Pete Byrne is one of the good guys from the '80s music scene. And because the universe has a sick sense of humor at times, bad things tend to happen to good people.

As the co-founder of Naked Eyes, Pete had a rough go of it during our golden decade. Despite the success of songs like "Always Something There To Remind Me" and "Promises, Promises," the band's record company didn't want them to tour.

"I think it hurt us a great deal," Pete told me this week. "I've been back on the road for three years. Everybody knows my songs, but there are still a lot of people who don't know the name. The marketing of Naked Eyes wasn't the best."

Alas, years stuck in the studio eventually drove Pete and his parter Rob Fisher apart in the late '80s. When they finally got back together in the late '90s to start work on a new Naked Eyes album, tragedy struck. Rob died during stomach surgery. It'd be another 5 or 6 years before Pete would try again.

But his persistence has paid off, and Naked Eyes is winning fans over again with Pete's passion for music, a long-overdue slew of live appearances across the U.S. and a new album coming in 2009. Naked Eyes is the opening act of the Regeneration Tour, stopping in Clearwater on Aug. 30 at Ruth Eckerd Hall.

He's also the special guest on this week's Stuck in the 80s podcast, which features a ticket giveaway for the Clearwater show. The podcast features a few Naked Eyes songs you may have never heard before -- elegant tunes such as "Emotion in Motion" and "Voices in my Head." I know you'll get a kick out of those, as well as Pete's story about hanging out with Paul McCartney the night he recorded the vocals for "Alway Something There To Remind Me."

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