Famous Lost Words

It’s a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Live Aid!

Live Aid was grand in scope and ambition. It was largely the brainchild of an unlikely hero, Bob Geldof, the Irish singer who fronted The Boomtown Rats, and who had helped assemble the all-star cast of Band Aid. Watched by 1.5 billion people, Live Aid eventually raised $127 US million for famine relief in Africa.

But beyond that, Live Aid was also a cultural touchstone t...

In light of the passing of Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson, we feature some extraordinary audio of Brian from the mid '60s.  Wilson is exuberant as he talks about listening to the radio and dissecting his favourite songs.  He also explains why he decided to retire from touring with the Beach Boys in the mid '60s.

We will also hear highlights from Christopher's late '80s interview with Carl Wilson, who pulls no punches ...

A few days ago, Tom finally got to speak with Canadian guitar legend Rik Emmett of Triumph.  Rik was a bucket list guest for Tom, who could hardly contain himself!

There’s a very special reason why Rik was talking to us. 

          On Monday, May 5, 2025 Coalition for Music Education will celebrate Music Monday with a cross-country sing-along to r...

This episode of Famous Lost Words is dedicated to legendary Canadian broadcaster John Donabie, who passed away a few days ago.  John’s interviews have been prominently featured on Famous Lost Words and he also joined us on a couple of occasions to share his incredible stories.  And great broadcaster and a wonderful man, John Donabie will be missed.

For this, the last episode of season 10, we have quite a collection ...

This week, a real cross section of artists, which speaks to the depth and diversity of our interview archive. 

          First up is Pink Floyd.  We have a short but interesting chat with David Gilmour from 1984 and he promotes his solo work, but also wrestles with the past and future of Pink Floyd.  Then we have an awesome 1979 chat with legendary Canadian producer Bob Ez...

2024 marked the 40th anniversary of MuchMusic – which, for our non-Canadian listeners, was essentially Canada’s version of MTV.  And while MTV had a profound impact on the music industry, MuchMusic arguably had a massive impact on Canadian culture.

          So, we’re going to spend a bit of time talking about MuchMusic – and since Christopher is the original...

Today, we’re celebrating what would have been the 90th birthday of Elvis Presley.  There’s been a lot written and said about The King over the years, but in this episode, we’re going to let Elvis do a lot of the talking.  We have some amazing audio from the early years.  Most of these clips are from the mid to late ‘50s – and they capture a lot of the excitement – and the freshness...

This week, part three of our celebration of ‘70s rock!

Our previous two episodes consisted of interviews that, for the most part, had not been heard on our show before.  But we realized that there were also a number of artists that people were asking about… like Aerosmith, Heart, April Wine… and to the chagrin of Christopher and the joy of Tom… KISS!

What we’re going to do is take highli...

          We start this episode with Tom telling the story of how he almost got fired from his job – and how it almost meant the end of Famous Lost Words before it even started!

Then we continue with our series on ‘70s Rock.  Last week we featured Boston, The Doobie Brothers, Jethro Tull, BTO and others. 

This week, more from that era, including a great series of interview clips with Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner, with the ...

We’ve been doing this show for almost 7 years and we’re finally doing series of episodes on that much maligned and much beloved genre… ‘70s rock!

This week, we have classic interviews with the likes of Brad Delp, the phenomenal lead singer of Boston, who we lost far too soon.  Delp talks about his humble beginnings as well as the obsessive leader of the group, Tom Scholz.

We also have some great clips from the Doobie Brothers.  One...

This week, an excellent 2005 interview with Roger Hodgson, as he reflects on the glory days of Supertramp, his post-breakup years and his relationship with his former bandmates.  Roger also tells the very entertaining stories behind two of Supertramp’s biggest hits.
            We also have Tom’s chat with the wonderful Natasha Bedingfield from the early 2000s.  Natasha is a very good singer and songwriter – and we do a pretty d...

First up this week is an extraordinary 1992 interview with Lindsey Buckingham.  Lindsey recently turned 75 and is still creating music, but it’s so interesting to hear him more than 30 years ago. Although the interview was ostensibly to promote his solo work, Lindsey talks a lot about Fleetwood Mac – from the early days all the way through to Tango In The Night.  And we even have a bonus clip of Stevie Nicks talking about her frust...

          We are back with Season Ten! 

Christopher and Tom begin by talking about their favourite interviews ever. 

          Then, we launch into one of the best interviews you’ll ever hear with one the most reluctant rock stars ever – Robert Plant.  This 2005 interview with our friend Bill Welychka is very revealing.  And within that interview is three episodes of “When Rock Stars attack… which are all pretty funny.

          Th...

Season Ten of Famous Lost Words is coming soon!

- You’re days away from hearing Robert Plant take pot shots at just about everyone, including himself.  

- You’ll hear the unusual story of how an 11-year-old was directly responsible for the first big hit by Tom's favourite band.

 – We have Lindsey Buckingham talking about his solo career, Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie Nicks

 – A blues legend reveals his ingenious strategy in dealing wit...

FLW Special - Purple Rain at 40

          In this very special episode, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of the film “Purple Rain”.  The overwhelming success of the movie made Prince the first artist in history to have the same project simultaneously #1 on the singles, albums, and movie charts in the United States.

          We speak to one of the foremost Prince experts; author and podcaster Alan Light.  Alan talks...

With Taylor Swift being a big part of the pop culture conversation lately, we thought we’d present three Taylor interviews from our archives, one that has never been heard on FLW.

• From 2019 – a great chat with Taylor and broadcaster Shannon Burns, talking about Swift’s album “Lover” and how it reflects a more positive outlook than the moodier “Reputation”. She also talks about putting “Easter Eggs” in her work as part of a fun...

A Famous Lost Words drinking game?  Is this REALLY a good idea? Tom proposes a non-alcoholic version that is based solely on his own (many) verbal quirks.

For our last episode of season 9, we begin with Carly Simon in conversation with broadcaster Ingrid Schumacher in 1987.  This was a great year for Carly because she had just worked on the soundtrack for the movie “Heartburn” and her new album “Coming Around Again” would prove to ...

This week, a very good example of the wide range of artists in the Famous Lost Words archives…

            First up is a collection of early ‘70s conversations with Crosby, Stills & Nash, where David, Stephen and Graham cover the entire history of the group.  Plus, maybe Tom’s worst interviewing moment when Stephen Stills takes him to task for asking what we thought was a reasonable question.  That’s this week on When Rock Star...