News

A Tribute to Richard Podolor

By Ryan Jones

A Tribute to Richard Podolor

Who played an enormously important role in the story of Steppenwolf and who became an admired friend.

From John Kay

Today I learned that Richie Podolor has died. At my age you have to accept that your little universe will lose some of its brightest stars as time moves on, but Richie’s departure is a shock that I’m still coming to terms with.   So I thought I’d simply tell how Richie came into my life - and that of Steppenwolf - to show how important he was to us all.

In the fall of 1967, after securing a record deal with Dunhill based on demos we made with our producer Gabriel Mekler, we were cutting tracks in a well-known Los Angeles recording studio and were miserable because our tracks sounded disappointingly weak. While lamenting about this to my friend Morgan Cavett, he said ‘listen to this’ and played a demo he had cut that sounded great. “Where did you do this” I asked. He then told me about two guys who had converted a defunct Restaurant into a recording studio, built their own tube mixing board, and who were excellent recording engineers. After Gabriel heard Morgan’s demo, he and our drummer Jerry Edmonton went to see Richie at his American Recording Co. studio. They returned saying “This is the right place for us, let’s move our gear and start recording.”

On day one of our sessions at American, after equipment setup and miking, we cut our first track and went into the recording booth to hear the playback. No more than a minute into the track we were yelling “Yeah, yeah that’s it, that’s our sound, this is great!” We went back into the studio, cut 6 more tracks that day, 4 tracks the next day, I sang 11 vocals on day 3 and Richie & Bill Cooper mixed the entire album on day 4. They say you have your whole life to get ready for your first album and that’s true, we were more than ready, but it was Richie’s and Bill’s engineering skills that made our efforts come alive. “Born to be wild” – “The Pusher” etc. still sound good to this day, 55 years later.

That first album marked the beginning of a relationship and friendship that spanned many, many years. As we recorded our following LPs – The Second / At your Birthday / Monster and Steppenwolf Live – we became of course more and more familiar with these two creative talents. Richie, we discovered, was an accomplished classical guitarist, while Bill was a fine bass player. The two had joined forces during their teens and engineered and produced numerous records by a variety of artists. From the ‘Steppenwolf 7 LP on - one of our best sounding records ever – Richie became our producer. Around that time he also started producing the recordings of Three Dog Night as well as other artists.

In 1971, while recording my “Forgotten Songs & Unsung Heroes” and “Sportin’ Life” solo LPs, Richie, Bill and I got know one another even more. We 3, joined by Jutta and our daughter Shawn, went sailing on Richie’s boat “Celebrity”, we shared our love of Mercedes Gullwings, - Richie had two, Jutta and Danny Hutton of 3 Dog Night had one each, his fondness for building models, eating delectable dinners, collecting string instruments and more. In the mid 70’ we lost track of one another for a few years but still saw or called one another every so often. In the mid-nineties Charlie Wolf and I invited Richie and Bill to join us for our Wolf Fest celebration in Nashville. They flew in from LA and had a great time, with lots of Wolf Packers besieging them with questions about Steppenwolf’s recordings etc. So as you can see Richie as well as Bill had become very special friends to me, but as Joni Mitchell once wrote “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” Well I did know what I had, but perhaps that makes the loss even harder to contend with for I lost an admired friend who had enriched my life.

Farewell Richard, it was a blessing to know you. – John Kay

Steppenwolf 7

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New 'MAGIC CARPET RIDE' Box Set Not to be Missed!

By Ryan Jones

New 'MAGIC CARPET RIDE' Box Set Not to be Missed!

Steppenwolf: Magic Carpet Ride – The Dunhill / ABC Years 1967-1971, 8CD Box Set

Check out this newly remastered 8 disc box set.  The band was able to get a limited number for sale to our fans here in the USA. Don't miss your chance to grab this set, quantities are extremely limited! In our webstore now!

Magic Carpet Ride features all the albums the band recorded for the The Dunhill / ABC labels (1967-1971). Among the albums are 26 bonus tracks drawn from rare singles and mono mixes.

Fan and friend of the band, Flemming Pedersen got his and sent the following review:  

"It is the small details that make the big outcome and to that extent the work with the small details in this fantastic box set. I can hear the xylophone in Your Wall's Too High, I can also hear the guitar with nylon strings in the intro on Monster - details only available on first edition of the album. To that extent, the sound is cherished, the 52-page book is also made fantastically, with pictures many of us have not seen before. It is it good, Jim Christopholos and Bill Weeks have been asked for advice and have provided photos etc. Truly a box worth purchase - I give it 6 stars out of 6 possible!" -  Flemming Pedersen

https://www.steppenwolf.com/collections/music/products/steppenwolf-magic-carpet-ride-8cd-box-set

 

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Born to be Wild: from Rock Star to Wildlife Advocate

By steppen-wolf Admin

Hello Fans Of The Wolf,

As some of you may know, my “Born to be Wild: from Rock Star to Wildlife Advocate” presentations, which last year I was scheduled to give at some Theaters, were cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis. These events were scheduled as fund raisers for our Maue Kay Foundation. I used the ‘sequestered’ time to create a narrated film version of the presentation, which is now available for viewing at www.mauekay.org. For a minimum donation of $15 Dollars, every cent of which goes to MKF. This 65-minute-long film tells 3 stories, my personal one, the story Steppenwolf’s ups & down and triumphs and how I and Jutta gradually became Wildlife Advocates. I believe you will truly enjoy viewing this film, even though some of you already know quite a bit of Steppenwolf’s history.

