The show is a weekly hour-long "rockumentary" interview with music program which looks at the making of many of the greatest albums recorded in rock and roll history, although sometimes it would spotlight the history of rock and roll bands. Redbeard interviews the musicians who created these classic albums.

The show first went on the air nationally the week of June 26 1988, initially broadcast by sixty rock stations including WXRK/New York, KLOS/Los Angeles, WLUP/Chicago, WMMR/Philadelphia, KTXQ/Dallas, WHJY/Providence, WRIF/Detroit, KRQR/San Francisco, WKLS/Atlanta and distributed by The Album Network through 1999,which grew the network to 180 stations. "In the Studio" is now in its 20th year, distributed by Radio K & G of New York City.

Artists and albums featured over the years

• AC/DC - High Voltage (the 30th anniversary episode also spotlighted Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap), Let There Be Rock /Highway to Hell (one episode), Back in Black and Bonfire. Interviews were with Angus Young and Malcolm Young. Back in Black had interviews with the Young brothers and Brian Johnson
• Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet, and New Jersey, featuring interviews with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora.
• Bryan Adams - Cuts Like a Knife, Reckless, So Far So Good (which would be re-aired as Anthology).
• Aerosmith - Aerosmith/Get Your Wings, Toys in the Attic, Rocks, Permanent Vacation, Pump and Get a Grip. Interviews with Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford, Joey Kramer, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler.
• Allman Brothers Band - Allman Brothers Band self titled/Idlewild South (one episode), At Fillmore East and Eat a Peach. Interviews with Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts.
• Asia - Asia. Interviews with Carl Palmer, John Wetton and Geoff Downes.
• Bad Company - Bad Company, Straight Shooter, Desolation Angels and The Original Bad Company Anthology. The first album and Straight Shooter feature interviews with Simon Kirke and Mick Ralphs. Desolation Angels, The Original Bad Company Anthology and subsequent anniversary specials of the first two albums also include interviews with Paul Rodgers.
• The Beatles - The White Album (2-part episode), best of The Beatles. Both feature interviews with Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
• Pat Benatar - Crimes of Passion and Precious Time. Both episodes feature interviews with Benatar and Neil Giraldo.
• The Black Crowes - Shake Your Moneymaker and The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. Includes interviews with Chris Robinson.
• Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath/Paranoid/ Master of Reality/Black Sabbath Vol. 4 (would be re-aired as Symptom of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978). Interviews with Ozzy Osbourne.
• Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet and New Jersey. Both episodes feature interviews with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora.
• Boston - Boston self titled debut, Don't Look Back and Third Stage. These episodes all have interviews with Tom Scholz except for Boston's debut which has Scholz and Brad Delp interviewed.
• David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Let's Dance, The Best of Bowie and David Live/Stage (one episode). All episodes feature interviews with Bowie.
• Jackson Browne - Running On Empty. It includes interviews with Browne.
• Lindsey Buckingham - The Best of Lindsey Buckingham (2-part episode). It includes interviews with Buckingham.
• The Cars - The Cars self titled debut and Candy-O. Both featured interviews with Ric Ocasek while Candy-O also featured interviews with Greg Hawkes.
• Chicago - The Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago II and Chicago V/Chicago VI/Chicago VII (one episode). Features interviews with Robert Lamm.
• Eric Clapton - 24 Nights (2-part episode) and Clapton Chronicles (2-part episode). Features interviews with Clapton.
• Alice Cooper - Love it to Death/Killer (one episode), Billion Dollar Babies. Both episodes feature interviews with Alice Cooper.
• Cream - Disraeli Gears/Wheels of Fire (one episode) and Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6 2005. Both episodes include interviews with Jack Bruce. Royal Albert Hall and 40th Anniversary episode of Disraeli Gears also includes interviews with Eric Clapton.
• Crosby, Stills and Nash - self-titled. Includes interviews with Graham Nash, David Crosby and Stephen Stills.
• Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Déjà Vu. Includes interviews with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Neil Young.
• Deep Purple - Machine Head and Shades: 1968-2000 (2 part episode)). Features interviews with Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and David Coverdale (for Shades only).
