Paul McCartney has been declared a billionaire by Forbes, which estimates the former Beatle's fortune at $1.4 billion, making him the world's third-wealthiest musician.

Only Jay-Z, whose wealth is estimated at $2.8 billion, and Taylor Swift, at around $2 billion, rank higher. According to Forbes, approximately $350 million of McCartney's fortune comes from his time with the Beatles. But it's what he did beyond the band that helped turn him into a billionaire.

The magazine notes that, six decades after singing that he “don't care too much for money,” McCartney has “sung, sued, countersued, toured and toiled his way to a $1.4 billion fortune.”

During the height of Beatlemania in the mid-'60s, however, the Fab Four saw surprisingly little of the money their success generated. Their record deal reportedly earned McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr less than a penny for every record sold. McCartney described the arrangement to Forbes in 2017 as “basically a slave contract.”

As the Beatles approached their end in 1969, McCartney began taking steps to ensure his future earnings would be on different terms. He established MPL Communications, a music publishing company that would protect his interests as a solo artist, while steadily expanding its catalog.

Among his acquisitions were the publishing rights to songs by Beatles inspiration Buddy Holly, along with Broadway scores and Christmas standards. The strategy has proved enormously lucrative, generating royalties whenever those songs are played or performed. As Forbes puts it, “Anytime 'Blue Suede Shoes' is streamed or a high school theater group performs Grease, McCartney gets paid.”

The magazine estimates MPL is now worth at least $250 million. Meanwhile, McCartney's solo career has produced 20 albums, and he has also worked to reclaim rights to the Beatles' back catalog. The band's company, Apple Corps, now generates around $50 million annually through streaming, vinyl sales and merchandise.

Of course, McCartney's considerable wealth is hardly a secret. His fame has long made his financial success a subject of public fascination, and in 1986 he was asked a particularly direct question: “Do you feel guilty about having so much money?”

His answer reflected his working-class upbringing in Liverpool, where he grew up in a council house watching his parents struggle to make ends meet.

“No,” he replied, before elaborating on why he didn't feel the need to apologize for his fortune.

“That was one of the things I thought, ‘God, this is going to be awkward because if I get money, I'm going to turn out like all those people who sort of [say] 'I'm sorry, I did well.' But I think, ‘Sod it,’ you know?

“I'd feel guilty if I had a fleet of Cadillacs and used a lot of petrol all the time,” he continued. “But I don't do that. I try to do good stuff with my money, I try to help a lot of things. I don't shout about it, so I'm not known as a great charity person. But I believe you shouldn't shout about it, [otherwise] I think it's more like a publicity stunt: ‘I've just given to save the children!’”

Although McCartney has generally preferred to keep his philanthropy out of the spotlight, he has supported a number of causes publicly. A vegetarian since 1975, he has long championed animal rights and regularly donated to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). His late wife, Linda McCartney, also helped establish a successful plant-based food business.

He has additionally performed at numerous benefit events, including Live 8 in 2005 and One World: Together at Home during the COVID-19 pandemic. But he has never been particularly interested in publicizing his charitable contributions.

“I don't feel uncomfortable with it,” he added. “I think if I didn't have it, someone else would have it. And at least I feel like, to some degree, it's in good hands because I know what I do, and I'm into conservation. I'm into peace. I'm certainly not into any power trips.”

McCartney has plenty of musical activity on the horizon, too. He is set to reunite with Ringo Starr and Joe Walsh at VetsAid 2027. The two surviving Beatles have also announced a major new Beatles experience in their hometown of Liverpool.

The night Steve Vai left David Lee Roth's band, Eddie Van Halen called him out of the blue.

“I didn't even know how he knew,” Vai recalls. “He said, ‘You have to come over to my house,’ and we kind of struck up a friendship that was very heavy for, like, four months where we were virtually talking every day. It was weird.”

The timing was remarkable. Vai had spent the previous few years occupying the guitar spot in Roth's solo band — a role that inevitably invited comparisons with the man he'd replaced. But rather than becoming rivals, Vai and Eddie would develop a close friendship that lasted decades.

It's well documented that, after leaving Van Halen, Roth turned to Vai to launch his solo career — and, perhaps more importantly, make a play for Eddie's guitar-hero throne. Vai, however, has consistently maintained that he approached the job with respect, not competition.

Speaking with wrestler-turned-podcaster Chris Jericho alongside Joe Satriani — with whom Vai has just released the debut SatchVai album, The Sea of Emotion — Vai looked back on how he approached the high-profile assignment.

“I sharpened my knives,” he jokes when asked about joining Roth. “When Edward hit the scene and that first record came out, I remember thinking, ‘game on.’ He raised the bar for all of us.”

Still, Vai says he was nervous about joining Roth's band for only about a minute before embracing what was a hugely intimidating job. The partnership proved successful, even if Vai has since acknowledged that he was relatively inexperienced at the time.

Their debut, Eat 'Em and Smile, turned 40 this year and went platinum, as did its 1988 follow-up, Skyscraper. But that marked the end of Vai's time with Roth — and the beginning of an unexpected friendship.

How Eddie knew Vai had left Roth's band remains a mystery. Maybe it was coincidence, but the timing was extraordinary: On the very day Vai's tenure with Roth ended, his supposed rival reached out to welcome him into his world. Whatever tension might have existed between them gave way to a remarkably close friendship.

That friendship also gave Vai a rare opportunity to hear guitar riffs and solos that have yet to see the light of day — although Alex Van Halen and Steve Lukather are working to change that.

“During that period, I’d go up to his house and he would play me this amazing stuff because Edward was like an audio pack rat,” Vai continues. “He was showing me the studio that was being built at the time and he would just go in there and he'd record by himself all you know tons and tons of stuff. I just thought, ‘Make a solo record,’ but [he’d say], ‘No, I’m Van Halen.’”

Satriani, whom Roth touted in the 1990s, has since taken on an Eddie Van Halen-adjacent role in Sammy Hagar's Best of All Worlds band. Hagar has been full of praise for the way Satriani has approached the job. But Vai isn't convinced anyone can truly replicate his late friend's magic.

“I've heard so many people play his songs, play his parts, some people more authentically than others, some people more personally like themselves, and some people it's just an abysmal disaster,” he laughs. “But I’m yet to hear anybody, especially myself, have that DNA in their fingers.”

It's a big part of why Vai has refused to reproduce Eddie's solos note for note.

Meanwhile, after reports emerged that a second Crossroads film was in the works, with Vai potentially reprising his infamous shredding role, the guitarist has since shut down the rumors, explaining how a misunderstanding sparked the story.

Mike Campbell has found ways to keep Tom Petty close, even as he continues to come to terms with the loss of his longtime bandmate and musical partner.

Nearly nine years after Petty's death, the Heartbreakers guitarist says the grief remains very much a part of his life.

“It was like losing your right arm. Very hard — and a surprise — and I’m still grieving,” Campbell tells The Sun in a new interview.

Petty died aged 66 on October 2, 2017, less than a week after he and the Heartbreakers played their final concert together at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. His death was subsequently attributed to an accidental overdose involving several prescription medications, including painkillers he had been taking for a hip injury.

Campbell's connection with Petty stretched back nearly half a century. The two first crossed paths in 1970, when Campbell auditioned for Mudcrutch, the Florida band that preceded the formation of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The guitarist knew almost immediately that Petty was someone special.

“Tom was instantly unforgettable,” Campbell tells The Sun. “Of course, he had the long blond hair but he also had a swagger.

“He had this vibe around him of knowing where he was going — and he was smarter than anybody else in the room.

“The whole rock star thing came later. Tom lived at home [with his parents Earl and Kitty] and was a hippie dude like me.”

Their partnership would eventually produce some of rock's most enduring songs, among them “American Girl,” “Refugee,” “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “I Won’t Back Down.” But Campbell says the bond between them went well beyond what they accomplished in the studio or onstage.

“Tom and I were close, not necessarily to hang out all the time, but our musical and spiritual connection was about as strong as anybody can have,” he says.

That connection is something Campbell still feels when he takes Heartbreakers songs on the road with his current group, the Dirty Knobs. The set includes material he co-wrote with Petty, including “Runnin’ Down a Dream” and “You Got Lucky.”

For Campbell, revisiting the songs is a way to maintain a connection with his old friend.

“I like to perform Heartbreakers songs to keep them alive, to remember and revisit my time with Tom,” he says. “It is bittersweet but there are moments when I feel his spirit. He’s right behind me, saying, ‘Go man, go!’

“You might never get over the loss of your brother or your father or your mother or your best friend but you learn to cope. That’s what grief is.”

Campbell's latest comments arrive alongside the release of Origins 1971-1978, a box set issued November 6 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It revisits the group's early years, before their commercial breakthrough with 1979's Damn the Torpedoes.

The surviving Heartbreakers also recently had an opportunity to revisit that legacy together. In September, Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Stan Lynch and bassist Ron Blair reunited for the first time since Petty's death, performing at the Americana Music Awards at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Country star Chris Stapleton joined them for the special appearance, as they worked through a selection of the band's best-loved songs.

As Mike Love’s health remains a concern, the Beach Boys have cancelled what was supposed to be their final show of 2026, adding to a growing list of scrapped dates and further clouding the band’s touring future.

The group had planned an extensive summer tour this year, but most of those dates were eventually cancelled because of an unspecified health issue affecting Love, the only original member still performing with the Beach Boys.

Two upcoming Florida shows, scheduled for November 11 and 12, have quietly been replaced by performances from John Stamos and the California Sound. The group features core members of the Beach Boys’ touring lineup, but it can't use the Beach Boys name, whose exclusive legal trademark is held by Love.

Now, the band has also pulled the plug on its November 13 show at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Bristol, Virginia. That leaves just one date on the Beach Boys’ itinerary: a May 8, 2027, performance in Alberta, Canada. That show was itself previously cancelled before being rescheduled.

Whether it will actually happen is another question. Two performances in Cincinnati and Nashville last month were widely framed as potentially Love’s final appearances with the Beach Boys. Stamos, who has a long history with the group, made no secret of the emotions surrounding the Nashville show.

“Tonight, at the Ryman, sharing the stage with Mike, I want to be completely present,” he wrote in a social media statement. “Hear every harmony, familiar joke and cheer… I want to cherish every second without feeling those seconds slipping away. That’s what I’m giving him.”

Love, for his part, told The New York Times in an email that he was concentrating on recovering from his health issues. But he also made clear how much performing still means to him, saying that “being onstage this past weekend fed my soul and gave me an incredible lift.” He added, “I’m putting my full energy into rehab so I can get back to the music and the best fans in the world.”

Concerns about Love’s health have been building for some time. Fans had already expressed alarm over his appearance during the Beach Boys’ 2025 tour, and the extensive cancellations this year have only added to the worry.

Al Jardine, another founding member who now tours with the Pet Sounds Band, was particularly troubled by what he saw when he encountered his former bandmate in October. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Jardine called Love’s condition “shocking” and said the experience had left him “really depressed”.

Jardine said Love had been “going through some health issues for quite a while”. Asked whether he thought the Beach Boys should continue performing with Love in his current condition, he didn't mince words.

“I would hope not,” he said. “That’s just not right, that I can see. Obviously, he’s a total pro. He wants to be onstage, but he just doesn’t know how not to do it. He doesn’t know what else to do, so I think he’s trapped.”

Stevie Wonder gave staff at a Greater Manchester restaurant a night to remember on November 8, stopping in for a meal after his sold-out Manchester concert — and leaving behind a £1,000 tip.

The soul legend had just performed at the city's 23,000-capacity Co-op Live arena as part of his Songs in the Key of Life 50th anniversary tour when he made an unexpected visit to Cafe Continental on Melbourne Street in nearby Stalybridge.

For the restaurant's owners, it was a dream visit they hadn't dared count on. They shared their excitement in a Facebook post the following day, along with a photo of Wonder chatting with them.

“Surreal things happen now and again. This is one of them! Pleasure to welcome Mr Stevie Wonder to the restaurant to close off his tour!” they wrote.

As co-owner Ryan Robinson explained to the Manchester Evening News, Wonder's entourage had been visiting for some time. Members of his touring band had become regular customers over the previous 18 months, while the singer's eldest daughter, Aisha, had also stopped by when visiting the U.K. The restaurant had first come to their attention through a TikTok video spotted by the daughter of Wonder's head of security.

“Every time they've visited, they've been like 'Stevie might come', and we were always just thinking that it would be amazing but we never expected anything from it,” Robinson said.

The call finally came on the night of the concert: Wonder was coming in, and the restaurant had to get ready in a hurry. Robinson described the last-minute preparations as “a bit of a scramble.”

The “Superstition” hitmaker arrived with his wife, younger daughter and members of his band and entourage. Robinson told Manchester's Finest the party was exceptionally down-to-earth and polite.

And then came the £1,000 tip — a generous surprise that gave the restaurant staff another reason to remember a night that was already pretty special.

Wonder still has one more U.K. date on his itinerary: a November 11 performance at Glasgow's OVO Hydro. After that, he'll head back to the U.S.

Few things are quite as rewarding as finding the right acoustic guitar, especially when it's an instrument you can see yourself playing for years to come. Fortunately, Taylor is making that prospect a little more appealing this holiday season, with $100 off selected models across some of its most popular ranges.

Running from November 1st through to December 31st, the Season of Savings promotion is available at participating retailers including Guitar Center and Sweetwater.

The promotion covers guitars from the 100, 200, 200 Plus, and 200 Deluxe Series, with savings of $100 in the US and between $130 and $160 CAD in Canada, depending on the model. That makes this a particularly appealing opportunity for anyone considering their first Taylor, as well as established players looking for a dependable acoustic without stretching their budget quite so far.

Taylor has also included several Studio models in the promotion, particularly the 314ce Studio, the 12-string 354ce Studio, and the 414ce Studio. These instruments offer a slightly different take on the traditional Taylor formula, combining carefully considered appointments with the brand’s established approach to smooth playability and bright, articulate tone.

For those considering a bigger investment, an additional $100 off makes these models even more worthy of your attention.

Below are three guitars I recommend taking a closer look at:

One thing I love about Taylor's current promotion is that it caters to a broad range of players. The 100 Series, in particular, is somewhere I would happily point an adult beginner looking to invest in an instrument that will remain rewarding as their playing develops.

The 114ce is a good example. Its torrefied solid spruce top, ES2 electronics and slender Taylor neck make it one of the most inviting and encouraging acoustics a beginner can play. Rather than feeling like an instrument you will need to replace after a year or two, it offers plenty of scope to grow into.

For more experienced players, the Studio models and higher-specification 200 Series instruments present an equally compelling proposition. The 224ce-K Deluxe has plenty of visual swagger, while the 414ce Studio offers a more understated approach to a premium acoustic.

Gone are the accoutrements you'd find on the Standard 414ce, such as body binding and intricate inlays, but the playability and soul of its more elaborately appointed sibling remain very much intact.

In fact, the latter is a guitar I have a particular soft spot for. I have repeatedly borrowed my bandmate's Tobacco Shaded Edge Burst 414ce Studio, and I have seriously considered adding it to my own collection. With $100 off, that decision becomes a little easier to justify.

Ultimately, a good guitar is an investment in the time you spend playing or performing. Whether you're taking your first steps with a quality beginner acoustic guitar, adding another tonal option to your collection, or searching for a workhorse for regular gigging, Taylor's Season of Savings offers some brilliant opportunities.

• 👉 This way for more Black Friday guitar deals

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will share a stage again in January, giving Beatles fans a rare opportunity to see the two surviving members of the band perform together. The occasion is the 10th anniversary of VetsAid, Joe Walsh’s annual benefit concert for U.S. military veterans.

The show is set for January 29, 2027, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. McCartney and Starr will be joined by an eclectic lineup featuring The Killers, The War on Drugs, St. Vincent and Lucius, with more performers still to be announced.

The VetsAid appearance will mark McCartney and Starr's first time sharing a stage since December 20, 2024, when Starr made a surprise appearance during the final night of McCartney's Got Back tour at London's O2 Arena. The two Beatles performed “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Helter Skelter.”

They've since reunited in the studio, too. Starr appeared on McCartney's latest album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, marking the former bandmates' first-ever duet on record with “Home to Us,” a reflection on their shared Liverpool roots.

For Walsh, the 2027 concert represents a milestone for an event he's organized annually since 2017. The Eagles guitarist — who is also Starr's brother-in-law — announced the lineup on social media, saying he'd “hit the jackpot” with the bookings.

VetsAid directs proceeds toward established veterans' charities, with an emphasis on organizations providing comprehensive support for former service members and their families, including physical, mental, emotional and spiritual care. The 2027 concert will benefit veterans in Nevada.

General ticket sales begin November 13 at 10 a.m. local time. Presales start November 10 at 10 a.m. local time.

Heart’s Ann Wilson and her sister Nancy had one mission when they performed “Stairway to Heaven” at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors: impress Led Zeppelin. But standing in front of the band’s surviving members — and an audience packed with some of the world’s biggest stars — nearly got the better of them.

“We both kind of looked at each other with these big owl eyes,” Wilson recalled of the moments before they walked onstage.

The sisters ultimately pushed through their nerves, delivering a performance that moved the Zeppelin members to tears. And when they met Jimmy Page and Robert Plant afterward, they got the reaction they’d hoped for.

“They were very happy and said they really liked our performance,” Wilson tells Guitar World in a new interview. “That was a big deal because so many bands have tried to cover Zeppelin, and they don’t enjoy being covered by people that don’t feel it.”

The December 2, 2012, ceremony was a landmark moment for Wilson, who had grown up studying Page’s guitar work.

“Starting out as a guitar player, I’d sit at Jimmy Page’s knee and learn everything I could from the Zeppelin records,” she said, speaking metaphorically. “The thing about Jimmy is that method or scales don’t even figure in his repertoire. It’s just so crazy and dissonant: I guess it’s right-brain stuff.

“My favorite guitar moments are latter-day songs like ‘The Crunge’ or ‘No Quarter.’ Over the years we’d cross paths, and those guys always walked around with a serious gravitas. You didn’t feel like going up because they had their own atmosphere.”

Wilson also recalled the experience in a 2024 interview with Matt Pinfield of 955KLOS, describing how the scale of the production didn’t fully hit her until the afternoon rehearsal.

“I actually saw the production that had been planned for ’Stairway’ and all the different choir singers, and the way it all unfolded and got bigger and bigger and bigger,” she said. “And then I was like, ’Holy shit,’ that is going to be great."

The audience was another revelation.

“It’s like all these super famous people from all walks, not just music, but politics and television and movies. It was amazing. It was really a never-to-be-forgotten experience.”

Still, the sisters had to get past those last-minute jitters. As Wilson recalled, they looked at each other just before taking the stage and made a decision.

“We just decided not to. We just went, ’We’ll do this later. Let’s just go out right now and keep our eyes on the ball and do the song the way we know we can and make it good.’ The mission was to please the Led Zeppelin guys, really. And I think we did."

Afterward, the reception included a meal Wilson jokingly described as a “rubber chicken dinner.”

Wilson is the subject of the upcoming documentary Ann Wilson: In My Voice, arriving November 25.

Geese have honored Television guitarist Richard Lloyd following his death, performing a cover of the band's 1978 song “Ain't That Nothin'” during a November 7 concert in Philadelphia.

“Rest in peace, Richard Lloyd,” frontman Cameron Winter told the crowd at the Fillmore before the band launched into a brief rendition of the Television classic. Lloyd died earlier that day, aged 75, at his home in Tennessee following a battle with cancer.

The performance came after Geese played their own song “2122,” with the band retaining much of the upbeat instrumental arrangement of Television's original. Winter, however, brought a darker, more brooding quality to the song with his distinctive vocal delivery, giving the punk-rock classic a different character.

It wasn't the first time Geese had paid homage to the New York punk pioneers. In 2024, Winter and company used their Geesefest residency to perform another Television favorite, “Marquee Moon,” the title track from the band's landmark 1977 debut album.

