Peter Wolf – HuffPost 8.15.11

Mike Ragogna: From someone with your experience, what is your advice for new artists?

Peter Wolf: Well, it’s very strange because the landscape has changed so much. I beckon back to the days when musicians used to travel around the country, before radio. I imagine what that must have been like when radio came out, where somebody could be playing in a room in Chicago and people all over the U.S. could hear him, where it would have taken that person twelve years to cover half that amount of people without radio. So, there are dramatic changes. One of the advantages that we had in the Geils Band was that there was great radio, radio that did support us, and radio that was free-formed, so DJs could play what they felt liked, and if they came to a show and saw a band on Wednesday night, on Thursday night, they could play it on the radio. So, there were more opportunities. I think today, sometimes it seems like they have to pay to play, and I feel very disheartened by the way a lot of the newer bands are treated. It’s so hard for them to stay together and keep it together because I think a lot of the infrastructure that was there for The Geils Band, The Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, it just doesn’t exist in the same way, which makes it harder.