Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman to fill Tom Barnard’s position on KQRS Morning Show

Former Black Crowes drummer and syndicated radio DJ Steve Gorman is the new host of the KQRS Morning Show. He’s stepping into the role filled by Tom Barnard, who spent 36 years at the station before leaving in December.

Gorman, 57, will join co-hosts Brian Zepp, Tony Lee and Candice Wheeler starting Wednesday on the show, which airs from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays.

“I understand what KQ is and has been,” Gorman said in an interview Friday, his final day living in Nashville before moving to Minneapolis. “I’ve been aware of it since the first time I came to Minneapolis on the Black Crowes tour in 1990. I love the city and it’s a great station. I was thrilled to get the call, it’s as close to a no brainer as I’ve ever had.”

A Michigan native who grew up in Maryland and Kentucky, Gorman always loved music, but assumed he couldn’t make a living performing. He was in the middle of his fourth year studying broadcasting at Western Kentucky University when he decided to give music a shot.

Gorman joined what would become the Black Crowes in 1989. The following year, the band’s debut album “Shake Your Money Maker” went multi-platinum and they went on to score a series of hits including “Hard to Handle,” “She Talks to Angels,” “Remedy,” “Seeing Things,” “Sting Me” and “Thorn in My Pride.”

During the first Black Crowes tour in 1990, Gorman fell hard for two cities – Toronto and Minneapolis. “It’s hard to describe, without sounding trite,” he said. “But of all the cities we played, those were the two places I felt connected to. And I have a lot of friends in Minneapolis, and the love people have for the area is something I’ve been hearing about for 30 years.”

Gorman played drums for the Black Crowes through 2015, and also performed with numerous other acts, including his band Trigger Hippy, which features St. Paul natives Nick Govrik and Amber Woodhouse. But as sports talk radio began taking off in the late ’90s, Gorman decided to give that a shot as well.

“I got this feeling that there’s something there for me,” he said. “The original conceit was musicians talking about sports, which made sense in Nashville.”

Steve Gorman Sports! debuted on Nashville radio in 2011, and went national on Fox Sports Radio in 2014. That gig ended in 2018, but the following year Gorman began hosting the syndicated Steve Gorman Rocks! radio show, which airs locally from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. weeknights on KQRS. Gorman plans to continue hosting the syndicated show in addition to his new Morning Show role.

“When looking for someone to drive the KQ Morning Show, we needed a big personality with quick wits, brilliant storytelling, strong work ethic, will to win and most importantly, someone who wants to be a part of our community. We found all those things in Steve Gorman,” said KQRS program director James Kurdziel in a news release.

Gorman is filling some big shoes left by the 71-year-old Barnard, who has said it wasn’t his decision to leave the station and has continued to host a podcast with his family. A divisive personality who has been accused of racism and misogyny, Barnard nevertheless was a popular draw and dominated the ratings for decades, even fending off an attempt by Howard Stern to break the market in the late ’90s. (The news release announcing Gorman’s hire did not mention Barnard.)

In 2010, a mutual friend introduced Gorman to Barnard. Gorman said they are friendly acquaintances, although they haven’t spoken recently. “I have a great deal of respect for him,” Gorman said. “I think the only way to do this is to bring what it is I do. Some people would see it as daunting. I see it as a great challenge.”