48 min listen
E175: Steffan Chirazi on Metallica + Jack Casady audio + John Sinclair
FromRock's Backpages
ratings:
Length:
82 minutes
Released:
Apr 15, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
In this episode we welcome the splendid Steffan Chirazi to RBP Towers and ask him about his career as a metal/hard rock specialist and his long association with the mighty Metallica.
We hear about our guest's lucky break as a 15-year-old Motörhead maniac when the band's frontman Lemmy gave up three hours to Steffan during the sessions for 1983's Another Perfect Day – and became a dear friend for life. Steffan then recounts how he got his foot in the door at Sounds and its enduring HM spinoff Kerrang!.
The first of many interviews with Metallica led to Steffan moving to San Francisco, where the band's bassist Cliff Burton showed him around town – only to die, tragically, in a car crash just months later. Clips from Barney's 1996 audio interview with Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield prompt a conversation about our guest's close involvement with the thrashmeisters and his eventual stewardship of their in-house mag-turned-website So What!
Following the metallic section of the episode we return to the older San Francisco of Haight-Ashbury and its '60s summer(s) of druggy love. Clips from Gene Sculatti and Davin Seay's 1984 audio interview with Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna bassist Jack Casady – about to turn 80 as we record this episode – give us the chance to ask Steffan about the days of the Grateful Dead and their many hirsute friends. From there we switch to the rather different environment that was late '60s Detroit, paying tribute to poet, political firebrand and MC5 manager John Sinclair.
We circle back to Steffan's post-Kerrang! career and hear about his 1999 encounter with David Bowie before Jasper talks us out with his thoughts on newly-added library pieces about LL Cool J and Eels.
Many thanks to special guest Steffan Chirazi. Find him on Patreon at patreon.com/steffyspurs and read the Metallica magazine So What! at metallica.com.
Pieces discussed: Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister: The Man Behind the Myth, Metallica: Thrash on Delivery, Metallica audio, Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady audio, Portrait of the Artist: David Bowie, LL Cool J: Time Traveller and Eels: Shootenanny!.
We hear about our guest's lucky break as a 15-year-old Motörhead maniac when the band's frontman Lemmy gave up three hours to Steffan during the sessions for 1983's Another Perfect Day – and became a dear friend for life. Steffan then recounts how he got his foot in the door at Sounds and its enduring HM spinoff Kerrang!.
The first of many interviews with Metallica led to Steffan moving to San Francisco, where the band's bassist Cliff Burton showed him around town – only to die, tragically, in a car crash just months later. Clips from Barney's 1996 audio interview with Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield prompt a conversation about our guest's close involvement with the thrashmeisters and his eventual stewardship of their in-house mag-turned-website So What!
Following the metallic section of the episode we return to the older San Francisco of Haight-Ashbury and its '60s summer(s) of druggy love. Clips from Gene Sculatti and Davin Seay's 1984 audio interview with Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna bassist Jack Casady – about to turn 80 as we record this episode – give us the chance to ask Steffan about the days of the Grateful Dead and their many hirsute friends. From there we switch to the rather different environment that was late '60s Detroit, paying tribute to poet, political firebrand and MC5 manager John Sinclair.
We circle back to Steffan's post-Kerrang! career and hear about his 1999 encounter with David Bowie before Jasper talks us out with his thoughts on newly-added library pieces about LL Cool J and Eels.
Many thanks to special guest Steffan Chirazi. Find him on Patreon at patreon.com/steffyspurs and read the Metallica magazine So What! at metallica.com.
Pieces discussed: Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister: The Man Behind the Myth, Metallica: Thrash on Delivery, Metallica audio, Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady audio, Portrait of the Artist: David Bowie, LL Cool J: Time Traveller and Eels: Shootenanny!.
Released:
Apr 15, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
E10: Earth, Wind & Fire + 1960s–80s music press with special guest Mark Sinker: Joined by special guest Mark Sinker, RBP's Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle discuss A Hidden Landscape Once A Week, an anthology on the "unruly curiosity" of the UK's music press from the late '60s to the '80s. Moving on to the week's free feature, goth-punks the Flesh Eaters and their contemporaries the Gun Club spark a discussion of the L.A. scene in the early '80s. The tres hombres then talk about Earth, Wind & Fire's metaphysical funk and the philosophical ramblings of mainman Maurice White (as heard in clips from a 1979 interview by Cliff – no relation – White). Further topics include Liverpool's legendary Cavern club, the Temptations dissing Motown, "pop's public intellectual" Brian Eno and Millie Jackson's self-proclaimed status as "one of the rudest b****** around". Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: UK Music Press in the '70s, the Flesh Eaters, the Gun Club, Earth, Wind & Fire's Maur by Rock's Backpages