If after viewing the film you have some comments to share, kindly send them to: wolfpackfanclub@yahoo.com

May you all stay safe in these difficult times and to those of you who decide to view the film I say “Thank You”; your donations will help our efforts and are much appreciated.
JK & JMK

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Magic Carpet Ride (The Autobiography of John Kay & Steppenwolf) 2021 Limited Edition

By steppen-wolf Admin

 

This 2021 hardbound edition includes new cover design, updated discography and "The Final Chapter" written by John Kay. The original version of John Kay's autobiography left off in 1994 (when it was first published). In an all new section for the 2021 update, John's story with Steppenwolf culminates at the band's 50th Anniversary celebration in 2017 and the band's final performance in 2018. If you didn't get the chance to read John's book when it first came out, now is the time. It contains many great characters, stories and loads of photos from John's personal collection. It's a lively and entertaining look back at a life as the leader of a late 1960's counter-cultural American rock band, told by the man who lived it an rocked it.

With no more than 250 copies printed, these limited edition hardbound books are hand numbered and autographed by John Kay.

This ultra-limited, autographed edition makes it a lifetime keepsake.

$10 from each purchase supports the Maue Kay Foundation

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John Kay hoping pay-per-view benefit for the Lobero Theatre with help the "community treasure" stay afloat

By steppen-wolf Admin

 

Founding Steppenwolf frontman John Kay recently taped a solo concert at Santa Barbara, California's historic Lobero Theatre that will air as a pay-per-view event on Friday, November 13, to help raise money to keep the venue from closing.
The show, which was shot without an audience, is part of the "Live from the Lobero" series of benefit events that also has included similar performances by Kenny Loggins and KT Tunstall.
Kay tells ABC Audio that he was happy to do the show because he's seen many concerts at the Lobero Theatre, which is located near his home, and he considers it "a community treasure."
As he explains, "Doing this on behalf of the Lobero is my way of kind of saying 'thank you' for what the Lobero has provided to my partner…Jutta and I all those wonderful evenings there."
Regarding his performance, Kay says, "I've seen the results…[I]t's well-edited…It sounded pretty good. So, I'm hoping that, as a consequence, a few ducats will come the Lobero's way."

Steppenwolf retired as a touring act in 2018, but Kay has continued to play select solo acoustic shows. Of course, any plans he had this year have been put on hold, so the Lobero concert may offer fans their only chance to see him play in 2020.
http://abcnewsradioonline.com/music-news/2020/10/27/john-kay-hoping-pay-per-view-benefit-for-the-lobero-theatre.html
Tickets for the concert are $15, and are available now at LivefromtheLobero.org. People who are able to make an additional donation to help the venue stay in business are welcome to do so when they purchase tickets.
Kay tells ABC Audio that he hopes people will help out music venues during the COVID-19 pandemic anytime they're able to do so, "particularly the smaller clubs…where making ends meet is already a challenge under the best of circumstances."

 

 

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Join Us For A Special Night

By steppen-wolf Admin

"Greetings Friends & Acquaintances: On Friday the 13th of November my recent performance (without an audience of course) at the historic Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara will be available for viewing via streaming.  My performance is a fund raiser for the Lobero Theater - the oldest Theater in California and a community treasure  - so that it may survive during this epidemic and be able to re-open in future. The streaming starts at 8pm Pacific Time at: www.Lobero.org and is available for 72 hours, from 8pm onward , so that it can be viewed in several other time zones.. After signing up and making a $15 payment , you can view the performance at whatever time slot suits you during that 72 hour period, or view it more than once, if you desire. You can buy a ticket for the event at anytime between now and Friday November 13. Please help live music stay alive by supporting the places is calls home, The beautiful Lobero Theater being one of them. Kind regards to all of you. John Kay"

Join us for an intimate engagement revealing rocker John Kay’s more personal side including rare selections from various solo albums woven together with touching stories and recollections.

Friday night, November 13th @ 8pm

The Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, CA

This is a streaming pay per view event. Your ticket is good for 72 hours and you can watch the concert as often as you’d like. 

Ticket Link:

https://www.lobero.org/

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The End of an Era & A New Beginning'

By steppen-wolf Admin

 In October 2018 we gave our last performance. It had been 50 years since our first album was released and I felt it was time for Steppenwolf to retire. However the primary reason for our touring during recent years was to provide financial support for the Maue Kay Foundation. With the ‘Wolf’ funding now gone, I decided; in order to continue support for MKF, to create a new project titled:

“BORN TO BE WILD: From Rock Star to Wildlife Advocate”

John Kay of Steppenwolf and his journey of transformation

It is a multi-media presentation which tells my personal story, the history and career of Steppenwolf and my transition to becoming a wildlife advocate. I narrate this presentation on stage while over 100 Video & Audio clips and images are projected on a large screen behind me. If you’re familiar with TED Talks, then picture a similar presentation except BTBW is 1 hour and 15 minutes long and – after a brief intermission – is followed with an acoustic solo performance by yours truly.

While my aim is to entertain and to inform, the presentation’s main purpose is to raise awareness about the ongoing loss of our living treasures, the wildlife defenders who fight to preserve them and to inspire support for the Maue Kay Foundation. I hope you’re able to attend the BTBW presentation when it comes to your area. We’ve received many favorable comments from those who’ve attended BTBW so far and the most encouraging remarks have been: “Now that I know…. I care”

Stay wild: JK

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GOLDMINE MAGAZINE: John Kay of Steppenwolf Fame Commits to a Solo Career

By steppen-wolf Admin

Click here to read the complete article in Goldmine Magazine

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