CooperTalk

Steve Cooper talks with actor Peter Jacobson. Peter is best known for his roles as Dr. Chris Taub on the Fox medical drama series House, proxy Alan Snyder is the USA science fiction drama Colony, Agent Wolfe on The Americans, Lee Drexler on Ray Donovan and Rabbi Jacob Kessner on Fear of the Walking Dead. Some other shows he has appeared on include WeCrashed, NCIS: Los Angeles, Bull, Law & Order: SVU, Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, Criminal Minds and many more. 

Steve Cooper talks with musician Marian Gold. Marian is best known as a founder member and lead singer of the band Alphaville. Alphaville achieved chart success with the singles Forever Young, Big in Japan, Sounds Like a Melody, The Jet Set and Dance with Me. They have released seven studio albums and have a symphonic one called Eternally Yours being released in the near future.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Five for Fighting (John Ondrasik). John is best known for his first single Superman (It's Not Easy). He is a platinum selling and Grammy nominated songwriter and has released six studio LPs, including the platinum certified America Town and The Battle for Everything and the top-10 charting Two Lights, along with an EP and live albums. He has penned major hits, including the chart-topping 100 Years, The Riddle, Chances, World and Easy Tonight which have earned tens of millions of streams and place him as a top-10 Hot Adult Contemporary artist for the 2000s. His music has also been featured in more than 350 films, television shows, and commercials, including the Oscar-winning The Blind Side, Hawaii Five-O, the Sopranos and the CBS drama Code Black. 

Steve Cooper talks with actor Patrick Fabian. Patrick is best known for his role as Howard Hamlin on Better Call Saul. His recurring roles include shows such as Black Monday, Carol's Second Act, Special, Code Black, Valentine, Big Love, Veronica Mars, Providence, Joan of Arcadia, 24, The Newsroom and Saved by the Bell: The College Years. He has also guest starred in countless series like Lucifer, Barry,The Conners, Elementary, Ugly Betty, NCIS, Will & Grace, Friends, Scandal, The Mentalist, CSI: Crime Investigation Scene, Bones, Criminal Minds, Castle, Burn Notice, Longmire and many more. On the big screen he can be seen in DriverX, Extracurricular Activities, Eat Brains Love, 30 Nights, Cloud 9, Bad Ass and the Last Exorcism.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Simon Kirke. Simon is best known for being the drummer for the band Bad Company. Bad Company enjoyed great success throughout the 1970s. Their first three albums, Bad Company, Straight Shooter and Run with the Pack, reached the top five in the album charts in both the UK and the US. Many of their singles and songs, such as Bad Company, Can't Get Enough, Good Lovin' Gone Bad, Feel Like Makin' Love, Shooting Star, Ready for Love and Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy, remain staples of classic rock radio. They have sold 20 million RIAA-certified albums in the US and 40 million worldwide. Simon was also in Free has guested on a long list of recordings by other artists over the years, including albums by Wilson Pickett, Faces, Gov’t Mule, Jim Capaldi and Ron Wood, among countless others and he is often found drumming live on tour with acts like Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band.

Steve Cooper talks with drummer Steve Smith. Steve is best known for being the drummer for Journey across three tenures. With Journey, he toured around the world and recorded numerous successful albums including the immensely popular Escape (Columbia 1981) and Frontiers (Columbia 1983), both of which garnered the band many Top 40 hits and worldwide sales of over 80 million albums. In 1985 Smith left Journey to pursue his original passion, jazz, and to continue his developing career as a session player. Over the past 30+ years, Smith has played on many hits with such diverse artists as Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey, Zucchero, Claudio Baglioni, Andrea Bocelli, Y&T, Dweezil Zappa, Ray Price, Corrado Rustici and Savage Garden. He has also recorded numerous albums with his band Vital Information and in the past Modern Drummer magazine readers have voted him the No. 1 All-Around Drummer five years in a row. In 2001, the publication named Smith one of the Top 25 Drummers of All Time, and in 2002 he was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll HOF as a member of Journey in 2017.

Steve Cooper talks with actor/writer Dave Thomas. Dave is probably best known for being part of the duo the McKenzie Brothers from the sketch show SCTV that launched John Candy, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy and Rick Moranis.  The duo became a pop culture phenomenon in both the United States and Canada. They starred in the movie Strange Brew and the characters were later revived for an animated series, Bob & Doug. Some people know Dave from the TV show Arrested Development or the movie Rat Race. Some people know him from the nineties ABC sitcom Grace Under Fire.  Most people don't know he was also one of the writer / producers for Fox's TV show Bones or ABC's The Blacklist.  Or that he acted alongside Henry Fonda, Jonathan Winters, John Cleese, Richard Pryor, Zach Galifiankis, Whoopi Goldberg, Mary Louise Parker and Ashton Kutcher.  Or that he directed John Travolta, Jean Stapleton and Max Von Sydow in theatrical motion pictures. Or that he was friends with Bob Hope, Harold Ramis and Johnny Carson and wrote Spies Like Us with Dan Aykroyd and did voices on The Simpsons and Family Guy. 

