We Can't Work It Out: Famous Feuds & Fallouts in Rock Music
Oct 1, 2026 · 25 min · 8 segments
By 1980, Karen Carpenter was trying to build a life of her own. She had made a solo album without Richard, fallen in love, married, and dreamed of the ordinary future she had wanted for years: a…
Tom Burris was a thirty-nine-year-old divorced real estate developer, and Karen was initially reluctant to go on a blind date because uncertainty simply was not how she liked to organize her life.
She eventually agreed because Carol and her husband, Tony Scotti, would be joining them, and the dinner went so well that Karen and Tom were dating within days and engaged roughly two months later.
When Karen called Olivia Newton-John with the news, she asked whether Olivia was sitting down.
Olivia remembered Karen looking healthier and happier during the courtship than she had in some time.
Karen wanted children desperately, and friends repeatedly described the life she imagined with the same phrase, "The white picket fence." Tom also represented a new boundary between Karen and Richard.
One evening at Martoni's Restaurant, Richard announced that he and Karen had a business meeting, the kind of assumption that had governed her schedule for years.
On August 31st, 1980, more than four hundred guests gathered in the Crystal Ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel, where orchids, gardenias, and violets transformed the room into an elaborate English garden.
Richard played piano, Peter Knight conducted, and Karen walked in wearing an eighteenth-century-inspired gown designed by Bill Belew, the costume designer who had also dressed Elvis Presley.
Peter Knight flew in from Britain to orchestrate it, and Karen's vocal was recorded only days before the ceremony.
She had originally considered singing it live but decided the elaborate arrangement and the pressure of the day made pre-recording more practical.
She had insisted that Phil wear a tuxedo, so he arrived dressed formally and discovered that practically the only other men wearing tuxedos were the waiters.
According to later recollections, Karen learned shortly before the ceremony that Burris had previously undergone a vasectomy despite knowing how deeply she longed for children.
Meanwhile, friends were also beginning to express concerns about Burris' finances.
Karen and Tom went to French Polynesia and, in an oddly Carpenter family move, had initially invited members of the extended family to join them.
The resort had no television or radio, and Karen quickly nicknamed Bora Bora "Boring Boring" before cutting the honeymoon short because she wanted to return to Los Angeles.
Tom Burris was a thirty-nine-year-old divorced real estate developer, and Karen was initially reluctant to go on a blind date because uncertainty simply was not how she liked to organize her life.
She eventually agreed because Carol and her husband, Tony Scotti, would be joining them, and the dinner went so well that Karen and Tom were dating within days and engaged roughly two months later.
When Karen called Olivia Newton-John with the news, she asked whether Olivia was sitting down.
Olivia remembered Karen looking healthier and happier during the courtship than she had in some time.
Karen wanted children desperately, and friends repeatedly described the life she imagined with the same phrase, "The white picket fence." Tom also represented a new boundary between Karen and Richard.
One evening at Martoni's Restaurant, Richard announced that he and Karen had a business meeting, the kind of assumption that had governed her schedule for years.
On August 31st, 1980, more than four hundred guests gathered in the Crystal Ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel, where orchids, gardenias, and violets transformed the room into an elaborate English garden.
Richard played piano, Peter Knight conducted, and Karen walked in wearing an eighteenth-century-inspired gown designed by Bill Belew, the costume designer who had also dressed Elvis Presley.
Peter Knight flew in from Britain to orchestrate it, and Karen's vocal was recorded only days before the ceremony.
She had originally considered singing it live but decided the elaborate arrangement and the pressure of the day made pre-recording more practical.
She had insisted that Phil wear a tuxedo, so he arrived dressed formally and discovered that practically the only other men wearing tuxedos were the waiters.
According to later recollections, Karen learned shortly before the ceremony that Burris had previously undergone a vasectomy despite knowing how deeply she longed for children.
Meanwhile, friends were also beginning to express concerns about Burris' finances.
Karen and Tom went to French Polynesia and, in an oddly Carpenter family move, had initially invited members of the extended family to join them.
The resort had no television or radio, and Karen quickly nicknamed Bora Bora "Boring Boring" before cutting the honeymoon short because she wanted to return to Los Angeles.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.