Geese have also acknowledged the similarities between the two groups. Speaking to GQ in 2025, the band welcomed comparisons to their fellow New York rockers, while Winter was mindful of making sure their guitar riffs didn't come across as a “rip off” of Television songs such as “Guiding Light.”

The November 7 show was the first of two consecutive nights Geese had scheduled at the Fillmore. They returned to the Philadelphia venue on Sunday and are due to continue their 2026 North American tour with two shows in Boston on Tuesday, November 10.

Lloyd's death followed news in August that he had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer. Television had appealed to fans for financial support to help cover the cost of his treatment.

His passing comes less than four years after Television frontman Tom Verlaine died in January 2023, aged 73. The band's bass guitarist, Fred Smith, also died earlier this year, in February, aged 77.

Among those paying tribute to Lloyd following the news were Johnny Marr, whose guitar playing with the Smiths was heavily influenced by Television, and fellow musician Lloyd Cole.

Dweezil Zappa is back on the road and GP Presents is thrilled to partner with AEG Entertainment to welcome him in the Bay Area on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. His DZ20: Like Father, Like Son Tour celebrates 20 years scaling the musical mountain of material composed by his father Frank, and playing it authentically onstage with fresh energy.

“It’s an ever-evolving skill to be able to filter my playing through the Frank Zappa vocabulary and lens of influence,” Dweezil told GP’s Gary Graff, “but then at the speed of thought be able to have my own phrases come into the music. I rarely play complete solos note-for-note, but I do try to play specific phrases that give the identity and the flavor of the solo in the way my dad would play it, while using a sound that is evocative of the era.”

That’s a big part of the big fun that happens whenever Dweezil plays his father’s music, the authentic classic rock-era tones he achieves with the historic gear he brings. Here’s what to expect on DZ20:

“I’m bringing a Roxy-era SG with some different pickups, and I’m bringing a Stratocaster with a humbucker in the bridge and two single-coils, so I’m able to get a lot of rhythm sounds I need for this tour. But we’re also playing ‘Wild Love’ and it has a crazy guitar solo section. This is from a live version my dad did around ’78.

“He goes into a totally crazy new landscape, and the tone he has is really cool ’cause it’s kind of three layers; a clean sound in the middle, and two different fuzz sounds on the left and right. It creates this 3D image that is super cool, and he’s just doing it with the Stratocaster.”

Dweezil is playing a few of his own compositions on this tour as well, including one that was a favorite of Frank’s.

“He came to see us play a show that I was doing in the early ’90s and we closed the show with ‘Purple Guitar,’” Dweezil recalls. “He liked that song and said, ‘You guys should open with that,’ so I took it as his request for this tour.”

We’ve done GP Presents promotions for several of Dweezil Zappa’s shows in the past, and they’re always thrilling in totally different ways and with different ensembles. Dweezil’s band for this tour is a “rocking teenage combo five-piece extravaganza” featuring Kurt Morgan on bass, Ryan Brown on drums, Bobby Victor on keys, and Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist Scheila Gonzalez.

“I wanted it to feel like you walked into the Whisky in the ’60s, but as if he also had the material of the mid-’70s, Dweezil explains. “So it’s kind of the quintessential rocking teenage combo version of everything. A five-piece means the music is more in your face. There’s an immediacy. And when he did a tour with a five-piece he really limited the material to certain things and certain eras. So, we’ve kind of done that, but I’ve also taken it a bit further.”

Come help support our favorite Zappa son celebrate two decades paying tribute to his father Frank on the DZ20 tour!

Our multi-generational Zappa salute happens on the last Sunday night in November, the 29th. If you’re planning to be in San Francisco over Thanksgiving Weekend, be sure to make plans with fellow Zappa zealots and get tickets for great seats in advance.

For more Dweez, read GP‘s October 2026 interview in which he talk in detail about DZ20, plus working with Eddie Van Halen and his ongoing project, “What the Hell Was I Thinking?”

WIN TICKETS!

For a chance to win a pair of tickets to see GP Presents Dweezil Zappa in San Francisco, send an email and put “DZ20” in the subject line. Please include a sentence about yourself and why you want to go.

Phone contact greatly appreciated for confirmation.

Winner must provide his or her own transportation to the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California, on Sunday, November 29, and have his or her own accommodations in the Bay Area.

Best of luck!

EVENT DETAILS

GP Presents and Another Planet Entertainment welcome Dweezil Zappa

Sunday, November 29

The Castro Theatre

San Francisco, CA

8:00 p.m. show

Free Martin Strings at the GP Presents table in lobby

Opeth were forced to pull the plug on a concert in Colombia just hours before showtime after Mikael Åkerfeldt became so ill that he couldn’t make it through a single song at soundcheck.

The Swedish progressive metal band was due to perform November 8 at Royal Center in Bogotá as part of its ongoing Latin American tour. The trek began November 1 in Santiago, Chile, and is scheduled to wrap up November 11 in Mexico City.

The cancellation was announced on social media just hours before Sunday’s scheduled performance.

“Colombian brothers and sisters, it is with great regret that we must announce the cancellation of today’s show in Bogotá,” Opeth bass guitarist Martín Méndez said in a video shared on Facebook. “Our frontman, Mikael, has come down with a virus; he is suffering from a fever, vomiting, and diarrhea.

“We even attempted a soundcheck, but it proved impossible to get through even a single song. A doctor has also examined him and confirmed that it is indeed a virus.

“We are truly sorry that we cannot perform this concert, but we are only human. Our hope now is for Mikael to recover quickly so that we can go on to play the final show of the tour in Mexico.

“Thank you for your understanding and for your unwavering support.”

The setback comes as Opeth approach the end of a touring run that will be followed by an extended break. Earlier this month, bassist Martin Mendez told Brazil’s 89 A Rádio Rock that he and his bandmates plan to “take a pretty long break” once the Latin American dates are complete.

Åkerfeldt has previously spoken about the toll touring can take on him. In a February interview with Blabbermouth, he admitted that he doesn’t “particularly enjoy touring that much,” despite considering the performances themselves the high point.

“The shows in themselves are the highlight of the day, I would say,” he explained. “But if you’re not feeling it, they can also be a bit of a curse. I’ve been battling insomnia connected to touring, like nervousness. I put a lot of pressure on myself for some reason — more now than before.

“The insomnia has made me feel quite wobbly and insecure when we play shows. Once I’m up there, it’s kind of business as usual. After a couple of songs, I don’t feel as wobbly, and after a while, I might be able to enjoy it.”

Del Casher, the guitarist, session musician and inventor whose work helped bring the wah-wah pedal into the world of electric guitar, has died at the age of 88.

Casher died October 1 following a battle with cancer, according to a GoFundMe campaign established to support his wife, Eiko. News of his death was reported November 9.

Although Casher enjoyed a long career as a performer, composer and studio musician, his most enduring contribution came in the mid-1960s, when he recognized the musical possibilities of a tone-control circuit that would eventually transform the sound of electric guitar.

Working with Vox and its American parent company, Thomas Organ, Casher helped turn the circuit into a foot-operated effect that allowed guitarists to sweep through frequencies, producing the distinctive vocal-like sound that gave the wah pedal its name.

The story began in 1966, when Casher was working as a consultant for Vox and performing with the company's Ampliphonic Orchestra. He noticed that a variable tone control on one of the company's amplifiers produced an intriguing wah-like effect when adjusted from one position to another.

He immediately recognized its potential for guitar. "I want to sound like I can compete with a trumpet or a trombone," he recalled telling the company's engineering team, describing the expressive quality he wanted to achieve.

Casher persuaded the engineers to adapt the circuit into a foot-operated pedal, allowing guitarists to control the effect while playing. The development involved Thomas Organ engineers Brad Plunkett and Les Kushner, building on an earlier midrange-boost circuit developed by Vox engineer Dick Denney. Casher helped refine the sound for guitar and championed the idea at a time when the company's management envisioned the device primarily as an effect for trumpet and other horn players.

"They thought I was a crackpot," Casher later recalled.

Determined to demonstrate what the pedal could do, he recorded a promotional album showcasing its possibilities across blues, jazz, rock, country and other styles. He then took the prototype to music stores and industry events, demonstrating the effect to guitarists and trying to generate interest. The response was initially disappointing.

Casher even tried pitching the idea to James Brown, explaining that he believed the wah-wah represented the future of music. The Godfather of Soul wasn't convinced.

"I was describing to James Brown that the wah-wah pedal is really a thing of the future," Casher recalled. Brown's response was that he thought it was "a passing fad."

Casher eventually found a more receptive audience in Frank Zappa, with whom he had worked before the wah-wah's development. According to Casher, he gave Zappa a pedal and encouraged him to introduce the effect to Jimi Hendrix. Zappa helped bring it to Hendrix's attention, and the guitarist would go on to make the wah-wah an integral part of his sound.

Hendrix's use of the effect on his groundbreaking 1968 album Electric Ladyland helped establish it as one of rock's defining guitar sounds. His performance at Woodstock the following year further cemented its place in the electric guitar vocabulary.

Other major players quickly embraced the effect. Eric Clapton put it to memorable use with Cream on "White Room," while Jimmy Page, David Gilmour and Tony Iommi were among the guitarists who incorporated its distinctive vocal quality into their own playing. The wah-wah would become a staple of rock, funk and countless other styles.

Casher had actually been recording with the effect before many of those famous performances. Through his association with composer Vic Mizzy, he brought the wah-wah into film soundtracks, including The Traveling Saleslady and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, helping establish its distinctive voice beyond the recording studio.

Born in Hammond, Indiana, Casher moved to Hollywood after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh. One of his first major opportunities came as a guitarist on The Lawrence Welk Show. He subsequently toured with the Three Suns, the instrumental pop group behind the 1958 hit "Twilight Time."

It was while traveling with the group that Casher developed another important invention, the Ecco-Fonic, a portable tape-echo device that allowed musicians to use studio-style effects in live performance.

Casher also became an accomplished Los Angeles session musician, working alongside members of the celebrated Wrecking Crew. His career brought him into contact with performers including Gene Autry, Frank Sinatra and Sonny & Cher. He appeared alongside Elvis Presley in the 1964 film Roustabout and Jerry Lewis in The Patsy that same year.

His inventive streak extended well beyond the wah-wah. Casher developed the Fender Electronic Echo Chamber and helped introduce Roland's early guitar-synthesizer technology to American audiences. His work as a composer and producer continued for decades, including music for the children's television series The New Zoo Revue, for which he produced, arranged and performed on more than 200 episodes. He also composed the guitar-driven theme for NBC's Los Angeles newscasts, which remained in use for 18 years.

Despite the enormous influence of the wah-wah pedal, Casher sometimes felt his contribution to guitar history had been overlooked. In a 2011 interview with The New York Times, he expressed satisfaction at having helped introduce the effect but wished more guitarists knew about his role.

"I feel gratified that I was there at the beginning," he said. "I would just like guitar players to think of me once in a while. The only thing I ask is: remember me."

Steve Vai is dismissing reports that he's interested in reprising his role as guitar villain Jack Butler in a potential Crossroads sequel, explaining that a possible reunion with Ralph Macchio at NAMM was blown out of proportion.

Vai addressed the rumors while appearing with longtime friend and former guitar teacher Joe Satriani on Eddie Trunk's SiriusXM show, where the pair were discussing their new collaborative album, The Sea of Emotion, released November 6 under their SatchVai banner. .

The rumors surfaced earlier this month, when it was reported that a follow-up to the 1986 cult classic might be in the works. Screenwriter John Fusco and Macchio, who played aspiring blues guitarist Eugene “Lightning Boy” Martone, had apparently been discussing ideas for an anniversary project.

“And I said, 'We should do the freaking sequel.' He's like, 'No shit, really? Do you have an idea?' I said, 'Yeah, I have an idea for it.' So Ralph and I have talked about it. We've got a plan,” Fusco told Guitar World.

The report also claimed that “Steve Vai is game to reprise his role as metal-blues guitar master Jack Butler.”

But in a new interview with Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM, Vai pushed back on that suggestion, making clear that he has no plans to return to the movie.

“Well, that is a very funny rumor that I've been reading too. No,” he said (via UCR).

Asked whether there was anything to the sequel talk, Vai explained how a possible meeting with Macchio had apparently morphed into something much bigger.

“I think what happened was — and I'll just say this — I was contacted by somebody that said, 'Hey, you're going to be at NAMM. I know Ralph Macchio, and I spoke to him, and we thought it would be nice for you guys to meet.'”

The two haven't seen each other since making the movie, although Vai says he's heard from people over the years that Macchio has asked after him.

“I haven't seen him since I made the movie. And all through the years I've had people come up to me and say, 'Hey, I saw Ralph and he said to say hello,' and I would say, 'Well, when you see Ralph, you tell him I said hello.'”

A get-together at NAMM to mark the movie's 40th anniversary is still a possibility, Vai says. But that's apparently as far as things go.

“So there's a potential that we'll be able to kind of get together and chat during NAMM. And I think that got leaked, and you know how rumors are – it turned into, 'there's a rematch.'”

As for why he's not interested in making another Crossroads, Vai pointed to the scale of the original production and the challenge of recreating its most famous sequence: the climactic electric guitar duel between Jack Butler and Macchio's Eugene Martone.

“That movie was a $30 million production or whatever it was, and required a tremendous amount of direction and work. And how do you do something like that now? Like, how do you make a scene that stands up to [that one]? You know, you need a movie studio.”

The following story originally appeared in the October 1984 issue of Guitar Player.

Several hours before show time, Stevie Ray Vaughan sits alone on a weary couch in a backstage dressing room, his head buried in his trusty, albeit beat-up, Stratocaster. Dressed in Japanese happi coat, wide-brim black gaucho hat, black slacks, and pointed-toe shoes, Vaughan limbers up, and greets the occasional visitor with a vice-like handshake and a bit of tentative conversation. It's a ritual the slight but wiry Texan has been through countless times, but he still appears a bit nervous.

Once plugged in onstage, however a completely different Stevie Ray Vaughan emerges – cool, confident, flamboyant, and even a bit cocky. Before the crowd is finished applauding the opening instrumental, Testify (from his debut album, Texas Flood), he and the two-man rhythm section known as Double Trouble (bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton) launch into Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile (from the group's impressive follow-up, Couldn't Stand the Weather).

For the next 90 minutes, each vocal phrase, every guitar solo and fill, is delivered at full-throttle. Even during almost inaudible parts of his solo in the dirge-like Tin Pan Alley, Vaughan's intensity never subsides. He doesn't just play his guitar; he mauls it – as evidenced by the nonexistent finish and 1/4"-deep scratches on the face of his battered '59 Fender Strat.

By the end of the set, closing with Hendrix's sonic tour de force Third Stone From The Sun, Vaughan has played the guitar behind his head, off his shoulder like a violin, behind his back, and on the floor – standing over the cutaways with one hand firmly on the guitar's neck, the other pulling up on the vibrato bar.

While making vintage guitar collectors wince and teachers moan, Stevie Ray has given the biggest exposure in years to one of the most fundamental but unsung musical forms: the blues. And with every achievement and accolade he has received since he burst onto the charts on David Bowie's critically acclaimed album Let's Dance (lauded in large measure because of Stevie's searing guitar work), the 30-year-old has shared his honors with the bluesmen who preceded him and with the genre itself.

“Most of all, I'm glad to see the blues getting the recognition it deserves,” the guitarist has emphasized on more than one occasion.

After being lifted out of the Austin, Texas, blues scene to play on Let's Dance, Stevie Ray went back to his hometown group, Double Trouble, and teamed with A&R legend John Hammond to produce Texas Flood, which took top honors in Guitar Player's 1983 Readers Poll as Best Guitar Album.

In the same balloting, Vaughan racked up two more blue ribbons – completely dominating the New Talent category and edging out no less than Eric Clapton as Best Electric Blues player – to become the first triple-crown winner since Jeff Beck's 1976 hat trick.

With Texas Flood still selling strongly, Double Trouble released Couldn't Stand The Weather, which hit the Billboard pop chart on June 13 of this year at (144, leaped up to 63 in its second week, and bulleted to 37 and 31 in the following two weeks.) “What's happened, I guess,” drawls Vaughan, “is that we've come from playing clubs to where we can pretty much fill a 5,000-seat hall now. We just worked our butts off.”

Vaughan's popularity is as worthy of scrutiny as his phenomenal guitar playing. While numerous blues-based rockers have become guitar heroes after crossing over to the rock camp – including Clapton, Michael Bloomfield, and Jimi Hendrix – Stevie is the first since fellow Texan Johnny Winter (who also eventually drifted into out-and out rock and roll) to make the major leagues by sticking with the blues.

His videos of Love Struck Baby (from Flood), Couldn't Stand the Weather, and Cold Shot (from Weather) are in steady rotation on MTV's playlist, and Pride and Joy (from his debut LP) received substantial airplay on FM stations. He teamed with George Thorogood for a tribute to Chuck Berry at this year's Grammy awards, and has appeared on such unlikely TV shows as Solid Gold.

Most people's first exposure to Stevie Ray's searing solos, of course, was via Bowie's Let's Dance. But even though the material was not the type of R&B he had mined in Texas bars for more than a decade, Vaughan's razor-edged leads were pure blues, relying heavily on Albert King for tones and riffs.

Texas Flood revealed a debt to blues masters such as Jimmy Reed, Magic Sam, Lonnie Mack, Buddy Guy, and Hubert Sumlin, and paid that debt with interest. Opening for coliseum acts such as Men At Work, the Moody Blues, Huey Lewis and the News, and the Police – Stevie riveted audiences with his passionate homages to Jimi Hendrix, including Voodoo Chile, Little Wing, and Third Stone From The Sun.

While countless guitarists have been influenced by the creative genius of Hendrix, few have attempted to cover any of his songs.

There are several obvious similarities between Vaughan and the late southpaw – each led a trio, had incredible control of feedback and volume with a minimum of effects devices, and could sing adequately but not well enough to make it strictly as a vocalist. But what sets Stevie above other pretenders to the Hendrix throne is his ability to play lead and rhythm simultaneously – like Jimi, he fires a nonstop barrage of chords, licks, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and unorthodox tricks at the listener. Vaughan's guitar technique doesn't just impress; it overwhelms.

Instrumentals such as Rude Mood (from Texas Flood) and Scuttle Buttin' (Weather) are textbook studies of the pedal-to-the metal Vaughan style, while Lenny (Flood) is reminiscent of Hendrix' most sensitive ballads, and Stang's Swang (Weather) reveals a firm grounding in organ-trio guitarists such as Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, and early George Benson.

Unlike many other guitar-based trios, Double Trouble overdub next to nothing in the studio; the 12-inch pieces of vinyl are accurate representations of the sort of thing Vaughan & Co. have been playing onstage since they formed in 1978 – following Stevie Ray's stints with the Cobras and Triple Threat Revue.

Couldn't Stand The Weather made use of a few of Vaughan's Texas buddies – saxophonist Stan Harrison, Fabulous Thunderbirds drummer Fran Christina, and brother Jimmie Vaughan (guitarist/leader of the T-Birds) – and at press time, Stevie was finalizing plans to augment the trio further for his October debut at New York's Carnegie Hall. To be recorded for a possible live LP and video, the concert will tentatively include Jimmie Vaughan, organ legend Booker T. Jones, and the Tower Of Power horn section as special guests.

A lot has happened to Stevie Ray Vaughan since he was featured in the August '83 Guitar Player. In the following interview, he talks about his techniques and tricks, his major influences, his collection of Stratocasters, and the most important element to Double Trouble's sound: soul.

There seems to be a long tradition of Texas guitar players.

“Yeah. I don't know if any of us know what it is. It's just in the air, you know.”

Does the environment of friendly competition improve the caliber of the players?

“Sure, yeah. For some reason, nobody lets go of the soul of it. Same way with a lot of San Francisco players. There are a lot of musicians in the Bay Area who do remember how to play from their heart – as opposed to a lot of the things in LA that are missing that; it's just show time. But in Texas especially, there seems to be a lot of musicians interested in pulling for each other and working together, and it really, really helps a lot. It makes you a tighter unit, and it keeps you right in your heart. And that has a lot to do with your playing.”

