DISGRACELAND

In 1960s London, for young guitar enthusiasts, believing that “Clapton is God” was practically the 11th Commandment. In 1970 he lent his big, sticky tone to yet another band: Derek and the Dominos. The group’s white-hot blues burned bright for barely more than a year, but their impact was massive. Guided by drug, alcohol and heartbreak free-fall, Eric Clapton created one of rock’s most recognizable guitar riffs, while drummer Jim G...

The original Woodstock was a literal disaster, declared so on its first day by the state of New York. There were fights, onstage, armed black-shirted hippie gestapo on patrol, and most notably, two dead kids on record. The festival was born of violence, sparked into existence out of organizer Michael Lang’s standoff with hillbilly armed guards and cops from down in Florida. The lasting image of Woodstock as a time of idyllic harmon...

Woodstock is remembered as the generation-defining moment when the baby boomers demonstrated to the world the power of peace, love and communalism. In reality, what went down at Old Man Yasgur’s farm in August 1969 involved extortion, deaths, countless overdoses, near-mass electrocution, and a state of emergency. Not to mention a restless crowd that doubled in size seemingly every time festival producer Micheal Lang lifted his head...

Black Sabbath are solely responsible for conjuring the diabolical power of heavy metal. When guitarist Tony Iommi lost his fingertips as a teenager, he turned to a less painful style of playing— a style that produced a new, genre-defining type of gloom and heaviness. The band climbed through the seven circles of British podunk hell to international rock star success, but the lore of their dark imagery compelled the freaks to flood ...

Fleetwood Mac’s mid-’70s merger with the musical duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks changed the course of the band forever, propelling them to Top 40 mega-fame and cocaine-fueled excess. At the core of it all were rampant Rumours — both the album and the literal gossip. Breakups, divorce, drama: the same intra-band personal dynamics that stressed the group simultaneously led to the creation of one of the top-selling albums ...

Few bands can boast a rock ’n’ roll lore at the level of Fleetwood Mac. The band lost not one but two guitarists to cult-like religious freaks. Two band members were arrested on gun charges. They encountered doom brought on by drugs, money, and Jesus Christ. Most famously, the band involved themselves with each other romantically in ways that brought on jealousy, distrust, anger, divorce and resulted in one of the most successful a...

Tommy James came up during a time when the music industry was in part controlled by New York’s Italian mafia. And for a period in the 1960s, that power was centralized at Roulette Records. The record label was run by convicted extortionist Morris Levy and operated in partnership with the Genovese crime family. Tommy James’ hits were sanctioned by the mob, the same mob that would threaten not only his career, but his life.

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Gunned down onstage by a delusional fan who thought his metal heroes had stolen lyrics from him, Dimebag Darrell Abbott blazed a savage new trail in hard rock during his short time on this earth. Weaned on Eddie Van Halen, Dimebag Darrell would wow the guitar gods he bowed down to as a teenager and gave metal a groove that the music had been lacking before Pantera made their first definitive statement, Cowboys from Hell. Though the...

Ray Charles was hooked on heroin, arrested by federal agents, and once survived a near-death plane ride by helping the pilot - as a blind man. He invented R&B. He was powerful enough to bring black and white culture into one. He was a genre-melding musical genius. Despite being born into a literal dirt poor existence in the Jim Crow era Deep South, despite going completely blind by the age of seven, and despite his addiction, R...

In the early 1970s, John Lennon was suspected of conspiring to disrupt an American political convention and contributing to a paramilitary terrorist organization. Authorities took notice. So much so that the President of the United States took action to have the so-called “smart Beatle” deported. Lennon’s politics were way more violent and revolutionary than simply imagining all the people living life in peace and harmony.

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Despite his reputation as “the safe Beatle,” Paul McCartney was a badass. He took wild artistic risks, rubbed elbows with truly dangerous characters and because of his crimes, did hard time in one of the world’s most notorious prisons. His public spats with Beatles bandmate John Lennon are the stuff of legend, as is the “Paul is dead” conspiracy at the end of their time together as a band, but the truth may be even stranger.

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There's so much content hitting this feed, where to even start? Jake touches on the death of Dimebag Darrell and lightning rounds all the Season 8 episodes going wide for the first time, the launch of the new @disgracelandpod YouTube channel, and of course, replies to your suggestions about what he should write about, read about, and watch. Send your messages to Jake direct at 617-906-6638 and join the After Party.

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This week Jake shares his sense of a deep connection to Gram Parsons, one of Disgraceland's season 7 subjects, formerly exclusive and now free to binge in your podcast feeds everywhere! Billie Holiday too. Meanwhile, Jake takes listener asks for future episodes and puts a call out to all Disgos to find him his next 30-minute, light, end-of-night TV show. Kick in your answers at 617-906-6638 by call or text, and join the After P...

In part two of the Notorious B.I.G. story we see the young star trying to deal with life after the death of his rival (and one-time friend), Tupac Shakur. We also get a glimpse into the motivation behind the making of his final album, the aptly titled, Life After Death and get deep into the mystery behind his still unsolved murder.

To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at www.disgracelandpod.com.

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The Notorious B.I.G. entered adulthood as a crack dealer and left this world as one of the most famous hip-hop stars of all time. He was murdered mysteriously and before that was arrested almost too many times to count. He eventually altered the course of hip-hop with the release of his debut album, Ready To Die, an album that served as a soundtrack of sorts for the highly publicized, dangerous, violent beef between himself and his...

Lil Wayne grew up on the mean streets of New Orleans. His father split when he was two, and his stepdad was shot before he was a teenager. Wayne poured his pain into his rhymes and started cutting tracks for Cash Money Records, seeing hip-hop as the only way out of a violent scene. When his mother forced him to quit rapping, the only way out Wayne saw was suicide. Miraculously, he survived and went on to become one of the most succ...

Oasis were the biggest band on the planet for a moment. They famously warred with Britpop rivals Blur, and the Brothers Gallagher feuded with each other in public and came to blows numerous times behind closed doors. The success of their massively popular second album skyrocketed the band to international fame and brought unwanted, intense pressure from the British tabloids, causing frontman Liam Gallagher to slide into a drunken s...

Few bands have come from as little and made as much of themselves as Oasis. Along the way they were wildly entertaining — unlike anything England or the United States had ever seen — and fully committed to the life of the rock star and to making the greatest rock ‘n’ roll music the world had ever heard. Through it all they famously fought, with fans, with police and with each other. They drank excessively and did copious amounts of...

The New York Dolls were one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time. They came to life when their hometown of New York City was coming apart at the seams in the midst of rising murder, rape and burglary rates. Their drummer drowned. Their bassist was nearly murdered. Their guitar players despised their singer and the only thing their singer loved more than Archie Bell was himself. This of course was all part of the act. The...