Vinnie looks at another great grunge band from Seattle named Alice in Chains focusing on their long career starting with original singer Layne Staley&apos;s backstory and his early bands including glam bands Sleze, (later Alice N&apos; Chains) before eventually forming Alice in Chains with Jerry Cantrell, Mike Starr (replaced later by Mike Inez) and Sean Kinney where they would skyrocket to commercial success.  After Layne Staley&apos;s tragic death from a speedball overdose, Alice in Chains have been continuing Layne&apos;s legacy with William Duvall with live shows and albums that still sound great. 

Let's Talk About Rock

Let's Talk About Alice in Chains

27 years after Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain took his own life at the age of 27, Vinnie looks at his troubled past, and the history of Nirvana, one of the biggest bands of the early 1990&apos;s that changed rock music forever with their heavy edgy sound from the Seattle grunge scene skyrocketing the Seattle sound to the mainstream. 

Let's Talk About Nirvana

Before Grunge became mainstream, before Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, there was a huge underground cult following in Seattle originating with hardcore punk rock groups like Solger, the Fartz and 10 Minute Warning which led to bands adopting a rawer edgier sound for early grunge bands like Green River, the U-Men, the Melvins, Skin Yard, Tad, Screaming Trees, Malfunkshun, Mudhoney, and most notably, Soundgarden and Vinnie discusses those bands that helped shape grunge&apos;s sound in the 1980&apos;s and would be further cemented by the Deep Six compilation by C/Z Records and the founding of Sub Pop Records. Vinnie talks about many the early grunge bands leading all the way up the short lived supergroup Mother Love Bone whose potential came to a screeching halt with the untimely death of Andrew Wood. These early grunge groups may not be that well known, but they played a significant impact in how grunge began and how they paved the way for bigger bands like Nirvana, Alice and Chains, Pearl Jam and the continued smash success of Soundgarden, plus the influx of similar grunge-inspired bands all over the world. 

Let's Talk About Early Grunge

Poison is one of the most popular stadium bands of all time so Vinnie decided to delve into the long history of Poison going all the way back to their roots in Mechanicsburg and their slow rise to the top in the LA scene before becoming one of the biggest bands of the 1980&apos;s hair metal scene that is still drawing thousands of concertgoers to this day. 

Let's Talk About Poison

For Women's History Month, Vinnie decides to talk about a legendary woman of psychedelia that was cut short from a life of drug addiction Janis Joplin. He talks about her troubled life growing up, her rise to superstardom as a countercultural icon and legend of rock music with groups like Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Kosmic Blues Band and the Full Tilt Boogie Band and concluding with her unexpected demise putting her in the infamous 27 club. 

Let's Talk About Janis Joplin

To wrap up Black History Month, Vinnie gives a general summary of the Godmother of Rock and Roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe's life and why her often sadly forgotten legacy still lives on as a huge influence on not just the gospel genre but the rock genre as well influencing early rock and rollers like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. 

Let's Talk About Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Vinnie talk about the Godfather of Soul, James Brown talking about his 73 year long life as one of the biggest African American R&B/Soul singers in music from his legendary stage presence, his iconic discography, to his civil rights activism. This episode also delves into some of James Brown's allegations of domestic abuse and checkered track record with the law from his formative years to his later life. Even through both good and bad, James Brown will always be the Godfather of Soul. 

Let's Talk About James Brown

For the 60th episode of the Let's Talk About Rock, Vinnie summarizes the history of the legendary Motown record label, its founder Berry Gordy, the various songwriters, producers and musicians of Motown that make a successful musical formula and a brief summary of many Motown artists including The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, The Temptations, The Four Tops, as well as brief mentions of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Jackson 5 etc. more than there is time to cover. It's legacy is still being felt today in the R&B realm, the pop realm and the rock world. 

Let's Talk About Motown

For the first week of Black History Month, Vinnie talks about legendary rock and roll founding father from New Orleans, Louisiana: Fats Domino. A piano playing legend with many iconic rock hits as Ain't That a Shame and Blueberry Hill among others, we break down his life story in summarized form, in his long 89 years on this planet living a full life and a cultural impact on the city of New Orleans and rock music in general. 

Let's Talk About Fats Domino

On January 16th, 2021, Phil Spector died in prison at the age of 81 from COVID-19 so, for the first time, we rerelease our Phil Spector, we give our update before we go into our January 2020 episode about Spector's complicated legacy to put it mildly how he went from being one of the most famous music producers with his "Wall of Sound" to being imprisoned for the murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson. We're now also on the Qodpod network. Follow on Facebook & on twitter @qodpod. 

REPACKAGED: Let's Talk About Phil Spector

On what would have been Sam Cooke's 90th Birthday, Vinnie talks about the life story of the King of Soul, Sam Cooke from his gospel roots, to a musical icon during the Civil Rights Movement before his life was cut short from a death at the age of 33 that is shrouded in mystery and speculation to this day. 

Let's Talk About Sam Cooke

In Part 2 of the story of David Bowie, Vinnie discusses Bowie's Berlin Trilogy, his rise back to the mainstream, his short lived Tin Machine project, Bowie's happy marriage to Iman, his foray into electronic rock, and his lasting legacy in the 5 years since his untimely passing in both music and film. 

Let's Talk About David Bowie Part 2

In memory of what would have been David Bowie's 74th birthday, and 5 years after he left us, Vinnie discusses the life of David Bowie. For Part 1, he focuses on his early life and talks about his slow rise to superstardom and his notoriety with over the top characters like Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke, to launching his film career with the Man Who Fell to Earth all the way up to 1976. To be continued...

Let's Talk About David Bowie Part 1

To finish off this crazy year of 2020 with things like the coronavirus pandemic and the many high profile deaths, Vinnie puts a positive spin as best he can by talking about all the new music that came out from artists both old and new, and his recommendations about who to listen to.  

Let's Talk About 2020: Year in Review

In Episode 53 of Let's Talk About Rock, Vinnie spends time filling in the gaps about what he missed when talking about hair metal. The first half of the episode is spent talking about forgotten bands he forgot to mention and the second half is spent chronicling the summarized histories of Quiet Riot, Great White and Warrant. 

Let's Talk About Hair Metal II

This is an informative rock and roll music podcast, talking about the rock news of the week, then talking about an important part of rock history.