Austin musicians definitely have strong feelings of community – even though a band like Asleep At The Wheel plays Western swing, the Fabulous Thunderbirds play blues, and Eric Johnson plays fusion.

“It doesn't matter. People still work together.”

Can you spot a Texas guitar player by hearing him?

“Oh yeah. I don't know what it is – I just can hear it. Maybe it's the water [laughs].”

What's the blues scene like in Austin?

“There's some crazy jam sessions going on down there. Hubert Sumlin is staying down there now, and Mel Brown is living there, and Lonnie Mack. He's a great cat. Also Buddy Guy comes down and hangs out for two or three weeks a month, just about.

“It ends up where all those guys are up there playing. And Mel Brown plays [Hammond] B-3 organ like nobody's business, too. Antone's closes down at 2:00, but it's nothing out of the ordinary for it to be 4:30 when the last set's over – after starting at midnight. A four-hour set ain't too bad.”

I heard stories years ago about a jam session at Antone's with B.B. King, yourself, and Luther Tucker.

“Yeah, that was the night B.B. scared me to death. He sat on his amp and played rhythm for me for about four songs. And then he stood up and played one note – [picks up an acoustic guitar and plays a high, stinging vibrato]. You know, one of those B.B. notes that make you go, 'Haaugh!'”

What you just played sounded exactly like B.B. Did you work on that a lot?

“Just listened.”

When you first took up guitar, was it blues that you were mainly attracted to?

“A lot – because of my brother Jimmie. He'd bring home records by B.B. and Buddy Guy. And he was the one who hit me with Lonnie Mack, too; the first record I ever bought was The Wham Of That Memphis Man. Jimmie brought home a Hendrix record, and I went, 'Whoa! What is this?' I'll never forget that.”

Did Jimmie show you things on guitar, or did you just pick up things from hearing him around the house?

“At first, he taught me a couple of things, and then he taught me how to teach myself – and that's the right way.”

Your brother was heavily influenced by another Texas bluesman, Freddie King. Did that style rub off on you as well?

“Yeah, it did. I had that instrumental album of his [Let's Hide Away And Dance Away]. Jimmie used to know him pretty well, but Freddie wouldn't talk to me in public. In private, but not in public. I guess I was a young white boy he didn't want to be seen with [laughs]. I played with him once, sitting around a table when no one was around.”

What specifics did you get from various players?

“I got a lot of the fast things I do from Lonnie Mack – just the ideas and the phrasing. Like on Scuttle Buttin'. [plays a barrage of chicken-picked pull-offs]. That's really a Lonnie Mack thing – that's dedicated to him. I got a lot of turnarounds from Freddie King.”

Who were the main blues players you heard on records?

“Well, let's run 'em down. There was Buddy Guy, Muddy, of course, and all the various guitar players who were with him [including Jimmy Rogers and Pat Hare], Hubert Sumlin, Lonnie Mack, B.B., Albert King, Freddie, Albert Collins, Guitar Slim – he'd just turn it all the way up. I can just imagine people saying, 'Slim, why do you always play so loud?' 'Because it sounds like this' [laughs].”

Johnny Winter was the first white Texan bluesman to make it on a big scale. Were you influenced much by him?

“Yes, although I hadn't heard him as much then. I listened more to people like Albert Collins, Albert and Freddie King, [and] Johnny Guitar Watson. But around '71 or '72, I got to jam a lot with Johnny over at Tommy Shannon's house – that was a little bit after his initial big success.”

How did you meet Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton?

“I've known Tommy for years and years – since about '69. I was in Dallas playing at this after-hours place called the Fog, and he'd just left Johnny Winter. He claims that he walked in and saw this little person playing guitar [laughs]. I was 15 or something – wasn't supposed to be in that club.

“We've played together in bands off and on ever since. Chris and I have been together about six years, I guess. I met him through Joe Sublett of the Cobras – they were roommates. I went over to the house once and Chris was in the kitchen with his headphones on, blasting away on the drums. When he was finished, I told him I needed a drummer, so he quit his other band.”

Was he basically a blues drummer when you found him?

“No, but he could do it. Took him about 15 minutes to learn how to do a rub shuffle right. A lot of it was just natural.”

Did you play in clubs in Dallas before you moved to Austin?

“Yeah. I could make decent money there, playing the Cellar, but it wasn't the kind of place you'd want to hang too long. That was the only place that let me do what I wanted to do – because nobody cared about shit there. They just had strippers and crabs everywhere [laughs]. If you really wanted to come in there and play, they'd let you. A couple of times, people would get pissed and start shooting at the stage. You had to duck and keep playing [laughs].

“I played there from age 14 until I was 18. There was a Cellar in Dallas and one in Fort Worth. We'd play two sets in one town, drive to the other club, and play two more sets. We got 90 bucks a night per person, and we were never awake during the day, so there wasn't any way to spend it.

“I was trying to stay as close to this kind of music as I could, but at the same time I was going through a phase of playing through Marshalls – just turning up to 10 and being a teenager. I remember doing some Allman Brothers songs, which I liked at the time – skirting the outskirts – but we were also doing Buddy Guy and B.B. King stuff.”

Have you had a hard time playing blues as an opening act to major rock bands?

“No, the audiences reacted real well to it. I think more of the people on the Moody Blues tour were aware of what we were doing. When we played with Men At Work, it was still a lot of fun, but there were mainly 13-, 14-, and 15-year-olds, and a few of them knew how to slingshot dimes, you know [laughs]. But a lot of those kids really went for it, even though they weren't expecting it.”

Your playing on Let's Dance isn't along the lines of Texas Flood; it's more like Albert King.

“I kind of wanted to see how many places Albert King's stuff would fit. It always does. I love that man. When that album first came out, Albert heard it. He said, '[sneering] Yeah, I heard you doin' all my shit on there. I'm gonna go up there and do some of yours" [laughs].

“We were doing this TV show right outside of Toronto – Hamilton, I think – and during the lunch break, Albert went around to everybody in there looking for an emery board. I didn't think anything of it. We were jamming on the last song, Outskirts Of Town, and it comes to the solo, and he goes, 'Get it, Stevie!' I started off, and I look over and he's pulling out this damn emery board, filing his nails, sort of giving me this sidelong glance [laughs].

“I loved it! Lookin' at me like, 'Uh-huh, I got you swinging by your toes.' He's a heavy cat.”

Do you ever play with your thumb to get an Albert King sound?

“I play with a pick and a finger. I used the round end of the pick, too. You break less of them and don't get tangled up in the strings. Sometimes I play with both together, or I'll palm the pick and use my fingers, or sometimes I'll just 'Hubert' it [play with bare fingers a la Hubert Sumlin].”

Is that to get a variety of tones?

“Different tones, different moods. It depends on how the amps are working that night, how dead the strings are, how much I can hear, how crazy I'm feeling.”

On Cold Shot, did you play through a Leslie speaker to get that underwater sound?

“It's a Fender Vibratone, which is basically like a Leslie. It's a 10" speaker with a Styrofoam rotor in front of it – so the speaker is stationary, but a drum with a slit in it revolves – and then you mike it from both sides.”

On Couldn't Stand The Weather, were there any tracks where you cut a rhythm part and overdubbed a lead, or vice versa?

“No, on some of the songs I just played and then did the vocal later – which sometimes is a mistake, because you play differently when you're not singing than you would if you were singing along. A lot of times the licks won't match the phrasing of the vocals. Most of the solos were cut live. I redid one line in Voodoo, because my amp went crazy on me. The punch-in didn't come off very well; it still doesn't sound right to me.”

Texas Flood sounds like there are hardly any overdubs.

“There aren't. Only if I broke a string or something.”

So you played the lead and rhythm in the same take, rather than laying down a rhythm track and soloing over it later?

“Right. We redid a few vocals, but some of them were live, too. That was mainly to go back if a word was left out or not real clear, plus, we got a better vocal sound by redoing them. I don't think that's cheating too much.”

Do you set up in the studio the same as onstage, or do you use drum booths and headphones, etc.?

“The first record, we pretty much set up like we do onstage, but we did have a few baffles between us. We went ahead and used headphones like on one ear. We couldn't see the control room; it was at the other end of this place with a bunch of stuff in between and no window. I like it a lot that way.

“That was at Jackson Browne's rehearsal studio called Downtown, in LA. For Couldn't Stand The Weather, we were in the Power Station [in New York], and all the walls separating the rooms are glass, so we were separated but we could still see each other. So I could go in and play louder than shit.”

Do you usually record pretty loud?

“Sometimes. Sometimes real quiet, like on Tin Pan Alley.”

What about Voodoo Chile?

“Had it up as loud as I could – and I was in the same room with it.”

Do you use the same amps in the studio as onstage?

“Yes. Two Fender Vibroverbs – they came out in '63; they're number 5 and 6 off the production line, but I bought them in two different places at two different times.

“It's basically like a Super Reverb with a 15 and a shorter cabinet, and it has no midrange knob – it's preset on 4, I think. My favorite setup used to be two Vibroverbs and two Supers – just stack 'em up. Just let the Vibroverbs handle the bottom. I had one Super set clean, and the other where I could just turn it up or down wherever I wanted it.”

You don't use the Super Reverbs now?

“Right now, I use a Howard Dumble 150-watt. He calls it the Steel String Singer, I call it the King Tone Consoul [laughs] – that's s-o-u-l. It's like an overgrown Fender tube amp. Some Dumbles – like the Overdrive Special – you've got to know what you're doing with them, because they'll get away from you and take you with 'em.”

Was John Hammond in the studio for the first album?

“No, he wasn't there at all, except for the mixdown and the mastering. This time he was there a lot for the recording.”

Do you have any guitars not in the Strat family?

“I have a 1958 Gibson dot-neck ES-335 and a '48 Airline that's a bit smaller but the same shape as a Barney Kessel Kay. It's got three pickups with a 4-position toggle switch – bass, middle, treble, or all three. I've got an old Rickenbacker prototype with a flat top, and I'm giving that to Hubert [Sumlin]. And I've got this 1928 National that belonged to Blind Boy Fuller. Byron Barr, my guitar roadie, gave it to me.

“Sometimes I'll pull it out at the end of a set and sit down and play Rude Mood or a little slide. I'd planned on using it on the last record, but we got sidetracked and never got around to it.”

Do you play slide in open tuning?

“I usually just tune up the G string to Ab and leave everything else the same.”

How did you go about recreating the sounds you heard on Hendrix's records?

“You just keep listening and trying to find the sound, because it's in your hands as much as anything. It's the way you play. There are different techniques to playing everybody's styles, and it's not just necessarily the amp or the guitar. It's the way you pick, the way you hold the guitar.

“For instance, T-Bone [Walker] played like this most of the time [holds guitar horizontally, away from his body], and the tone is different when you play that way. Can you hear the difference? [Holds guitar against his body and plays the same licks – gets a bassier tone]. It's the way your fingers hit the strings, and you're more prone to pick closer to the neck when you hold the guitar like T-Bone.”

Your '59 Strat has the vibrato bar anchored off the bass side of the bridge. Did you set it up that way because Jimi Hendrix's guitar bodies were upside down?

“Well, I started listening to people and noticed that when Otis Rush used one, he had it on the top – he played upside-down. And Hendrix had the guitar upside-down, except he strung it regular. It seemed to me that the people who did that the best had it on top, so I moved mine. Sometimes it does get in the way. I've had it tear my sleeve halfway off.”

So instead of working it with the little finger of your picking hand, it lays right in the middle of your palm.

“Yeah, and I've got the springs set up so I couldn't move it with my little finger anyway. It's pretty tight, with four springs tightened all the way up. That's how I can do Third Stone From The Sun and still be in tune. See, I have my old Strat set up where it won't go up at all. On my newer Strats, the vibrato handles are on the bottom, in the regular place. The orange one and Lenny, the brown one, both of their vibratos will go pretty far up and down as well, and they're set up a lot lighter.

“All the guitars have personalities of their own and feel completely different. They each have different sounds. Like the brown one sounds real good for jazzy-type things or Lenny. It's a '63 or '64 that my wife, whose name is Lenny, found for me.”

What about the old beat-up one?

“That's my first wife [laughs]. The new one with my name on the fretboard, I call Main, for main guitar. It's a Hamiltone, build by James Hamilton of Buffalo, New York. It's basically Strat-shaped but a little thicker, and the construction of the neck is pretty much like a [Gibson] Super 400, except it goes all the way through the body. So the vibrato is on the neck, basically – dead center right there. You can pop the low E string, and the whole guitar has this reverb you can hear even without an amp, because of the springs being in the neck.

“It's got an ebony fretboard that's the same width as my beat-up '59, and then they added binding on the outside of that, because I have big hands and I always play barre chords with my thumb wrapped around. What happens a lot of times is my thumb will end up pushing the low E string accidentally. So the wider neck keeps me from doing that.

“The pickups in there now are EMGs with a little computer chip preamp in them, so there's a battery in the guitar, of course. I like that a lot. They say that the battery will last six months, but I can hear it going down – you can hear it in the tone; it gets fuzzier, like it's straining. When it's got a brand-new battery in there, it sounds clear as a bell, and smooth. It'll sing to you.”

You've also got a white Strat with three Danelectro "lipstick tube" pickups.

“That was put together by Charley Wirz at Charley's Guitar Shop, Dallas, Texas. He also gave me the yellow one with the pickup in the bass position. That one is hollowed out from the neck to the bridge, because the guy from Vanilla Fudge had put four humbucking pickups in there. It's got a pretty cool tone. Charley then came up with the design for the white one with the Danelectros. He also found me the orange 1960.

“All of the Strats have bass frets. I get them from Gibson, or I use Dunlop jumbo bass frets, the biggest ones I can get. I don't have to replace them twice a year, and there's a lot more sustain. It's a lot easier to get under the strings when you use big strings like I do. You can work yourself to death with those little frets. Instead of the note fading out when you bend a string, it'll get bigger when you bend with the jumbo frets.”

Do any of your Strats have maple necks?

“Yeah, Lenny does. It's got a real clear tone, and the pickups are microphonic – you can hear it when you hit the pickguard. But when you play it soft, it sounds great. When I first got the guitar, it had a rosewood fingerboard, but it was thinner, and that bothered me. So I put a copy of a Fender maple neck on there that Billy Gibbons gave me.

“I like the rosewood necks usually, because for one thing, when you sweat, you don't get blisters. It seems like the finish on a maple neck gets hotter and there's more friction. As hard as I play and as much as I sweat, I get sore enough as it is. There's a fatter sound on the rosewood, as far as I can tell; it's not as bright. The ebony fretboard seems a little bit clearer, but it's fat, too.”

Which guitars have you recorded with most?

“Lenny on the song Lenny, and everything else has been the '59. I'd like to record with the one with the Danelectro pickups; I like it a lot.”

How do you do some of the tricks you do onstage – like getting the whole guitar behind your back so fast?

“As I'm spinning around, I'm taking the strap loose and the guitar pivots behind my back, and then I rehook it behind my back. It's really playing the same way, except you've got to hold the guitar out a little bit, and you just can't see as well.”

In Third Stone From The Sun, you have the guitar laying on the stage while you straddle it, pulling up on the neck with one hand and on the wang bar with the other.

“Yeah, I wouldn't recommend that anybody do that on their 335 [laughs]. A Stratocaster's a pretty tough thing, though. Then I figured out how to get the guitar to rumble. I put it on the middle pickup, turn the tone knob down, grab it by the wang bar, and just shake it on the floor.”

Do you use any effects besides the wah-wah on the Hendrix tunes?

“Just an Ibanez Tube Screamer. I have Univibes, but I don't use them. I use the Vibrotone for that effect. I don't have any straight distortion devices; I use the Tube Screamer for that.”

Who works on your guitars?

“Charley Wirz or Michael Stevens in Austin, depending on who's available and what I'm having done. Certain things, both of them do very well; other things, one of them does better.”

Do you string all the Strats the same?

“Yeah, I use a .013, a .015, or .016 depending on what shape my fingers are in, .019 plain, .028, .038, .060 or .056. If I go down to an .018 on the G string, it feels like a rubber band to me.”

Do you have 3-way or 5-way switches on the Strats?

“5-way. I use all the positions for different tones.”

With the amount of amplification you use, do you still pick fairly hard with your right hand?

“Yeah, terribly. That's just how I play. Sometimes I literally pull the strings off. I can deaden a set of strings completely after one set, because I play 'em hard and do a lot of this – [snaps bass string] – to get bottom notes, like Albert Collins. Sometimes, though, I play really soft. That's probably the best Albert King tone I can get.”

When you got the '59 Strat, was it as beat-up as it looks now?

“[Laughs] It wasn't in real good shape. You could still get a jar of model car paint and go around the edges to make it look decent, but that continued to wear off. You asked if I pick hard – well, look at the top of the guitar [which is worn away a good 1/4"]. That's from picking.

“It's gradually sounding different, because I let it dry out too much. I bet if I start oiling it up, it'll start fattening up some. The body is a '59, but the neck is a '62, I believe. In the body, it says, 'LF.59.' I came to find out that was Louis Fuentes, not Leo Fender. But Louis Fuentes was a good cat. You never heard a Stratocaster sound real meaty like that one.”

The tendency on the part of most white blues-rock artists has been to eventually drift more towards mainstream rock.

“We try to keep it going in both directions. There's no reason for us to leave behind what we've got, you know, but there is a good reason to expand on it. I'd like to keep it as a trio, keep that identity, but I have nothing against playing with great horn players or keyboard players or other guitar players – or more than one drummer, even.”

Stang's Swang is still blues, but it's a departure from the type of stuff you're known for.

“I wrote that four or five years ago. I like guys like Kenny Burrell and Grant Green a lot. I like Django Reinhardt a lot, too, and Wes [Montgomery], of course.”

What's the turnaround on that song – IIVs?

“I don't know. I don't know what key I'm in sometimes. I just try to listen.”

Are you completely self-taught when it comes to any theoretical vocabulary?

“I don't know any of that stuff.”

What about the chord voicings you use?

“I just look for things that sound right.”

So if you're playing something like, say, a diminished 7th...

“I don't know it. I almost learned how to read chord charts doing some of those Bowie things. But as soon as I learned how to read the charts, they took the charts away. Most of the time, I'd listen to a couple of run-throughs while he was doing his vocals, to get an idea of where the song was going. Then I'd figure out in my head where this Albert King lick or that Albert King lick would fit [laughs].”

Tributes have been shared for Television guitarist and co-founder Richard Lloyd, with Johnny Marr and Lloyd Cole among those remembering the influential musician, who died Saturday at the age of 75.

Marr, whose guitar playing with the Smiths was heavily influenced by Television's pioneering sound, remembered Lloyd as “a true inspiration,” while Cole praised the guitarist's contribution to the songs that made the band so distinctive.

“R.I.P Richard Lloyd. A seeker and finder and a true inspiration with and without the guitar,” Marr wrote on Instagram. “It was an honour to know him and a blessing to have been a fan. Thank you Richard. Carry on my friend.”

Cole, meanwhile, recalled seeing Television just once, but said Lloyd's playing made a lasting impression.

“RIP Richard Lloyd. I only saw Television once – all those amazing riffs that drive the songs – Richard played them all,” he wrote on X.

Television’s Instagram also shared a statement on social media following the death of their co-founder.

“We are so very sad that Richard Lloyd has today passed away at the age of 75,” the band wrote. “Deepest condolences to Sheila and to all of his family and friends.”

Lloyd died at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, following a battle with cholangiocarcinoma, a form of bile duct cancer. His family confirmed that his wife, Sheila, and their dog, Willie Mays, were with him when he died. He had been diagnosed with the disease in March.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1951, Lloyd moved to New York as a child and became immersed in the city's emerging underground music scene. In 1973, he joined forces with singer and guitarist Tom Verlaine, bass guitarist Richard Hell and drummer Billy Ficca to form Television.

