How does a kid banging drums in the burning 1970s Bronx, who later played guitar behind punk pioneer Richard Hell, become a blues titan whose battered 1966 Stratocaster gets replicated by a guitar manufacturer? This deep dive traces the life of Theodore Joseph Horowitz, born March 31, 1960, known to the world as Popa Chubby. Starting on drums at 13 and moving to guitar after discovering the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream, he brought a percussive attack to the instrument and a punk ethic to a schedule of more than 200 club dates a year throughout the 1990s.

The episode follows his win in a KLON public radio talent search that landed him an opening slot at the 1992 Long Beach Blues Festival, the founding of his Laughing Bear label in 1994 to release It's Chubby Time and Gas Money, his Sony OKeh contract and 1995 debut Booty and the B ...