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To say that Colin Hay‘s musical career has been a long and winding road would be an understatement. In just over a decade, the Scottish-born musician went from an unknown musician playing folk clubs in Melbourne, Australia, to fronting early ‘80s hitmakers Men at Work, to languishing in Los Angeles after his solo record deal fell through.
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The “Down Under” and “Who Can It Be Now?” singer discovered that the fame from being part of a multi-platinum band didn’t easily transfer to a solo career. Men at Work broke up after — or during, depending on how you look at it — the recording of their 1985 album, Two Hearts. Hay regrouped and released solo albums for Columbia Records (1987’s Looking for Jack) and MCA Records (1990’s Wayfaring Sons). Disappointing sales caused MCA Records to drop Hay, leaving him without a record label, a manager or a booking agent. “No one was interested really in anything that I was doing,” he tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast.
People began to take notice of his solo work — slowly. In 1992, Hay was asked to play at a new Los Angeles venue, Largo, by its owner, Mark Flannigan. Hay took to the stage with nothing more than an acoustic guitar and a body of work from three Men at Work albums and two solo albums. The shows were a hit with local audiences, and Hay became a frequent guest. “Largo was really instrumental” in building the next phase of his career, Hay says. “It’s like a home, really, where I could just be myself and play whatever I wanted to.”
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Nearly 40 years old at the time, Hay says he knew record labels weren’t interested in him despite having Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits in 1982 (“Who Can It be Now?”) and 1983 (“Down Under”) and an album, Business as Usual, that spent 15 weeks atop the Billboard 200 albums chart. So, Hay decided to set about finding his own audience and take the one-man show honed at Largo on the road. It was a big adjustment for a musician whose previous band dominated radio and MTV in the early ‘80s and won a best new artist Grammy in 1983. “Thirty years ago, there was hardly anyone there,” he says of those early solo shows. “There might be 30 people, 40 people. Not so very long before that I had been playing to, like, 150,000 people.”
Those early solo shows were a valuable step in creating a second career as a solo singer-songwriter. Initially facing small crowds of 30 or 40 people, Hay discovered that he had a knack for storytelling that captured the audience’s attention between songs. “I think people were a little embarrassed for me in the audience,” he says in a Scottish accent softened by his upbringing in Australia. “I could see this kind of quizzical look in their face, like, ‘Why is he doing this?’ And so I just started to talk to people because they were just there, you know? And so I just started to talk to them and tell them what had happened to me. And as I did that, I noticed that people leaned in a bit closer.”
A big break came in 2002 when Hay was featured in an episode of the television show Scrubs. Through a mutual friend, Hay met Zach Braff when the actor landed the starring role. “He said, ‘I’ll see if I can get some of your songs on the TV show,’” Hay recalls. “I didn’t think anything of it.” But Braff made good on his pledge by taking Hay’s music to show creator Bill Lawrence, who ended up writing an episode called “My Overkill” in which Hay performs the 1983 Men at Work hit “Overkill.” “That was very … that was a huge thing for me, especially playing live,” says Hay. “It had a big impact in terms of my live audiences, people who discovered me through watching that show.”
A year later, Hay was performing in Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, a gig he held intermittently over the years and consistently since 2018. Hay was introduced to The Beatles as a child by his father, the owner of a music store in his native Scotland. After a decade rebuilding his career as a solo artist, Hay was sharing a stage with the Beatles’ drummer. “When you turn around you think, ‘Wow, I’m playing with Ringo!” Hay exclaims. “’He was in the f–king Beatles!’”
More than three decades later, Hay continues to entertain audiences with his solo acoustic shows filled with anecdotes and wry humor. The venues have grown considerably from sparsely filled clubs to crowded small theaters and performing arts centers. He also tours under the name Men at Work, although he is the lone original member. His vast catalog of solo albums haven’t been commercial successes, Hay points out, constant touring has been the key building his shows from 30 or 40 people in the early ’90s to 1,000 or so a night today.