The group became one of the first bands to establish a regular presence at CBGB, the Manhattan club that would become the epicenter of New York's burgeoning punk movement. But Television stood apart from many of their contemporaries, favoring intricate arrangements and extended instrumental passages over punk's more stripped-down approach.

Central to that sound was the guitar interplay between Lloyd and Verlaine. Their contrasting styles gave Television a distinctive musical identity, with interlocking lines, angular riffs and extended solos that pushed the possibilities of a two-guitar rock band.

The partnership reached its peak on Television's 1977 debut, Marquee Moon. The album's 10-minute title track remains one of rock's defining guitar performances, with Lloyd and Verlaine trading and intertwining melodic phrases across an expansive instrumental journey. Songs including "See No Evil," "Friction" and "Venus" further showcased their remarkable chemistry.

Television released a second album, Adventure, in 1978 before splitting later that year. Their influence, however, continued to grow, helping lay the groundwork for generations of post-punk, alternative and indie rock bands. Marr's tribute offers a particularly telling example of the reach of their guitar innovations.

Lloyd's career extended well beyond Television. He went solo with Alchemy in 1979 and went on to release a series of albums, including Field of Fire (1986) and The Countdown (2018). He also became a sought-after collaborator, contributing his distinctive guitar work to several albums by Matthew Sweet, including Girlfriend (1991), Altered Beast (1993) and 100% Fun (1995).

Television reunited in the early 1990s, releasing a self-titled third album in 1992. Lloyd continued performing with the group before departing in 2007 to concentrate on his solo career. He also chronicled his experiences in the New York rock scene in his 2017 memoir, Everything Is Combustible: Television, CBGB's and Five Decades of Rock and Roll.

Lloyd's death comes less than four years after Verlaine died in January 2023, aged 73.

Richard Lloyd, the co-founding guitarist of Television whose intricate, interlocking guitar work helped redefine rock music in the 1970s, has died at the age of 75.

Lloyd died Saturday, November 7, at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to a statement from his family reported by Rolling Stone. His wife, Sheila, and their dog, Willie Mays, were with him. The cause of death was cholangiocarcinoma, a form of bile duct cancer. He was diagnosed with the disease in March.

Born October 25, 1951, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Lloyd grew up with an interest in music and initially studied drums before turning to guitar. After moving to New York, he became part of the city's burgeoning underground rock scene, where he would help lay the groundwork for American punk.

In 1973, Lloyd joined forces with singer-guitarist Tom Verlaine, bass guitarist Richard Hell and drummer Billy Ficca to form Television. The group became a fixture at CBGB, the downtown Manhattan club that would serve as a launching pad for the New York punk movement. Lloyd later claimed that he had helped establish the venue as a rock club by arranging for Television to play there in 1974, opening the door for other emerging acts.

Television's 1977 debut, Marquee Moon, remains one of rock's most influential guitar albums. Its 10-minute title track, in particular, showcased the remarkable musical chemistry between Lloyd — playing a 1961 Fender Stratocaster — and Verlaine, on a late-’50s Jazzmaster. Rather than relying on the power chords and blunt aggression associated with punk, the two guitarists developed an intricate musical conversation built on intertwining melodies, unexpected harmonic turns and extended instrumental passages.

The album also featured the songs "See No Evil," "Friction" and "Venus." Television followed it with Adventure in 1978, but internal tensions and limited commercial success contributed to the band's breakup later that year.

Lloyd launched a solo career with Alchemy in 1979, followed by Field of Fire in 1986 and the live album Real Time in 1987. He also established himself as a distinctive collaborator, most notably contributing guitar to Matthew Sweet's acclaimed albums Girlfriend (1991), Altered Beast (1993) and 100% Fun (1995). His jagged, unpredictable playing provided a striking counterpoint to Sweet's melodic power pop.

Television reunited in the early 1990s, recording a self-titled third album in 1992 and periodically performing together in the years that followed. Lloyd eventually departed in 2007, continuing to record and perform under his own name. His later solo releases included The Radiant Monkey (2007), The Jamie Neverts Story (2009), Rosedale (2016) and The Countdown (2018).

Lloyd also documented his remarkable journey through the New York rock scene in his 2017 memoir, Everything Is Combustible: Television, CBGB's and Five Decades of Rock and Roll.

In a 2023 interview with Guitar Player, Lloyd discussed The Countdown, his approach to recording and the connection between his music and visual art. He described experiencing synesthesia, a condition in which the senses overlap, explaining that playing music brought colors to mind and painting felt like a musical experience.

“I’ve been painting for about three years now,” he said. “I suffer — or maybe I’m blessed — with synesthesia, where one sense blends into another.”

Read the full Guitar Player interview with Richard Lloyd here.

It’s been 45 years since Stray Cats released their first two albums — Stray Cats in February 1981 (featuring “Runaway Boys,” “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut”) and its follow-up, Gonna Ball, in November. Both were recorded in England while the band was living there, the former co-produced by Dave Edmunds with singer-guitarist Brian Setzer.

At the time, Stray Cats were the toast of the British music world, lauded by the likes of Led Zeppelin, the Who and the Rolling Stones, which had the rockabilly trio open their shows during the band’s 1981 American tour. Setzer, not surprisingly, remembers that embrace fondly.

“All the great British bands that all the Americans admired loved the Stray Cats and totally understood what we were doing,” Setzer tells us via phone from his home in Minnesota. “Where the American bands were all trying to be English bands, the English bands looked at us like, ‘This is the real thing.’

“They really embraced rockabilly and knew what it was. They had lived through the whole Teddy Boy thing. They knew Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. Their influences were Scotty Moore and Cliff Gallup.

“So when we came over there and hit the airwaves and hit the television, they really rolled out the red carpet for us. It was an amazing experience.”

Among his “million stories” from that time, Setzer recalls that the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards rolled out a red carpet at his home one day for a memorable session.

“He invited me over, and he had about four or five Les Paul Customs lying on the floor, with the Elvis Presley Sun Sessions playing. I picked up a guitar and I went, ‘Oh, he must’ve broken a string. It’s only got five strings.’ I picked up another one, same thing. I said, ‘Keith, your guitars only have five strings!’

“He explained to me his tuning and how he played. I said, ‘I can’t play these things.’ Luckily I brought my guitar with me, and I think we started just jamming on The Sun Sessions — ‘Baby Let’s Play House,’ ‘That’s All Right (Mama)’…”

Setzer, of course, was and remains a Gretsch man. He’ll have his three main G6120s electrics with him on Stray Cats’ upcoming summer tour, which starts July 24 in Las Vegas. The trek finds him back in good health after having to cancel a planned run last year while overcoming an incapacitating autoimmune disease and an equally debilitating addiction to the over-the-counter drink Kratom.

But he tells us that he’s had some surprising experiences on the Gibson front recently, after acquiring a 1960-vintage Les Paul Sunburst and a 1959 Flying V.

“I did it because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It was definitely a good choice,” says Setzer, who was more enamored with one than the other.

“The Les Paul is an incredibly constructed guitar. I get it,” he reports. “It plays in tune all the way up, all the way down. The pickups definitely have their own characteristics, a very unique sound. At the end of the day it’s not my sound, but I totally get it. They’re beautifully made, and they play beautifully.”

The Flying V was more to his liking, however.

“Check this out: I recorded myself just playing live in the studio, playing the Flying V on some tracks and the Gretsch on others. Do you know, I couldn’t tell the difference — which tells me the Flying V is a very twangy-sounding Gibson guitar, not like a Les Paul at all, even though it has the humbucking pickups and that very unique sound.

“I suppose it had a bit more sustain with those big humbuckers, but it’s so close [to the Gretsch], going through the chorus echo. I suppose if you took off the echo you could differentiate it a little more, but not much. They’re totally unique guitars, very different sounding than a Les Paul.”

While Norman’s Rare Guitars has built its reputation as one of the world’s premier vintage guitar shops, Norman Harris’ influence extends far beyond buying and selling old instruments. For decades, he’s also used the store’s considerable reach to help young musicians find an audience.

That side of Harris’ legacy is highlighted in the recent documentary Norman’s Rare Guitars, which explores not only the store’s celebrity clientele and vintage electric and acoustic guitar treasures but also the musicians who’ve found exposure through its popular “Guitar of the Day” videos.

“The way he helps struggling artists that come through the store, like, ‘Hey, come play a song, we’ll put it on our YouTube channel,’” Joe Bonamassa says in the film.

“And you can sit on that sofa, and you can play, and they’ll put it out,” adds Malcolm McDowell. “It’s such an important place for a young musician to go and get a little exposure. He nurtures.”

A quick scroll through the store’s YouTube channel reveals countless young players showcasing everything from blues and country to rock and fingerstyle guitar. For many, the videos provided exposure they might not have found elsewhere.

“He’s finding musicians and bands that he thinks are worth breaking, sets them up in here, and makes them play,” actor Kiefer Sutherland says. “He’s actually making a difference.”

One musician who benefited directly from that exposure is slide guitarist ace Sarah Rogo, who later became a regular presenter on the channel.

“Norm’s platform definitely helped elevate my platform a lot,” she says. “With the YouTube algorithm, someone will punch in the name of a unique guitar, and Norman’s Rare Guitars is the first place that pops up, and they’ll see me playing the guitar. Billy Gibbons called the store one day and said, ‘Who’s that girl playing the resonator guitars?’”

But perhaps the most notable success story to emerge from the channel is Marcus King.

Mark Agnesi, who managed the store before joining Gibson, remembers filming a young King during a visit to the shop.

“I remember when he came into the store,” Agnesi recalls. “We start rolling the video, he starts playing, and then he opens his mouth and starts singing. It stopped you dead in your tracks; it was like, ‘Oh my god, I am watching the real deal right now, this kid is gonna have a serious career.’”

Agnesi’s prediction proved accurate. Since then, King has released seven albums, earned a Grammy nomination, and landed signature gear deals with Gibson and Orange.

“That video launched a career,” King says.

The clip eventually surpassed two million views, and Bonamassa was among those who took notice. According to Agnesi, Bonamassa’s reaction was simple: it wasn’t a question of whether King would make it, but when — and that time was already arriving.

As Harris puts it in the film, “giving back is very important.” Through Norman’s Rare Guitars, he’s done far more than connect players with vintage instruments; he’s helped connect promising musicians with the audiences they needed to reach.

Keith Richards is the king of putdowns. Bruce Springsteen? “To me, it’s pretentious,” he told Rolling Stone in 1988. Prince? “To me, it’s kid stuff.” Guns N’ Roses? “I admire their guts. But too much posing.”

But no fellow rocker has earned the Telecaster-toting guitarist’s ire as much as Elton John. It’s bad enough that Richards has taken every opportunity to refer to John in interviews by his homely birth name, Reginald Dwight — he’s also leveled some of his harshest snipes at the piano-playing rocker. In response, Elton — a musician every bit as bitchy as Keef — has given back in equal measure.

To be fair, there’s nothing unusual about feuds between rockers. They all have egos — and opinions. Even Carlos Santana, known for his beneficent and spiritual demeanor, has a dark streak. Remember when he famously put down Kiss in 2000, launching a years-long fight between the two men?

But Keith and Elton’s spat has been among the longest-running, and certainly most enjoyable to watch, over the years.

Apparently it began at a 1975 Rolling Stones concert in Fort Collins, Colorado, during the group’s Tour of the Americas ’75. It was the band’s first road show with Ronnie Wood, who replaced Mick Taylor following his comparatively brief stint in the band. With no new album to announce — It’s Only Rock ’N Roll had come out more than seven months earlier — the band was simply trying out its new lineup and giving fans more of what they wanted.

Unfortunately, everyone got a little too much at the July 20 show in Fort Collins at Hughes Stadium. Midway through the show, the Stones brought Elton onstage to play piano and sing along as they performed their hit “Honky Tonk Women.” Introduced by Mick Jagger as “Reg from Watford,” Elton appeared onstage wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers windbreaker and a cowboy hat.

He performed “Honky Tonk Women,” then played along on another 10 songs. The Stones’ keyboardists, Billy Preston and Ian Stewart, were put off by his endless noodling. The band struggled to get him to leave, and even the audience began to boo.

As John explained in his autobiography, Rocketman, his behavior was all down to the effects of cocaine, which was quickly becoming everyone’s drug of choice in the 1970s.

“Cocaine gave me too much confidence for my own good,” he wrote. “If I hadn’t been coked out of my head when the Rolling Stones turned up in Colorado and asked me to come onstage with them, I might have just performed ‘Honky Tonk Women,’ waved to the crowd and made my exit. Instead, I decided it was going so well, I’d stay on and jam along to the rest of their set, without first taking the precaution of asking the Stones if they wanted an auxiliary keyboard player.”

“For a while, I thought Keith Richards kept staring at me because he was awestruck by the brilliance of my improvised contributions to their oeuvre. After a few songs, it finally penetrated my brain that the expression on his face wasn’t really suggestive of profound musical appreciation. I quickly scuttled off, noting as I went that Keith was still staring at me in a manner that suggested we’d be discussing this later, and decided it might be best if I didn’t hang around for the after-show party.”

Years later, Richards was still fuming. Asked in that same Rolling Stone article above what he thought of Elton’s then-current top-10 single, “I Don’t Wanna Go On With You Like That,” he replied, “Lovely bloke, but posing.”

Elton took the sniping in stride. But it was Richards’ next zinger that got under his skin.

When Elton’s friend Princess Diana died in 1997, he reframed his 1973 hit “Candle in the Wind,” an ode to Marilyn Monroe, as a tribute to the late member of the royal family.

Keith stuck the knife in. “Songs for Dead Blondes,” he declared of the two tunes in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that October. “I’d find it difficult to ride on the back of something like that myself, but Reg is showbiz.”

Elton responded in kind in an interview with The Daily News that same month.

“I’m glad I’ve given up drugs and alcohol,” he griped. “It would be awful to be like Keith Richards. He’s pathetic, poor thing. It’s like a monkey with arthritis, trying to go onstage and look young.

“I have great respect for the Stones but they would have been better if they had thrown Keith out 15 years ago. … I just think he’s an asshole and I have for a long time.”

Elton was apparently still seething in 2011 when he took aim at Richards’ new autobiography, Life, in which the guitarist revealed some details about Mick Jagger’s anatomy that would be better left unsaid.

“I was a bit put off by hearing about the bit about Mick Jagger’s penis,” Elton huffed. “If I said that [John’s songwriting partner] Bernie Taupin was a miserable twat and had a small penis, he’d probably never talk to me again. It’s like, why do that?”

With no end in sight to the feud, Ronnie Wood intervened to get the two men to call a truce. When Keef and Elton showed up for the GQ Awards in London on September 8, 2015, relations were cordial enough for them to pose for a photo together.

Apparently, all was forgiven on both sides when Elton joined the Stones for a guest appearance on the tracks “Get Close” and “Live by the Sword” from their 2023 album, Hackney Diamonds. John was thrilled to finally become part of the Rolling Stones family, alongside guests that included Paul McCartney.

But Keith couldn’t help using the collaboration for a bit of self-aggrandizement, noting that it was Elton — not the Stones — who was basking in reflected glory.

“Everyone’s a fan of the Rolling Stones. Just like Paul, Elton was like, ‘I just fucking played with the Rolling Stones.’”

The story goes that Eric Clapton was inspired to form his power trio Cream after seeing Buddy Guy perform with his trio in England. With the release of their debut album, Fresh Cream, in 1966, Clapton and his group would influence American guitarist Leslie West to follow suit and pursue a power trio of his own: Mountain.

“When I heard Fresh Cream I was shocked,” the late guitarist told us in our March 2014 issue. “I couldn’t believe what the hell was going on. The guitar sounded like a voice, the voice sounded like a guitar — I didn’t know what was up.”

Cream’s next album, 1967’s psychedelic-inspired Disraeli Gears, took things up several notches, thanks to its adventurous production and arrangements, courtesy of the group’s new producer Felix Pappalardi.

“And sure enough, when Disraeli Gears came out, I looked and saw that it was produced by Felix Pappalardi,” West said.

The name was very familiar to him.

“He had produced a couple of songs for my first group, the Vagrants. I remember saying to my brother — who was the bass player in the Vagrants — ‘Holy shit, that’s the same Felix that produced us!’ My brother said, ‘So how come we don’t sound like Cream?’ He thought we sucked because we didn’t practice enough. I started practicing a lot after that.”

West went on to hire Pappalardi as the bass guitarist and producer for his 1969 debut solo album, Mountain, which included drummer N.D. Smart rounding out the power-trio lineup. Listeners assumed Mountain was the band’s name. As a result, when West and Pappalardi subsequently decided to make it official, it was a foregone conclusion they would call it Mountain.

They hired drummer Corky Laing, whose previous band, Energy, had been produced by Pappalardi. West was convinced they needed to remain a trio, but Pappalardi thought Mountain might appear to be riding Cream's coattails, especially given his past involvement with the group. He believed the addition of a fourth member would solve the problem, so they hired keyboardist Steve Knight.

“That was because Felix didn’t want us to look or sound like Cream,” West confirmed. “And it worked on some songs — like ‘Theme From an Imaginary Western,’ ‘Don’t Look Around’ and ‘Nantucket Sleighride.’

“But we eventually dropped the keyboard. The organ was a nice pad, though, and I had to work a lot harder with the trio.”

If West was happy working with Pappalardi, he was even more thrilled when he got to play with Cream’s bassist, Jack Bruce, in his follow-up group, West, Bruce and Laing.

“When [Felix] decided he didn’t want to go on the road anymore, we started West, Bruce and Laing,” West says. “I think Jack Bruce was the most talented musician I’ve ever played with. If it weren’t for drugs, we might even still be playing together.”

In the same interview, West noted that he liked to keep everything simple. His electric guitar of choice in Mountain was a Gibson Les Paul Junior with a single P90 pickup. And although he didn’t play fast or use all the fingers on his fretting hand, he managed to carve out his own niche by making the most of his talents.

“I’m very lucky. I’m not a fast player and I only play with my first and third fingers, but I focused more on melody, tone and vibrato,” he said. He complemented those skills with his unique picking technique that employed pinch harmonics.

“That’s what I do best, rather than try to play fast, which I can’t. Nothing bothers me more than somebody who’s playing fast and sloppy and missing notes all over the place.

“When I was growing up, a lot of guys did speed, and when you talked to them you couldn’t understand a word they were saying. With speed-freak guitar players it’s like, ‘Where’s the downbeat?’”

West made a point of telling guitarists to keep their speed in check at every opportunity. Jared James Nichols told Guitar Player he was once the recipient of West’s wisdom when he was booked to open for the guitarist at B.B. King’s in New York City. Prior to the show, the two men had an impromptu session.

“We started jamming — it was really cool,” Nichols told Guitar Player. “Finally, he stopped playing and looked at me, and serious as can be he said, ‘Slow the fuck down!’ He meant it.”

After soundcheck, West sat down to give Nichols a bit of heartfelt advice. “He said that he really liked my vibrato and tone,” Nichols said. “I remember him saying, ‘You’ve got great feel and a nice touch. Don’t sacrifice all of that for speed.’ I’ll tell you, it meant a lot to me, and I really took it to heart.”

Anika Nilles has a particular Rush song she'd love to bring back to the band's set list — one that hasn't been performed live in more than 40 years.

The drummer, who joined Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson for their Fifty Something reunion tour earlier this summer, has already developed a wish list of material she'd like to tackle with the Canadian rock legends. One track in particular stands out: “Kid Gloves,” from the band's 1984 album Grace Under Pressure.

“I told Geddy, if I can ever have a wish list song, can we do that one? And he was like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting,’” she tells USA Today. “I play it a little bit in the dressing room just for fun. I love the grooves, the buildup and everything. I love the harmonies and the vibe.”

