Full Transcript for Episode 40: Right Song, Wrong Timing | The Guitar Stars Who Almost Took Over the '80s

00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:27.599 But by the end of the show, they weren't laughing anymore. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:29.039 They were absolutely blown away. 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:32.159 Even then, you could tell he wasn't just another MTV artist. 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:34.560 The kid could absolutely play and sing. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:42.400 Troy Sexton Olsen didn't look like anybody else on MTV. 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:46.319 He was this skinny kid, almost like Bowie in his thin white Duke days. 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:50.479 And he also looked like Edward Scissorhands before Edward Scissor Hands even existed. 00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:51.919 And somehow it worked. 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:01.759 He wrote his own songs, he had a great voice, and was already an exceptional guitarist. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:04.960 MTV embraced him, and Beat Soul Lonely cracked the top 20. 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:11.840 It looked like Charlie Sexton was about to become one of the next big stars of the MTV generation and one of the next great guitar heroes. 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:22.479 But almost immediately, Charlie found himself caught between two different versions of who people thought he should be. 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:25.680 Back home in Austin, he was known as a genuine guitar prodigy. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:31.840 He had grown up playing blues and roots music and had already performed with musicians far older and more experienced than he was. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:39.360 But his first album introduced him to the rest of the world as something very different: the hair, the makeup, the polish production, a teen idle image. 00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:50.800 Some people actually thought that the record company had manufactured the whole thing. 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:58.159 Charlie always insisted that that was a record he wanted to make, but the image became so powerful that sometimes it overshadowed the musician underneath it. 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:06.000 Instead of being recognized as one of the best young guitar players in the country, he was often treated like the latest MTV heartthrob, and that created a problem. 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:18.319 The pop audience knew the face and the hit song. 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:20.800 The guitar audience didn't always take him seriously. 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:25.680 And some of the Austin crowd that had watched him grow up felt that he had moved too far away from his roots. 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:29.519 Then Charlie released his second solo album in 1989, and that was self-titled. 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:31.279 And by the way, another great album. 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:36.560 The record company didn't hear an obvious hit single, barely promoted the album, and it quickly disappeared. 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:39.199 So this wasn't simply a case of musical trends changing. 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:46.639 Charlie Sexton had been marketed so heavily as a teenage pop star that people never quite knew where to place him once he began growing beyond the image. 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:56.240 Charlie Sexton may not have become the superstar that everyone expected. 00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:00.800 Instead, he became the kind of guitarist the superstars wanted standing alongside of them. 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:06.319 He spent more than 10 years as Bob Dylan's guitarist, becoming one of the longest-serving members of Dilling's touring band. 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:10.079 He also performed and recorded with artists like David Bowie and Elvis Costello. 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:13.680 As a matter of fact, I saw him just last year performing with Elvis Costello. 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:16.079 The funny thing is, I recognized him immediately. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:21.120 He's still tall and lanky, he still has that jet black hair, and he still looks like Charlie Sexton, just older. 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:23.199 Success doesn't always look the way you expect. 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:27.120 Sometimes the biggest careers aren't built on being the name at the top of the marquee. 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:30.399 They're built on earning the respect of the people whose names are. 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:39.120 I wins the final Saturday night. 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:40.800 I didn't get late. 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:42.240 I got in a fight. 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:44.879 Our next guitarist is Lita Ford. 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:47.279 This is Kiss Me Deadly, released in 1988. 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:52.319 It became her signature solo hit and helped establish her as one of the biggest female rock stars of her time. 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:02.959 If anyone on today's list had to fight for every ounce's success, it was Lita Ford. 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:06.639 Long before she became an MTV star, she was the lead guitarist of the Runaways. 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:11.120 The all-female rock band proved that women could do a lot more than just stand behind a microphone. 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:17.279 The runaways had never become a commercial success, many people thought they had deserved, but they changed rock music anyway. 