“Think back to the last time you heard a song that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up, made you want to dance or go out and kick somebody’s ass. That's what I'm talking about."

- Richie Finestra, VINYL

Boom! HBO’s new ten-episode drama series, VINYL, hits the airwaves on Sunday February 14, 2016 at 9pm ET/PT with a stunning two-hour episode. This fabulous, fast-paced series has some pretty impressive credentials with Creators/Executive Producers Mick Jagger, Martin Scorsese, Terence Winter and Rich Cohen on the play list. Plus, the series stars Bobby Cannavale, Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano, Juno Temple, James Jagger, Ato Essandoh, Max Casella, P.J. Byrne, J.C. MacKenzie, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Jack Quaid Paul Ben-Victor and Andrew Dice Clay.

Mackenzie Meehan, Emily Tremaine, Jack Quaid, Juno Temple, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, J.C. Mackenzie,
Max Casella, Griffin Newman, P.J. Byrne. Photo: HBO

VINYL centers on cocaine-fueled Richie Finestra (Cannavale), the founder and president of American Century Records, who is trying to save his company and soul without destroying everyone in his path. With his passion for music and discovering talent gone by the wayside – and American Century on the precipice of being sold – he has a life-altering event that reignites his love of music, but severely damages his personal life. His partner and head of promotions at American Century is Zak Yankovich (Romano) whose experience in the industry and hundred-dollar handshakes make him an invaluable part of the company, though he works in Richie’s shadow. Their professional relationship is strained by disagreements over how to guide the company through the music landscape of 1973.

Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale. Photo: Macall B. Polay/HBO

This series is a fine-tuned, gritty look at the music business that was originally developed as a film, said Mick Jagger at the Television Critics Association (TCA) Winter 2016 press tour. "This genesis of this really was that I had an idea years ago that I took to Marty and asked him what he thought, and we tried to develop it as a movie. And we developed it and developed it. We wrote scripts. And it was a very sprawling idea. And when TV series came online and started to become interesting, respectable, money-making, we decided to make a TV series of it.” Jagger’s involvement also adds an inside knowledge to the authenticity of scripts, as he was very immersed in the Stones business affairs.

“We got really screwed in the '60s, so I had to become involved as the '60s went on and it became the '70s.  I got really involved in record companies and how they worked and who was good, who was bad, who paid who, who screwed who, who ended up with the money.”

He also shared with us that the first concert he attended when he was 15 was Buddy Holly in South London and the next was John Lee Hooker. The first record he ever bought was "A Teenager in Love" by Frankie Lymon.

Interwoven with the fictional characters are portrayals of many real-life music legends that showrunner Terence Winter, also at the TCA Press tour along with the cast, said were contacted before shooting began.  Winter revealed “We certainly wouldn't depict anyone in the business without first reaching out and letting them know what we were doing. In many cases, people would be curious about what the scene would be. We let them read script pages and comment. By and large, people were very flattered to be included on the show. Of course, we want to get the depictions of these people right.”

TCA Jan. 7, 2016. Terence WInter, Bobby Cannavale, Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano. Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic. Courtesy of: HBO.

Director Martin Scorsese, who directed the pilot episode, said about his involvement with the show “I continue working with the music because this goes back to when I first started using recorded music in MEAN STREETS in 1973. So this is something that's very natural to me, and it's very close to my heart. So I intend to continue to be very involved in as much of the episodes as possible and I hope that I can work out the time to direct a few more episodes.”

In the pilot episode there’s an intense, bloody “unavoidable accident” that informs Richie’s storyline going forward.

“That’s one of the scenes that we rehearsed a lot,” said Cannavale, “I think the circumstances for Richie and the entire two hours are that he's hanging onto the edge of a cliff with one hand, and he's not going to fall; he's going to do whatever he's got to do. And at that point in the story, he doesn't go over there with the intention of doing what he does. He goes over there with the intention of trying to get what he needs out of the Buck Rogers character so that it just felt like the natural thing to happen next in that storyline” The scene is pure Scorsese and the explosive Andrew Dice Clay as Buck Rogers is not to be missed.

Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay. photo: Niko Tavernise/HBO

Richie Finestra’s wife, Devon (Wilde), is a former actress and model who was part of Andy Warhol’s Factory scene in 1960s New York City, but is now a suburban mother of two. Richie’s personal and professional crises put additional stress on their relationship, inspiring a desire for her to return to her Bohemian roots.

Olivia Wilde. photo: HBO

When asked about her character Olivia Wilde said  “she was like many women at that time, finding herself, having settled down, done the right thing. She's sober. She has a family, but she may have left her identity behind. She's searching for that. And so this is now her journey to rediscover herself, but it's very difficult to extricate herself from the situation she's in because she's madly in love with Richie, and they have this very intense relationship. We really worked hard to make her multidimensional and to make this relationship very unique, and very authentic.”

The cast also includes Mick Jagger’s son, James, who convincingly plays Kip Stevens, the lead singer of Nasty Bits (think Sex Pistols), an unknown punk band that Richie sees as the savior of the music business.  Oh yes, and he moves like Jagger.

James Jagger, Juno Temple. photo: HBO

VINYL hits all the right notes. It’s pure sex, drugs and rock and roll with more F-bombs then DEADWOOD. Come Emmy time, VINYL is defiantly going to get some satisfaction.