• Def Leppard - Pyromania, Hysteria and Yeah!. All episodes feature interviews with Joe Elliott and Rick Savage. Pyromania and Yeah! also features interviews with Phil Collen.
• Dire Straits - Dire Straits' self titled debut, Making Movies/Mark Knopfler's Shangri-La, Love Over Gold/Mark Knopfler's Kill to Get Crimson, Brothers In Arms and Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler. All episodes feature interviews with Mark Knopfler.
• The Doors - The Doors' self titled debut, Strange Days and L.A. Woman. All episodes feature interviews with Ray Manzarek
• Eagles - Eagles self-titled debut and Hotel California. Eagles feature interviews with Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner while Hotel California features interviews with Frey plus Joe Walsh and Don Henley.
• Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Trilogy and Brain Salad Surgery. All feature interviews with Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer.
• Melissa Etheridge - Yes I Am and The Awakening. Features interviews with Etheridge.
• Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac's White Album and Rumours. Features interviews with Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks. Lindsey Buckingham was also interviewed for the 30th anniversaries of the two aforementioned albums.
• Foghat - Fool For the City. Includes interviews with Dave Peverett and Rod Price.
• Foreigner - Foreigner's self-titled debut, Double Vision and Foreigner 4. All include interviews with Mick Jones and Lou Gramm except Double Vision, which only features Jones.
• Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive! and Shine On: A Collection (2-part episode). Interviews with Frampton.
• J. Geils Band - Bloodshot and Freeze Frame. Features interviews with Peter Wolf.
• Genesis - Duke/Abacab(one episode), Genesis' self-titled album a/k/a The Mama Album and We Can't Dance. All three episodes feature interviews with Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford. Tony Banks was also interviewed for Genesis' self-titled album and We Can't Dance.
• David Gilmour - On an Island. Features interviews with Gilmour.
• Grateful Dead - The Arista Years, In the Dark. Features interviews with Bob Weir,Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart.
• Sammy Hagar - Unboxed (later re-aired as The Essential Red Collection). Features interviews with Hagar.
• Heart - Dreamboat Annie and Little Queen/Dog and Butterfly (one episode originally but separate shows for those album's 30th anniversary were produced). Both feature interviews with Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson.
• Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced, Electric Ladyland and Live at Woodstock. Features interviews with Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, bass player Billy Cox, producer/engineer Eddie Kramer and biographer John McDermott.
• Don Henley - Building the Perfect Beast and The End of the Innocence. Both episodes feature interviews with Henley.
• Humble Pie - Performance Rockin' the Fillmore. Features interviews with Peter Frampton and Jerry Shirley.
• Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow. Features interviews with Paul Kantner, Marty Balin and Grace Slick
• Jethro Tull - Benefit, Aqualung and Thick as a Brick. All feature interviews with Ian Anderson.
• Billy Joel - The Stranger, 52nd Street and Glass Houses. Features interviews with Billy Joel.
• Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (2-part episode). Features interviews with Elton John & Bernie Taupin.
• Journey - Infinity (features interviews with Steve Perry, Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon), Escape (interviews with Perry, Schon and Jonathan Cain) ; Time X 3 (2-part episode) and Frontiers (features interviews with Cain, Perry and Schon).
• Kansas - Leftoverture (features interviews with Phil Ehart, Steve Walsh and Kerry Livgren. The 30th Anniversary episode also has interviews with Robby Steinhardt and Rich Williams), Point of Know Return (features interviews with Livgren and Ehart. The 30th Anniversary Episode also includes interviews with Walsh, Steinhardt and Williams). Sail On: The 30th Anniversary Collection (2-part episode) (features interviews with Ehart, Livgren, Walsh, Williams and Steinhardt).
• The Kinks - Sleepwalker/Misfits/Low Budget (one episode), The Best of The Kinks and To the Bone (2-part episode). Features interviews with Ray Davies.
• Kiss - The Very Best of KISS (2-part episode). Features interviews with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.
• Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin IV and UnLedded. All feature interviews with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
• Little Feat - Waiting For Columbus and Join the Band. All feature interviews with Bill Payne and Paul Barrerre.