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:24.720 They inspired countless women to pick up an electric guitar and showed the industry that women could front a rock and roll band just as convincingly as the guys. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:25.839 Then the band broke up. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:27.600 Lita faced another challenge. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.959 The 80s weren't exactly overflowing with female league guitarists. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:39.360 Record companies weren't quite sure what to do with her. 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:42.480 Was she a guitarist, a singer, or a rock star? 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:43.199 The answer? 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:44.240 She was all three. 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:55.120 Lita often talked about the resistance that she faced simply because she was a woman with a guitar. 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:58.560 People expected women to sing, not play blistering guitar solos. 00:06:58.720 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She even recalled being told backstage that girls don't play guitar. 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:05.120 Lita spent her entire career proving they did. 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:06.319 Then everything changed. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:08.480 Sharon Osborne became her manager. 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:14.800 The partnership gave Lita the biggest promotional push of her career, and before long, everything started falling into place. 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:28.160 Her first hit had everything you could want from an 80s rock anthem, a killer guitar riff, a huge chorus, and one of those MTV videos that you never forget. 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:33.120 For a while, it looked like Lita Ford was about to become one of the biggest rock stars in America. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:39.759 Then things got even better. 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:47.120 One night, after what Lita described as a very alcohol-fueled night in the studio, she and Ozzie Osborne stayed up until sunrise writing songs. 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:54.879 When they finally walked out, neither of them could have known that they had just written the biggest hit of Lita's career, and Ozzy's highest charting solo single. 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:06.480 Close My Eyes Forever went on to become one of the defining rock ballads of the 1980s. 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:12.319 More than 35 years later, it's still one of the songs that most people think of when they hear Lita Ford's name. 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:24.319 Whenever I think about Lita Ford, I always think back to something I witnessed years ago. 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:32.080 Around that same time, a buddy and I were walking towards Tower Records, and there was one of the autograph signings that she was doing about a block away from the tower parking lot. 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:34.639 A limousine pulls over to the curb right next to us. 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:36.480 Out of the back, steps Lita Ford. 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:39.279 Now she is wearing black leather from head to toe. 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:41.440 She's also got on a chauffeur's hat. 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:44.399 So she looks kind of like a chauffeur driver from hell. 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:50.320 Now, she climbs back into the driver's seat and drove the limousine the rest of the way into the Tower Records parking lot. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:53.200 A few moments later, the crowd watches the limo pulls in. 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:55.679 The rear door swings open, nobody gets out. 00:08:55.840 --> 00:08:59.519 So now the crowd is just staring at this empty limousine, wondering what's going on. 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:03.039 Then slowly the driver's side door opens and Lita Ford steps out. 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:04.159 Now the crowd loves it. 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:06.559 They go ballistic, they're applauding at her. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:09.440 And my buddy and I are just looking at each other, going, we saw the whole thing. 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:11.679 She didn't drive that in here, but didn't matter, right? 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:12.960 It was a publicity stunt. 00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:14.559 It did what it was supposed to do. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:17.440 And it captured perfectly that MTV era. 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:19.840 Image mattered, making an entrance mattered. 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:22.240 And Lita knew how exactly how to put on a show. 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:31.279 So everything pointed towards an even bigger career. 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:36.720 She had MTV, she had hit records, and she had one of the biggest rock ballads of the decades with Ozzie Osborne. 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:40.399 But there was never one simple reason that she didn't become an even bigger star. 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:43.919 Now, her follow-up album never matched the success of her first solo album. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:50.639 And also, around the same time, Sharon Osborne's attention was increasingly focused on managing Ozzie's career and dealing with challenges at home. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:53.360 Eventually, Sharon and Lita went their separate ways. 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:56.159 Then a few years later, rock music itself began to change. 00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:03.120 Like we've talked about so many times before on this show, grunge and alternative rock pushed Glam Little off the radio playlist and off of MTV. 