Broken Record

From Malcolm Gladwell, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam: Conversations. Arguments. Stories. Remembering old music. Discovering new music. Broken Record: Coming to your podcast feed on March 26th.

For the season one finale of Broken Record, Malcolm Gladwell talks with Rick Rubin about Tom Petty, who died in October 2017 at the age of 66.  Rubin and Petty worked together for two years on his beloved 1994 album “Wildflowers.” Rubin talks about Petty’s writing style, and how half the songs they recorded for Wildflowers ended up on the cutting room floor. 

Malcolm Gladwell sits down with comedian, guitarist, and legendary metalhead Dave Hill, as he recounts how an email exchange between his alter ego Lance and a Norwegian black metal impresario named Saiitham (pronounced “satan”) led to the formation of the darkest metal band of all time. Dave Hill also performs a mediocre rendition of “Hammer Smashed Face,” plus we debut his single "Are You Ready (to Black Metal)?"

“She Remembers Everything” is the name of the latest Rosanne Cash album, the 14th of her amazing career. Rosanne and her husband and musical collaborator, John Leventhal, sit down with Broken Record’s Bruce Headlam to play songs from the album, talk about songwriting, her musical family and how “She Remembers Everything” grew out of today’s politics. They also perform cover versions of two American classics, “Long Black Veil” and “Farewell Angelina.”

Malcolm Gladwell talks to three songwriters who helped transform country music in the 1970s. Gone were cowboy hats, train whistles and church suppers. In came songs about desperation, loss, changes, and regret that changed how Nashville made music and spoke to a new generation of audiences. Bobby Braddock, Don Schlitz and Don Henry talk about their influences, trade stories, and play acoustic versions of their classic hits.