Steve Cooper talks with director/writer/actor/comic Mike Binder. Mike created and starred in the HBO series The Mind of the Married Man. He has directed, written and co-starred in various movies such as The Sex Monster, The Upside of Anger, Reign Over Me and Man About Town. He has written or directed (or both) on such projects as Blankman, Crossing the Bridge, Indian Summer, Black or White, Billions, Ray Donovan and Nashville. As a stand-up comic he has appeared on many shows including Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Pat Sajak Show, One Night Stand and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He also recently hosted the Showtime docu-series The Comedy Store.

Steve Cooper talks with singer Keren Woodward. Keren is one part of the duo Bananarama. Bananarama recently celebrated their 40th anniversary and their achievements speak for themselves. Two Band Aid appearances, an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful female band worldwide with the most charting singles, many of which were international hits, four hitting the US Billboard Top 10 including a No.1 with Venus. To date the duo have had 30 Top hits and they have released 12 albums and sold 30 million records. 

Steve Cooper talks with comedian/actor Tommy Chong. Tommy is best known for his invaluable contribution to American counter-culture as part of the iconic comedy duo Cheech & Chong. During their reign, the twosome recorded six gold comedy albums, including the 1973 Grammy winner Los Cochinos, and starred in eight films, most of which Chong co-wrote and directed. The first, Up In Smoke, was the highest grossing comedy of 1978, topping $100 million at the box office. Others were Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie (1980), Nice Dreams (1981), Things Are Tough All Over (1982), Cheech and Chong: Still Smoking (1983), and The Corsican Brothers (1984). Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he began his entertainment career as a musician in a Canadian-based rhythm and blues band. Eventually, he landed a gig with the Vancouvers and co-wrote the band’s 1960’s hit, Does Your Mama Know About Me. From here, he eventually turned towards the life as an actor. The first step was forming City Works, an improvisational group where he consequently met his future comedic partner, Richard “Cheech” Marin. Throughout the 1970’s Cheech & Chong earned a massive following until eventually, the duo had run its lengthy and prosperous course and they both embarked on solo careers. Tommy has appeared in several films including 1990’s Far Out, Man! and National Lampoon’s Senior Trip. He has also starred, most notably, as “Leo” on Fox’s That 70’s Show, and has guest starred on ABC’s Dharma & Greg and The George Lopez Show.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Martin Fry. Martin is best known for being lead singer of the band ABC. ABC’s debut The Lexicon of Love went to No 1 and sold over a million records. To date, ABC have released nine studio albums and their hits include Tears Are Not Enough, Poison Arrow, The Look of Love and All of My Heart, That Was Then but This Is Now, (How to Be A) Millionaire and When Smokey Sings.

Steve Cooper talks with drummer Kenney Jones. Kenney is a member of the Rock & Roll HOF with his bands Faces and Small Faces. He replaced Keith Moon and played with The Who from 1978-1983, 1985, 1988 and in 2014.  His other bands he has been in are The Law and The Jones Gang and he has performed in various record sessions with people such as Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Joan Armatrading, Roger Daltrey, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Colin Hay. Colin is best known as being the lead vocalist and songwriter for the band Men at Work. That band would reach the heights of stardom—they took home a GRAMMY Award for Best New Artist and sold more than 30 million records worldwide on the strength of #1 singles like Who Can It Be Now? and Down Under but by 1985, they’d called it quits and gone their separate ways. Colin released his solo debut the following year and, over the course of the next three-and-a-half decades, went on to record twelve more critically acclaimed studio albums that would help establish him as one of his generation’s most hardworking and reliable craftsmen.

Steve Cooper talks with actor/comedian Diane Neal. Diane is best known for her role as ADA Casey Novak on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and has had recurring roles in NCIS, NCIS: New Orleans, Suits, The Following and Power. She also is a seasoned stand-up comic and hosts the podcast Hear. Say. Diane Neal. 

