Jonny's Dead Air Podcast
Jonny’s Dead Air dives deep into the seldom told, the eerie, and the forgotten corners of music history. Hosted by radio veteran Jonny Hartwell, each episode blends storytelling, mystery, and a touch of rock ’n’ roll grit to resurrect stories that deserve another listen. From bands that should’ve been legends to the backstage scandals, strange coincidences, and tragic twists the industry tried to bury, Jonny peels back the layers to reveal the raw, human truths behind the music. It’s part history lesson, part cautionary tale, and all killer—no filler.
Episodes
January 12, 2026 • 12 mins
For nearly a decade, the murder of Mia Zapata haunted Seattle — a crime without a suspect, a voice silenced without answers. In Part Two of The Sign of the Crab, the waiting ends.
As DNA science finally catches up to a frozen piece of evidence, a name emerges from the system — a stranger no one saw coming. This episode follows the match, the interrogation, the manhunt, and the trial that brought justice to the frontwoman of The Gits...
As DNA science finally catches up to a frozen piece of evidence, a name emerges from the system — a stranger no one saw coming. This episode follows the match, the interrogation, the manhunt, and the trial that brought justice to the frontwoman of The Gits...
Mark as Played
January 5, 2026 • 20 mins
In early-’90s Seattle, a band was rising out of the rain-soaked clubs and basement stages — raw, fearless, and powered by a voice that could stop a room cold. That voice belonged to Mia Zapata, frontwoman of The Gits — a group on the brink of breaking through.
Part One of The Sign of the Crab traces Mia’s life, the band’s ascent, and the city that shaped them — before following a single summer night that ends in unimaginable violenc...
Part One of The Sign of the Crab traces Mia’s life, the band’s ascent, and the city that shaped them — before following a single summer night that ends in unimaginable violenc...
Mark as Played
December 29, 2025 • 8 mins
They had everything—momentum, fame, the future—until fate started taking pieces away.
A founding member gone.
A drummer nearly killed.
A bandmate lost to addiction.
Another fighting cancer decades later. This Dead Air mini-episode tells the true story of how this band faced disaster after disaster at the height of their career—and refused to quit.
It’s not a story about hits or hair metal.
It’s about loyalty, survival, and the brutal mom...
A founding member gone.
A drummer nearly killed.
A bandmate lost to addiction.
Another fighting cancer decades later. This Dead Air mini-episode tells the true story of how this band faced disaster after disaster at the height of their career—and refused to quit.
It’s not a story about hits or hair metal.
It’s about loyalty, survival, and the brutal mom...
Mark as Played
December 22, 2025 • 22 mins
“Dancing in the Moonlight” is one of the most joyful, carefree songs ever recorded — a soundtrack to weddings, summer nights, and open windows.
But its origin is anything but light. In this episode of Jonny’s Dead Air, we uncover the true, harrowing story behind the song — born not from celebration, but from survival. A violent night on a Caribbean island. A brutal attack. A love forever changed. And a songwriter who responded not w...
But its origin is anything but light. In this episode of Jonny’s Dead Air, we uncover the true, harrowing story behind the song — born not from celebration, but from survival. A violent night on a Caribbean island. A brutal attack. A love forever changed. And a songwriter who responded not w...
Mark as Played
December 12, 2025 • 19 mins
On a sweltering summer night, a skeptical medium agrees to one final séance for an elderly man who has been searching for answers since 1966.
What begins as routine theater quickly turns unsettling when a name appears on the board—and a voice from the past refuses to stay silent. What follows is the story of a brilliant young rock & roll talent, his meteoric rise in the 1960s, and the strange, disputed circumstances surrounding ...
What begins as routine theater quickly turns unsettling when a name appears on the board—and a voice from the past refuses to stay silent. What follows is the story of a brilliant young rock & roll talent, his meteoric rise in the 1960s, and the strange, disputed circumstances surrounding ...
Mark as Played
December 8, 2025 • 20 mins
This episode examines a real case involving psychological decline and missed warning signs. It is not intended to sensationalize violence or mental illness. If you recognize similar patterns in yourself or someone you care about, professional help is available and can make a life-saving difference.
In the United States, the official, nationwide mental-health crisis hotline is: 988
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In the United States, the official, nationwide mental-health crisis hotline is: 988
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Mark as Played
December 1, 2025 • 18 mins
He reinvented himself for decades… but his final transformation remained a secret. The Last Light of a Dying Star takes listeners inside the shadowed studio where an icon quietly recorded his last album while confronting an illness too devastating to reveal. Through gallows humor, whispered urgency, and a race against the clock, Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast explores how a legendary figure transformed his own death into a final act of c...
Mark as Played
November 20, 2025 • 19 mins
Everyone knows the story of Buddy Holly.
Most remember the legend of Ritchie Valens.
But on a freezing night in 1959, there was a third voice on that doomed flight…
a DJ… a jokester… a Texas-sized talent whose laugh once echoed across America.
This is his story.
Told as a ghostly broadcast from the great beyond, The Final Broadcast is equal parts biography, radio drama, and afterlife confessional.
It’s the forgotten chapter of “The Day t...
Most remember the legend of Ritchie Valens.
But on a freezing night in 1959, there was a third voice on that doomed flight…
a DJ… a jokester… a Texas-sized talent whose laugh once echoed across America.
