in the Spotlight
RAP, PINK FLOYD AND ME
I am honored to be included in Paul’s new book, Gliders Over Hollywood. Rap and I go back some thirty five years at Columbia Records. Some of the crazy adventures we’ve shared together include working for long periods of time with Pink Floyd, among several other major recording acts. I remember someone bursting into my office saying, “Hop on a plane tomorrow. We have to get you to Texas ASAP. We just purchased this retired Good Year Blimp and turned it into the Pink Floyd Airship, and need you to get arial shots for promotion and PR before the Division Bell tour starts soon.”
After a week of shooting air to air, it was on to the next arial acrobat the 1994 Division Bell tour and the rest is history.
Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay, And The Art Of Rock Promotion - Paperback – April 15, 2025
Gliders Over Hollywood tells the exhilarating true story of a blue-collar kid nicknamed ‘Rap’ who grew up in thrall to rock’n’roll, then found himself right in the middle of many of his heroes’ lives as he became the most renowned rock promotion man in the USA.
Paul Rappaport enjoyed a storied thirty-three-year career at Columbia Records, where he was instrumental in the careers of everyone from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd to The Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello to Billy Joel, Judas Priest to Alice In Chains, and many, many more.
This dynamic, entertaining memoir captures the magic of these times and the people who made it happen, revealing the never-before-heard secrets of the promotion and marketing that turned the music industry on its head. From creating the Pink Floyd airship to sword-fighting with Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and receiving a guitar lesson from Keith Richards, it’s a book packed full of extraordinary adventures with some of the biggest names in rock.
Portrait Photograph: Mark Seligar
Joey Wit
If Joey Wit had only been a short-lived professional baseball player, that would have been enough of a legacy to satisfy his adventurous spirit. But after three years and multiple concussions, when his career ended abruptly, he was blessed with the hard-earned realization that he never felt as alive or awake in athletics as he did writing and performing music. As a boy who grew up listening to classic rock in the likes of the Beatles and Stones, while drowning in guitar catalogs before and between little league games, his homecoming back to music was both a dream and the hardest thing he's ever done, yet where he's supposed to be.
Now, Wit is a tattooed indie rock singer with a sound influenced by contemporary alternative artists such as Wilco and Radiohead, along with the vintage progressive touch of bands like Yes and Pink Floyd, with an aspect of personal storytelling immersed in vulnerability. Featuring the single, "Reconsider," his debut record, "Eastern Standard" accumulated extensive radio play on the indie rock circuit. Wit and his band, The Definition, "stop and start their songs using the telepathy of familiar bandmates, infusing the material with dynamics that let the music go from a roar to a whisper of fingerpicking from one beat to the next," wrote The New Haven Independent. His songs lyrically describe deeply human journeys: Searching for someone to fall in love with; dreading the unknown; getting another, unexpected chance to run at a dream; making instant and profound connections at the wrong time; romanticizing past relationships. They portray, in equal measure, feelings of brokenness and of the glimmers of hope when piecing oneself back together. But they also pan back out to reflect a deeper belief, that the telling of these stories matter more than the stories themselves. That's what gets us through. Wit's sophomore LP, "Rose Gold", is scheduled for a Spring 2024 release, featuring the first single"Leave It to Me," which came in at #29 on the Radio Indie Alliance Charts, with contributions from Matt Starr (drums-Ace Frehley/Mr.Big) and 2015 Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Ricky Byrd (Joan Jett & The Blackhearts) on lead guitar. With a full slate of live performances in 2024, Wit will be hitting the road in support of Joel Hoekstra (Trans-Siberian Orchestra/Whitesnake) and Brandon Gibbs (Devil City Angels/Poison) on their 2024 Ireland/UK Tour; as well as performing with his band (The Definition) throughout the US and Europe.