ABOUT RAY SHASHO

 

Music journalist and talk show host Ray Shasho was dubbed ‘Rock Raymond’ by friends and family for his love of rock music. Since a kid growing up in Baltimore, Maryland he became obsessed with music. In high school, he attended hundreds of rock concerts and even took a job at the famed Capital Centre arena to meet his favorite rock stars before and after their shows. After graduating from a CBS owned broadcasting school in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Ray became a Top 40 radio deejay in the late 70’s and early 80’s and his life became the music. Unfortunately radio stations trusted computers (Arbitron ratings) over human instincts. It was the early radio jocks who discovered great music and put it out over the airwaves. Radio became mundane when they began mimicking each other based on the Arbitrons.

After his stint in radio, Shasho became an entrepreneur in electronics. Ray and his family owned and operated cutting-edge retail electronic businesses in Washington, D.C.  Shasho witnessed all the technological advancements firsthand and how it affected the music industry. From early transistor radios, record players, reel to reel tape recorders, cassette and eight track tape players, walkman's, CD players to MP3’s. Some of Ray’s clients included … Chuck Norris, James Mason, Ted Williams, Alex Haley, Art Buchwald, Dick Gregory, Dionne Warwick, John Candy, Jon Voight and General Colin Powell.

On December 22nd, 2010 after publishing his first novel entitled Check the Gs, an awe-inspiring personal memoir about growing up in the family business; Ray Shasho joined Examiner.Com as a classic rock music journalist in St. Petersburg, Florida. Examiner is a division of the Clarity Media Group, owned by AEG one of the largest sports and entertainment companies in the world … AEG Live promoted The Rolling Stones ‘50 & Counting’ tour.  It started out as a fun gig to help promote his book but something very extraordinary transformed. Shasho began covering concerts and music events around the Tampa Bay area and decided to take a crack at interviewing some of the rock music legends that he idolized all of his life. 

Ray’s very first “rock star” interview was Joe Lala who lived in Tampa, Florida. He contacted Joe by way of the internet and scheduled an interview at Joe’s home. Ray was surprised how cordial and amendable Joe was to tell the story about his rock and roll past. Ray and Joe spent hours together reliving his days of playing percussion with Blues Image, Stephen Stills and Manassas, The Bee Gees and Firefall. Joe disclosed stories about jamming with Jimi Hendrix and throwing Mick Jagger out of his hotel room in New York City. After the interview, Joe asked Ray to be his personal assistant and later to help write his own personal memoir.  Shasho was so overwhelmed with the ease of the interview that he immediately began his search for the next one.

Ray quickly became one of the top music journalists in the country. His column is read by thousands of music enthusiasts daily and Shasho’s in-depth interviews, album and concert reviews are featured on artist websites around the globe.

Shasho recently published the first of his book series entitled ...

'THE ROCK STAR CHRONICLES' featuring over 45 recent conversations with the greatest music legends of our time. -Available now at bookbaby.com and amazon.com.