A top 5% of podcasts in the world, Garage to Stadiums is a podcast for true music fans — the ones who want more than just headlines and hype. This show is for listeners who care about the full story behind the artists: their childhoods, musical influences, early gigs, personal battles, journey to stadium-level fame and the drama in between.

Why are we different? In each episode host Dave Anthony features guests who know their stuff and bring real insights from their time with the performers — from respected rock journalists to documentary filmmakers.

If you want smarter music commentary and behind-the-scenes stories you won’t hear anywhere else, subscribe now and get your backstage pass to music history.

In the mid 1960s, four English university students still learning to play instruments began jamming. What emerged was Pink Floyd, psychedelic early architects to experimenting with grand, cinematic soundscapes, deeply philosophical themes and live shows that felt more like journeys to the human mind than concerts. Prepare for an absolute roller coaster ride from the London Underground clubs to global domination, heartbreaking losses and dramatic fireworks from within. You'll learn:

1) How university students who could barely play instruments became a global phenomenon
2) How an early tragedy involving their primary song writer nearly derailed the band
3) The staggering evolution of sound this band executed
4) The interpersonal drama that produced incredible albums and significant tension
5) Details of the final internal battles that engulfed the band

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Guest Bio
Our returning guest is acclaimed rock journalist and author Mark Blake wrote Pink Floyd Shine On: The Definitive Oral History. He is also the author of books on Queen and Fleetwood Mac.

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1. Follow GTS on Apple or Spotify podcasts to be alerted when our next episode drops
2. Follow Garage to Stadiums (GTS) on social channels
3. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums playlists for each episode on Apple Music or Spotify
4. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content on Pink Floyd, including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.

Picture a 1970s American teen, dressed as Frank N. Furter from Rocky Horror, interviewed on local TV outside a suburban cinema. That fearless teen grows up to be Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M., the first alternative band to achieve global commercial success, from its origins in tiny Athens, Georgia. The first alternative band from the college radio airwaves to experience mass commercial success with 90 million albums sold, R.E.M. occupies an influential position in music history, inspiring many bands with their fiercely independent spirit and sound. On this episode you'll learn:

• How Athens, Georgia became the unlikely spawning ground for several successful bands.
• How R.E.M. created a memorable sound by combining punk, pop music, southern rock and R'n'B
• Why Pearl Jam and Nirvana cited R.E.M. as a major trailblazer, and influence on their sound
• How an onstage near-tragedy changed the band forever...
• The college radio strategy the company employed to build its credibility and momentum
• Why R.E.M. turned down the offer to write a theme song for the popular TV show Friends

Guest Bio - Peter Ames Carlin, author & journalist
Best-selling author Peter Ames Carlin appeared on our Bruce Springsteen episode. He is the author of The Name of This Band is R.E.M. He's also written biographies on Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and Paul McCartney of The Beatles.

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1. Follow GTS on Apple or Spotify podcasts to be alerted when our next episode drops
2. Follow Garage to Stadiums (GTS) on social channels
3. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums playlists for R.E.M. Apple Music or Spotify
4. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content on all of our acts featured including concert footage, etranscripts and other interesting facts.

The Cure proved something very rare in the history of music: that darkness and beauty could coexist in the very same catalog. While navigating immense and shocking internal chaos, band leader and guitarist Robert Smith and The Cure inspired generations of artists, helped define the sound of alternative music, and showed millions of outsiders that they weren't alone. In this episode you'll learn:

• How Robert Smith managed to perform in two famous bands at one time
• The surprising musical influences that inspired The Cure sound
• Why Robert Smith was embarrassed by some of his biggest hits
• The levels of The Cure's debauchery that rival rock's most controversial acts
• The intellectual prowess of Robert Smith and its various influences

Guest Bio
Acclaimed music writer and journalist Ian Gittins is author of The Cure: Perfect Dream, a coffee table-like retrospective of The Cure's career, complete with album indexes, song listings and rare photographs included. Ian is a music writer for the British paper The Guardian, and has also written for Melody Maker, Q, MTV, The Daily Telegraph, and New York Times, and he is a best-selling author who has penned biographies of Bjork and Talking Heads.

Want to learn more music history?
Subscribe to our bonus Garage to Stadium content across our social + web channels

Follow the Show / Receive bonus content:

1. Follow GTS on Apple or Spotify podcasts to be alerted when our next episode drops
2. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums playlists for each episode on Apple Music or Spotify
3. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content on The Cure including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.

