New album release day driving deaths tracked in a Harvard study are linked to the ten biggest album drops between 2017 and 2022. Traffic fatalities rose nearly 15 percent on those days. The culprit was not weather. Not alcohol. Unlocking the phone. Scrolling the tracklist. Finding the song. A researcher drove into oncoming traffic reading a text about a new release and started counting. The answer was 182 additional deaths.

What does it feel like to be the sitting Prime Minister of Japan, standing in front of the drummer from Deep Purple, and saying out loud that he is your god? She listened to Machine Head in elementary school. She played in a Deep Purple cover band in junior high. She told the band’s drummer we are friends. When she fights with her husband now she plays drums on Burn and puts a curse on him. She is also running a country.

InXS is still not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The conversation about that is happening right here.

Topics: new album release driving deaths, Rock Hall of Fame 2025, Deep Purple Japan Prime Minister, distracted driving music, live performance

GUEST: Richard Crouse | http://richardcrouse.ca

Originally aired on2026-04-16