Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits Was My Gateway Drug to Classic Rock [VIDEO]

I am able to support my family because I know what songs to play.

I don't play them on an instrument. I play the recordings. I'm a disc jockey. I'm paid to know what's entertaining and to bring it to people on the radio, live and through the internet. It is a crazy awesome job and existence even if small/medium market salaries often need supplements. Nevermind it, I'm a DJ for a living and I'm making it happen.

One of the big reasons I am making it happen is because of the Steve Miller Band.

You see, when I was about 12 years old, I was all about Run D.M.C and the Beastie Boys. I still have a lot of love for those groups, but I don't like them as much as the rock bands I've come to love and spend most of my time with today.

It's very clear when I made the turn from listening to mostly rap to listening to a lot of classic rock and roll—when my sister came back from her freshman year of college.

She was cool kid before she left. When she came back, she was a cool young adult. Very cool.

She had skills, she had swagger, and she also had some music that had never before been brought into the Wozniak household. Good old rock and roll music. Before that, my sisters and I listened to B94 a pop CHR (Contemporary Hit Rock) dominator in Pittsburgh in the 80's. My dad brought us a lot of Wille. My mom loved Barbara Streisand.

Plus, we constantly watched MTV.

MTV played some, but not a lot, of old rock and roll songs. The Stones were on with Start Me Up, Beast of Burden and maybe one or two others. They played Abracadabra by Steve Miller, and Fly Like an Eagle. Magic Bus made a cameo every now and then. Sabbath showed up every now and again and scared us a little bit. But since I was all about cool rappers, and second to that the hot pop songs, I liked the classic rock songs, but really didn't give them much thought.

Then Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits played and my musical world was turned on its head.

The track list segued perfectly from one hit song to another. The best song on the record at first listen wasn't the ones I knew. And I wondered, why do some people call him Maurice?

Steve Miller Band's Greatest hits was my gateway drug to rock and roll. It taught me that deep tracks are often the real gems, and that the basics were the basis of all the music that had ever sounded good to me.

It isn't that Steve Miller became my favorite band, because he didn't. That album, though, it piqued my curiosity and made me flip to Magic 97, our classic rocker, and later to WDVE, Pittsburgh's biggest powerhouse station and the place where I would have my start in radio.

Great get, Bohemian Nights!