Listen to how a true California sound was born… from musicians who didn’t even come from California. In the late 1960s, four young artists arrived in Los Angeles from completely different corners of America. Blending country, rock, and soaring harmonies, Eagles captured the spirit of the American West and helped launch a new musical movement. Over the decades they would sell more than 150 million records and secure 2 of the top 4 spots in album sales in history. This is their journey from the garage to stadiums. In this episode, you'll learn:

1. How their childhoods shaped the music they would create
2. The superstar who gave Eagles their first big break in Los Angeles
3. The personality clashes that simmered behind the harmonies
4. Why the band deliberately changed their sound at their peak
5. The onstage threat of violence that foreshadowed the band’s breakup
6. Who shaped their sound - and the artists they went on to influence

Guest Bio
The guests for this episode are the authors of Eagles: Up Ahead in The Distance Eagles, Steve Caparelli and Rik Forgo. They have authored a trilogy of books chronicling the incredible rise of this quintessential band.

Want to learn more music history?
Subscribe to our bonus Garage to Stadium content across our social + web channels

Follow the Show / Receive bonus content:

1. Follow GTS on Apple or Spotify podcasts to be alerted when our next episode drops
2. Follow Garage to Stadiums (GTS) on social channels
3. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums playlists for The Eagles on Apple Music or Spotify
4. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content, including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts on all the acts we've featured.

In this repeat episode explore one of the most influential figures in modern music history - Brian Wilson leader of The Beach Boys. Known for layered orchestrations and an innovative approach to studio recording, Brian influenced artists like The Beatles, Elton John, Queen, The Eagles and more. Incredibly, Brian created one of rock’s great lost albums - Smile begun in 1966 - but it was shelved for 37 years. Decades later... our guest today, David Leaf, helped bring it to the world. You'll learn:

1) Brian's abusive upbringing and how it shaped him and his music
2) How 5 teenagers went to global stardom 6 months after forming
3) How Brian influenced The Beatles musical direction
4) The incredible story of how Brian overcame a corrupt psychologist controlling his life
5) How our guest helped rescue a "lost album" long anticipated in rock history

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Guest Bio
David Leaf is the author of Smile: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Brian Wilson, chronicling Brian Wilson’s lost album masterpiece which was shelved for 37 years before release. He also directed the Brian documentary Beautiful Dreamer and teaches music history at UCLA. David has won a Peabody award for powerful and intelligent story-telling.

Follow the Show / Receive bonus content:

1. Follow GTS on Apple or Spotify podcasts to be alerted when our next episode drops
2. Follow Garage to Stadiums (GTS) on social channels
3. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums playlists for each episode on Apple Music or Spotify
4. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content, including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.

Incredibly, U2 began as a band of barely-formed teenagers—two 14-year-olds and two 15-year-olds—at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, Ireland. Just 4 years later, they were signed to a major label, and not long after that, they were reshaping rock on a global scale with music driven by faith, politics, and social unrest. U2 would go on to sell more than 175 million albums, never standing still—shifting from raw post-punk urgency to towering arena anthems to daring electronic reinvention. This is a band that survived by constantly changing. In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The bizarre early incident that nearly ended U2 before it truly began
• The heartbreaking childhood tragedies that shaped two of its members
• The unlikely spiritual and political roots behind their lyrical mission
• The global live performance the band openly hated—yet became legendary
• The intense internal struggles over where their music should go next
• How a frontman with barely a high school education became a global humanitarian voice

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Guest Bio:
Bradley Morgan, author of U2: Until the End of the World. Bradley also has a book U2's Joshua Tree: Planting Roots in Mythic America about their breakthrough album, 1987's The Joshua Tree, a release that put them at the top of international album charts.

Follow the Show / Receive bonus content:

1. Follow GTS on Apple or Spotify podcasts to be alerted when our next episode drops
2. Follow Garage to Stadiums (GTS) on social channels
3. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums playlists for each episode on Apple Music or Spotify
4. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.

From a crumbling New York of the mid-'70s, in a tiny downtown club on the edge of collapse, a sound began to cut through the noise and redefine what popular music could be. One of those bands, Blondie, fronted by a punk-era Marilyn Monroe, fused art, New York street cool, visual invention, and razor-sharp pop songwriting, fearlessly moving between punk, new wave, rock, disco, reggae, and hip hop -- to climb from the underground to the top of the charts in the late 1970s and early '80s. In this episode, you'll discover:

1. How a collapsing New York City birthed a new sound
2. How the lead singer Debbie Harry rose as punk's most magnetic female icon,
3. How Debbie and guitarist Chris Stein created a creative and romantic partnership
4. How Blondie brought rap into mainstream pop culture,
5. The mysterious forces that ended their first golden era

Guest bio
Fred Schruers is a former Rolling Stone magazine staff writer who has contributed to The Washington Post, the LA Times, and he appeared on our story of Billy Joel episode. He profiled Blondie in Rolling Stone in the '70s and '80s time period, and the subject of a biography he wrote about hanging out with the band in that seminal period.

Follow the Show / Receive bonus content:

1. Follow GTS on Apple or Spotify podcasts to be alerted when our next episode drops
2. Follow Garage to Stadiums (GTS) on social channels
3. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums playlists for each episode on Apple Music or Spotify
4. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content on The Who, including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.