• Loverboy - Get Lucky. Features interviews with Mike Reno and Paul Dean.
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd, Second Helping, One More From The Road, Street Survivors, Thyrty and The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd (2-part episode). All episodes have interviews with Gary Rossington, Ed King (first two titles and Essential); Allen Collins, Johnny Van Zant, Billy Powell and Leon Wilkeson.
• Paul McCartney - Flowers in the Dirt, Back in the U.S. and "When I'm Sixty-Four" (a tribute in honor of Paul McCartney's 64th birthday). Features interviews with McCartney.
• Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell and "The Very Best of Meat Loaf" (2-part episode). Features interviews with Meat Loaf.
• John Mellencamp - Uh-Huh, The Lonesome Jubilee and Words & Music John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits. Includes interviews with John Mellencamp.
• Metallica - Metallica a/k/a The Black Album. Includes interviews with James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett.
• Steve Miller Band - Fly Like an Eagle, Book of Dreams and Young Hearts - Complete Greatest Hits. All feature interviews with Steve Miller.
• Montrose - Montrose self-titled. Features interviews with Ronnie Montrose and Sammy Hagar.
• The Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed, A Question of Balance, Seventh Sojourn and Time Traveler (2-part episode). All episodes feature interviews with John Lodge, Graeme Edge and Justin Hayward.
• Stevie Nicks - Crystal Visions - The Very Best of Stevie Nicks. Features interviews with Stevie Nicks.
• Ted Nugent - Ted Nugent/Free For All/Cat Scratch Fever (one episode) and Double Live Gonzo]]/Live in Sweden. Features interviews with Nugent.
• Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz/Diary of a Madman (one episode), No More Tears, Prince of Darkness (2-part episode). All feature interviews with Osbourne.
• The Alan Parsons Project - * I Robot and The Best of Alan Parsons. All feature interviews with Parsons.
• Tom Petty - Damn the Torpedoes, Full Moon Fever and Into the Great Wide Open. All feature interviews with Petty.
• Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall (2-part episode), A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Shine On (2-part episode), The Division Bell (2-part episode) and Echoes (A Tribute to Richard Wright 1943-2008). All episodes feature interviews with David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters while Rick Wright also appears on episodes for Wish You Were Here, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, The Division Bell and Echoes (which was aired as a tribute to Wright after Rick Wright's passing in 2008). Waters however was not interviewed for the albums he was not involved with (A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Shine On and The Division Bell). The first episode of Dark Side of the Moon, which aired in 1988 and 1990, just has interviews with Gilmour. The 20th, 25th and 30th anniversary episodes of DSOTM feature interviews with Gilmour plus Waters and Mason. The initially-aired 2-part episodes of The Wall (1989, 1990, 1994 (15th anniversary) and 1999 (20th anniversary) airings only feature interviews with Waters but on the 25th anniversary 2-part airing in 2004, Gilmour and Mason were also interviewed. Wish You Were Here was the only episode in where all four members were interviewed.
• Robert Plant - Now and Zen and Nine Lives. Features interviews with Plant.
• The Police - Outlandos d'Amour/Regatta De Blanc (one episode), Zenyatta Mondatta and Synchronicity. Both episodes have interviews with Stewart Copeland whilst Synchronicity episode featured additional interviews with Sting (musician). On later airings of Zenyatta Mondatta episode, Ghost in the Machine was also spotlighted and Sting was interviewed on the 25th anniversary episode of Zenyatta Mondatta and the Outlandos/Regatta episode. Andy Summers was also interviewed on the Outlandos and Regatta episode.
• The Pretenders - Learning to Crawl and Pirate Radio (2-part episode). Features interviews with Chrissie Hynde.
• Queen - A Night at the Opera, News of the World and The Game. All three episodes feature interviews with Brian May while May is joined by Roger Taylor on A Night at the Opera and The Game episodes.
• Queensrÿche - Empire and Sign of the Times. Features interviews with Geoff Tate and Chris DeGarmo.
• R.E.M. - Document/Green, Out of Time. Features interviews with Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills.
• Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet has interviews with Bill Wyman (later airings also have interviews with Keith Richards). Let it Bleed features interviews with Wyman, Richards and Mick Taylor. Some Girls and Stripped features interviews with Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood and Richards.
• Rush - Moving Pictures, Signals/Grace Under Pressure (one episode), Power Windows/Hold Your Fire (one episode), Permanent Waves/Power Windows (one episode), Counterparts and Grace Under Pressure/Counterparts (one episode). Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are interviewed for Moving Pictures, Power Windows/Hold Your Fire and Permanent Waves/Power Windows episodes. Lifeson is interviewed solo for Counterparts. Neil Peart is interviewed for Signals/Grace Under Pressure episode. Lifeson and Peart appeared on Grace Under Pressure/Counterparts episode (which aired for those two albums' 20th and 10th anniversaries respectively in 2004).
• Bob Seger - Live Bullet, Night Moves, Stranger in Town, Against the Wind, Greatest Hits (2-part episode) and Greatest Hits 2 (2-part episode. All feature interviews with Seger.
• Billy Squier - Don't Say No. Features interviews with Squier.
• Steely Dan - Can't Buy a Thrill and Aja. All episodes feature interviews with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.
• Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story. Features an interview with Stewart.
• Styx - The Grand Illusion, Pieces of Eight and Paradise Theatre. All three episodes feature interviews with Dennis DeYoung and James "J.Y." Young. Tommy Shaw is also interviewed for The Grand Illusion and the 30th Anniversary episode for Pieces of Eight.
• Supertramp - Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America. Both episodes feature interviews with former member Roger Hodgson.
• Talking Heads - Best of Talking Heads (later re-aired as Sand in the Vaseline: Popular Favorites). Features interviews with Jerry Harrison.
• Pete Townshend - Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking (re-aired as Pete Townshend: Gold in December 2006). Includes interviews with Townshend.
• Triumph - Just a Game and Allied Forces (re-aired as The Triumph Remasters in 2004 featuring new interviews with Levine and Moore plus Emmett from original episode). Features interviews with Triumph members Gil Moore and Mike Levine plus former member Rik Emmett.
• Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs. Features interviews with Trower.
• U2 - War, Rattle and Hum, Achtung Baby and The Best of U2: The 1980s. Features interviews with Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton.
• Van Halen - Van Halen features interviews with Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony (the 30th anniversary episode also featured interviews with Eddie van Halen and David Lee Roth. Women and Children First/Fair Warning (one episode) and MCMLXXXIV features interviews with Anthony and Van Halen brothers. 1984 also has interviews with David Lee Roth. 5150 features interviews with Sammy Hagar. OU812 and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge features interviews with Van Halen brothers, Anthony and Hagar. The Best of Both Worlds (2-part episode). All features interviews with the Van Halen brothers and Anthony. Part one also features interviews with David Lee Roth and part two also features interviews with Sammy Hagar
• Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Best of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Includes interviews with Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, Eric Clapton
• Joe Walsh - The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get. Includes interviews with Joe Walsh
• Whitesnake - Whitesnake 1987 and ''Whitesnake: The Definitive Collection". Features interviews with David Coverdale.
• The Who - Tommy (2-part episode), Live at Leeds, Who's Next, Quadrophenia (2-part episode) and Thirty Years of Maximum R&B (2-part episode, later re-aired as Ultimate Collection). All episodes feature interviews with Pete Townshend. John Entwistle also was interviewed for Live at Leeds, Who's Next (25th and 30th anniversary airings) and Maximum R & B episodes and Roger Daltrey appeared on the Maximum R & B episode and 35th anniversary episode of Live at Leeds.
• Gary Wright - The Dreamweaver. Features interviews with Wright.
• Yes - The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge and 90125. All four episodes feature interviews with Jon Anderson. The Yes Album and 90125 also features interviews with Tony Kaye and Chris Squire. Fragile also has interviews with Rick Wakeman. Close to the Edge features Anderson and Wakeman plus Bill Bruford and Steve Howe.
• Neil Young - Harvest. Features interviews with Young.
• ZZ Top - Eliminator and ZZ Top's Greatest Hits. Both episodes feature interviews with Dusty Hill, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard.

External links

• Official website