This is his story.
Told as a ghostly broadcast from the great beyond, The Final Broadcast is equal parts biography, radio drama, and afterlife confessional.
It’s the forgotten chapter of “The Day t...
Mark as Played
November 11, 2025 • 17 mins
He was a genius with a guitar in his hands—raw, fearless, untamed.
His band changed the sound of American rock, blending beauty and power in a way no one had ever heard.
He should have had a lifetime of music ahead of him. But one night, in a haze of laughter and whiskey, brilliance met tragedy. And the silence that followed still echoes decades later.
This is the story of the man some called “better than Hendrix.”
Written by Jonny Har...
His band changed the sound of American rock, blending beauty and power in a way no one had ever heard.
He should have had a lifetime of music ahead of him. But one night, in a haze of laughter and whiskey, brilliance met tragedy. And the silence that followed still echoes decades later.
This is the story of the man some called “better than Hendrix.”
Written by Jonny Har...
Mark as Played
November 5, 2025 • 8 mins
It began as a whisper: Paul is dead.
But the deeper investigators dug, the clearer it became… they’d been listening to the wrong word.
This is the lost BBC report that uncovers the real story — Paul is Fred.
A haunting, hilarious mockumentary full of suspicious accents, unhelpful witnesses, and an unstoppable married couple who somehow saw everything.
The mystery that fooled a generation… and a parody that’ll fool you twice.
(A 100% spo...
But the deeper investigators dug, the clearer it became… they’d been listening to the wrong word.
This is the lost BBC report that uncovers the real story — Paul is Fred.
A haunting, hilarious mockumentary full of suspicious accents, unhelpful witnesses, and an unstoppable married couple who somehow saw everything.
The mystery that fooled a generation… and a parody that’ll fool you twice.
(A 100% spo...
Mark as Played
October 28, 2025 • 24 mins
He was a voice that could move mountains — raw, sacred, and unstoppable.
A preacher’s son with a sound that carried the weight of every hymn and heartbreak in America.
Just as the world began to listen, fate silenced him in a storm over the Midwest.
But one unfinished song would rise from the wreckage to define him forever.
This is the story of a man who gave everything to his music…and left behind a melody the world still hums without...
A preacher’s son with a sound that carried the weight of every hymn and heartbreak in America.
Just as the world began to listen, fate silenced him in a storm over the Midwest.
But one unfinished song would rise from the wreckage to define him forever.
This is the story of a man who gave everything to his music…and left behind a melody the world still hums without...
Mark as Played
October 21, 2025 • 15 mins
He was the lightning that gave KISS its spark — a Bronx kid who turned distortion into escape and space into sound. In this haunting Jonny’s Dead Air tribute, we trace the life, rise, fall, and final flight of Ace Frehley — The Spaceman. From the cracked sidewalks of New York to the blinding lights of the world’s biggest stages, his journey is one of chaos, creativity, and cosmic destiny. When the amps finally went quiet, his music...
Mark as Played
October 21, 2025 • 20 mins
Part II of Jonny’s Dead Air picks up on the Master of Puppets tour, where momentum feels like destiny—and the schedule feels like a sentence. Inside the machine: Cliff Burton—red hair like a warning flare—holding the center while James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett drive Metallica across Europe on diesel, adrenaline, and denial. Load-ins, soundchecks, the soft sermons—earn the heavy, make the pretty cost—and the quiet for...
Mark as Played
October 15, 2025 • 19 mins
Before the fame. Before the chaos. Before the name became legend. This is the story of a young musician whose genius outgrew the world around him — a rebel philosopher with a bass in his hands and lightning in his veins.
From smoky bars and dirt roads to roaring crowds and endless highways, his journey was fueled by raw talent, deep conviction, and a sound that seemed to tear through the earth itself.
But behind every note was a war...
From smoky bars and dirt roads to roaring crowds and endless highways, his journey was fueled by raw talent, deep conviction, and a sound that seemed to tear through the earth itself.
But behind every note was a war...
Mark as Played
October 7, 2025 • 10 mins
Jonny’s Dead Air Mini takes the dark, atmospheric storytelling of Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast and condenses it into powerful, bite-sized stories—shorter episodes that explore the moments where fame fractures, where success spins out, and where legends meet their breaking point.
In this Mini installment, a world-renowned soul icon—once the very heartbeat of a generation—finds himself at the center of chaos. A shotgun. A high-speed chase...
In this Mini installment, a world-renowned soul icon—once the very heartbeat of a generation—finds himself at the center of chaos. A shotgun. A high-speed chase...
Mark as Played
September 23, 2025 • 16 mins
At a lonely crossroads in the Mississippi Delta, a desperate guitarist made a midnight bargain that would change music forever. His fingers learned secrets no mortal should know, his songs carried shadows that couldn’t be silenced, and his fame burned as fast as it rose. But every bargain comes with a price. Betrayal, poison, and whispers of the Devil himself followed his every step. Nearly a century later, his story is legend — a ...
Mark as Played
September 22, 2025 • 22 mins
This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen.
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Mark as Played
September 17, 2025 • 19 mins
This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen.
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Mark as Played
September 16, 2025 • 26 mins
This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen.
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Mark as Played
September 11, 2025 • 19 mins
This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen.
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Mark as Played
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