Steve Cooper talks with musician Suzi Quatro. Suzi has sold over 55 million records worldwide and is also known from her role as Leather Tuscadero, who she portrayed from 1997-1979, on the huge ABC hit Happy Days. In 1973 her hit Can Can went to number one on the British charts and went on to sell two and a half million copies. Between 1973-1980 she featured on the British charts for no less than 101 weeks. She is a member of the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame, has written an autobiography and has recently released her second book of poetry. After the pandemic ended, she played a sold-out show at the legendary Royal Albert Hall and still performs at festivals across Europe.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Howard Jones. Howard burst on the scene with his 1983 hit New Song. His first two albums, Humans Lib and Dream into Action, brought Howard a host of hits including Things Can Only Get Better, What is Love?, Pearl In The Shell, Like to Get To know You Well, Hide And Seek (performed at Live Aid), Look Mama and No One Is To Blame, which reached No.1 in the US. Howard has sold over 8 million albums across the globe. To this day he still tours the world to sold out crowds and his new album Dialogue will be coming out soon and is the third in a series of four electronic albums.

Steve Cooper talks with guitarist Joe Satriani. Joe is best known for his all-instrumental hit album Surfing with the Alien. For over three decades, the guitar virtuoso has traveled the world, playing to sold-out crowds as both a headliner and as founder of the all-star “G3” guitar extravaganza. His studio and live recordings have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide to date and of his many solo albums, two have gone platinum and four others went gold, with 15 Grammy nominations between them. His side project, Chickenfoot, featuring former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar, former bassist Michael Anthony and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith saw their debut album certified gold and their second studio album debuted at #9.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Danielle Nicolet. Danielle is best known for her roles as Cecile Horton in the CW hit The Flash, Caryn in 3rd Rock from the Sun, Jenna in Born Again Version and as Maggie in the The Rock/Kein Hart movie Central Intelligence. Some of her other Tv and film appearances include Family Matters, Loaded Weapon 1, Heartland, The Starter Wife, Elementary, Supergirl, The Game, Acrimony and Deidre & Laney Rob a Train. She also wrote the short film Black Karen that will be screened at Sundance.

Steve Cooper talks with musician/actor/poet/writer John Doe. John is best known for being a co-founder of the legendary LA punk band X, of which he is still an active member. His musical performances and compositions span rock, punk, country and folk music genres. As an actor, he has dozens of television appearances and several movies to his credit, including the role of Jeff Parker in the television series Roswell. In addition to X, Doe performs with the country-folk-punk band the Knitters and has released 14 records as a solo artist. He also wrote with co-author Tom DeSavia two books that compiled stories about the LA punk rock scene from 1977 to 1983.

Steve Cooper talks with singer/songwriter Matt Simons. Matt has worked continuously for a decade now, achieving huge success – particularly in continental Europe – with music that comes straight from the soul. A West Coast talent who found success outside his homeland, his music has reached huge audiences, with both studio albums to date – Pieces and Catch & Release – moving across the continent, starting with the Netherlands until the whole of Europe knew his name. Last year’s After the Landslide was a particular landmark, and 2019 ended with a huge 40 date tour. But then the pandemic intervened. Relocating to California he found himself with the space – and the time – to reflect, and to look inwards. It’s sparked a shift in his music, too – singles such as Cold and Better Tomorrow have connected due to their introspection, and the brave frankness of his message. He recently released his new album, Identity Crisis, and has been on tour opening for 2CELLOS in both the USA and Europe.

Steve Cooper talks with musician Andy McCluskey. Andy is best known as the lead singer and bass guitarist of the electronic band OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark), which he founded alongside keyboard player Paul Humphreys in 1978.  They are one of the earliest, most commercially successful, and enduring synth pop groups and are best known for the hits Enola Gay, Electricity and If You Leave which was top 5 in the US and was featured in the movie Pretty in Pink. They have recorded eleven studio albums and are currently on a worldwide tour.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Chad Coleman. Chad is best known for portraying Dennis "Cutty" Wise on the HBO crime drama series The Wire, the voice of Coach in the video game Left 4 Dead 2, Tyreese Williams on The Walking Dead, Mingo on the History Channel's re-imaging of Roots and Z on the comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He later starred in the science fiction series The Expanse and plays a recurring role as the alien Klyden on the Fox series The Orville.