It's a deep cut with a long history in Rush's live repertoire. “Kid Gloves” featured regularly in the band's concerts during the 1984 tour supporting Grace Under Pressure, but hasn't appeared in a set since. According to Setlist.fm, its last outing came during the first of two Honolulu shows in November of that year, where it was played between “Closer to the Heart” and “YYZ.”

Nilles has had some formidable expectations to contend with since taking over the drum stool once occupied by the late Neil Peart, who died in 2020 following a private battle with cancer. But she's made a strong impression on Rush fans, earning praise for her musicianship as well as the humor she's brought to the reunion. She's also spoken warmly about the support she's received from Lee and Lifeson as she's found her footing in the band.

That relationship will enter a new phase next year when Rush brings its Elevate From the Norm residency to the Sphere in Las Vegas, beginning May 21, 2027. Nilles has been to the city only once before, so the prospect of performing at the cutting-edge venue — and getting to explore Las Vegas — is especially appealing.

“Everything is new for me there,” she says. “I saw video of No Doubt and Metallica and U2 and that was great.”

For Lee, the residency is an opportunity he once thought Rush had missed. When the band announced the shows, he reflected on how perfectly the venue's visual capabilities would complement the elaborate production Rush has built its live shows around.

“When I first heard of Sphere, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, what a shame that Rush is no longer touring, because this venue sounds tailor made for the kind of visual attitude with which we have always designed our shows,'" he said in a press release. "Normally we spend months designing the visual effects for our shows and this scenario seemed like the cherry on top of the ice cream for our design team. But life is nothing if not surprising and now, here we are, living and touring in the present tense and we are able to make that particular dream come true."

The first round of presales for Rush's Las Vegas residency begins today, November 6, with additional presales scheduled for next week. Tickets go on sale to the general public November 13. More information is available at the band's official website.

Every guitarist knows the feeling of sitting down with guitar in hand, determined to finally conquer something critical on the fretboard, only to get lost in an endless line-up of disjointed YouTube videos. Without a coherent development path, all you end up with is a collection of random party tricks rather than true guitar fluency. Now, breaking out of that is as easy as taking advantage of this Guitar Tricks Black Friday deal – get an entire year, plus loads of extras, for only $99 (rather than the usual $899).

When we rounded up the market in our guide to the best online guitar lessons, Guitar Tricks earned our coveted "Best overall", and for good reason. We found Guitar Tricks to be the most well-rounded platform, offering something for players at every level, whether you’re looking for specific techniques, artist studies, song lessons (of which there’s over 800), or simply better structure to your lessons.

For fresh players or anyone dusting off a guitar after a hiatus, Guitar Tricks strips away paralysis by analysis. Its Core Learning System guides you methodically from basic physical mechanics like alternate picking and open chords through to rhythm timing and introductory lead work. Best of all, it doesn't leave you stranded in sterile exercise drills; skills are immediately applied to authentic riffs. Once you conquer the essentials, the curriculum branches neatly into dedicated style-based paths covering blues, rock, country, and acoustic.

But you don’t just get the basic lessons package with this deal. The bumper Black Friday bundle includes a range of tools and materials to keep you inspired for a very long time. Here’s a quick breakdown of what you get:

• Yearly subscription price (normally $359)
• Custom Lesson Plan (normally $99)
• Premium Bootcamp Access (normally $79)
• 100 Essential Licks Series (normally $79)
• Ultimate Beginner Guide (normally $29)
• Guitar Setup Guide (normally $29)
• Guitar Soloing Guide ebook (normally $29)
• 4 Bonus Learning Tools (normally $196)

All this is only $99 for a limited time, which works out at just $8.25 per month. You’ll pay more than that for a pack of strings! And with the 60-day money back guarantee, there’s zero risk to giving it a go.

• 👉 This way to more Black Friday guitar deals

Okay, let’s be honest, waiting around until late November for official Black Friday guitar deals is exhausting. Black Friday itself is still a few weeks away, but you don't have to wait until the big day to score huge savings on top guitar gear.

Many major retailers and top brands are already rolling out early Black Friday deals, giving guitarists a head start on holiday shopping before stock sells out.

Plus, shopping early means you get first pick of the gear before stock runs out, and you avoid the headache of peak holiday shipping delays.

I’ve sifted through the noise and rounded up the top early Black Friday guitar and gear sales live right now so you can dive straight in.

In the UK?

Nile Rodgers has accused critics of being hypocritical for objecting to his use of artificial intelligence, arguing that people who routinely rely on AI-powered technology shouldn't take issue with his using it to create a music video.

The Chic co-founder sparked a backlash on Instagram earlier this week after sharing a behind-the-scenes clip of himself being digitally captured for an upcoming project. Rodgers described the process as “creating an AI me,” calling it “next level” and expressing excitement about the finished result.

“I envisioned stories with incredible environments and music. It’s future time!” he wrote, citing the Eagles' residency at Las Vegas' Sphere as inspiration.

Not everyone was enthusiastic. Several Instagram followers questioned his decision to embrace AI. One expressed disappointment, another suggested there were better ways to preserve his legacy, and a third asked: “What is happening with old artists using AI?!”

Rodgers wasn't prepared to accept the criticism. Responding to one commenter who dismissed AI-generated content as “some kind of magic for old ppl,” the producer challenged them to wait until they'd seen the finished work.

“Do you have a problem with CGI? I can’t believe you’d go on record without even seeing what I’m doing.

“Oh well… sending love anyway. Let me know after you see the work if you feel the same way your brain is taking you❤️.”

The project turns out to be a video for Rodgers' 2020 charity recording of ‘The Christmas Song,’ featuring Rebecca Ferguson. Subsequent posts offered a glimpse of the production, including images of the two performers alongside an enormous fuzzy creature, a collection of cuddly animals in the audience, and a festive green-and-gold title card.

When another follower questioned the decision to use AI for a charitable project, Rodgers offered a more detailed account of the creative process, insisting the technology hadn't simply been left to generate the visuals on its own.

“We created everything. Mood boards, storyboards and did it the same way we’d do a film,” he explained.

“The AI did what we told it to do and we painstakingly created every second you’ll see on the screen. My director is a TV director. We did it setup by setup. If this were a traditional film, it would’ve cost about $100,000.”

Rodgers, who has famously played a white Stratocaster through nearly all his career, also turned the criticism back on his detractors, arguing that their everyday reliance on technology makes their objections difficult to justify.

“By the way, you’re using AI daily. You just hit me on Instagram. You’re being hypocritical. It’s OK for you to use AI in your way, but you have problem with my way. Do you use Google, or get driving directions? Look at your own daily actions and check how much you use AI. Love, Nile.”

The finished video is scheduled to arrive November 20. But Rodgers' explanation of the project also revealed a more personal reason for making it: his own experience with cancer and the encouragement he received from a young child during his recovery.

“When I had my 1st bout of cancer, it was a child who coached me and gave me courage to fight,” he wrote.

“I know a lot of children who are bedridden and ill. Their main form of entertainment is the iPad or other such devices. I produced ‘The Christmas Song’ to give them a little joy during the holiday season.”

Rodgers said the video would give the song's storyline a playful twist, while introducing him to a new creative circle. He plans to share additional previews as the team works toward the November 20 release.

This isn't the first time Rodgers has spoken out in favor of AI. As Consequence previously reported, he defended generative technology in 2023, dismissing the argument that AI-generated music is “fake” as something that “sounds like noise to me.”

“The drum machine and sequencer have been wonderful tools. There are bands that could never have had a record if it wasn’t for a sequencer,” he said.

For Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, making a record together was inevitable.

It was just a question of when. Now, 52 years after Satriani began giving Vai guitar lessons while they were teenagers growing up on Long Island, it’s happened.

The Sea of Emotion, which comes out November 6, is a labor of love the two guitar heroes have spent much of the last two years making between other projects. Those include Satriani’s membership in Sammy Hagar’s Van Halen-saluting Best of All Worlds Band and Vai’s assignment to the Robert Fripp seat in the King Crimson spin-off Beat.

For guitar fans, it’s the arrival of a sonic summit meeting that’s been on many a wish list. For Satriani, 70, and Vai, 66, it’s the culmination of a lifetime of work and mutual admiration.

Vai remembers those lessons with Satriani as “glorified jam sessions,” sitting back-to-back in Satriani’s backyard, playing unamplified and learning to intuit what each other were doing.

“That was an incredible training,” Vai tells us during a joint Zoom with Satriani. “When you do something like that, you develop a listening atmosphere, so to speak. For me that’s one of the highlights of being a musician, sharing that space with somebody else.”

Their ambitions led each to California for long careers spent mostly in parallel as they released their own albums and worked in bands: Satriani with Deep Purple, Mick Jagger, the Greg Kihn Band and the all-star Chickenfoot; three-time Grammy Award winner Vai with Frank Zappa, Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake. They intersected on many occasions, primarily during the Satriani-organized G3 tours that started in 1996.

During 2024, meanwhile, Satriani and Vai toured together with their own bands and teamed up on the encores. When management suggested having something original to play together, they recorded “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1,” which set the idea of a full-fledged band of their own, and an album, in motion.

This year SatchVai released two more songs — “I Wanna Play My Guitar,” featuring Glenn Hughes on vocals, and “Dancing” — while completing The Sea of Emotion remotely, with producer/keyboardist Eric Caudieux assembling contributions from a rotating cast of musicians. Drummer Kenny Aronoff and bass guitarist Marco Mendoza joined SatchVai on tour during the summer, along with guitarist Pete Thorn.

The album runs a wide stylistic gamut, from the hard-charging “Mayhem” and “Bronco Freight Train” to the lively “Dancing,” an interpretation of a song by Italian singer Paolo Conte. “The Feeling I Know” builds majestically from a quiet start, while “Old Sins Have Long Shadows” leans toward fusion. The centerpiece, of course, is the three-part “The Sea of Emotion,” more than 17 minutes of collaborative combustion that pushes the pair to new peaks of prowess.

Neither Satriani, who resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, nor Vai, who is based in San Diego, was in need of a career statement at this point, but The Sea of Emotion is certainly one. Call it a summit or a master class; it’s how two generational talents finally found a moment to join forces and do something they, and the rest of the world, have been waiting for.

So... what took so long?

SATRIANI [laughs] We certainly thought that when the time was right, it would happen. We couldn’t figure out ahead of time, with our schedules, like, “This year we’re gonna do it” or something like that. We knew a project like this was gonna take us away from all those other things we wanted to do. So without talking about it, we figured it would happen when it happened. And it did, quite organically.

VAI It’s something we always considered in the back of our minds, but we were forging our careers and we had a lot of ideas for our solo music. This album had a little bit of an odd chronology, because Joe and I had all these other gigs going on, and the evolution of making the record was kind of organic. We never actually sat there and thought, “Hey, do you want to make a record together?” It just happened. We knew.

All good things come to those who wait, then.

SATRIANI I’m glad we waited for it, in a way. Now we’re remarkably older, and we’ve had this benefit of a crazy roller coaster of success. So there was such a relaxed attitude toward, “What are we gonna write?” and “What kind of album are we gonna do?” We simply never talked about it.

If we’d tried it before, when we were really trying to prove ourselves and take advantage of our sudden successes, we would’ve brought that anxiety into the studio and would’ve had a lot of pressure from outside sources, labels and things like that. Doing it now, we were able to let it just happen.

VAI When people who know Joe and I listen to it, they’ll obviously know if something was Joe’s or mine. And there are songs here like that.

But there are others that were just an idea, a couple of chords or a riff or something, and we built them up going back and forth with each other. I don’t collaborate like that very often; I’m usually the master and commander of every note, so it was really great to be in an environment where it was so creative.

SATRIANI What keeps coming to my mind is coming to terms with the fact that we’ve made this record that has this compositional weight to it that’s really something. It’s not a record that I would’ve made on my own, and I don’t think Steve would’ve made on his own.

Somehow when we get together we make this third thing we weren’t expecting that’s really greater than the sum of its parts. That’s how it feels now that I’ve forgotten all the fader moves and the edits and everything; I can just listen as a normal human being, and these songs are intense. They’re beautiful and unexpected and have all these cool little Easter eggs everywhere. It’s just really nice.

Easter eggs? Explain...

SATRIANI The biggest one, really, is the fact there’s a recording of us playing when we were teenagers that I had made during a guitar lesson we were doing in my childhood bedroom. Steve kept that tape and transferred it to digital and decided to write a song based on those few minutes of us trying to work out a lesson built around something I was writing at the time.

If people didn’t know this story they’d probably think it’s the weirdest introduction to a song they’ve ever heard, but what a perfect way for “The Sea of Emotion, Part 3” to start — going back to an actual recording of us playing as teenagers. I think that’s pretty amazing.

Making the album, what did you learn about each other and each other’s playing that you didn’t know — or could not have known from the ways you’ve worked together before?

VAI I think for me, many things were reinforced based on my perspective of what I was expecting — things like quality of melody, quality of rhythm, instincts for ideas and sections and things like that. One of the things that didn’t surprise me was Joe’s instantaneous inventiveness, just sitting there and playing. The riffs come organically, frequently, and they just sound so inspired. I’m in the next room going, “What is he doing?! We’ve got to record that and make a song out of it!” It’s constant, and it’s cool. It was constant inspiration and education.

SATRIANI I had this sort of revelation the other day, when I was listening to the album. I was surprised because I thought I knew how crazy Steve was, but as we progressed writing and recording this album remotely, you’d be waiting a day or a week or a month for the other part to arrive. And then you’d get it and you’d think, “What the hell is that?! That’s insane!” And that happens over and over again.

So I thought I knew how crazy Steve was until we got to the very end of the record, and I thought, “I did not know he was that crazy!”

VAI [laughs] I can’t help it. Sorry.

SATRIANI I even went back to his other records, like, “How did I miss that?” And, no, he’s been more conservative in the past. He got even crazier on this album, where I thought maybe he would have done the opposite.

VAI I blame you for that.

So how reactive were you to each other during this process? Did the interaction really make Steve crazier, and then what did that bring out of Joe?

VAI The nice thing is I don’t think we felt limitations from the outside world...from what the industry is doing, from what technology is doing. I would receive something from Joe, and to reflect on what he was just saying, I was feeling the same way. It’s rare to hear something innovative and new in just a little riff or something, but there were so many of those.

Like, I remember when I received the “Zoot Suit Riot” solo. I was stunned. In the back of your mind, you’re not competing but you’re trying to up your game based on how the other guy is upping his game. For me that means you’ve got to go a little more crazy. You’ve got to think a little bit more out of the box.

So after I heard that “Zoot Suit Riot” solo and especially the little, tickling riff on the end of it [sings], I’m like, “What the fuck is he doing?!” Then it’s like, “Okay, I’m taking the straitjacket off. What can I do? Where’s the weird Steve Vai?” — within reason.

SATRIANI [laughs] No. No reason.

VAI So the riffs turn more into a guilty pleasure as opposed to being appropriate for the songs, and that was fun. It was so fun. I think we both went to places we may never have gone on our own. It needed that chemistry, that chemical soup of both of our DNAs. It was really fantastic.

SATRIANI The first time I heard “Zoot Suit Riot” I thought, This is a Steve Vai show. In my mind, I could see how Steve would set the stage up, what he would wear, how the song would go down based on the entire presentation beyond just the cool guitar parts and the interesting melody and all the cool rhythms. I just never write music like that.

So all of a sudden I’m in this position where I’m hearing it and I’ve got to grow into this, somehow. Steve has offered this amazing piece of music up, and I don’t know what the hell I’m gonna play, because I’ve never inhabited it before. So it doesn’t surprise me that I would play something that would surprise Steve, because he’s surprised me.

And that whole process played out over and over again on this record. There are spots in each song where one of us offered something and the other one would respond like, “Wow, that’s crazy. What am I gonna do now? I’ve got to somehow up my game in this fun process.”

“Dancing” is emblematic of that. What’s the story there?

VAI Many years ago, in the early ’80s, I found this Paolo Conte track; he’s an Italian, kind of pop singer, very famous. I just fell in love with it and kept listening to it through the years, and I would keep imagining it as a guitar track. So I kept it in the back of my mind and just thought, “Well, one day...,” ’cause I wanted to do it with another guitar player.

When we started doing this album, I sent it to Joe and said, “I got a crazy idea here. I love this track. I want to make all the horns that are on it the guitar tracks and beef up the arrangement.” I thought he’d say, “What, are you crazy? This is not rock and roll!” or whatever, but he came back and said, “I don’t know what I’m gonna play on this, but I trust your insanity,” so we did it.

SATRIANI I like the idea that it showcases some of Steve’s bizarre ideas about what you can do with the guitar and the guitar arrangement of a song. It was really a product of just pure fun, me putting on my guitar and going, “What the hell am I gonna play on this track that’s got, like, 18 Steve Vai guitar tracks on it?”

Glenn Hughes recently announced a retirement from touring and live performances due to health reasons. That must make it mean more to have him singing on “I Wanna Play My Guitar.”

SATRIANI I have great memories of that session. That was the only time Steve and I were together at a session for this record. We were at the Harmony Hut, Steve’s studio, and Eric was there with us, along with Glenn. That was pretty magical, just watching Glenn sing.

And, y’know, the odd part about it is I’m the only one who ever hired Glenn Hughes to not sing on an entire album. This was What Happens Next [Satriani’s 2018 album featuring Hughes on bass guitar], and it was the funniest thing just to watch him not be able to sing, ’cause in-between takes he’d be singing things that would’ve been appropriate for the songs. He just couldn’t help it. I thought, “Oh, damn, I should’ve written a vocal album for him.”

So it was really great to watch him sing on this, just hour after hour getting better and better with every vocal take he’d do, and just trying different things. He’s a magical singer.

Was there any particular piece of gear or some kind of technique that was part of the album what you felt was brand new or, just out of the ordinary?

SATRIANI Well, the main weird thing is that Steve and I recorded this album not using any amplifiers and microphones on our guitars, I don’t think, other than the recording from years back.

VAI I used my [signature Carvin] Legacy [amp] for the rhythm on “Part 3,” but that was it. There were a couple of really nice moments that were a little left of center for what we normally do, such as “The Sea of Emotion, Part 2” and the nylon-string Joe plays. That’s a really beautiful part, and very different from the past.

SATRIANI Today, if you’re 18 years old making an album, the thought of going into a studio with microphones and engineers is, like, so old-school. Everyone goes direct. They’re all using plug-ins and some way of just recording directly.

Steve and I love the art of recording with microphones and speakers and outboard gear and tape and everything. We have so much experience with the traditional way of recording guitar.

I’ve done a lot of DI recording over the years, but I still really love being in a studio, the whole chaotic circus element of it, and watching an engineer with a great set of ears find the right tone.

How about guitars?

SATRIANI I used my ’58 Esquire again. It’s been on every record since ’92, when I picked it up. I used it for a slide solo on “Bronco Freight Train.” Everything else was pretty normal — just my most recent [Ibanez] JS guitars that happened to be hanging out in the room for those few days where I’d be home. And I always use this crazy choral sitar Sterling Ball made for me that’s a seven-string, sitar-style neck and harp strings. That was one of the more bizarre instruments I used.

VAI All my guitars were pretty conventional, but one of the things I like to do is try to experiment with the existing gear that’s available and do things with it maybe I haven’t done before. The DigiTech Whammy Pedal has so much potential in creating sounds and riffs that are not just the conventional thing. The solo I did on “Part 2” of “The Sea of Emotion” — at the end there’s these chord changes, and I’m doing this fast, kind of hammering riff, and the whammy bar is used to change the register of the riff on various notes. That was something I hadn’t really done, so it was more of a stretching of an existing piece of gear.

SatchVai looks like a going concern, then?

VAI Joe and I kind of work in the moment. We never even talked about putting a band together until it just happened; it just felt like the time was right. So I think that’s gonna be the M.O. moving forward.

I know that we are interested in getting back to being our own generals and entering back into our own creative impulses on a solo level. But it was such a fun process, and it was easy and creative. I can’t imagine not working together again, even if in the future it’s just sharing tracks and creating like that.

