When Michael Olivas ’68 was 11 years old he told his parents he was going to spend the night at a friend’s house. Instead, he rode his bike to the Albuquerque Civic Auditorium and found himself electrified with the crowd by founding father of rock ‘n’ roll Little Richard.

“It just changed my life,” Olivas said in a May 2021 interview from his home in Santa Fe. Since then he has bopped, grooved and jammed at more than 800 concerts and turned his love of rock ‘n’ roll into a field of scholarship and an integral part of his profession.

“I grew up in rock ‘n’ roll,” he said. “I’d fall asleep with Wolfman Jack broadcasting his strong signal from Mexico. I had a subscription to Rolling Stone. I loved the back story of how they got into music, what touring was like, how they got their inspiration, and the business behind it.”

A nationally recognized authority on higher education law and immigration law, Olivas retired in 2020 as the William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of Houston Law Center and Director of the Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance at UH. His most recent book, “Perchance to Dream: A Legal Political History of the DREAM Act and DACA,” was released by NYU Press in 2020. He spent more than 38 years as a law professor.

But he also goes by “The Rock and Roll Law Professor,” as that spark ignited by Little Richard never died. Spurred on by running the jukebox as a student at IHM Seminary in Santa Fe, logging those 800 concerts, and becoming fascinated with the business of being a musician, entertainment law became his third area of scholarship at UH and on the airwaves.

“The Law of Rock and Roll” is Olivas’s weekly five-minute radio show on Fridays at 10 a.m. MT on 89.1 KANW, one of Albuquerque’s two National Public Radio stations, and syndicated through PRX. He reviews legal developments in music and entertainment law, fascinated with what to do when an entertainer like Aretha Franklin dies without a will, the impact of Bob Dylan selling his catalog of music for hundreds of millions of dollars, whether Eminem rap fantasizing about killing his wife is free speech, what to do with Prince’s 800 unreleased songs, and Taylor Swift’s unprecedented move to re-issue her albums.

“As a lawyer, I find the legal tests interesting; I want to teach it and make it interesting to my students,” Olivas said. “So I get to listen to the music and study the industry. As a law professor, it’s the best of all worlds. And I have students who now make an excellent living doing this.”

Eight years and almost 100 radio shows later, Olivas continues to find topics that engage himself and his listeners. “It has never been uninteresting to me, since that Little Richard concert when the women couldn’t help but get up to dance and the men didn’t get it,” he said. “I turned it into a field of profession — a field of scholarship and engagement.”

Now living in Santa Fe, he writes and consults in education and immigration law and offers continuing education courses in entertainment law. He had his most recent concert experience in February 2020, just before pandemic restrictions hit — Lila Downs at the Lensic in Santa Fe. He plans to be in Houston in October 2021 with tickets in hand for postponed concerts by Jackson Brown and James Taylor — more food for radio thought on contracts, ticket money and the difference between a postponement and a cancellation.

Among a 38-year career as a law professor and rock aficionado, Olivas also found time to support St. Pius X High School. Although he attended IHM Seminary in Santa Fe with plans to become a priest, the seminary closed by his senior year and he returned to Albuquerque to finish at St. Pius X and to the kids with whom he had gone to Our Lady of Fatima School. He did not become a priest, but he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Pontifical College Josephinum, a master’s and Ph.D. from the Ohio State University, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. 

His time at St. Pius X was short but made an impact. “Pius was an important if not keystone kind of event for me,” he said, still remembering things learned from Fr. Samuel Falbo’s chemistry and anatomy classes and the concert he helped bring to campus to fundraise for Model UN. Good at keeping in touch, Olivas helped organize the last four class reunions, and valuing the scholarships offered throughout his own educational experience, he and his wife, Tina Reyes, established endowments at SPX honoring Msgr. Francis Eggert, Fr. Samuel Falbo, Leon Palmisano, and Sandy and Ron Tybor.

These days Olivas says he misses album cover art, but it doesn’t stop him from loading up his iPhone with playlists.  His favorite artists: The Beatles, Van Morrison, Aretha Franklin and Linda Rondstat. On his bucket list: Visits to Stax Records and Abbey Road Studios.

Catch up with Olivas and join his mailing list for “Michael’s Rock and Roll Posse” where he reviews books on rock ‘n’ roll, follows the trade press, and discusses entertainment law at www.lawofrockandroll.com.