul 30, 2021

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If you're a fan of 80s music like we are, you might say some of your favorite bands are The Police, REM, Squeeze, The Go-Gos, The Alarm, The English Beat and The Bangles. First of all, we would say you've got great taste in music. We'd also say it was artist manager and music executive Miles Copeland that helped usher in this 80s music renaissance. Miles documents his successes and failures in his book, Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: My Life In The Music Business. He shares his insights and some of the crazy cast of characters he's managed in his legendary career.

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Gary Kemp INSOLO and in Spandau Ballet Jul 16, 2021

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Most of us initially learned about Gary Kemp though his work as the musical architect for the 80s band, Spandau Ballet so naturally we wanted to touch on everything surrounding the band. But first things first, as we launch into a talk about the creation of his cool new album, INSOLO, his work stepping into David Gilmour's spot in Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets and his excellent podcast, Rockonteurs. Gary also gave us a history lesson on all that went into the Blitz Kids club scene in the late 70s to early 80s.

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Mary Gauthier: Saved By A Song Jul 09, 2021

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Grammy-nominated folk singer and songwriter, Mary Gauthier, steps into the virtual What Difference Does It Make podcast studio and gives us inspiring insight into the process and healing nature in the creation of songs. Mary's book, Saved By A Song, touches on the songs that inspire her, as well as the songs she's written, to provide insight into her transformation from a restauranteur battling addiction into a beloved songwriter.

Hear the audiobook version of Saved By A Song for free, courtesy of What Difference Does It Make. audibletrial.com/wddimpodcast

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