Leo Sayer has met everyone – rock legends, sport superstars, future presidents …

Leo Sayer has met everyone – rock legends, sport superstars, future presidents …

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold June 2, 2026 Duration: 32:46

Leo Sayer burst onto national telly in 1973 dressed as a Pierrot with the Show Must Go On launching a 50-year career in colourful company – songwriters, boxing legends, swindling managers, scurrilous socialites – and learning a great deal in the process. “Don’t underestimate the idiots!” is the hard-won advice. He’s touring in October and joins us here from Australia to look back at …

 

… how he and Linda Ronstadt escaped from Trump’s gruesome penthouse

 

… walking through Memphis dressed as a clown

 

… seeing Lonnie Donegan invent skiffle, Dylan at the Albert Hall and Bob Marley at the Lyceum from the side of the stage

 

… when Paul Kossoff asked him to audition for Free

 

… designing record sleeves for Marley, Roger Daltrey, Humble Pie and Quintessence

 

… “I’m the Forrest Gump of the music industry – nearly there!”

 

… “working with Adam Faith was like having Marlon Brando as your acting coach”

 

… the advice Paul McCartney gave him in 1973

 

… “Do you mind if I vomit in your shoe?”

 

… and a week in a training camp with Muhammad Ali.

 

Order Leo Sayer tickets here: https://tix.to/LeoLive26

 

Order the ‘Leothology’ box-set here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/leo-sayer/leothology-the-studio-albums-1973-now


Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.


There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Word In Your Ear
Podcast Episodes
Kate Mossman has strong feelings about rock stars past their prime [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:57
Kate’s an old pal of ours from Word magazine who writes scintillating columns and profiles for the New Statesman and Observer. We loved her book ‘Men Of A Certain Age: My Encounters With Rock Royalty’ – just out in paper…
Brian Epstein & the Beatles - what he did and what he hid [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:47
Philip Norman has written books about the Beatles – and John, Paul and George - and now turns the spotlight on the man who launched them and the extreme personal and professional obstacles in the dramatic path of his sho…
The glorious story of Funk from James Brown to Off The Wall [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:54
Old friend of the podcast Lloyd Bradley wrote Bass Culture, the defining account of reggae, and he’s now turned his attention to funk, from its deepest roots and via the jazz, arts, TV, radio and pop culture that flavour…