CooperTalk

Steve Cooper talks with Chuck Darrow. Chuck is a freelance writer and host of a weekly, entertainment-based radio program in Philadelphia who has been covering the Philadelphia/Atlantic City entertainment scene for more than 40 years. During his 23 year run During his time at the Courier-Post, he published thousands of articles on everything from the legendary Live Aid concert at Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium to the opening of multiple casino-hotels to feature stories filed from the 2005 Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla and later wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News. He has also been the creative partner of entertainer and former Saturday Night Live star Joe Piscopo for 25 years and together, the two have written TV and film scripts, as well as material for Joe’s acclaimed nightclub act.  Currently, he hosts “That’s Show Biz with Chuck Darrow” on Philadelphia’s WWDB-AM. It is that market’s only regularly scheduled radio program dedicated exclusively to entertainment, the arts, dining, casinos and special events.

Steve Cooper talks with rock star Stephen Pearcy. Stephen is best known as lead singer and songwriter for the heavy metal band RATT and has released four solo albums under his label Top Fuel Records, the latest being SMASH. He has also written music for NHRA ESPN2 Drag Racing, co-sponsored Top Fuel cars since the mid 1980s and has written the book 2014 Sex, Drugs & Ratt n' Roll and has another in progress.

Steve Cooper talks with drummer Troy Luccketta. Troy is best known for the drummer of the band Tesla which is celebrating 30 years together of making music and touring the world. He also produces other artists and has played drums on recording sessions in the studio with artists like Ronnie Montrose, Marc Bonilla, Eric Westphal, and others.

Steve Cooper talks with actor/writer Liz Vassey. Liz is best known for her roles as Emily Ann Sago on All My Children, Captain Liberty in The Tick, Wendy Simms in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Nikki in the Web series Nikki & Nora. She has been a regular or recurring character in many other series including Maximum Bob, Brotherly Love, Necessary Roughness and Two and a Half Men. She has also guest starred or co-starred in many other shows such as Castle, Dharma & Greg, Dawson's Creek and Early Edition. Lately she has been writing and selling screenplays and TV projects and is producing and directing the documentary The Human Race.   

Sreve Cooper talks with guitarist Ace Von Johnson. Ace is currently the lead guitarist and tours nationally with the popular LA based band Faster Pussycat. He was previously a member of metal bands such as Cheap Sex, Madcap, The U.S. Bombs, The Generators, Unwritten Law and Murphy's Law.

Steve Cooper talks with singer Tony Harnell. Tony is an American singer, best known for his work with the Norwegian hard rock band TNT. As a vocalist, songwriter and producer, he has led a career as a recording and touring artist since the mid 80's. He has sold close to two million albums worldwide, has been a solo artist and been involved with such bands as Morning Wood, Westworld, Starbreaker and SKid Row. He also did tracks for the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series.  

DISCLAIMER: There were technical difficulties in the first 18-19 minutes of this interview. The dialogue is a little choppy but listenable. At 20 minutes it reverts back to normal and is a great interview with a iconic figure in music. Steve Cooper interviews Slim Jim Phantom. Slim Jim is best known for being the drummer for the legendary rock trio the Stray Cats. Alongside band mates Brian Setzer and Lee Rocker, he spearheaded the neo-rockabilly movement of the early 80s. He continues to play music with very respected artists, heads up the Slim Jim Phantom Trio and just released his autobiography A Stray Cat Struts: My Life As A Rockabilly Rebel.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Jeff LaBar. Jeff is best known as Cinderella's lead guitarist. He joined the band when original guitarist Michael Smerick left in 1985, and remained with the group through its subsequent configurations and revivals through the first decade of the 21st century, as well as working with side projects like Naked Beggars and Cheap Thrill. He released his first solo album, One for the Road, in 2014, in which he played all the instruments himself except for drums, and handled all the songwriting and singing.

