More than 60 years after his first hits, Gary U.S. Bonds remains one of the true architects of American Rock ‘N’ Roll. His stories are as vibrant as the music itself, making this a fascinating conversation with a genuine living legend.
On the Pete Ganbarg podcast, “Rock & Roll High School, Bonds says one of his first gigs with Springsteen was great but he had no idea who the legendary rocker was at the time.
“I didn’t (know who he was), he got up there and we had a blast,” he said. “About two hours, they wouldn’t leave, I wouldn’t leave, the club owner was happy.”
It would not be the only fateful meeting of the two, he tells Ganberg. As the friendship grew so did the collaborations.
“He said, ‘I want you to join me at some shows,’ in and around NY and NJ,” Bonds recalled Springsteen telling him. “I went and joined him to do a couple of songs at his show. One day he said ‘I gotta thing, I wrote a song that sounds so much like you, would you want to record it?'”
Long before the British Invasion, Gary U.S. Bonds was one of the defining voices of early Rock ‘N’ Roll. Bursting onto the charts with classics like “New Orleans,” “Quarter to Three,” “School Is Out,” and “Dear Lady Twist,” he became one of the biggest hitmakers of the early 1960s, helping bridge the worlds of rhythm & blues and rock with a sound that influenced generations of artists.
In this conversation, Bonds looks back on his remarkable career—from growing up in Norfolk, Va., and breaking through with legendary producer Frank Guida, to navigating the changing music industry, and enjoying an extraordinary second act in the 1980s thanks to his friendship with Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven Van Zandt.
Bruce and Steve produced Gary’s acclaimed albums Dedication and On the Line, wrote songs for him, and helped introduce his music to an entirely new generation of fans.
Ganberg and Bonds also chat about Gary’s friendships with fellow rock & roll pioneers, Bonds’ success as a songwriter for other artists, the stories behind his biggest records, and what it was like to witness—and help create—the birth of rock music from the very beginning.
Ganbarg is a 2X Grammy Award winning record producer, A&R executive and music publisher who has been doing major label A&R for the past 35 years and is currently the president of Pure Tone Music. Most recently President of A&R for Atlantic Records from 2008 – 2024, Pete currently operates two music publishing companies, Songs With A Pure Tone and Margetts Road Music.
– Curated and edited by JOHN DALY