By DONNA BALANCIA
Rodney Bingenheimer told some stories and spun some discs as the special guest on Hunnypot Live broadcast from The Mint in Los Angeles on Monday night.
Bingenheimer, who has a Sunday show on Little Steven’s Underground Garage on Sirius XM, spent time with Hot Tub Johnny and Jeff Grey and the crew.
“I met Rodney when he came to The Mint to see one of the artists,” said Hunnypot Live host Hot Tub Johnny. “I said ‘We’d like to have you on the show, and that’s how we got him.”
With his colorful stories, Bingenheimer is a legend, having driven around David Bowie, hung out with Elvis and Sinatra and hosted Iggy Pop at his legendary English Disco in LA.
Bingenheimer came to Hollywood at 16, did some acting, in particular as the double for Davey Jones in a Monkees episode but came to music fame iwth his column in Go magazine and then the record companies with radio promotion.
At KROQ, where Bingenheimer was the hottest DJ since 1976, he did everything from hosting incoming calls to picking the hottest young artists and new music.
There’s even a documentary on Bingenheimer, called “Mayor of The Sunset Strip,” by the late George Hickenlooper.
Bingenheimer opened the Hunnypot Live show with tunes by Gyasi and The Velvet Starlings and said Gyasi was one of the youngsters influenced by Bowie. He also played The Dollyrots and Clem Burke’s band, The Tearaways.
The success of the English Disco led him to his KROQ career. It was a place where the upcoming bands of the day would DJ and some would perform.
Bingenheimer recalled when Elvis introduced him to Frank Sinatra.
“We went to Las Vegas, I took Screaming Lord Such to Las Vegas to see Elvis Presley at the International Hotel,” he said. “There was a party afterwards, and Nancy Sinatra was there, she opened the show with Elvis and she was at the party upstars at the international. And Elvis said ‘I want you to meet Frank Sinatra.'”
Another time, he recalled, he went to Orange County with Queen to see The Runaways in Fullerton High School.
“We arrive at the High School, Roger Taylor, Brian May and myself,” he recalled. “We get out of my old Cadillac, walk up to the school grounds. The principal stops us said ‘You can’t come on the school property,’ I said ‘I’m with Queen,’ the principal said ‘I don’t care if you’re with the king, you can’t come on property.'”
As far as studio guests, The Specials could have used a lesson in talking on the radio instead of nodding their heads, and Duran Duran brought the people.
“We had a whole parking lot full of girls,” he said.
He said the best show he ever saw was Bowie as Ziggy Stardust at The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
He said he’s still a fan of The Beatles and The Beach Boys, he discovered Van Halen and Cold Play and he loves the new alternative and punk bands, but, Bingenheimer says, “I’ll play The Ronettes, Leslie Gore and Nancy Sinatra.”