“The success that I’ve really managed to achieve has just been through going out and playing live. So it’s a valuable thing for me. And also, I kind of treasure the audiences in a way because — people say that a lot — but really they kind of saved me in many ways. Because even when I first started to go out and play live in the early ’90s, people could sense my kind of slight sense of desperation about what the f–k is going on. And they would just encourage me [to] just keep going.”
Hay has indeed kept going. Nearly 50 years after Hay began to play at folks clubs in Melbourne, he says he’s in his natural state as a traveling, guitar-toting troubadour. “All I’m doing is trying to make sense of the time that I’ve got left and enjoy myself as much as I can — and also to hopefully give people a good night out,” Hay says. “I think that’s kind of a useful thing to do.”
To listen to the entire interview with Colin Hay, hit play on the embedded Spotify player, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Everand, Podbean or wherever you prefer to listen to podcasts.
Now that we know Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan are both eligible for best new artist at the 2025 Grammy Awards, who will win? Well, on the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are taking a closer look at the hotly contested Big Four category, thanks to Billboard awards editor Paul Grein’s breakdown […]
When Jelly Roll performed on the season 50 premiere of Saturday Night Live, his two songs were far from the only musical moment on the show. Bowen Yang brought two of the leading ladies of pop music to the episode by playing Charli XCX hosting a political talk show (alongside DJ/sidekick Troye Sivan) and channeling […]
If you attend one of the upcoming Daryl Hall-Howard Jones concert in November, you’ll be treated to the same high-caliber musicianship that make’s Hall’s video series, Live From Daryl’s House, a must-see for music lovers.
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“My band is the best band on Earth,” Hall tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast about guitarist and musical director Shane Theriot, keyboardist Greg Mayo, drummer Brian Dunne, bass player Klyde Jones, percussionist Porter Carroll Jr. and saxophone player Charlie DeChant. In each episode, the Live From Daryl’s House house band performs a handful of songs with a diverse group of musical guests who have recently included Jones, singer-songwriters Andy Grammer and Lisa Loeb, Robert Fripp, and Charlie Starr of the Southern rock band Blackberry Smoke.
Most musicians would face a steep learning curve performing the songs, but Hall and his crew make it look effortless. The band is so good that, according to Hall, the members don’t rehearse together before taping. Instead, Hall spends a little time on the songs with Theriot, and each band member has the music at home. “We get together in that room, turn the cameras on, and that’s what you see,” he explains.
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Take the episode with Fripp, the former King Crimson band leader who struck up a friendship with Hall in the mid-‘70s and produced 1980 album Sacred Songs. Hall says Fripp was blown away by performing with Hall’s band. Fripp joined Live From Daryl’s House for renditions of such songs as “You Burn Me I’m a Cigarette” (co-written by Fripp and Hall), King Crimson’s “Red,” David Bowie’s “Heroes” and “Babs and Babs” from Hall’s Sacred Songs.
“[Fripp] said, ‘I have never worked with a band that didn’t take at least three or four days to even begin to learn these songs. You guys just played them,’” says Hall. “I mean, it flipped Robert out.”
The tour is like a traveling version of Live From Daryl’s House. After Jones opens the show with the Daryl’s house band, Hall, who’s supporting his latest album, D, will perform a set with the same band. Near the end of Hall’s set, Jones will join Hall on stage to trade vocals on each other songs and perhaps throw in a cover song or two.
Hall and Jones were hitmakers at roughly the same time in the ‘80s. By the time Jones crashed the U.S charts in the mid’-80s with songs such as “Things Can Only Get Better,” “Life in One Day” and “New Song,” Hall was basking in the success of Hall & Oates’ 1980 album Voices, which contained “Kiss on My List” and “You Make My Dreams (Come True),” and 1981’s Private Eyes, which spawned the hit title track and “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do).”
Until recording Live From Daryl’s House last year, Hall and Jones had never met. Now they’re prepping for a short tour together. “Howard and I get along really well, and I think he’s great,” says Hall.
The eight-date tour starts in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 7, heads north to Evans, Ga., on Nov. 16, Nashville and Knoxville in Tennessee, and culminates in Atlantic City, N.J., on Nov. 23. Before the tour kicks off, Hall will perform a free, private concert on Oct. 31 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Daryl’s House Club venue and restaurant in Pawling, N.Y.
