CooperTalk

Steve Cooper talks with singer/songwriter Willie Nile.  Willie became a popular fixture in the Village’s folk clubs in the late 70's, while drawing equal inspiration from the emerging downtown punk scene. He won a deal with Arista Records, which released his first two albums, Willie Nile and Golden Down, to considerable acclaim in 1980 and 1981 respectively. Despite a series of legal disputes that caused him to walk away from the music business for nearly a decade, he resumed his recording career successfully in the ’90s, recording Places I Have Never Been for Columbia Records, before going the D.I.Y. route with such well-received indie albums as Beautiful Wreck of the World, Streets of New York, House of a Thousand Guitars, The Innocent Ones, American Ride, World War Willie and the low-key piano-based departure If I Was a River. Throughout his career he’s amassed an enthusiastic international fan base that includes such admirers as Bruce Springsteen, with whom he’s guested onstage on several occasions, and Pete Townshend, who personally requested him as the opening act on the Who’s historic 1980 U.S. tour. The list of avowed his fans also includes Bono, Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Ian Hunter, Graham Parker, Jim Jarmusch, Adam Duritz, Little Steven and Lucinda Williams. He recently his eleventh studio album, Positively Bob: Willie Nile Sings Bob Dylan, a heartfelt, personally charged set of Dylan covers that honors its subject while exemplifying the same qualities that have distinguished his work since the beginning.

Steve Cooper talks with tattoo artist Freddy Negrete. Freddy is known as one of the fathers of the Chicano style black and gray fineline tattooing. A Southern California resident, he got into tattooing at an early age while incarcerated. He ended up working alongside Jack Rudy (best known for inventing the single needle for the professional tattoo gun) at Good Time Charlie's. He has worked on feature films and has been consulted on a number of projects about tattoo culture and his autobiography Smile Now, Cry Later: Guns, Gangs and Tattoos-My Life in Black and Gray was recently released.

Steve Cooper talks with comedian/designer/entrepreneur/actress/philanthropist/author Rhonda Shear. Rhonda is best known as being the host of USA's weekend show Up All Night. For more than four decades, she has acted on hundreds of television shows, posed for Playboy, headlined in Vegas, been Miss Louisiana, built a $100 million lingerie company, paraded down Bourbon Street, and married her childhood sweetheart and the love of her life, Van Fagan. She recently wrote her autobiography Up All Night: From Hollywood Bombshell to Lingerie Mogul, Life Lessons from an Accidental Feminist.

Steve Cooper talks with director Jeremy Kagan. Jeremy is an internationally recognized director/writer/producer of feature films and television and a tenured professor. Some of his feature credits include the box-office hits Heroes, the political thriller The Big Fix, The Chosen and The Journey of Natty Gann. Among his many television shows are Katherine: The Making of an American Revolution and HBO's Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8. His film Roswell, The UFO Conspiracy garnered a Golden Globe nomination and he directed the pilot for the hit series Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman. Some other TV directing credits include The Guardian, The Handler, Boomtown, The West Wing, Resurrection Blvd. and Ally McBeal. His current movie, Shot starring Noah Wyle has been receiving critical acclaim.  

Steve Cooper talks with actor/musican/writer/producer Bill Mumy. He has worked on over four hundred television shows and is best known by fans around the world for the creation of his memorable roles as the heroic boy astronaut, Will Robinson on the long running classic series Lost in Space, Anthony Fremont from The Twilight Zone and Lennier from in the popular science fiction series Babylon 5 which he co-starred in for five years. He is a prolific voice over artist who gave voice to President Abraham Lincoln in The History Channel’s Civil War: Blood and Glory miniseries and has narrated over 50 episodes of A & E ‘s  Biography series and his voice over acting talents can be heard on animated shows like Rescue Bots, Bravest Warriors, Ren and Stimpy, Scooby Doo, Batman: the Animated Series, Steven Spielberg's Animaniacs, Little Wizard Adventures, The Oz Kids and Disney’s Buzz Lightyear: Star Command.  He’s also voiced dozens of national commercials such as Farmer's Insurance ,Ford, Bud Ice, Blockbuster, Twix, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. He is half of the infamous novelty rock recording and short film making duo Barnes and Barnes who are best known for the classic demented song and film Fish Heads and has worked with the pop group America off and on for over thirty years, composing, producing and performing with the band.  He is currently finished up an album as part of a new rock trio, Action Skulls, featuring Vicki Peterson of the Bangles and John Cowsill of the Beach Boys and the Cowsills.  

Steve Cooper talks with drummer Mike Portnoy. Mike is one of the founding members of the group Dream Theatre and currently part of the supergroups Sons of Apollo and The Winery Dogs. He has won 30 awards from Modern Drummer magazine and has received accolades from many more publications. He is constantly working and has been part of numerous bands throughout his career including Liquid Tension Experiment, Transatlantic, Flying Colors and Adrelanine Mob. He has also released 3 instructional videos and was listed as #5 in Rhythm magazine's list of the Top 50 Drummers of All Time.

Steve Cooper talks with TV writer/producer/director/major league baseball announcer Ken Levine. Ken is an Emmy winner whose career has spanned over 30 years. He has worked on the shows including M*A*S*H, Cheers, Frasier, The Simpsons, WIngs, Everybody Loves Raymond, Becker and Dharma & Greg and has co-created three series. He and his partner wrote the feature Volunteers. He has also been the radio/TV play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, Sand Diego Padres and Dodger Talk. He hosts the podcast Hollywood & Levine and has written and directed three plays.    

