CR 084: Paul Rees on Journey, Toto, and the Golden Era of Pop-Rock Radio

The music journalist discusses his latest book, “Raised on Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine, and Payola – The AOR Glory Years 1976-1986.”

Photo courtesy of Paul Rees

Over the course of his decades-long career, journalist Paul Rees has served as the editor-in-chief of the U.K. music magazines Kerrang! and Q, has written for countless music publications, and has interviewed some of the biggest names (and egos) in the entertainment industry, much of which he dishes on in his entertaining Substack, Access All Areas. In recent years, he’s turned to writing books, penning biographies on Elliott Smith, John Mellencamp, Robert Palmer, and The Who’s John Entwistle, while co-writing memoirs with Toto’s Steve Lukather, Foreigner’s Mick Jones, and UFO’s Pete Way.

In his latest, Raised on Radio, Rees provides a thoroughly researched and fascinating oral history of AOR, or “album-oriented rock,” a genre that you might not know by name, but would certainly know if you heard it. Dominating the FM airwaves from the mid-1970s through the mid-80s, AOR was radio-friendly rock at its finest. And in Raised on Radio, Rees talks to many of its k…