Michael Des Barres: A Life in Rock ’n’ Roll

Our guest today for the last 50 years has had his fingerprints in every corner of music, Pop music, rock music, every corner of movies. He's been in 30 movies, every corner of TV. He's been in 100 TV shows. And most recently, if that wasn't enough, he said, I got to honor, I got to conquer radio with his own Sirius XM show on Underground Garage Channel 21. It is an honor to bring the energizer bunny of rock music, Michael DeBars, to Music Drives Us. What an honor to have you.

playing so that's very kind of you I've enjoyed every second of it even the harsh moments of rock and roll you know where an album that I did was this is it this is my Sergeant Pepper baby this is going all the fucking way here we go what we sold six copies what do you mean you know So, you know, I'm not that, shall we say, empirical, but I've enjoyed every fucking second of it.

Well, we'll see about that, because what I've uncovered about you is nothing short of stunning. I thought I knew everything about you when we first met last year at one of the Comic-Cons. But I

started to dig,

and, you know, whether it's your iconic stage performance on Live Aid, with power station in front of how many people? Was that 50,000, 60,000?

0.5 billion people saw it. And there were 80,000, I believe, in the stadium.

Yeah. When you Google Michael DeBar's on Live Aid, it's that your face comes up with the hair and the rock thing that you just bring to the table. This Live Aid. I played on my Boston radio show today. I played Obsession by Animotion. I play it once a week. You wrote that. Fantastic hit. I played Fox on the Run last night on 70s on 7. Your cover of that is fantastic. And then as I'm uncovering you, I find out you appeared in To Serve with Love.

Yes, I was the black teacher. I'm sorry. You were not Sidney Poitier. I can guarantee that. I loved him. He was my dad. I was only 16. And it was the first big movie I'd made. I'd made a couple of British television performances as an actor because I started, you know, when I was like 12 years old. But that was a movie, man, because Sean Connery was doing Bond at the same studios, right? So you had Sean Connery over here. You had, you know, brilliance of it. I'm looking at him now. I've got a poster of him, Sidney. And he was so kind to me. You know what he told me about acting? The most important thing I've ever learned from anybody in terms of rock and roll is keep your shoulders back and your head held high.

From Sean Connery.

No,

from

Sidney.

And

Sean is listening to this conversation that I'm having with him. And if you really think about it, all of the great artists have given you everything. You've got a lot of people going, and it's all tough, but it's not really. And, you know, and you're cramped up in this little T-shirt and you've just got a little few more pounds than you should have. That's the essence of sort of rock and rollness. To go through the whole thing with pride, you know, it's not showing off. It's just I'm enjoying myself and I want you to enjoy yourselves with me. You know, I've never felt that stardom meant a damn thing. For me, it's a Milky Way, and that Milky Way has sexual, you know, things to it that, you know. The