SATRIANI Really, the most important thing is we created the music. We made a fantastic album. To me that’s the most important thing. That’s always been my main desire, to make an original album. You can play 300 shows a year, or 10, but if there’s no document, if there’s no original music, you’re kind of nowhere. That’s the thing that’ll always be there and stand the test of time. People can go and visit it any time, no matter where we are.

AC/DC’s Brian Johnson has recalled how he wrote the lyrics to “You Shook Me All Night Long” in a matter of hours — and how Malcolm Young immediately recognized the song’s potential. The story comes from a 2011 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, whose full 38-minute interview with the singer has just been released on YouTube.

Johnson joined AC/DC in 1980, following the death of former frontman Bon Scott, as the Australian rockers began work on the follow-up to 1979’s Highway to Hell. The resulting album, Back in Black, would become one of rock’s biggest records. Its opening track, “You Shook Me All Night Long,” was also the first song Johnson wrote with guitar-playing brothers Angus and Malcolm Young.

“The first song I had to write was ‘You Shook Me All Night Long,’” Johnson recalled. “And I remember sitting there. This is when my passion with cars comes in. The first line I wrote was, ‘She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean, she was the best damn woman…,’ and I went, ‘I’m writing it with cars again.’

“And I give it to Mal the next morning. He’s going, ‘Are you writing about cars?’ I went, ‘No, I’m trying to get the women and the car.’ And he says, ‘Ah, no worries, man. It sounds great.’ And that was it.”

Johnson said Malcolm was still raving about the song the morning after they recorded it. The guitarist wanted to hear it again, prompting Johnson to make a bold assessment of what they had created.

“We just had a little cassette player in this little house we had. And then the next morning, Mal put it on again. He said, ‘I’m gonna listen to this again, mate.’ I sat, and I just went, ‘Y’know, I think that might be the best rock and roll song I’ve ever heard in my life.’ ‘What?’ ‘I’m telling you, I think that’s the best rock and roll song.’ And Mal said, ‘You could be right, mate.’”

The song came together quickly, Johnson explained, partly because he knew the pressure was on to deliver a worthy follow-up to Highway to Hell. In a separate interview with Absolute Radio, he recalled that Angus and Malcolm already had the title in mind when they began working on the track.

“The boys had a title,” he said. “Malcolm and Angus said, ‘Listen, we’ve got this song. It’s called ‘Shook Me All Night Long.’ That’s what we want the song to be called.’ And if you listen to the chords, [the chorus] just fell into place, so I can’t claim any credit on that thing.”

Johnson also remembered feeling the need to impress his new bandmates as he tackled his first songwriting assignment.

“It was as quick as it had to be, which was that night. I guess I had to try and impress somebody,” he said. “It was just a thing that came at the time, and I still think it’s one of the greatest rock and roll riffs I’ve ever heard in my life.”

History has certainly been kind to the song. “You Shook Me All Night Long” became one of AC/DC’s signature tracks and their first single to reach the U.S. Top 40. It remains one of the band’s most popular recordings, with more than 1.8 billion streams on Spotify.

Rush will celebrate two classic albums when they take over the Las Vegas Sphere for a five-show residency next summer. The performances will mark another milestone in the Canadian prog giants’ celebrated return to the stage, with full-album renditions of 2112 and Moving Pictures planned for the run.

Rush seemed to have exited stage left for the last time in the summer of 2015, only to make a surprise comeback last year. Former Jeff Beck drummer Annika Nilles, the gutsy musician chosen to fill the late Neil Peart’s drum throne, will join Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson for the newly announced shows.

The five performances will take place at the futuristic venue on May 21, 23, 26, 28 and 30. The setlists will include full performances of 1976’s transformative album, 2112, and Moving Pictures, the 1981 release that went five-times Platinum.

In an official statement, bass player and vocalist Lee said he and Lifeson are working hard to concoct “some new madness” to suit the high-tech venue (via Rolling Stone).

When Moving Pictures gets played in full, Lifeson will get to revisit one of his favorite guitar solos in a venue that would have seemed like science fiction when the idea was first dreamed up during a bitterly cold Quebec winter. The guitarist has singled out his work on “Limelight” as a particular source of pride.

“I remember recording this solo because we had speakers set up outside to catch the delays and some echoes,” he told Behind The Vinyl in 2016.

Moving Pictures was recorded at Le Studio (later renamed Studio Morin Heights), where the band had also made the previous year’s Permanent Waves. It would become something of a second home for Rush, who went on to record Signals, Grace Under Pressure, Presto, Roll the Bones and Counterparts there.

Lifeson says his Hentor Sportscaster and beloved ES-355, “Whitey,” accounted for much of the guitar work on the album. The “Limelight” solo, meanwhile, finds him at perhaps his most expressive.

“I really am proud of this solo,” he said. “We did it in five or six takes, and we did a compilation of those takes to arrive at what we have. But what really moves me about this solo is its lonely character, which really fits the mood and tone of the lyrics that Neil wrote about this song.”

Peart wrote “Limelight” about his discomfort with the public and media attention that the trio’s success had brought them. Lifeson was keen to extend that sense of isolation through his 26-bar solo.

“It's a very elastic solo,” he added. “It moves around, and the delays cascade and overlap. It ends with a very high point – literally a high point, high E string at the top of the neck – and it's a very dynamic build.”

That emphasis on dynamics, and on making a solo contribute to a song's narrative, is something Lifeson has also discussed when talking about Envy of None's second album with Guitar Player. The project helped him rediscover his love of soloing.

Speaking to Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett last year, Lifeson also reiterated the importance of knowing when to stop rather than overworking a part.

“I really wanted to echo that feeling,” he said. “But I find after five or six takes, I start repeating myself. I get bored with it. I'm impulsive when it comes to that sort of thing, whereas Geddy needs to hear everything wrong before he knows what's right. So he'll spend hours and hours doing stuff. I like to spend minutes.

“It has a lot of languid movements; bends and pulls and drops, and notes that come in and creep up,” he said of the solo. “And when I first heard the comp, I thought it really reflected the emotional character of the song; of being disconnected and living a life that's on a stage and not real.”

During Rush's hiatus, Lifeson found himself being hired by a multitude of different bands, and he says he enjoyed shattering their expectations. He's also credited a Beatle with inspiring the band's reunion – although Lee has a different account of what brought Rush back together.

Keith Richards isn't in a hurry to get the Rolling Stones back on the road, according to bandmate Ronnie Wood, who says the guitarist wants a break from touring.

The Stones released their latest album, Foreign Tongues, in July, but have yet to announce any live dates in support of it. Wood says he and Mick Jagger have already begun promoting the record, but their plans for the road depend on Richards deciding what he wants to do next.

In a new interview with Otro Día Perdido, Wood explained why he's chosen to get out and play rather than wait for his bandmates.

“Well, we had a great producer with Andrew Watt,” Wood says. “He helped us with Hackney Diamonds, and then we did a continuation in a way through to the album called Foreign Tongues. And that's where we've left it at the moment.

“And Mick and I have already been promoting a little bit. But we're waiting for Keith to settle down what he wants to do for his future, because he's a bit road weary at the moment. He said. ‘I don't want to do any more touring for a bit.’ So I thought, Well, I'm not gonna sit back and wait. So I'm going to get out there and play.”

Wood is currently touring in support of Fearless: Anthology 1965–2025, a career-spanning compilation that draws on his work with the Birds, the Creation, the Jeff Beck Group, Faces, the Rolling Stones and his solo projects.

Richards' reluctance to tour may also be influenced by his arthritis. In a 2023 interview with BBC Radio 4's Today, he discussed the condition and its effect on his playing.

“I don’t have any pain: it’s a sort of benign version. [But] I think if I’ve slowed down a little bit it’s probably due more to age.”

Wood's Fearless tour wraps up November 10 with a performance at the Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile.

The making of the Rolling Stones' landmark 10th album, Exile on Main St., was turbulent at best. Despite Keith Richards' drug issues, disjointed sessions, gear theft and plenty of internal disharmony, however, the band emerged with a classic.

Much of the album was recorded at the Stones' French retreat, Nellcôte, using relatively modest recording equipment. That didn't stop it from making a huge impact on audiences in the US and UK. And Richards believes the recording technology that followed actually made it harder to capture the kind of performances that had made the album so special.

Writing in his 2010 autobiography, Life, the guitarist posed a pertinent question.

“Very soon after Exile…, so much technology came in that even the smartest engineer in the world didn’t know what was really going on,” he said. “How come I could get a drum sound back in Denmark Street with one microphone, and now with fifteen microphones I get a drum sound that’s like someone shitting on a tin roof?”

Eight years separate the Stones' self-titled debut, recorded at London's fabled Regent Sound Studios on Denmark Street, and the release of Exile. In the intervening years, the Beatles had helped push recording technology forward, with Rubber Soul marking a particularly revolutionary moment. The band employed clever studio tricks to expand the possibilities of recorded music, and as the record industry boomed, other artists and engineers followed suit.

But Richards wasn't convinced that more sophisticated technology necessarily meant better recordings. Much like guitarists who believe that no matter how advanced amp modeling technology becomes, it will never quite replicate the magic of a cranked tube amp, he felt that the recording industry had lost sight of what mattered.

“Everybody got carried away with technology and slowly they’re swimming back,” he said. “I always felt that I was actually fighting technology, that it was no help at all. And that’s why it would take so long to do things.”

He singles out the recording of Goats Head Soup, the Stones' follow-up to Exile, as an example. Engineer Rob Fraboni, Richards recalls, was caught up in the “notion that if you didn’t have fifteen microphones on a drum kit, you didn’t know what you were doing.” The album was a commercial success, but Richards wasn't sold on the approach to recording it.

“The bass player would be battened off, so they were all in their little pigeonholes and cubicles,” Richards recalled. “You’re playing in this enormous room and not using any of it. This idea of separation is the total antithesis of rock and roll, which is a bunch of guys in a room making a sound and just capturing it.”

Exile, by contrast, captured the Stones playing together in the basement at Nellcôte, with the musicians feeding off one another rather than being isolated in separate recording spaces.

“It’s the sound they make together, not separated,” Richards argued. “This mythical bullshit about stereo and high tech and Dolby, it’s just totally against the whole grain of what music should be.”

There's an interesting wrinkle to Richards' argument, though: Stones frontman Mick Jagger has also expressed reservations about Exile's sound, suggesting that the disarray surrounding the band at the time found its way onto the record.

The Stones' last two albums – 2023's Hackney Diamonds and this year's Foreign Tongues – were recorded with producer Andrew Watt, who has his own innovative ideas about making records sound their best. Whether Richards has warmed to the modern recording process is another question.

Upscaled footage of Led Zeppelin’s performance at the Bath Festival in June 1970 has appeared online, capturing the band giving “Immigrant Song” its live debut, months before the track was released.

The three-day festival of blues and progressive music saw Led Zeppelin headline a bill that included Pink Floyd, Colosseum, Santana, Steppenwolf and John Mayall, whose lineup at the time included Peter Green. The show would prove a turning point for the band.

Guitarist Jimmy Page had built Led Zeppelin from the ashes of the Yardbirds in the late 1960s. Although his plans to develop a partnership with Jeff Beck had fallen short of expectations — producing a song the pair argued over for decades — Page had succeeded in assembling a band that would help pave the way for heavy metal. Its biggest early successes, however, had come on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Bath Festival performance helped change that, winning over British audiences as an estimated 200,000 people gathered for a show that stretched to around three hours. The band reportedly played five encores.

More than 80 minutes of footage from the event emerged online in August, described as “a monumental addition to the Led Zeppelin canon.” Now, YouTube account The Unfinished Self has enhanced the footage of the band performing “Immigrant Song” to 4K resolution.

The video finds Page dressed in a knee-length coat and fisherman’s bucket hat, attacking what appears to be his “Number 1” Les Paul like it owes him money. Legend has it that the Bath Festival performance was captured on a multitrack recorder, but the recording was subsequently destroyed because the band didn't consider its performance good enough.

What's particularly interesting is how the roughness of this version of “Immigrant Song” adds to the track's cut and thrust. Rather than playing the tremolo-flecked chords that feature in the studio recording's verses, Page continues hammering away at the riff. The performance's ragged edges give the song an even more animalistic quality. Its mystery chord is also present.

The set came after the release of the band's extreme second album, Led Zeppelin II, which was also intended as a retort to the group's early critics, including one Rolling Stone reviewer who dismissed Page's songwriting as “weak, unimaginative.”

The festival itself was chaotic in several respects. The gates were knocked down, allowing a huge influx of people onto the site, while Fairport Convention got stuck in traffic and had to hitch a ride with the Hells Angels to reach the Royal Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet, Somerset.

According to organizer Freddy Bannister, the bikers subsequently took control of security and began beating up attendees. Bannister, who had sold his family home to pay the bands in advance, eventually had to pay the Angels to leave, as he recalled in Louder Sound.

Despite the mayhem, the event's success would help inspire a young Michael Eavis to create Glastonbury Festival, whose inaugural edition took place just months later, with T. Rex headlining.

Elsewhere, Jimmy Page's best-kept secret has opened up about making pedals for some of the world's greatest guitar players.

Few of the guitars that belonged to country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons are around today. Much like the man himself — who died of a morphine-and-tequila overdose in 1973 at the age of 26 — his instruments tended to have disastrously short but eventful lives, creating exquisite, game-changing music before making an untimely exit. Many were lost in a fire at Parsons’ home in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon not long before his death.

But two that survive are very much the alpha and omega of Parsons’ guitar history. There’s his small-body 1963 Martin 00-21 flattop acoustic guitar, currently owned by his former music and romantic partner Emmylou Harris, which dates from Parsons’ earliest days as a young up-and-coming participant in the mid-’60s folk boom. Then there’s the custom acoustic made by luthier David Russell Young in 1973, an instrument that dates from Parsons’ final days and was prominently played on the legendary Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels tour of that same year. The guitar sold for $125,000 at auction in 2014.

In the decade that separates these guitars, Parsons played a key role in bringing country music out of the honky-tonks and into the forefront of rock music through his landmark work with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, and as a solo artist. In the process, he opened up a rich vein of songcraft rooted in the heartbreak tropes of country balladry, yet fused with post-’60s existential angst.

It’s safe to say there would be no Eagles without Gram Parsons. Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon even played alongside him for a while in the Flying Burrito Brothers. In terms of more contemporary music, Parsons is one of the patriarchs of what we now call alt-country and Americana. His own preferred phrase was “American Cosmic Music.” Call it what you will, the whole twangy crew from Wilco to Neko Case to Jim Lauderdale to Lucius are, in one way or another, the children of Gram Parsons.

Of course, country music was at the party from the earliest days of rock and roll. The music of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis was a jumped-up shotgun wedding of country and blues, but after the British Invasion, country music fell by the wayside as rock artists started taking their music more seriously in the ’60s.

When rock musicians did perform country songs, they generally relegated it to novelty status, as heard on mid-decade hits like the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Nashville Cats” and the Beatles cover of Buck Owens’ “Act Naturally,” which exploited the witty side of country lyricism.

But country’s more somber side and growing associations with social and political conservatism (which reached a peak in Merle Haggard’s 1969 single “Okie from Muskogee”) were definitely off-putting to many late-’60s rock music fans, who started to build a dividing line between the two genres.

At Gram Parsons’ urging, the Byrds crossed that line in 1968 with Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Today, the album is hailed as an ambitious landmark work in the country-rock movement, but it was a commercial failure in its time. Chief Byrd Jim (Roger) McGuinn had intended it to be a celebration of 20th century American music thus far, from folk to electronic, but Parsons pushed things in more of a stone-country direction. With his boyish good looks, well-heeled southern charm, and prodigious musical talent, he could be very persuasive.

“Gram was really a strong musical force,” McGuinn said in 1990. “I just let him go and went along with it because it was fun. I was having a good time with it. We went to Nudie’s” — Hollywood tailor Nudie Cohn, known for his flamboyant Western-style suits — “and got some country clothes and cowboy hats. I got a Cadillac and got into the whole country thing. I started listening to country radio and talking with a southern accent. It was like Halloween or something for a long, extended period.”

By contextualizing songwriters like Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie alongside Merle Haggard, the Louvin Brothers, and Stax tunesmith William Bell, Sweetheart of the Rodeo broadened the perspective of the variegated sources that make up rock’s roots. The album also introduced the world to Parsons’ own prodigious songwriting gifts. The winsome bittersweet nostalgia of “Hickory Wind” and the cosmic cowboy philosophy of “One Hundred Years from Now” announced the arrival of a major new voice in popular music.

But Parsons’ time with the Byrds was short. Always restless and erratic in behavior — almost as if he knew how little time he had — Parsons went on to co-found the Flying Burrito Brothers with fellow ex-Byrd Chris Hillman in 1968. His two albums with that group — The Gilded Palace of Sin, in 1969, and Burrito Deluxe the following year — brought Parsons’ songwriting into diamond-sharp focus.

His love of country music’s florid lyrics and ostentatious costumes was matched by his choice of gear. Onstage and in the studio, he favored big, ornate cowboy guitars—Gibson J-200s and Hummingbirds and Epiphone Frontiers. With their mustache bridges and pickguards decorated with flora and fauna, these flashy guitars are very much in the same tradition as Nudie Cohn’s Western suits, which Parsons brought into vogue among rock musicians.

But his take on country tradition was uniquely his own and quintessentially rock and roll. For example, his most well-known Nudie suit, also in the Country Music Hall of Fame collection, features embroidered images of marijuana leaves and naked women.

Given his fondness for a big guitar and a filled fruit jar, not to mention his encyclopedic knowledge of country music, Parsons made an ideal buddy for Keith Richards as the ’60s gave way to the ’70s. It’s an exaggeration to say that Parsons turned the Stones on to country music. Long before Parsons came along, Richards was copping licks from George Jones’ guitarist Charlie Carter when the Stones toured Texas in the mid Sixties.

But Parsons put Jagger and Richards hip to some of the music’s finer points. Gram and his soon-to-be-wife Gretchen Burrell lived for a while at Richards’ house in the South of France, where they were part of the notorious ongoing upstairs party while the Stones were working on Exile on Main St. in the grand villa’s basement.

There is some speculation that Parsons played a songwriting role on country-flavored Stones tracks like “Wild Horses,” “Dead Flowers” and “Sweet Virginia,” but such things are hard to prove. People also wonder if Parsons played guitar on any Exile tracks, though Richards says that he never did.

“But why he didn’t is a good question,” Richards said in 2004. “Gram and I would play a lot upstairs in the living area, and he would play with Mick [Taylor] a lot up there.

“But Gram was a little shy, and we were too busy to say, ‘Hey, Gram, come down here; we need another guitar.’ He would distance himself from us when we were working. He’d come and listen. a bit, but that was it.

“If I have a friend — and Gram was my friend — Mick sometimes gives off a vibe like, ‘You can’t be my friend if you’re his.’ That could have a bit to do with why Gram’s not playing on the record.”

By the autumn of 1972, Parsons was back in L.A., signed to Reprise Records as a solo artist, and at work on his first album under the deal, GP. Around that time, he came through the doors of Westwood Music, just south of UCLA, looking for a new guitar. The store’s owner, Fred Walecki, knew him well, as he’d sold Gram a few guitars and hung with him. At the time, Westwood Music was at the epicenter of L.A.’s burgeoning country, rock, and folk guitar scene.

“Gram was a party kid,” Walecki recalls. “He was in love with the spike [intravenous drugs]. but he wasn’t like some horrible nodding-out drug addict. Gram was like an angel. He was so innocent in a lot of ways.”

Parsons knew what he wanted: a guitar like the one Walecki had recently sold to Merle Haggard’s wife, which was made by luthier David Russell Young and ornamented with the maker’s extraordinary fretboard and headstock inlay work, a floral pattern often called the Tree of Life. This kind of instrument was very much in Parson’s style: flashy and floral, but also elegant and classy. Walecki commissioned Russell to build an instrument for Parsons, which became Parsons’ stage guitar. The guitar figured prominently in the Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels Tour of 1973.