Listen to the entire interview with Daryl Hall, go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeart, Podbean or Everand.
There’s never a dull moment in Las Vegas, but this past weekend was a particularly packed one for Sin City, which played host to the first two nights of the Eagles’ five-month residency at the Sphere on Friday and Saturday and the two-day iHeartRadio Music Festival on those same nights. Explore Explore See latest videos, […]
On this week’s (Sept. 6) episode of the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century podcast, we take a look at a pair of enduring all-time greats: the Queen of Latin Music Shakira and the rap GOAT Jay-Z. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news First, host Andrew Unterberger is […]
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Ryan Clark made his career as a hard-hitting safety in the NFL before moving into the analyst and podcasting space. In the wake of the comments made by comedian Andrew Schulz towards ShxtsNGigs hosts James Duncan and Fuhad Dawodu regarding Black women, Ryan Clark issued a statement in their defense but some Black men online are calling him “soft” for his stance.
Duncan and Dawodu were guests in Schulz’s Flagrant podcast in July with Schulz bringing up the “Black girlfriend effect” trend from social media. In essence, the trend notes that when a white man has a Black woman as a romantic partner, his entire image changes for the better. However, Schulz used the mostly harmless trend to frame the instance as Black women pressuring their partners and using violence to get them in line. Schulz, which is par the course for the program, leaned into other topics including speaking about Nigerians, and other shots at Black women.
It should be noted that the ShxtsNGigs hosts did not offer any pushback or critique of Schulz’s jabs, which some online said were done under the guise of comedy and loose chatter. However, clips from the episode have since gone viral and the massive fanbase of Black women that Duncan and Dawodu enjoyed have largely defected. The pair issued an apology but many feel it is a case of too little too late.
Ryan Clark, via his The Pivot podcast with Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder, spoke at length about what he experienced from his mother and later his wife as his reference to the value Black women have in his life. He also said that because so many Black men don’t respect Black women, some have allowed white people to get, in his words, “comfortable” in disrespecting them.
More from X:
I’m not sure what black woman experience @andrewschulz has had, but it hasn’t been the real “black girlfriend effect”. To insult black women and described them as complainers & abusive isn’t just untrue. It’s disrespectful. Even worse, James Duncan & Fuhad Dawodu allowing him to say it is more insulting.
Andrew Schultz spoke that way in front of two black men because they allowed him to. They made him comfortable enough to disrespect black women because they didn’t force him to respect them.
My experience is that black women are powerful, beautiful, strong, and supportive. They prioritize black family, community, & culture. They take steps back to push their men, and families forward. So, no Andrew the “black girlfriend effect” is nothing like what you described. I’m just upset that you don’t have enough solid black men around you to tell you differently!
With the clip of Clark’s response going wide on X, some men referred to him as soft for not being able to take a joke. Below is one such exchange.
“I hate how soft nggas are now man. Smh. All these sad ass think pieces over jokes. As one of the dirtiest players in NFL history, someone who played with reckless abandon, someone who intentionally tried to injure other humans for sport, I thought you’d be a little tougher bro,” wrote @MulhollandL0ver.
Clark wrote in response, “More than welcome to try me to see how tough good brother, but jokes are only funny if the subject believes so. Same as my joke about Tua last year. I thought it was funny, other players thought it was funny, my colleagues thought it was funny. He and his people didn’t.”
Keep scrolling to see comments from X regarding Ryan Clark’s comments.
I’m not sure what black woman experience @andrewschulz has had, but it hasn’t been the real “black girlfriend effect”. To insult black women and described them as complainers & abusive isn’t just untrue. It’s disrespectful. Even worse, James Duncan & Fuhad Dawodu allowing him to… pic.twitter.com/2gQQRPSCYd
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) September 19, 2024
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Photo: Getty
1. For a bit of context.
4. How the two compares is beyond comprehension.
5. Racist tropes aren’t funny.
7. Mans losing his mind right here.
8. Pretty much.
9. Perspective.
10. Their whole wave got smashed over some “jokes.”
Before Katy Perry‘s 143 album arrives on Friday, she’s released three singles — and she might have saved the best for last. On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking about Perry’s “I’m His, He’s Mine,” featuring Top Dawg singer/rapper Doechii on a fiery duet that made its live debut on […]
KISS spent the majority of its five-decade career disguising their faces in makeup. Now, as the band plans the next phase for its music and iconic characters, KISS is still leaving its fans with mystery and intrigue.
