The Black Hole of Rock and Roll

An Interview with Underground Garage DJ Bill Kelly

Photo by Jeff Moore on Flickr, Some rights reserved.

Thanks to a recent email chat with Susan SurfTone about her new album Cover Art, I learned about America’s legendary garage DJ, Bill Kelly and his show Blackhole Bandstand on the famous Little Steven’s Underground Garage on SiriusXM, Channel 21 from 5–9 pm EST. I am grateful to both Bill and Susan for letting me be a small part of the conversation.

Listening to Bill Kelly’s Blackhole Bandstand, is a full-sound immersion in rare classics, rebel rock, and irreverent vamps paired with the best iterations rock has to offer. Bill’s long-running show is the antidote to the mediocre sets on the classic rock stations I grew up with, which are now churning out Dave Matthews and Counting Crows for early Millennials and late Gen Xers.

My local Vancouver rock station played segments of Underground Garage a good twenty years ago, and I remember how my head felt like it was instantly expanding. There is something about ‘60s rock — itself a culmination of soul, blues, jazz, and country — that has me coming back. And the free-form viscosity of garage music that emerged in the ‘60s still enlivens rock music today. I can feel its vitality and grit in from The Kinks, 13th Floor Elevators, ? and the Mysterians, to Johnathan Richman, The B-52’s , The Detroit Cobras, The Oh Sees, to — of course The White Stripes — and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

With Bill Kelly’s Blackhole Bandstand, the days of sitting or lying around with some tunes while taking a deep dive are still here. Bill Kelly provides the liner notes. The self-proclaimed Guru of Garage, The Viceroy of Vinyl, The Black Hole of Rock and Roll himself, New Jersey-based Bill Kelly helms a catalogue with roots deeper than any Spotify playlist. His Saturday shows remind us that radio is a living thing. And his music comes alive with the huge community who still actively engage in non-algorithmic musical exploration.

Bill has logged a lot of airtime, and with nearly 21 years now at SiriusXM, he estimates his DJ “career” (his quotations) has spanned 47 years, including work at WFMU, WCHC-AM (1969–70), and approximately an hour each at WAAF-FM and WFDU-FM in the 1970s. He has as many anecdotes as knowledgeable facts about band origins and their labels. Evidence of an artist who strives to hone their craft with loving attention and a commitment to the music community.

To me, this bears the hallmark of having a real and meaningful vocation. Not only did Bill Kelly have an incredible career during some of radio’s halcyon days, he is now a bulwark of radio today, drawing hundreds of thousands of listeners.

Blackhole Bandstand tells me a dynamic, breathing story of rock, and I appreciate more deeply that loving music includes doing the work and understanding the hustle that goes into putting it into the world.

Bill was gracious enough to take the time to reply to my questions about his legacy and his approach, as well as share wee tales about big names in rock. In some of his responses — I suspect — a mischievous twinkle must have been in his eye. Or maybe it was just the patchouli.

Tune in!

JLM: I understand Steven Van Zandt scouted you for Underground Garage. Can you tell us little about that?

BK: Steven was originally introduced to my now-defunct FM show by his ‘Gal Friday’ at his offices, the late Holly Cara Price. After an unspecified period of time, Holly called to have me meet Stevie at a Pub in New York City at his request. He’d been inspired enough by the show to consider expanding his love of music into the wonderful world of radio.

JLM: One of the best things about your show is its spirit of discovery — looking back and looking forward. It’s clear you have a lot of methods of finding gems. What are some recent exciting finds for you?

BK: Most of my best ‘finds’ came decades ago. As an avid collector of 1960s garage band 45s, I began to note names associated with a song and the geographical locations of the band through record labels. Dialing information for phone numbers was the next step. You’d be surprised how many former band members were out there with a small stash of their own 45s that they were thrilled to revisit. I wasn’t greedy, like some collectors. I’d only try to obtain one or two copies, some of which would fetch hundreds of dollars to the more serious fans. I wanted them for the radio.

JLM: Among your fine garage selections, I have a running list of surf tunes from listening to Blackhole Bandstand and your archived shows from WFMU’s Teenage Wasteland. What bands would you recommend to surf music enthusiast to deepen their catalog?

BK: I like to think of the show as displaying all of rock & roll’s many styles from the post-war era. ‘Surf & Drag’ instrumental music, especially now that it’s summertime, has always been a big part of that. The Ventures, Dick Dale, the Chantays, Davie Allan, the Pyramids, etc… are the obvious gimmes. One can also find some absolute gems begging for the surf music enthusiasts to discover. Try the band The Velvetones if you want evidence of surf music on Mars.

JLM: I appreciate your musical stewardship and how you’ll play The Ramones after The Beatles or Taj Mahal & Keb Mo and Concrete Blonde in the same set as The Drifters. It helps the listener connect bands to a diverse but deeply rooted lineage. Your show has a dimension of storytelling in the themes, tracks as well as your own anecdotes. Does a lot of this happen before or during the show or a mix of both?

BK: I don’t really look to program themes or musical arcs into the broadcast when I’m preparing a new show. However, after inserting the most recent rock songs I’ve collected as my first step in the process of show preparation, I absolutely do review what other tracks I’m considering for ironic or whimsical musical pairings and triplets that I can insert. This may happen on a limited scale every 2/3 weeks.

JLM: Your show has great mashups of old film clips leading into the next song that gives the show a great atmosphere. How have you developed segues between songs over the years?

BK: All of the in-set inserts or drop-ins as some call them, are courtesy of the folks at the U.G. who do the grunt work for the show. Currently, that would be the Program Director Dennis Mortensen and Jordan Hallerman. Some are so timely and topical that I find myself laughing out loud at the one part of the show I can’t control to some degree.

JLM: In your interview on Nick Z’s Rock Talk, you mentioned how much your grandma was a patron of your musical appreciation. Are there any music influences from her (or your parents, despite their differing taste) that you still carry with you?

BK: My musical tastes seem to have sprung from nowhere. I was exposed to Broadway soundtracks, Mitch Miller, and Harry Belafonte at an early age. It’s been said that I had a crush on Kate Smith when I was a year or two old. Rock & roll came into my life when my sister and I began watching Dick Clark’s American Bandstand in 1956 or 1957. We initially watched for all the wrong reasons, laughing at the oily, lumpy Philadelphia greasers in the crowd. She became bored after a while. I stayed for the rock & roll.

JLM: Do you have any favourite requests you received?

BK: I tried to never encourage requests. There are too many people in the audience who still want to hear the Starship or Adam & the Ants, no matter what they’re listening to. Blondie and Roky Erickson will have to take a backseat if the requesters have their way.

JLM: What is the most notorious moment working at the station over the years?

BK: A few years before he passed, Sky Saxon from the legendary 60’s garage band, The Seeds, showed up for my live radio show unannounced. He’d been walking in New York City during a stopover and was spied by a fellow free-form radio disc jockey who was familiar with garage band music. The sales pitch must have worked! Humorously, Sky was being chaperoned by another of the former Seeds, Jan Savage, to keep him out of trouble. That didn’t stop him from ‘jonesing’ for pot. Regrettably, nobody was holding. He was also a great guest. Thanks again, Fabio!

And a postscript from Bill…

BK: You didn’t ask me about this, but I still laugh about this today…Grandma bought me my first transistor radio. Of course, it wasn’t the first time I’d ever listened to one. When I turned it on, the first 3 songs that played were “Sea of Love”, “Moody River,” and “Sea of Heartbreak.” Maybe that’s where I first thought about musical pairings.

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Jessica Lee McMillan © 2025