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:10.080 Lita was also breaking barriers in an industry that was still not used to seeing a woman as both a lead singer and a lead guitarist of a hard rock band. 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:12.720 There wasn't just one reason her momentum slowed. 00:10:12.799 --> 00:10:19.279 It was a combination of changing management, changing music, and an industry that was still catching up to what she had already proven. 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:33.200 Our next guitarist is Andy Taylor. 00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:38.320 Most people know him as the guitarist from Duran Duran, but this is Andy Taylor sounding nothing like the band that made him famous. 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:40.960 This is I Might Lie, released in 1987. 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:52.399 There are many musicians who had willingly walk away from one of the biggest bands in the world. 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:53.600 Andy Taylor did. 00:10:53.840 --> 00:11:01.200 As a guitarist of Duran Duran, he had already sold millions of records, packed arenas around the world, and helped create some of the most defining songs of the 1980s. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:07.039 But underneath all those synthesizers and polyproduction and pop image, Andy Taylor had always wanted to be a rock guitarist. 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:18.480 By the middle of the decade, he and bassist John Taylor were feeling pulled in different musical directions. 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:26.320 While the rest of Duran Duran wanted to continue exploring more polished, dance-oriented sound, Andy wanted to make music that sounded louder, heavier, and built around the guitar. 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:28.960 That's one of the reasons that he and John formed

the Power Station. 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:33.360 It gave Andy the chance to turn up the volume and show people the kind of guitarists he'd always wanted to be. 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:34.799 For Andy, there was no turning back. 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:37.200 Leaving Durand Duran wasn't about escaping success. 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:40.159 It was about making the kind of music he loved and he was born to play. 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:43.279 So in 1987, he released his first solo album, Thunder. 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:53.200 From the opening seconds of the song, you can hear exactly what he'd been chasing. 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:59.360 The guitars were louder, the riffs were heavier, and for the first time, Andy Taylor wasn't just a lead guitarist, he was also the lead singer. 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:04.240 Now that may have surprised a lot of the Durand Duran fans, but Andy had been singing long before he joined the band. 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:08.000 This wasn't a guitarist trying to become a frontman, it was a role he had already played. 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:17.120 Now I always have been and I always will be a Durand Duran fan. 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:17.679 I love them. 00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:22.000 I even saw them back in the 80s, and my ears are still recovering from the screams from the girls. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:24.720 But anyway, this album loved it. 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:29.120 It was hard rock, it was kick-ass, it was big hooks, crunchy guitar, polished production. 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:31.840 And Andy's guitar playing was finally front and center. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.159 I honestly thought this was going to be huge. 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:45.279 Before the album was even released, Andy had already scored a top 25 hit with Take It Easy from the movie American Anthem. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:47.360 Then Thunder reached the Billboard album chart. 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:49.679 I Might Lie earned rock radio airplay. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:53.759 And for a while, it looked like Andy Taylor was about to become a major rock star all his own. 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:04.320 Andy Taylor already had something that most solo artists spend years trying to earn: recognition. 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:06.559 He had been part of one of the biggest bands in the world. 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:09.120 He had already proven he could play hard rock with PowerStation. 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:13.440 And with Thunder, he proved that he can carry an album as both a lead guitarist and a lead singer. 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:17.279 So why didn't it become the solo breakthrough that so many people expected? 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:24.080 Take my hand, don't test why I can't wait forever. 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:27.840 Ironically, part of the answer may have been Duran Duran itself. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:34.240 The band's fans knew exactly who Andy Taylor was, but many of them weren't looking for a hard rock album built around heavy guitars. 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:38.240 At the same time, rock fans often saw him as the guitarist from Duran Duran. 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:42.240 Andy had made the album he wanted to make, but it landed between two audiences. 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:50.159 The people who already knew him weren't expecting that sound, and many of the people who had already loved that sound never gave him a chance because they knew where it came from. 00:14:25.360 --> 00:14:30.480 Thunder never became the blockbuster I thought it deserved to be, but Andy Taylor never stopped making great music. 