The nominal goal of this traveling country-rock soap opera-cum-circus was to promote GP. The album was actually a tough sell at the time, although it is now recognized as a classic, rich in poignant southern vignettes and honky-tonk weepers like “She” and “A Song for You,” sweetened by mournful pedal steel, fiddle, and gospel vocal harmonies coming at you like Jesus and his angels beaming down from the nearest cloud.

On the record, Parsons was backed by the crème de la crème of Elvis Presley’s stage band: guitar legend James Burton, keyboardist Glen D. Hardin, and drummer Ron Tutt, as well as country legends Buddy Emmons and Al Perkins on pedal steel and Byron Berline on fiddle.

GP also benefits from angel-voiced contributions of Emmylou Harris. Chris Hillman brought the young up-and-coming singer into the fold. Walecki notes, “Chris’s idea, as I recall, was to get Emmylou Harris to come in, sing on Gram’s album, and then sing on his own album. We had quite the little society.”

Right from the start, Harris and Parsons shared a deep musical empathy, their voices twining in the best country-duo tradition of Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, and Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. For many years, Harris’s main guitar was a ’60s Gibson J-200 that Gram had given her.

Their musical bond, moreover, was starting to blossom into romance. Harris didn’t want to move in on Gram’s marriage to Gretchen, but she could see that that union was rapidly dissolving. So Emmylou chose to bide her time. If only she’d known how little was left.

Harris exerted a beneficial influence on Parsons. “When I heard the news that Emmylou and Gram had fallen in love, I was happy for them,” Walecki recounts. “Especially the news that she wasn’t tolerating the drugs and alcohol, so he was on the straight and narrow.”

But it was probably too late at that point. Even though Parsons was just in his mid 20s, his health was already seriously compromised by years of abusing booze and dope. “He was shaking the last time I saw him,” Walecki recalls. “Literally. He had pancreatitis, the same thing that killed Lowell George. It was one of those things where he could never get high ever again.”

Harris valiantly worked with Parsons to put together a follow-up to GP. Their plan was to make a duo album, again in the grand country tradition of mixed-gender duets. But Parsons wasn’t in the best of shape, and the songs weren’t coming easily without the familiar aids of drugs and alcohol.

“He was writing for the next album,” Walecki says, “and I don’t think he believed that he could go to that place and write songs without using something as a bridge to get there.”

Even so, Parsons was able to come up with two of his greatest songs, the multivalent trucker/traveling musician’s prayer “In My Hour of Darkness” and the anthemic “Return of the Grievous Angel,” tracks that would soon serve as a eulogy of sorts for the troubled singer. Harris helped him put together the former, and Boston poet Thomas Brown contributed the lyrics for the latter, which celebrated “the truckers and the kickers and the cowboy angels, and a good saloon in every single town.”

With this new material, some leftovers from Parson’s back pages, a few inspired covers, and superb support from Burton, Hardin, Tutt, and a cadre of top country session players, Parsons and Harris cut an album that stands as one of Parsons’ very finest moments. It was to have been titled Sleepless Nights and jointly credited to Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, but fate had something else in store.

While on a vacation getaway with friends at Joshua Tree National Monument, Parsons took a fatal dose of morphine, mixed with tequila, presumably by accident. He died on September 19, 1973. After his death, Gretchen Parsons had Emmylou Harris’s name and likeness deleted from the album’s front cover. With a few changes in the running order, the disc was retitled Grievous Angel.

The epithet is ideally suited to Parsons, a man frequently described as angelic by those who knew him. But he was an angel who carried a grievous burden, one that rendered short his days on this earth but allowed him to leave behind a rich musical legacy that is still thriving today.

Music's landscape changed dramatically in the late 1960s, as the electric guitar became an increasingly powerful force of expression in rock. That evolution owed as much to advances in amplification and effects as it did to the players who came to define the era, including Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix.

At the same time, guitarists like Keith Richards and George Harrison were taking a different approach, drawing on the styles that preceded the British rock boom while developing a more expressive, blues-inspired way of playing. Harrison, in particular, came to appreciate the slower, single-note lead style heard in the playing of the Band's Robbie Robertson and his friend Eric Clapton.

But he wanted little to do with the heavier rock that followed. In his view, Clapton had already taken the electric guitar somewhere new and more forceful with his power trio Cream.

Where the instrument went after that, however, was simply too much for his taste.

“As far as listening to it, I’d rather hear someone like Little Richard or Larry Williams,” he once recalled (via Rolling Stone). “I never liked all that stuff in the late '60s after Cream had broken up — all those Les Paul guitars screaming and distorting.”

Clapton had been at the forefront of the British blues explosion following his departure from the Yardbirds in 1965, when he joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. But after leaving to form his own loud and energetic power trio, inspired by seeing Buddy Guy play in London, he helped push the blues into considerably more aggressive territory.

Although Cream was fundamentally a blues-rock band, with strong elements of jazz woven into its sound, the group's musical fusion helped pave the way for the hard rock and heavy metal scenes that followed. Even Clapton came to recognize the band's influence in the years afterward.

“I think we were one of the early heavy metal bands without knowing it,” Clapton has previously said. “After we disbanded, Led Zeppelin filled the void.”

While hard rock would go on to produce plenty of accomplished virtuosos, Harrison remained more drawn to an expressive, understated approach to guitar playing than to the excesses of the genre.

“I like subtlety, like Ry Cooder and Eric Clapton,” he said. “Eric is fantastic. He could blow all those people off the stage if he wanted to, but he’s more subtle than that.

“And personally I’d rather hear three notes hit really sweet than to hear a whole lot of notes from some guitar player whose ears are so blown out he can’t hear the difference between a flat and a sharp.”

Harrison's praise for Clapton is particularly interesting given the complicated history between the two men. They had reportedly engaged in a guitar duel over their mutual love for Pattie Boyd, Harrison's wife at the time. Clapton had become infatuated with Boyd around 1970, inspiring his anguished declaration of love in "Layla," from Derek and the Dominos' Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs (although the song has since become the subject of plagiarism claims).

Intriguingly, in his Rolling Stone interview, Harrison made no mention of the guitarist he considered responsible for the “greatest guitar solo of all time.”

Guitar practice amps are often regarded as unglamorous things; means to an end, save for the occasional breakout brilliance of something like Peavey’s Decade Too. Positive Grid is one brand determined to cut through that general unglamorousness, with a dedicated approach to creating practice-friendly devices that put creativity and simplicity at their core. Whether it’s the whimsy of a pocket-sized 5W mini amp or the tonal endlessness of a silent-practice headphone amp system, Positive Grid’s on the pulse – and, for Black Friday, throwing you another bone in the shape of this early Black Friday sale.

There’s something for every guitarist in the Positive Grid roster. For the guitarist after an unobtrusive way to practice at home, without sacrificing tonal expression or gratification, there’s the Positive Grid Spark Neo Core: a pair of wireless Bluetooth headphones, into which you can also plug your guitar and benefit from dozens of amp models and effects courtesy of the Spark app.

For the on-the-go guitarist, the Spark Go is a rechargeable 5W practice amp in an unbelievably small body. Again, a plethora of well-formed digital amp and effects models await, as does Bluetooth speaker functionality and a gratifyingly big volume knob. Per our glowing 5-star review a little while back, “it’s hard to believe just how full and clear this little amp sounds. After five minutes of noodling, you quickly forget you’re playing through a device that’s not much bigger than the phone running the app.”

For me, the deal most worth shouting about is the Positive Grid Reactor 50W – a solid-state amp with digital tone-generation technology, accessible via the Reactor smartphone app. It’s an amp just as at-home in the practice room as it could be on the stage, and it’s robust enough to manage both; all this is already a bargain at $349, but for now it’s discounted to just below $250.

There’s more to discover than these three stellar entrants in Positive Grid’s Black Friday sale, too. Wireless systems, portable amps and tone-generation software are all discounted, and all well worth a look-in at their new ultra-accessible prices.

• Explore more of this year’s best Black Friday guitar deals

George Harrison never had any interest in reuniting the Beatles after the band’s breakup in 1970. While several members collaborated during their solo years — David Bowie even claimed he, John Lennon and Paul McCartney once discussed forming a group — the Fab Four never returned to the studio or stage together.

But Harrison hadn’t completely soured on his former bandmates. As he revealed in a 1974 press conference, he was open to forming a new band with one Beatle in particular.

The Beatles’ breakup came at an unfortunate time for Harrison. After years of being overshadowed by the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, he was flourishing as both a writer and guitarist. Songs like “Something,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “Old Brown Shoe” proved he could match his bandmates as a songwriter, while his increasingly distinctive guitar work established him as one of rock’s most original stylists.

The release of All Things Must Pass, his ambitious 1970 solo debut, vindicated years of frustration. Powered by the hits “My Sweet Lord” and “What Is Life,” it became the most commercially successful solo album by any former Beatle in the immediate aftermath of the split.

By 1974, Harrison was preparing to launch the tour behind Dark Horse with a band that included organist Billy Preston, bassist Willie Weeks, drummer Andy Newmark and a young Robben Ford. During a press conference promoting the tour, he made it clear that a Beatles reunion held little appeal — but revealed there was one former bandmate he’d happily work with again.

“It’s all a fantasy, the idea of putting the Beatles back together again,” he said, as recounted in the book George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters. “If we ever do that, the reason will be that we are all broke. I’d rather have Willie Weeks on bass than Paul McCartney. That’s the truth, with all respect to Paul.

“Paul is a fine bass player,” he admitted, “but he’s a bit overpowering at times.”

Elsewhere in the press conference, Harrison expressed his fondness for drummer Ringo Starr, calling him a player with “the best backbeat I’ve ever heard.”

But in the end, it was Lennon whom he held in the highest regard.

“John’s gone through all of his scene, but he’s like me, he’s come back around,” Harrison said. “To tell the truth, I’d join a band with John Lennon any day, but I couldn’t join a band with Paul McCartney. But it’s nothing personal. It’s from a musical point of view.”

Harrison may also have been remembering Lennon’s generosity during a September 1969 meeting, when he suggested future Beatles albums should feature a more equal distribution of songs among the four members. Lennon also said he regretted not giving Harrison and Starr the lucrative B-sides to Beatles singles so they could gain greater exposure — and make more money. Two weeks later, Lennon privately announced he was leaving the band, rendering the proposal moot.

Harrison had already worked with Lennon on the latter’s 1971 solo album, Imagine, contributing lead and slide guitar to several tracks. He also played Dobro on “Crippled Inside,” demonstrating the musical chemistry the two still shared.

Aside from his work with the Traveling Wilburys, Harrison continued recording and performing as a solo artist until his death in 2001.

Steve Vai is set to return for the sequel to the cult 1986 movie Crossroads, according to the film's original star and screenwriter. The supernatural spin on the life of blues legend Robert Johnson was written by John Fusco and starred Ralph Macchio. The two have been discussing ways to continue the story ever since the film's release.

“Ralph and I, we call, and he’s like, ‘Man, you know we should do some kind of anniversary thing,’” Fusco told Guitar World. “I said, ‘We should do the freaking sequel.’ He's like, ‘No shit, really? Do you have an idea?’ So Ralph and I have talked about it. We’ve got a plan.”

Fusco wouldn't reveal much about the project, beyond promising that Crossroads II would be “exciting to music fans, to blues purists.” Macchio, who played guitar prodigy Eugene Martone opposite Vai's Jack Butler, a guitarist in the service of Satan, offered a few more clues.

“It would be years and years later, less about Eugene and more about someone relevant today,” he said. “I can’t go into a deep dive on that stuff, but I haven't given up on it.”

Vai, meanwhile, made clear that he knows where his character stands.

“I know Ralph wants to kick my ass. Jack Butler needs his revenge!”

Although Crossroads flopped at the box office, the story of Eugene's encounter with bluesman Willie Brown and their subsequent battle for their souls found a much larger audience on home video. Most of the film's music was arranged by Ry Cooder, but Vai composed key passages for the climactic guitar duel, including Eugene's Trick Bag, which Eugene performs to defeat Butler and the Devil.

In 1997, Vai revisited the performance with fellow Zappa alumnus Mike Keneally, demonstrating that he still had an affection for a performance that would become a formative moment for generations of guitarists.

One of them was Nita Strauss, who recalled the film's impact in an interview with Guitar Player.

“When I was 13 I saw Steve Vai in Crossroads. He was so cool and charismatic. At the time I had a guitar, but I hadn’t fallen in love with it yet. I remember watching Steve Vai and thinking, ‘Why didn’t anybody tell me that you could do that with a guitar? That is so cool!’”

The Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger has confirmed that his wife of more than 50 years, Lynn Ann Veres, died last week at age 79. The couple married in 1972, when they were both in their mid-20s.

“I am so sorry I can’t share this news in person,” Krieger wrote on Instagram. “After more than 50 years of love and marriage, my wife Lynn Ann Veres passed away peacefully.” Referring to their son, he added: “Waylon and I were with her until the end. Will miss her so much. Your thoughts and prayers will be appreciated.”

Krieger did not disclose the cause of her death, although some reports suggested she had been battling a long illness. Among those offering condolences, Joe Satriani wrote, “So sorry Robby,” while Phil Soussan and Rudy Sarzo also sent messages of support.

Lynn was the inspiration behind the Doors’ song “Love Her Madly,” released in 1971. The track, which features the lyrics “Don’t you love her madly? / Don’t you need her badly? / Don’t you love her ways? … Don’t you love her as she’s walkin’ out the door / Like she did one thousand times before?” was one of the band’s biggest hits.

Appearing on L.A. Woman, the song reached Number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. “This was about my girlfriend, and now my wife,” Krieger told LA Weekly in 2012. “She had a bad temper, and when she’d get mad, she’d slam the door, and the house would shake.”

According to various accounts, Lynn had initially pursued Doors singer Jim Morrison after meeting him in 1966. She and Krieger eventually got together when they were both single, marrying on Christmas Day 1972. Their son, Waylon — who has since performed alongside his father — was born in September 1973.

Krieger dedicated his 2021 memoir, Set the Night on Fire, to Lynn, describing her as a “fireball spirit” and “the only person I've ever met who lets me be me.”

Queen’s landmark 1986 concert in Budapest is getting a new lease on life with the November 6 release of the restored Queen Budapest film on Blu-ray, DVD and digital.

But for Brian May, revisiting the performance is more emotionally demanding than nostalgic. Speaking in a new interview with Rolling Stone Canada, the guitarist describes how watching the newly restored footage transports him back to the pressures of performing with Queen at the height of its success.

The guitarist and drummer Roger Taylor attended the film’s premiere, where they got an early look at the newly restored footage. The experience left both feeling drained.

“Somebody asked Roger how he felt, and he said, ‘I feel exhausted,’” May recalls. “And that’s exactly how you feel — because you get emotionally dragged through that whole thing.”

Watching himself perform brings back the anxieties that accompanied life on the road, he explains. “It’s almost like you’re there and you’re still worried about, did you make a mistake or did that sound right, and you’re back in all those personal issues that you had at the time. It is an exhausting experience for us to look at it.”

The Budapest concert took place during Queen’s 1986 Magic tour, when the band was enjoying one of the biggest periods of its career. A year after its triumphant Live Aid appearance, Queen had played two sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium and was now taking its show across Europe.

Budapest represented a particularly significant stop. Playing behind the Iron Curtain, Queen was part of a historic moment for Western rock music in Eastern Europe.

“We’re now back out in Europe, in Budapest, behind the Iron Curtain, where no rock group has ever been able to play, and it’s a monumental moment,” May says. “It really is.”

The concert was extensively filmed by Hungarian cinematographers, with cameras also following the band around the city and documenting moments away from the stage.

“There are all sorts of little insights into what we were doing offstage as well as onstage, and I think it’s beautiful,” May says.

The restoration brings new life to both the picture and sound. The visual work was handled by a New Zealand team whose credits include The Lord of the Rings, while Queen oversaw the audio restoration.

For May, the experience of watching the film ultimately goes beyond the uncomfortable memories. Stepping back from the performance, he can appreciate how well the four musicians worked together.

“I feel proud,” he says. “Detaching yourself, I think that it’s a good band, very well in touch with each other, very well-oiled machine, and it’s a great moment. I’m glad it was captured.”

Ritchie Blackmore has announced a run of six Blackmore’s Night shows, following the cancellation of the band's previous tour dates due to health issues. The Deep Purple co-founder, 81, will celebrate the 30th anniversary of his medieval folk-rock band with concerts in March 2027.

The band announced the dates via social media: “Blackmore’s Night embraces their 30 year anniversary with a limited tour in March of 2027. So dust off that garb, grab your dancing shoes and get ready to sing and dance and celebrate the incredible 30-year journey.”

Blackmore was forced to call off his last scheduled tour in 2025 after playing just two of its six shows, citing “medical reasons.” The cancellation came two years after he suffered a heart attack.

He later explained that he had a “long history of lumbar and neck herniated discs” requiring regular injections and had recently begun suffering from “debilitating migraines.” Poor traveling conditions triggered a severe attack.

“I couldn't stop vomiting,” he continued. “The room wouldn't stop spinning and I was extremely dizzy to the point of not being able to stand. The doctors came to the conclusion that my official diagnosis was severe vertigo.” He added: “Hope to see you all one day again when I’m healthy.”

Candace Night, his wife and musical partner, discussed his health issues in an August 2025 interview, shortly before the canceled tour.

“There's three main issues with him that are going on,” Night explained. “He has a heart issue — he had a heart attack a couple of years ago, so we stay on top of that.

“He's got gout, so that's difficult,” she added. “It's affecting his feet really badly. And it's starting in his forefinger, so it's hurting the mobility in that. He just had an injection for that. And his back, of course, which has always been an issue.”

Blackmore next appeared onstage during his Deep Purple guest spot in August, when he joined his former colleagues for a performance of the classic “Smoke on the Water.”

“It was tricky,” he reflected afterward. “I didn’t play anything too technical, as I felt I should stick to the rudiments of being simple. I still lost my place at one point, but it’s not why I was there.

“I was there to heal any wounds — but there weren’t any wounds. Everyone was like, we were in the army, all along the Western front and we were all getting together again. Very emotional moment.”

In related news, Deep Purple have canceled their touring plans in light of singer Ian Gillan’s health issues.

Blackmore’s Night will play the following shows in March 2027. Check their tour page for updates.

March 6: Newton Theatre, Newton, NJ

March 11: Landmark on Main, Port Washington, NY

March 13: District Music Hall, Norwalk, CT

March 19: Bearsville Theatre, Woodstock, NY

March 21: Suffolk Theatre, Suffolk, NY

March 27: Bergen PAC, Englewood, NJ

Now that November is in full swing, the usual flood of Black Friday guitar deals has officially begun. Honestly, the early batch of sales felt a bit underwhelming, until Sweetwater rolled out their early Black Friday event. With price drops reaching 60% on a massive range of guitar gear, things are finally getting interesting.

What caught my eye wasn't just the sheer volume of stompboxes and axes, but that they actually threw in a solid mix of guitar amps and FRFR cabs. With heavy hitters like Boss, Line 6, Marshall, Fender, Vox, and Digitech, I reckon this is easily the strongest holiday sale we've seen this fall.

After digging through the massive list of deals, I can confidently say this is a prime opportunity to upgrade your rig for less. A lot of the equipment we've put to the test here at Guitar Player is seeing steep price cuts. With so much gear on sale, I figured I'd highlight seven standout pieces worth a look.

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Brian May and Freddie Mercury were two of Queen’s most formidable creative forces, and their songwriting partnership was not without friction. The guitarist and singer frequently clashed over ideas, each determined to defend his vision. But that competitive streak helped drive the band to some of its greatest achievements.

One of their most famous disagreements involved a guitar solo that May had to fight to include in a song, despite Mercury’s insistence that it was a piano piece. The resulting solo became one of Queen’s most celebrated instrumental moments. It was hardly the only time the two musicians dug in their heels.