Steve Cooper talks with actor/writer/producer Jim Piddock. As an actor, Jim starred in several Broadway shows in the 1980s, including Present Laughter, Design for Living, and the original production of Noises Off. Since then, he has appeared in numerous movies, such as Independence Day, Lethal Weapon 2, The Prestige, Best in Show, The Five-Year Engagement, A Mighty Wind, Kill Your Friends, and Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. He's also been seen in dozens of TV shows, like Modern Family, Mom, Two and a Half Men, Lost, Monk, Friends, ER, Mad About You, The Drew Carey Show, and Castle. He was also in the award-winning HBO series From the Earth to the Moon and starred in the CBS miniseries The Women of Windsor. In 2007 and 2012, he secured his reputation as one of the UK's most notable comedic exports when he starred on stage in Hollywood with Russell Brand, Billy Connolly, Tim Curry, Eric Idle, Eddie Izzard, Jane Leeves, Emily Mortimer, Tracey Ullman, and Sophie Winkleman in What About Dick? As a writer/producer, Jim's films include Tooth Fairy, The Man, and A Different Loyalty. With Christopher Guest, he co-wrote and starred in the HBO series Family Tree and Mascots for Netflix.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Tom Arnold. Tom is best known for his roles in the movies True Lies and Nine Months and for playing Arnie Thomas on Roseanne, Jackie Thomas on The Jackie Thomas Show, and Tom Amross on The Tom Show. He has had countless movie and TV credits and was also the host The Best Damn Sports Show Period from 2001-2009.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Delaney Williams. Delaney is best known for his characters Sgt. Jay Landsman in the iconic series The Wire and Defense Attorney John Buchanan in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He has also had recurring roles The Punisher, Ray Donovan and Blue Bloods and guest starred on such shows as Veep, Cold Case, Bull, Elementary and MacGyver. He can currently be seen in HBO's We Own This City.  

Steve Cooper talks with director/writer/actor Steven Brill. Steven is best known for writing The Mighty Ducks, D2: The Mighty Ducks and D3: The Mighty Ducks as well as writing and directing the Adam Sandler movie Little Nicky. He has also scripted movies such as Heavyweights, Ready to Rumble and Walk of Shame and directed numerous films including Without a Paddle, Mr. Deeds, Drillbit Taylor, The Do-Over, Sandy Wexler, Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh and Hubie Halloween.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Kevin Chapman. Kevin is best known for playing Detective Lionel Fusco on the hit CBS series Person of Interest. He has also been a regular or had a recurring role in such shows as Brotherhood, City on a Hill, Kevin Can Go F*ck Himself, Sneaky Pete, Rescue Me and 24. His guest star roles include series such as Criminal Minds, Sons of Anarchy, Lost, Cold Case, Blue Bloods, The Punisher, The Equalizer, Billions and NCIS.  He recently appeared in the Oscar winning film CODA and numerous film credits such as Mystic River, 21 Grams, Slender Man, Black Dynamite, Sunshine Cleaning, Ladder 49 and 21 Grams.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Bill Smitrovich. Bill's first prominent role was in the 1980s series Crime Story as Detective Danny Krychek. He went on to star in the hit drama series Life Goes On. He later became the lead guest-star in the pilot film of the 1980s crime-drama hit series Miami Vice, and also appeared in the final episode of NYPD Blue. He has also been seen in The Henry Lee Project and Millennium. He is perhaps best known for his roles on the A&E series A Nero Wolfe Mystery as Inspector Cramer, and on the ABC hit series The Practice as Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Walsh. Smitrovich then went on to star in Without a Trace, where he portrayed the recurring character of Chief Alex Olcyk. He has also portrayed a number of characters in military roles. These include roles on Independence Day, Air Force One, Thirteen Days, Fail Safe, and Eagle Eye. In addition, he has made many guest appearances on various TV shows, most notably Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, 24, NUMB3RS, NYPD Blue, Touched by an Angel, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Criminal Minds, and Castle.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Jim True-Frost. Jim is most known for his portrayal of Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski on all five seasons of the acclaimed HBO series The Wire and as James Woodrow in Treme. He has been an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago since 1989 and his numerous TV and movie credits include Singles, American Rust, Homicide: Life on the Street, The Hudsucker Proxy, Boardwalk Empire, Blue Bloods, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Good Wife, Elementary, Hostages, American Odyssey, Manifest, The Blacklist and Yellowstone.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Steven Weber. Steven is best known for his role as Brian Hackett in the long-running NBC sitcom Wings. He has played a stream of comedic and dramatic recurring roles on such TV programs as Without a Trace, Brothers & Sisters, Dallas, Murder in the First, Helix, iZombie, House of Lies, NCIS: New Orleans, Ballers, Get Shorty, 13 Reasons Why, Indebted and Chicago Med. Guest star credits include series like The D.A., Will & Grace, Monk, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Desperate Housewives, Hot in Cleveland, Parenthood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sleepy Hollow and This Close. He also has given voice to a few animated programs including Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble, The bravest Knight and Puppy Dog Pals.