Last Updated on November 1, 2024
Rock and roll Hall of Famer Roger McGuinn and his wife, Camilla, recently stopped by the Growing Bolder Radio Show for the entire hour, and our cameras were rolling. With his guitar in hand, Roger takes an intimate look back at his 50 years in the music business and tells us how he continues to grow and evolve.
Go behind the scenes for an unforgettable session with a legend.
In Part 4, Roger McGuinn explains what it’s like to tour now in venues of his choosing and with his wife, Camilla, acting as his road manager. Plus, find out why he decided to stop working with the big record labels and become his own record company — recording, mixing and distributing his new music himself. (Click here to visit mcguinn.com, where you can learn more and purchase Roger’s new albums.)
Plus, you’ll hear from Camilla in this segment, and she reveals why she started blogging about their adventures on the road and how she draws upon Roger’s past and present for her writing. Click here to read Camilla’s blog, The Roadie Report.
And Roger gets out this guitar for one of his newer songs, “On and On.” Roger says he wrote the song about his life in the early 1960s when he was working for Bobby Darin and playing in coffeehouses in New York’s Greenwich Village.
(Editor’s Note: In this segment, Roger mentions that he recorded a session for NPR with the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose members include authors Dave Berry, Roy Blount Jr. and Scott Turow. Click here to read Camilla’s blog about that concert and click here to listen to Dave Berry describe what it was like to play with Roger.)
In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing more studio sessions. Keep watching for our exclusive look back at the history of rock with one of its most legendary and gifted singer/songwriters. You can also listen to an audio version of the complete hour by clicking here.
Click here to watch Part 1, during which Roger explains how his parents’ “fear” of Elvis Presley made him want to play music even more, and he describes the earliest days of The Byrds.
Click here to watch Part 2 and listen to Roger tackle his group’s breakthrough hit — Mr. Tambourine Man. He shows us how the song started as a demo and recalls how his bandmate David Crosby felt the original version would never play on radio. See for yourself how Roger tweaked the song and turned it into the classic that we all know and love today.
Click here to watch Part 3, and find out what it was like for the still-broke Byrds to suddenly be the band behind the country’s hottest song and about some of the smaller parties they played in the early days, including Jane Fonda’s birthday party. And Roger gets out his guitar to explain how he learned “Turn! Turn! Turn!” from Pete Seeger and put his own “Beatle beat” on it.
Click here to watch Part 5,
and listen to Roger describe his Grammy-nominated Folk Den Project and
explain why he felt such an urgency to preserve the songs and history
of folk music. And Camilla opens up about their 30-plus years of
marriage and reveals how their shared faith in God is a key part of
their successful relationship.
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