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:34.240 His guitar turned up on Belinda Carlisle's breakthrough hit, Mad About You. 00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:48.639 He played guitar in Robert Palmer's number one hit, Addicted to Love, and then he went on to co-write and help produce Rod Stewart's hits like Forever Young, Lost in You, and My Heart Can't Tell You No. 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:54.159 And in my heart shall always be forever. 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:11.679 I'm lost in you or look in your blue eyes, and suddenly my heart can tell you no. 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:14.879 Chances are you've heard Andy Taylor far more than you realize. 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:22.960 His solo career may have never reached the heights that I expected, but his guitar work, his songwriting, and his production work helped shape some of the biggest records of the late 80s. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:25.120 Sometimes great musicians don't disappear. 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:29.200 They simply keep making great music, even when their name isn't on the front of the album. 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:40.320 You know the stories I've been talking about about wearing out cassettes, playing albums until they skipped, and buying the CD the day it came out? 00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:43.039 This, this is the artist I've been talking about all along. 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:45.360 Ladies and gentlemen, Robin George. 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:53.039 This is Heartline, released in 1985. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:16:00.000 Although it wasn't a major chart hit, it became the song that convinced me that Robin George should have been one of the next great guitar heroes of the decade. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:12.000 Robin George may be the least familiar name in today's episode, but not to me. 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:13.279 I absolutely loved this guy. 00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:17.039 When the album Dangerous Music came out, I bought the cassette and I played it constantly. 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:18.159 I mean constantly. 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:20.240 If he drove with me that year, it was playing. 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:23.519 I love the songs, I love Robin George's guitar playing, and I loved his voice. 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:31.360 But also what grabbed me was the production. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:32.799 This album sounded huge. 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:38.320 The guitars were massive, the keyboards added this polished atmospheric layer, everything just sounded expensive. 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:40.720 Years later, I found out that wasn't an accident. 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:44.799 Robin wasn't just a guitarist, he was also a songwriter, arranger, and producer. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:55.279 Before launching his solo career, he had already played with David Byron from Uriah Heap's Byron Band. 00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:57.279 Later, he'd go on to produce other artists as well. 00:16:57.440 --> 00:16:58.879 Suddenly, it all made sense. 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:02.720 Robin knew exactly what he wanted to hear in the studio and knew how to get it. 00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:11.039 I absolutely cranked the song every chance I got. 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:11.839 I still do. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:15.519 And when I say cranked, I mean this is the kind of song that deserves to shake the walls. 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:21.839 To me, it had everything: a soaring melody, a huge chorus, fantastic guitar playing, and production that still sounds great today. 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:25.920 I honestly thought that Robin George was going to become one of the next big rock and roll stars. 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:34.079 Music magazines thought so too. 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:37.119 In fact, Kerrang magazine called him the Axe of Tomorrow. 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:39.279 For a while, it looked like they were absolutely right. 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:43.599 Robin George seemed to have everything: the songs, the guitar chops, the production skills. 00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:48.319 He made a record that sounded like it belonged alongside the biggest rock albums of the mid-1980s. 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:51.200 Then, almost everything that could go wrong did. 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:54.960 All you ever gave me was a hour of time. 00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:58.960 It's much too late to change your words, it's no world and rhyme. 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:04.400 Just as Heartlane was beginning to break around the world, his record label, Bronze Records, went bankrupt. 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:06.960 Robin later said the money simply disappeared. 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:10.160 The promotion stopped, and with it, the momentum behind the album. 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:21.519 As if that wasn't enough, one of Robin's biggest supporters was Phil Lynot, the legendary frontman of Thin Lizzie. 00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:26.799 The two began working together, and Phil even asked Robin to become the lead guitarist in the reform Thin Lizzie. 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:28.799 Robin said yes, and they shook hands on it. 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:32.240 He went home for Christmas, expecting an exciting new chapter in his career. 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:36.640 Instead, he got a phone call asking for his reaction to Phil Lynott's death. 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:39.039 But that's how Robin learned his friend was gone. 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:42.079 The project ended before he even had a chance to begin.