Steve Cooper talks with bassist Kenny Aaronson. Kenny has had a very prolific career playing with many rock bands over the years. Some of the highlights of his career include playing with Foghat, Bob Dylan, Hall and Oates, Billy Idol Sammy Hagar, Leslie West, Billy Squier, Rick Derringer, Dave Edmunds, and Graham Parker. He also was one of Joan Jett's Blackhearts for 5 years and was named Bassist of the Year by Rolling Stone Magazine in 1988. He currently plays for the Yardbirds.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Stuart Pankin. Stuart is a five-time nominated, CableAce Award winner for HBO's award-winning series Not Necessarily The News and is well-known for providing the voice of Earl Sinclair, the blustery father, on the Emmy award-winning Dinosaurs. Some of his film credits include Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, The Hollywood Knights, Mannequin on the Move, The Dirt Bike Kid, Second Sight, The Artist and Fatal Attraction. He has also been a series regular on nine prime time television productions and pilots, has guest starred on over 300 television shows and has provided many cartoon voices for the popular series Animaniacs, Batman, Superman, Aladdin, Lilo and Stitch and Darkwing Duck.

Steve Cooper talks with photographer/director/host Sam Jones. Sam is an acclaimed photographer and director whose seminal portraits of President Obama, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Bob Dylan, Kristin Stewart, Robert Downey Jr, Amy Adams, Jack Nicholson, and many others have appeared on the covers of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Esquire, GQ, Time, Entertainment Weekly and Men’s Journal. He is also an acclaimed director, creating numerous national commercials for Skype, Sonos, Canon, Target, Dove and many others and is a sought after music video director who won MTV’s music video of the year for Foo Fighters Walk. He has directed videos for Mumford and Sons, Tom Petty John Mayer, and many others. In 2002, Jones started his feature-length documentary career with I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, which chronicles beloved indie-rock band Wilco’s tumultuous recording of their acclaimed fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and most recently he launched Off Camera with Sam Jones on Directv’s Audience Network. Off Camera is an hour long show created out of his passion for long form conversational interviews.

Steve Cooper talks with Mike Royce. Mike has co-created the shows Men of a Certain Age and the remake of One Day at a Time. He has also won two Emmys for writing on Every Loves Raymond and has written on such shows as Spin City, Lucky Louie, 1600 Penn, Enlisted and The Carmichael Show.

Steve Cooper talks with producer/writer/musician Tracy Newman. Tracy is a founding member of the improvisational theater troupe The Groundlings and was co-creator and executive producer of the 2001-09 sitcom According to Jim. Her TV writing credits include Cheers, The Nanny, The Drew Carey Show and Ellen which she won an Emmy and a Peabody Award for. She also is the lead singer/songwriter of the folk music band Tracy Newman and the Reinforcements and has released three albums, her latest being I Can Swing Forever which is for children and was released with a coloring book.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Mike Starr. Mike is best known for his roles as Frenchy in Goodfellas, Joe in Dumb & Dumber and Frankie in Miller's Crossing. Over the years he has worked with top directors in movies such as Born on the Fourth of July, Clockers, The Bodyguard, Last Exit in Brooklyn, New York Stories, Funny Farm, Billy Bathgate, Son of the Pink Panther, Mad Dog and Glory, Ed Wood, Cabin Boy, Summer of Sam, Bad Santa 2 and many more. His numerous TV credits include Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Bones, Public Morals, Chicago Fire, Elementary, Psych, CSI: Crime Investigation Scene, Black Dynamite, The Office, CSI: NY, NCIS and Scrubs.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Laila Robins. Laila has had a very successful career on both stage and screen. She has appeared on Broadway in such shows as Hearbreak House, Frozen, The Herbal Bed and The Real Thing and has toured the country in many major theatre productions and starred in the fiftieth anniversary production of A Street Car Named Desire at the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. She has also landed roles on the small screen, including Victoria Heller on ABC’s Gabriel's Fire, as the younger version of family matriarch Livia Soprano on HBO’s The Sopranos, as Claire Williams, the mother of lesbian Reese Williams on the daytime drama All My Children, playing Tammy Kent on HBO’s In Treatment and many others on shows such as Murder in the First, Homeland and Quantico. Some of her popular movie credits include The Book of Daniel, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, A Walk on the Moon and The Good Shepherd.