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After the culmination of The End of the Road Tour in December, KISS began the year with the sale of its name and likeness and plans to live eternally in the digital world. Details are scarce, but the band has said the virtual performance should launch in Las Vegas in 2027. In a conversation with Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast, frontman Paul Stanley won’t say exactly how the group will carry its legacy into the future. But in typical KISS fashion, Stanley has ambitious goals.
“It’s a must-see, go-to experience,” Stanley boasts. “It’s beyond anything that anyone else has contemplated.”
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Virtual artists are nothing new: a Tupac Shakur hologram appeared at Coachella in 2012, and avatars have resurrected deceased musicians such as Ronnie James Duo and Whitney Houston for live performances. Those earlier examples of digital likenesses pale in comparison to Abba Voyage, a high-budget, mixed virtual reality-live music concert in London that has won rave reviews.
In April, KISS sold its name and likeness rights to Pophouse, the Swedish company that helped build Abba Voyage around virtual versions of Abba’s four members made to look decades younger. Although those early generations of avatars wowed audiences, KISS isn’t content to replicate the previous models, says Stanley.
“We’re creating something that’s not a concert,” he explains. “The idea of a hologram — and it’s not a hologram, but that term seems to get thrown around a lot — but the idea a simulated concert is not what we want to do. Frankly, I would find that boring.”
Like Abba Voyage, which takes place in the purpose-built, 3,000-capacity ABBA Arena in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, the KISS experience will require a dedicated venue built around the technology, says Stanley. Las Vegas is filled with venues, from Sphere to T-Mobile Arena to numerous theaters that host long-term residencies (Bruno Mars at Park MGM, for example). Stanley is mum on the venue but tells Billboard the final product will be more advanced than Abba Voyage.
“Now, mind you, the Abba show is an older technology, because technology moves ahead at an exponential rate,” says Stanley. “So, by the time that show started to be presented, there was new technology.” To that end, he adds, KISS will work with Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects company founded by filmmaker George Lucas that produced special effects for the Star Wars, Terminator and Jurassic Park franchises.
KISS fans got a preview of its plans in December when then band revealed digital depictions showed at the final End of the Road concert and released a two-minute sizzle reel, KISS: A New Era Begins, that shows the band donning motion-capture technology to create their digital likenesses. Stanley insists that the final product will be far more advanced.
“That was just an early — I don’t want to say rendering — but an early version of what is to come and is still being worked on,” says Stanley. “But it bears little resemblance to what was there. What we were showing was just the inception of the idea that we can continue on outside of flesh and blood.”
As for Stanley, he expects to stay busy outside of prepping the Las Vegas show. Stanley leads a retro-soul band, Paul Stanley’s Soul Station, that plays original and classic soul songs and released an album, Now and Then, in 2021. He has forged a successful career as a painter. Asked if he’ll release another solo album—following his 1978 eponymous album and Live to Win from 2006 — Stanley keeps his fans guessing.
“We’ll see,” he says. “I’m not done with music, that’s for sure. I’ve become more judicious in what I do, picking and choosing, because as you get older, you see more and more that anything you do takes you away from something else. And at some point, it really comes down to picking and choosing what you do as it relates to what you don’t get to do. So yeah, I mean, I’ll certainly do more music. Music is a big part of who I am.”
Listen to the entire interview with Paul Stanley at the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, iHeart or Everand.
When Kendrick Lamar was revealed as the headliner for the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show over the weekend, the announcement spurred some burning questions. On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking through those questions. What will he perform? Should his booking be seen as an “anti-Drake” move after their heated […]