"It’s all CREEM’s fault, you know." What? Who? Huh? Let us explain: When we get ahold of Cheap Trick vocalist Robin Zander for this exclusive interview you’re holding in your greasy paws (or reading online if you’re a cheapskate who hates America), we mention that most of CREEM’s Cheap Trick interviews back in the day were with guitarist Rick Nielsen, not Zander. “They would never let me talk before," our man explains. “They were afraid that I was gonna spill the beans."

The beans, you say? “Yeah, you know...like maybe you go to a show and come home with somebody you don’t know. That sort of thing."

Make no mistake, dear reader: There was a LOT of that sort of thing going on— allegedly—back in Cheap Trick’s 1970s and early-’80s heyday, when Mommy was alright and Daddy was alright, but they just seemed a little weird. When Cheap Trick blasted off from Budokan, when the dream police lived inside of their heads, and when they—the band, that is—just wanted you to want them.