One of our most beloved episodes returns—an unforgettable journey into the life of a legend. Discover how Bob Marley rose from the streets of Trenchtown, one of Jamaica’s poorest neighborhoods, to become a global icon whose music and message continue to inspire millions.

Renowned reggae historian John Masouri, author of Simmer Down: Marley-Tosh-Livingston, joins us to trace Marley’s extraordinary path. From the birth of reggae to his fearless political activism. Tune in to hear his music forever changed the world. You’ll learn:

1. The shocking age gap between Bob Marley’s white father and Black mother — and how being mixed-race shaped Bob’s fight for identity in Jamaica.
2. Bob didn't start with reggae — discover the surprising genre he first chased.
3. How reggae fused American R&B, ska, and island rhythms into a revolutionary new sound.
4. Why gunmen tried to silence Bob — and how he survived an assassination attempt with gunshot wounds.
5. The unexpected African emperor who inspired Bob’s Rastafarian faith — and the dreadlocks that became his signature.
6. The Bob Marley album TIME magazine crowned the greatest music of the 20th century — and why it still resonates today.

Bob Marley is an international superstar who has reached the top of the musical and political worlds. Incredibly, he has won a UN humanitarian award for his political efforts and one of his albums was voted the best album of the 20th Century.

Guest Bio
John Masouri is a distinguished reggae historian and the author of several books on the genre including the definitive text on Bob Marley's life Simmer Down: Marley-Tosh-Livingston. John is a highly acclaimed author and music journalist specializing in reggae and dancehall genres for more than 35 years. John's work has appeared in Music Week, The Guardian Observer and New Musical Express (NME).
But his incredibly productive life did not begin this way. Nor did his music career begin with reggae. To hear more about Bob Marley's surprising and uplifting story, listen to this engaging episode to understand how and why he achieved his international superstar status.

Follow Garage to Stadiums (GTS) on social channels

• Share this episode with this link
• Follow GTS on Apple or Spotify podcasts
• Download our official killer playlists for each performer on Apple or Spotify
• Follow GTS on Instagram
• Follow GTS on LinkedIn
• Sign up for the Garage to Stadiums e-newsletter to get more bonus content

It's the summer of 2025 & Bruce Springsteen has just released 7 - yes, seven - new albums containing 83 unreleased songs! And he's on a global tour. Learn his incredible backstory from our classic episode from our archives. Experience his hardscrabble New Jersey childhood to becoming what Bono of U2 called the "John Steinbeck" of music with his lyrics on life in working class towns and the hopes, dreams and struggles of everyday people. Our guest was Peter Ames Carlin, author of the New York Times bestselling book Bruce and the upcoming book Jungleland, the story of the making of the classic Bruce album Born to Run.

In this episode, you'll hear:

1. How Bruce grew up poor in a dysfunctional family with significant mental health issues
2. The proto-metal music that he played in a previous band
3. How his record label threatened to cut him unless he delivered a hit - resulting in one the top albums of the 1970's
4. How a Rolling Stone writer not only changed his destiny but became his manager
5. How the characters in his town infused his many poignant songs
6. How he played a vital role in both AIDs awareness and New York's 9/11 recovery

Guest Bio:
Peter Ames Carlin is a journalist, critic and author of the New York Times best-seller called Bruce and is working on an upcoming book on the 50th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run album. His work has been published in the New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and the Times in the UK.

Follow Garage to Stadiums (GTS) on social channels

• Share this episode with this link
• Follow GTS on Apple or Spotify podcasts
• Follow GTS on Instagram
• Follow GTS on LinkedIn
• Sign up for the Garage to Stadiums e-newsletter to get more bonus content

Bonus Content:

1. Download the Official Garage to Stadiums Bruce Springsteen playlist on Apple Music or Spotify
2. Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content on Bruce Springsteen, including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.

Written from the everyday person's perspective, Springsteen songs like Born to Run, Thunder Road, Promised Land and Hungry Heart are mini-movies that put you squarely inside the main character's mind as they navigate life. As Bono of U2 said when he inducted Bruce into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, "if John Steinbeck could sing…".

The themes are as familiar as the American fabric: racing cars, highways, run-down factories, failed relationships, hopeful dreams, desperation, and redemption. Bruce helped create the American songbook of the ordinary person facing life milestones and challenges.

As you will hear, his songwriting was driven home with legendary concert performances that leave audiences in awe, lasting at least three hours and sometimes stretching to four. Bruce's philosophy seems to be: if hard-working people are going to spend hard-earned dollars to see me play, I'll make sure they get their money's worth. His work ethic on stage fits his working-class image. Or, as our guest, Peter Ames Carlin calls him, "a blue-collar troubadour".

Peter also describes in detail the impact of Bruce's father's mental health challenges on the family, which affected the family's finances and reputation in the community. He also outlines Bruce's later mental health struggles, as Bruce describes in this interview.

Incredibly 40 years ago this week in July 1985, Queen and Freddie Mercury astonished a global audience at the Live Aid concerts for African famine relief. An all star cast of the world's greatest bands performed that day, yet this was the moment that Freddie Mercury and crew blew everyone away and demonstrated that they remained one of the best live bands ever. As part of our summer programming, we are dropping some of our classic episodes and The Story of Queen is one of them.

Hear the incredible story of how Queen was started by a refugee immigrant and his new English friends and went from college band to stadium juggernaut selling 300 million albums worldwide. This versatile band moved effortlessly across genres like heavy rock, sumptuous ballads, funk & dance sounds, and even pop sounds. In this episode:

• How a family desperately fleeing an African revolution brought the future lead singer to England
• How a astronomer, dentist and engineer each wrote multiple hit songs for the band
• When Freddie's early voice was compared to a "bleating sheep" by a fellow band member
• How Queen was duped into a questionable management contract and the vicious hit song that resulted
• How one of their biggest hits resulted from a chance encounter with a famous studio visitor
• The backstory of the legendary performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert
• The details of why Freddie Mercury acted as an emergency roadie for David Bowie early in Bowie's career

Guest Bio - Mark Blake, journalist & author
Author and music journalist Mark Blake is the author of several books on Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Who. He is an authority on the band Queen spending countless hours interviewing members of the band for his books Is this the Real Life: The Untold Story of Queen and Magnifico: The A to Z of Queen.

About Garage to Stadiums
One of the Top 5% 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.

Each episode 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.

Follow Garage to Stadiums (GTS) on social channels
Want more music history? Subscribe to our bonus Garage to Stadium content across our social + web channels

Bonus Content:

• Download the Official Garage to Stadiums The Doors playlist on Apple Music or Spotify
• Visit GaragetoStadiums.com for bonus content including concert footage, transcripts and other interesting facts.