Steve Cooper talks with musician Howard Jones. Howard was one of the defining figures of mid-'80s synth pop. His music merged the technology-intensive sound of new wave with the cheery optimism of hippies and late-'60s pop. He racked up a string of hits in the mid- and late '80s before he retreated into being a cult figure in the '90s.  He released his first single, New Song, in England in the fall of 1983 and it became a big hit, peaking at number three. His second single, What Is Love, was released a few months later and it reached number two and his debut album was released in the spring of 1984 and quickly rose to number one in England. In 1985 he released Dream Into Action. The record became his most successful, reaching number ten and going platinum in the U.S. spawning the hit singles Things Can Only Get Better, Like to Get to Know You Well, Life in One Day and Look Mama. In the spring of 1986, he released Action Replay an EP of remixes that featured a new version of No One Is to Blame which became his biggest U.S. hit, peaking at number four. In 1989 his single Everlasting Love became a number one adult contemporary hit in America, reaching number 13 pop. Since then he has continued to release new music and constantly tours, whether it be his solo show or as part of the Retro Futura Tour.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Tom Keifer. Tom is best known for being the front man for the rock band Cinderella. Cinderella emerged in the mid-1980s with a series of multi-platinum albums and hit singles that videos received heavy MTV rotation.  The band has sold 15 million records worldwide. Tom is about to present a special Deluxe Edition release of his critically acclaimed solo album, The Way Life Goes. It's a CD/DVD that features two new studio tracks as well as a 30 minutes documentary as well as videos and live footage.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Spencer Garrett. Spencer returns to CooperTalk for a third time. One of the busiest actors around he has recently been seen on Dice, Bosch, Room 104, Insecure, Timelss, Survivor's Remorse and just finished playing Bob Woodward in the movie The Front Runner. The year before that he was a regular on the shows Satisfaction, Aquarius and Murder in the First and co-starred in All the Way playing Walter Reuther. He got introduced to the entertainment field at a young age, his mother was an actress and his father was a talent agent. After college he gravitated towards the industry and studied with the legendary teacher Sanford Meisner. Throughout his 25 year career he has consistently worked on many different projects. His various TV credits include Franklin & Bash, Masters of Sex, Star Trek: Voyager, Judging Amy, The Practice, The X-Files, Carnivale, JAG, Law & Order, Cold Case, Luck, Mad Men, Major Crimes and Satisfaction. He is also a familiar face on the big screen appearing is such movies as Yes Man, Mississippi is Burning, Charlie Wilson's War, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Thank You For Smoking and Public Enemies.

Steve Cooper talks with host Todd Newton. Todd is one of the most recognized and respected faces on the air today and a Daytime Emmy winning personality. Often referred to by industry insiders as The Host with the Most, his amiable persona on E! Entertainment Television brought viewers face to face with Hollywood's biggest stars for over a decade. Since entering the world of game shows in 1999, he has awarded contestants over thirty million dollars in cash and prizes on shows such as Family Game Night, Whammy, Hollywood Showdown and Monopoly Millionaire's Club. He also serves as host of The Price Is Right Live stage show, performing to sold out crowds across North America and is the author of multiple books including Life in the Bonus Round: A Game Show Host's Road to Success & Fulfillment.

Steve Cooper talks with singer/songwriter Chris Barron. Chris is best known as the front man for the band the Spin Doctors. They were best known for their popular album Pocket Full of Kryponite that peaked at number 3 on the Billboard charts and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. It produced the big hits Two Princes and Little Can't Be Wrong. The band has recorded six albums over the years and continues to tour. Chris recently finished up a solo album titled Angels and One Armed Jugglers and will hit the road in support of that.

Steve Cooper talks with music personality, TV host, and video deejay Matt Pinfield. Matt is best known for his years working at MTV and VH1.  In 1984, he became a radio DJ on the Jersey Shore rock alternative station WHTG-FM and was the main DJ at the innovative Melody Bar in New Brunswick, NJ. In 1995, he began his television career hosting MTV’s 120 Minutes. Within a year, he hosted a variety of MTV shows including MattRock, Pinfield Suite, Pinfield Presents, Rocks Off and MTV Live and he has also hosted over 100 MTV specials. His music knowledge was showcased on TRL's Stump Matt and in 1999 he joined Universal Television to host and co-write a live television show about music called farmclub.com. In 2001, he became Vice President of A & R and Artist Development for Columbia Records and in 2006 he returned to VH1. He later took over the morning drive slot for WRXP in New York City and a similar position on KFOG in San Francisco. In 2016 he published a memoir, All These Things That I've Done: My Insane, Improbable Rock Life. He currently hosts 2 Hours with Matt Pinfield which is syndicated worldwide.

Steve Cooper talks with guitarist Doug Aldrich. Doug started playing professionally in Los Angeles with the band Lion in 1986. Since then he has played with groups such as Bad Moon Rising, Burning Rain, Dio and Whitesnake. He currently plays for two supergroups, The Dead Daisies and Revolution Saints. He has also recorded a few solo projects and gigged in Vegas with Raiding the Rock Vault.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Lita Ford. Lita shredded the stereotypes of female musicians throughout the 1970s and ’80s, starting with the world’s first major all-female rock group, the Runaways, then as a platinum-selling solo artist who shared the bill with the Ramones, Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison, and others—and who gave Ozzy Osbourne his first Top 10 hit. After a hiatus from the music industry she is back touring and penned the best-selling book Living Like a Runaway: A Memoir.