Episode 50: Billy Idol: The Beatles breaking up was "like a death in the family."
Release Date: 04/16/2024
Everything Fab Four
Known for her genre-bending music, sharp social commentary, and activism for animal rights and social justice, Nellie McKay was born in London and raised in the United States, where she studied jazz at the Manhattan School of Music. Her performances at various New York City music venues, including the Sidewalk Cafe and Joe's Pub, drew attention from record labels, which resulted in her debut album Get Away from Me. Produced by Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, The New York Times lauded the LP as a tour-de-force. Nellie’s music can been heard on Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Weeds,...
info_outlineEverything Fab Four
Joining host Ken Womack on the first episode of season 7 is Blac Rabbit — familiar voices to our listeners. In 2018, Blac Rabbit released their first LP, "Interstella," which included the debut single “Seize the Day,” which has served as the "Everything Fab Four" theme song since our very first episode featuring Steve Lukather in September 2020. In 2018, a 48-second video of twin brothers Amiri and Rahiem Taylor, the guitarists and singer-songwriters who perform as Blac Rabbit, playing the Beatles' “Eight Days a Week” went viral, racking up millions of views. They went from staging...
info_outlineEverything Fab Four
On this episode of Everything American singer-songwriter Peter Wolf joins host Ken Womack to discuss Wolf’s life in music and his earliest musical influences.
A native of the Bronx, Wolf spent his youth soaking up New York City’s music scene, especially the Apollo Theater’s array of soul, rhythm & blues, and gospel performers. After moving to Boston, he attended Tufts University’s Museum of Fine Arts. During this period, he formed his first band, The Hallucinations, which perfo
info_outlineEverything Fab Four
On this episode of Everything Fab Four, actor and comedian Paul Reiser joins to discuss his first memories of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and share the Beatles song that “still kills [him].”
info_outlineEverything Fab Four
On today’s episode, American jazz fusion guitarist and singer-songwriter George Benson drops by to discuss what gave the Beatles “prestige” and how the band helped Black musicians succeed.
info_outlineEverything Fab Four
On this bonus episode of Everything Fab Four, we trace two television icons from the 1970s—both very different in terms of target audience, but united in the inspiration that they drew from the Beatles.
info_outlineEverything Fab Four
On this episode of Everything Fab Four, actor and activist Rosanna Arquette shares her favorite Beatles song and recounts where she was when John Lennon died.
info_outlineEverything Fab Four
Author and filmmaker Jamie Bernstein joins Everything Fab Four to discuss growing up with a world-famous father, and why Leonard Bernstein chose Beatles songs to explain musical concepts.
info_outlineEverything Fab Four
On this episode, legendary singer-songwriter Darius Rucker joins Everything Fab Four to share how he first discovered the Beatles at five, and which Beatles album he thinks is the “most perfect album ever made.”
info_outlineEverything Fab Four
Grammy-nominated American recording artist Joan Osborne joins Everything Fab Four to talk about hearing “Revolution 9” at a makeout party and how her music career began.
info_outlineEnglish-American music icon Billy Idol joins Everything Fab Four to discuss the exhilaration of being a Beatle fan “in real time” and how his voice was mistaken for Paul McCartney’s.
Billy Idol began his rock n roll career as the guitarist for Chelsea, subsequently achieving renown on the London punk rock scene in the 1970s, when he performed as the lead singer for Generation X. His career truly exploded in the 1980s when he moved to New York City to pursue a solo career working in collaboration with guitarist Steve Stevens. His eponymous debut LP yielded monster hits in “White Wedding” and “Dancing with Myself,” while his 1983 sophomore album Rebel Yell achieved double-platinum success on the heels of “Eyes without a Face” and the sizzling title track “Rebel Yell.”
Over the years, he has continued to burnish his star on the shoulders of such albums as Whiplash Smile, Charmed Life, Cyberpunk, Devil’s Playground, and, most recently, Kings and Queens of the Underground.
In 2024, Rebel Yell was remastered in a deluxe new edition to celebrate Billy’s incredible 40-year run as one of music’s most beloved, and most notorious, artists.