Soft Pass - Your Backstage Access John Michaels & Alan Tilles

Episode 9 is about the bass! East Coast meets West Coast as John and Alan are joined by Mark Andes, who first came to musical prominence as the bass player for the legendary LA band Spirit, and went on to be a co-founding member of Jo Jo Gunne, he then became Heart's second bass player, and co-founded Firefall. Holding down the other bass position is Lance Hoppen of Orleans, who together with his brother Larry (and now including his other brother Lane) has graced the Billboard cha...

Join John and Alan as they sit down with 2 legends of the business. Multi-instrumentalist Andy Cahan who has played with the Turtles, Jimi Hendrix, 3/4 of the Beatles, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Frank Zappa, Harry Nilsson and many more. Our other guest Rodney Justo is the original and current lead singer of the Atlanta Rhythm Section, he also toured with Roy Orbison as part of The Candymen. Andy talks about gigs with the Turtles, hanging out with Grace Slick, recording Harry Nilsson an...

In this episode John and Alan are joined by longtime singer/songwriter Dan Navarro who, with his former songwriting partner Eric Lowen, has written songs for The Bangles, Jackson Browne, Dionne Warwick and many others including the #1 smash hit "We Belong" made popular by Pat Benatar. In addition Dan is a voice actor in Los Angeles and works on movies and shows like The Lorax, The Book Of Life, Family Guy, and American Dad. We are also joined by a common friend, Twin Cities drummer Noah Levy,...

This episode John and Alan are joined by Eliot Lewis (Hall & Oates / Average White Band) and Herman Matthews (Tower of Power / Kenny Loggins / Tom Jones / Bob James). Eliot talks about working on Live From Daryl's House and some of the guests he's played with. Herman talks about drinking with Tom Jones and hearing Elvis stories until the sun comes up. Eliot talks about jamming with Peter Frampton at age 12 and playing at the White House, and Herman shares some experiences with Stevie Wond...

John and Alan sit down with Burleigh Drummond and Mary Harris-Drummond from Ambrosia for an hour of stories. What kind of stories? Stories about how Bruce Hornsby first got his start in Ambrosia, Debby Boone, Ringo Starr, Michael McDonald, Edger Winter, Jimmy Buffett, and a bunch of other people all played a part in Burliegh and Mary's lives. Hear about how the soft pop stars Ambrosia killed time on the road by using explosives to launch trash cans in the air. Burleigh laments on having...

On this episode we have a rare appearance from east coast Singer/Songwriter Jason Malachi along with Midwest Singer/Songwriter Goran Kralj. Jason's life was turned into upheaval 10 years ago among accusations connecting him to the 2007 Eddie Cascio / James Porte / Michael Jackson sessions which were brought into ill repute by Teddy Riley and members of the Jackson Family, and ended up in an ongoing lawsuit - more about that in the episode. We also talk about the songwriting process, Gor...