Bruce Hornsby

Bruce Hornsby

Author: Pushkin Industries May 5, 2026 Duration: 56:29

The magic of Bruce Hornsby isn't just that he's one of American music's great piano stylists — or that he wrote one of the most unlikely pop hits of the 1980s, a song about racism with two improvised solos that nobody at his label thought should be the single. It's how relentlessly he's kept moving, long after he had any commercial reason to.

Hornsby grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia, and got discovered playing a steak and ale joint across from the Hampton Coliseum by Mike McDonald. He scored his first big hit in 1986 with "The Way It Is. What followed was a long, restless second act: teaching himself two-handed independence by scheduling benefit concerts just to give himself a hard deadline, making jazz records with Jack DeJohnette and Christian McBride, bluegrass records with Ricky Skaggs, and going deep into Shostakovich fugues that now shape everything he writes.

On today’s episode Bruce Headlam sat down with Bruce Hornsby at the piano to talk about all of it. But they started somewhere unexpected: a steak and ale restaurant in Hampton, Virginia, in the fall of 1978.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite songs from Bruce Hornsby HERE.

Time-coded chapters:

(01:26) Discovering Musical Influences 

(09:24) Success of “The Way It Is”

(15:51) Crafting Unique Sounds and Styles

(20:30) Collaborations and Songwriting Process

(26:40) Exploring New Directions in Music

(33:20) The Challenge of Musical Growth

(39:10) Jazz and Bluegrass Fusion

(44:47) The Art of Improvisation and Composition

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.


Imagine a conversation where the only agenda is genuine curiosity about the creative process. That's the space Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond occupies. Hosted by these four distinct voices from the worlds of music production, writing, and journalism, this podcast strips away the standard interview format. Instead, it feels like you're overhearing an insightful, meandering talk between friends who happen to be some of the most fascinating artists alive. The discussions delve into the unglamorous realities of making art-the false starts, the moments of doubt, the sheer stubbornness required to push through. You'll hear legendary musicians and emerging talents alike discuss not just their hits, but the failures and personal stories that truly shaped their sound. It’s less about celebrity and more about the human experience behind the songs we love. Each episode is a deep, unstructured dive into why creators do what they do, offering a rare glimpse into the vulnerability and chaos that fuel great work. Produced by Pushkin Industries, this series connects the dots between music, culture, and the society that inspires it, making it feel like an essential listen for anyone interested in the stories behind the art.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond
Podcast Episodes
Elvis Costello [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:53
Elvis Costello seemed to arrive fully formed with his 1977 debut, My Aim Is True. The look, the voice, the wordplay and the attitude were already there, along with songs like “Alison,” “Watching the Detectives” and “(The…
Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:01
Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo helped transform the possibilities of the electric guitar at a time when its role in rock music could seem well established. He came of age in New York City’s downtown No Wave art scene in the l…
Brandon Flowers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:12:42
Brandon Flowers’ new album, Thrasher, is a beautifully written ode to the Southwest where he grew up. It’s a deeply personal record, shining a light on the people close to him, the lives they’ve lived, and the difficulti…
Tom Morello [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:24
Tom Morello arrived in Los Angeles from Libertyville, Illinois, in the mid-1980s with a Harvard political science degree in his pocket and a guitar slung across his back, determined to become the next great guitarist on…
David Porter [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:29
David Porter's story goes well beyond writing songs and releasing albums for Stax Records. His recent memoir, The Soul Man, tells how he and his partner Isaac Hayes helped invent a sound rich and enduring enough to defin…
Travis Barker [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:52
Travis Barker grew up in Fontana, California, and was gifted his first drum kit at the age of four from his mother, who made him promise before she died that he would never stop playing. This was just before he started h…
Interpol's Daniel Kessler [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:40
Daniel Kessler grew up between London, Paris, and Washington, D.C., listening to his older brother’s early UK rock records. He picked up guitar as a teenager, the same day he quit skateboarding, and after moving to New Y…
Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:29
Brittany Howard has never been the type to do things quietly. Whether it was fronting Alabama Shakes with a voice that could fill a room and level it in the same breath, or striking out on her own with two solo records t…
Harvey Mason Jr. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:27
Harvey Mason Jr. grew up steeped in music. His father, Harvey Mason Sr., was half of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters rhythm section and played on countless sessions through the '70s and '80s. After a brief detour through co…