Loudini Interviews Greg Kihn

NBC called Greg Kihn “Rock’s True Renaissance Man.” His career stretches from the dawn of punk and indie rock to the discos of the 80’s to the glory days of MTV. As a pioneer with the legendary Beserkley Records, he helped write the book on revolutionary west coast rock and roll.

He’s toured the world, had hit records, appeared on Saturday Night Live and American Bandstand, opened for the Rolling Stones, jammed with Bruce Springsteen, won the ASCAP and Midem Awards for his worldwide #1 hit JEOPARDY and THE BREAKUP SONG, was parodied by Weird Al Yankovic, lived the rock star lifestyle to the hilt, won and lost several fortunes, and lived to tell about it. But music is only part of the story. 

In the 90’s Greg turned his attention to writing fiction. He published four novels, a handful of short stories in various anthologies, and edited a compilation of original fiction by famous musicians. HORROR SHOW was nominated for the prestigious Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel. 

It was also in the 90’s that he began his radio career. After a year of seven-midnight, Greg spent sixteen years hosting the top-rated morning show for KFOX radio in San Jose/San Francisco. He also hosted and performed at the annual KIHNCERT at the Shoreline Amphitheater featuring some of the most important bands of our generation.

Greg was inducted into the San Jose Rock Hall Of Fame in 2008 and the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2012. 

Greg recently retained the rights to all his old recordings and is currently re-releasing his entire catalogue with the original artwork. The New Yorker recently described Greg’s music as having “a high degree of intelligence and subtlety.” The recent review of the Greg Kihn Band’s Greatest Hits by Apple iTunes called the group “a rock band of genuine consequence.” The band continues to tour with Greg’s son Ry Kihn replacing Joe Satriani on lead guitar.

Greg maintains a strong Internet presence with professional website design and social media managed by Michael Brandvold Marketing. Thousands of fans engage him daily on Facebook and Twitter. Greg also retains a cutting-edge publicist, Christopher Buttner at PrthatRocks.com, the lauded San Francisco based PR agency voted Best Publicist Of The Year by the National Association of Record Industry Professionals. 

RUBBER SOUL is Greg’s most recent novel. This completely unique murder mystery features the Beatles as characters in the story. The idea came while interviewing original Beatles drummer Pete Best. Greg asked where the Beatles got those rare American R&B 45’s that constituted their early repertoire. Pete revealed that it was from Merchant Marines who carried the records back to Liverpool from America. That gave him the inspiration for the character “Dust Bin Bob” who befriends the Beatles from their penniless early days to the height of Beatlemania. The story climaxes with an assassination attempt in Manila during their world tour in 1966. 

Through interviews with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Pete Best, Geoff Emerick (engineer), Alf Bicknell (driver), Yoko Ono and Patti Harrison, Greg got invaluable insights into the inner world of the Beatles. Even though RUBBER SOUL is a work of fiction, it is 100% historically accurate. 

After a lifetime of rock & roll, and decades on the road and behind the microphone, no one else but Greg Kihn could have written this story.