Speaking to Classic Rock in 2023, May acknowledged that there was “huge songwriting competition in Queen.” Far from damaging the band, he says, that rivalry pushed its members to greater heights.

“It was a major factor in pushing us onwards,” May said. “We were very conscious that we had to reach inside ourselves to keep up.”

Mercury sometimes seemed to conjure songs almost effortlessly, while May tended to let ideas develop over time. One particularly striking exception to Mercury’s usual piano-led songwriting process came late in his life, when he wrote “A Winter’s Tale” while taking in the scenery around Lake Geneva.

“Freddie mainly used the piano for songwriting, but there were times when he’d get inspiration when he wasn’t around his instrument,” May explained. “It could be any experience; a skate on the pond. One of the last songs he wrote, ‘A Winter’s Tale’, was written purely sitting looking out on the mountains from the other side of Lake Geneva [where Queen’s Mountain Studios were based].

“He could obviously hear it all in his head, although he didn’t have any musical instruments with him.”

Mercury didn't need an instrument to bring the idea to life. May remembers him arriving at the studio with the song already taking shape.

“I remember him coming into the studio and saying, ‘I’ve got this idea, just give me a few minutes,’” May recalled. “Then he brought it to life. It’s a beautiful track.”

May also singled out “The Miracle,” the title track from Queen’s 1989 album, as another example of Mercury’s songwriting gifts. “It has an incredible lightness to it,” he said. May has previously called the song Mercury’s most beautiful composition, ranking it above even the monumental “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

But when it comes to his favorite Mercury song to play live, May has another choice: “We Are the Champions,” one of Queen’s most enduring hits and an anthem that has become a fixture at sporting events.

“I’d say my favourite Freddie song to play is ‘We Are the Champions’ – still,” he said. “I don’t know how many times I’ve played it, but it always pulls something out of you. It’s one of those songs where even if the winds are blowing in the wrong direction it still sounds good.”

That might seem an unlikely choice given that “We Are the Champions” was itself a source of tension between the two musicians. May initially disliked what he perceived as the song’s egotistical outlook. But, as he explained in a previous interview with Guitar Player, Mercury helped him understand the idea behind it — and changed his perspective.

Their disagreements were part of what made Queen work. May fought for the guitar parts he believed a song needed, while Mercury stood by his own musical and lyrical instincts. Neither was inclined to back down, and the results speak for themselves.

When Steve Vai joined David Lee Roth’s band, he understood the challenge ahead. His new bandleader wanted a guitarist who could measure up to Eddie Van Halen — and, ideally, outshine him. But Vai had no intention of getting into a head-to-head battle with a player widely regarded as the world’s greatest guitarist at the time.

Fresh from a formative stint in Frank Zappa’s band and a chance run-in with Brian May, Vai was still in his mid-20s when he landed the gig. He has previously said he approached the job with love and respect for Van Halen’s revolutionary playing and legacy. Now, he's explained how that perspective shaped the solos he played on football field-sized stages night after night.

“The potential to be tremendously intimidated was there, but that would mean that I had to compete with Edward, and that's an insane proposition,” he tells 101 WRIF. “I didn't see myself competing with Edward. How do you do that? I don't have that tone, I don't write music like that.”

Vai wasn't simply being modest. He says he was “embarrassingly inexperienced” when he recorded Roth's debut solo album, Eat ‘Em and Smile — so much so that he borrowed an amplifier from another guitar great to get through the sessions.

Although he'd released his own album, Flex-Able, and recorded with Zappa and Alcatrazz, Vai was still developing as a songwriter. Van Halen, by contrast, had already established himself as one of rock's most formidable songwriters, helping make his band one of the biggest acts in the world. His uncredited guest solo on Michael Jackson's “Beat It” had only added to his stature.

“He's a brilliant pop songwriter, and I just knew that I loved rock music,” Vai continues. “I could play it with great energy, I loved the Van Halen songs, I loved Edward's guitar parts, they're beautiful to play.

“They're 'guitar parts,' y'know? It's no big mystery. But it's the way you play them. Nobody plays them like him. And I knew that, and I didn't want to go into it feeling like I had to copy him.”

Rather than attempt to replicate Van Halen's playing, Vai decided to bring his own identity to the material — even when that meant departing from what Roth might have expected.

“I wouldn't take his solos,” he reveals. “I mean, certain parts of ‘Hot for Teacher,’ that's a part of the song, so you wanna do that. But when it would come to the solo, I'm like, 'I'm not going to try to play Edward’s stuff.’

“I could play the notes, but why? They’re not gonna sound the way he played them, and only I can play it to sound like me. That seemed like my best bet, so I took it. I took those beautiful guitar parts, and I just played them as me.”

Van Halen himself would eventually get a close look at the guitarist Roth had recruited to fill his shoes. And while he acknowledged Vai's technical proficiency on the electric guitar, he also felt that something was missing from the playing. The comparison was inevitable, but Vai's approach was never about being the next Eddie Van Halen.

Roth's attempt to establish himself as a rival to his former bandmates ultimately fell short, despite early success with songs such as “Yankee Rose.” Van Halen, meanwhile, continued to thrive with Sammy Hagar at the microphone.

There's a more amicable chapter unfolding between Roth and the Van Halen camp these days, too. After Alex Van Halen declared that the band were at their best with Diamond Dave, the singer and drummer reunited for the first time in more than a decade, joking that their reunion was also a step toward world peace.

Joe Bonamassa has paid tribute to beloved actor and former neighbor Sir Patrick Stewart, revealing that his apologies for playing guitar so loudly always fell on deaf ears.

Best known for portraying Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek franchise and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films, Stewart enjoyed a decades-long career on screen and stage. Following news of his death at 86, Bonamassa recalled an unexpected personal connection with the actor: They were once neighbors.

The electric guitar hero grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, making the encounter all the more surreal. Like many in the artistic community, he took to Instagram to share his memories of Stewart.

“This is a huge loss,” he writes. “As a massive fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I grew up knowing him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. It was my favorite show. Patrick Stewart was an actor's actor that went way beyond Star Trek.

“On a personal note: In a former life Patrick was a neighbor of mine. He lived in the house across the street from me and was the nicest, most humble movie star I have ever encountered.”

The story appears to date back to an earlier chapter in Bonamassa's career, before his current home became the guitar-filled gear museum known as Nerdville.

“He always made a point to say hello and ask me how the music business was,” Bonamassa continues. “I would apologize for the loud guitar playing and we would have a laugh. Rest in peace, Sir.”

It's a charming glimpse of Stewart away from the screen: a neighbor who took an interest in a young musician's career and never seemed bothered by the sound of electric guitar practice coming from across the street.

That's perhaps just as well. Bonamassa has since become known for his enormous live setups, including an ultra-expensive rig that has accompanied him around the world. On one occasion, he even suffered temporary hearing loss after cranking his equipment too loud.

Tom Morello has also paid tribute to Stewart, thanking the actor for his “brilliance” and “humanity.” The former Rage Against the Machine guitarist made an uncredited cameo in the 1998 film Star Trek: Insurrection, briefly sharing the screen with Stewart.

Stewart was also an eloquent advocate for the arts. During a speech delivered to the Oxford Union, he described art as “part of the human spirit; an unquestionable expression of who we are.”

“Art,” he added, “is one of the ways in which we say, I am alive, and my life has meaning.”

You don’t have to be a recording wiz to get excited by the new Catalinbread Crooner (the second installment in the company’s CB-Range Discrete Console Pre series), but you should definitely recalibrate expectations a bit when plugging in.

Guitarists tend to think of preamps as simply a way to tweak EQ and decide how much grit or distortion to dial in from their amp or dirt box. But studio engineers see recording-console preamps in a much different light. Their ears perk up at the mention of hallowed designs by the likes of Neve, SSL, and API the way we get excited about, say, a Klon Centaur, Ibanez Tube Screamer, or Electro-Harmonix Big Muff.

But studio preamps like the ones just mentioned (and many others) were putting their sonic signatures on landmark recordings long before effects pedals were a thing. And not just on guitar tones. In any genre you can think of, classic recordings used rare, now-expensive preamps to imbue not just every track but the entire mix with a magic that was as key to the listener’s aural experience as the fancy microphones — and the engineers and players themselves.

That magic is often subtle — but it doesn’t have to be. After all, the mayhem-inducing sounds of a studio preamp being (ab)used in ways its designers never intended are what launched the fuzz-pedal industry in 1962. The Maestro FZ-1 let guitarists take that sound to the stage. Our sonic frontier hasn’t been the same since.

The Crooner is based on the transistor-driven guts of a 1960s RCA BA-31 microphone preamp. It feeds your electric guitar signal through an op-amp similar to those used in old UREI (Universal Audio) studio gear, such as the 1176 Peak Limiter. From the op-amp, the signal heads into the RCA-inspired, germanium-transistor section and on to the transformer-driven output stage.

Crooner is governed by four knobs, which the average guitarist may find slightly confusing: Push controls the amount of op-amp gain, trim controls the amount of germanium-produced gain in the BA-31 circuit, filter is a treble-cut control, and volume sets overall output level.

After spending hours testing the Crooner with everything from a Fender Jaguar and Telecaster to a Gibson Les Paul Special and Dunable Cyclops, I concluded it’s most versatile and alluring when paired with the type of tube amp that sounds nice the more you push it. Higher-headroom clean amps, such as a Fender with vintage-style speakers, are still viable Crooner partners. However, they’re more apt to sound like a direct-to-board track. They also tended to respond more harshly to aggressive pedal settings.

I got a wealth of tones routing Crooner through a 6973-powered Goodsell combo inspired by old Supro amps. Besides having a tube topology friendly to all sorts of drive pedals, its alnico speaker further accommodated a huge range of sounds, many of which you’d be hard-pressed to get from standard overdrive or distortion boxes.

If the above note about fuzz and studio preamps didn’t quite sink in and Crooner’s name is still hitting you with gross lounge-singer vibes, you can rest easy. Crooner serves up all kinds of gnarliness, regardless of guitar or pickup type. Simply turn the trim and push knobs past noon to go from varying flavors of Fuzz Face-like filth to the spitty, gated tones of a ZVEX Fuzz Factory.

That said, the first tones that got me giddy were the ones that turned single-coil bridge pickups into knife-fight slashers. And those came at much more moderate settings. Dialing Crooner’s volume and filter controls fully clockwise (the latter equating to no treble cut whatsoever), while keeping push at minimum and trim just before noon, turned even my Jag’s bridge unit — with vintage-spec high-pass filter engaged, no less — into a seething, swaggering mofo.

And with a generous helping of sweet compression, too. Think Kinks, Franz Ferdinand, or Strokes tones on steroids and you’ve got the idea. My Telecaster Custom fared similarly. Pulling filter back to 3 o’clock and trim to 10 o’clock delivered both meanness and nuanced two-pickup cluck with pickup volumes lowered a bit.

Even when I switched to fatter, more powerful pickups like P90s and humbuckers, I found myself keeping the push control at low to moderate settings, and volume relatively high — at noon-ish with ‘buckers, but mostly between 3 o’clock and max. Not because higher push settings sounded bad, but because the RCA circuit is the draw here, and higher push settings tended to sound less distinct.

Consequently, I’d then need to turn trim — the RCA calling card — way back too. To be sure, low trim and high push settings yield usable sounds. They’re just more akin to moderate-gain blues and classic-rock tones you can get from a number of other stompboxes.

Interestingly, I found myself using the push and filter controls much more with my LP Special and Cyclops. With slightly lower trim settings and filter set between 10 and 12 o’clock, both guitars sounded like they could cut tracks in a ’50s rock ’n’ roll or R&B session. That’s no small feat for the high-output, Univox Phase III-style humbuckers I’ve got in the Cyclops.

What’s more, higher-output guitars were the only test instruments that prompted me to nudge the push control up from minimum — never past noon, more often than not at 9 o’clock. This filled out, defined, and sweetened the way a studio mastering process might. And that’s the sort of magic the average dirt or fuzz box simply can’t conjure.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT catalinbread.com

PRICE $179 street

CONTROLS Push, filter, volume, trim

EXTRAS LED Input and output, indicator, 9V-18V DC

DIMENSIONS 4.33” W: 2.36” H: 1.96” (LxWxH)

PRO Instills virtually any guitar type with vintage-recording je ne sais quoi. Also capable of fantastic gnarliness. Multitudes of lovely hues on tap … usually via moderate knob settings.

CON Unusual control setup requires more patient experimentation than you might expect. Sounds best through amps with pleasing tube breakup rather than lots of clean headroom. Moderate to high gain and trim settings can be off-putting.

What does it take to play guitar in Jethro Tull? It’s a fair question, so we put it to the man in charge: Ian Anderson, the band’s frontman, flautist and occasional guitarist, who also happens to own some rather rare vintage Martin acoustic guitars.

Anderson, 79, has a pretty clear idea of what he wants from a guitarist. For starters, he tells Guitar Player, “I don’t think I would want to have a guitar player whose sole interest and influence was Black, American folk music.”

That’s an interesting perspective from the songwriter behind “Aqualung” and “Locomotive Breath,” on which he handled much of the guitar work himself, playing a Les Paul. But the band’s earliest recordings, particularly those featuring original guitarist Mick Abrahams, who later formed the blues-oriented Blodwyn Pig, leaned more heavily on the blues. Anderson and Abrahams, however, had different ideas about the band’s musical direction.

“You might call it the blues,” Anderson says. “But to me, it’s cultural misappropriation.”

He explains: “I am not Black. I am not of the cultural background or experience of a Black American. I love to listen, and still do today, occasionally listen to some of the great Black American blues artists that I grew up with as a teenager; it was an opening of the door for me.”

Anderson wanted to take Jethro Tull somewhere else. After Abrahams’ departure, Tony Iommi briefly joined the band before returning to Birmingham and the group that would become Black Sabbath. Martin Barre subsequently took over on guitar, helping establish the sound that would define Tull for decades.

“Musically speaking, I used the blues to open doors into the music business and to be able to get an audience … and a record deal,” Anderson says. “I never felt that’s what I wanted to do with my life. So, the guitar influence in Jethro Tull went toward European classical music, and obviously, English, Scottish, and Irish folk music. That’s the way I saw the band from 1969 onward.”

Anderson’s feelings about Tull’s place in the musical landscape extend to the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“For Jethro Tull to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is missing the point, really, because that’s the celebration of all the great music in America,” he says. “I don’t feel we’re really that way. Not much of what we’ve done is influenced by American music.”

That distinct musical identity has also shaped Anderson’s relationship with the guitarists who have passed through the band. In recent years, that has included Florian Opahle, Joe Parrish and now Jack Clark. Anderson remains closely involved in how their parts develop, although he doesn’t necessarily dictate every note.

Asked whether he tells his guitarists what to play, Anderson says, “Well, they’re not writing the songs. They’re coming up with parts and some improvised solos based on what I outline to them.”

The outline, he explains, is a starting point rather than a finished instruction. “The outline might be a starting point for their approach. As a record producer, I have to draw from something that is cohesive and works with the song.”

He continues: “So, I will give them, in varying degrees, some input to help them along the way. Maybe I’ll show them something in rehearsal, or they’ll send me a demo as an email attachment, and I listen to what they’re thinking, and we fine-tune it to get the right result.”

In Clark’s case, Anderson says, there’s generally very little to change.

“Ninety-five percent of what Jack does straight away is usable, and the right thing,” he says. “It’s usually the right thing for the record and the way that I think it should be.”

Given Anderson’s involvement in the band’s arrangements, not to mention his own considerable songwriting contributions, it’s reasonable to wonder why he doesn’t handle more of the guitar work himself. As it turns out, he does play a significant amount of guitar on Jethro Tull’s latest album, 2025’s Curious Ruminant, as he has throughout the band’s history.

“The guitar is obviously a very important instrument in the band,” he says, “alongside the instrument I’m most well-known for, which is the flute! That interaction between the very, perhaps, shrill, bird-like quality of the flute and more sonorous, full-on chordal guitar stuff is the starting point for how people see our songs.”

Anderson says much of the band’s acoustic guitar work is his own. “I would probably describe our music as ‘acoustic music,’ which is nearly always me. Whether it’s Thick as a Brick or this new album, if it’s an acoustic guitar, it’s me playing it.”

That doesn’t mean he’s looking to take over the lead-guitar role. “I think of myself as a guitar player,” he says. “But I’m not a soloist. I’m not an upfront, flashy player. I am there when I need to play a part, sometimes, in an acoustic context.”

“It’s just me and the guitar,” he adds. “Though sometimes, it’s me, my guitar, and the rest of the band being well-behaved and not too noisy. [laughs] That’s the way it works.”

The guitar Anderson tends to reach for is something special: a C.F. Martin dating to around 1880.

“It’s a small-bodied, nylon-string guitar,” he says. “I take a lot of pleasure in having an instrument that’s that old and letting it have a voice in something that’s from the new millennium.”

Deep Purple have called off the remaining dates on their European tour after a medical emergency forced singer Ian Gillan to seek hospital treatment.

The band initially canceled two shows — October 31 at the QI Arena in Leipzig, Germany, and November 1 at Hamburg’s Sporthalle — after announcing that Gillan had been hospitalized. On November 2, the 81-year-old singer confirmed that the rest of the European and U.K. dates on the band’s Splat! tour would be postponed indefinitely.

In a statement shared on social media, Gillan thanked fans for their support and explained that continuing the tour would pose a serious risk to his health.

“I had a medical problem whilst in Leipzig which required urgent attention at the hospital,” he wrote. “I was hoping that I would get the all clear to hang on until the end of the tour, but there are very serious risks involved in me doing so.

“As a result, and on the advice of my medical team and management we have made the decision to postpone the rest of the European/UK tour until further notice.

“I’m very sorry about any inconvenience this may cause, but it’s in the best interest all round.”

The singer closed by thanking fans for their understanding.

The cancellation comes as Gillan has been increasingly candid about the physical challenges of continuing to perform at his age. Speaking last fall to Jono and Nats on Dubai 92’s The Big Breakfast, he was asked whether Deep Purple had considered an endpoint for a career now spanning six decades.

“Well, no one’s really thought it through. We don’t talk about it that much,” he replied. “And as life gets on, the end is nearer than the beginning, that’s for sure. We all know that. But at the moment we’re getting a lot of joy from what we’re doing.

“I think probably human dignity is gonna be the deciding factor. Once you start going out and embarrassing people with your inability to do what you’ve done all your life, then it’s time to stop,” he said. “But until that moment arrives, then we’re going good. And the band is hard and mean and hungry at the moment. I’ve never felt it so tight.”

In a separate interview with Uncut magazine, Gillan offered a more sobering assessment of the challenges he faces.

“I’ve only got 30 percent vision,” he said. “That won’t get better. It makes life mysterious. The hardest thing is working on my laptop. I can’t see anything on the screen unless I use my peripheral vision; I pick up a line by looking at it sideways. But you find a way. You adapt. But it’s achingly tiresome. It takes a long time to do the work.”

Asked about the prospect of retirement, Gillan suggested that his energy level would ultimately determine when he steps away.

“I think if I lose my energy I’m going to stop. I don’t want to be an embarrassment to anyone. We’re not far off that. It creeps up on you — you don’t really notice.”

Rita Coolidge has long spoken about being denied a songwriting credit on “Layla,” the hit song recorded by Eric Clapton’s 1970 band Derek & the Dominos.

But it wasn’t the first time she had contributed to a song that became a hit without receiving credit. Just one year earlier, she had helped conceive and write a song that would eventually become a major success for the Carpenters.

At the time, Coolidge was a backup singer with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, the extended group led by husband-and-wife duo Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. She suggested writing a song about a lovestruck groupie longing for a touring guitarist to return to her. The idea became “Groupie (Superstar),” which Coolidge wrote with Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett.

Released in December 1969 as the B-side of Delaney & Bonnie’s single “Comin’ Home,” the song featured a group that included Eric Clapton on electric guitar. He and fellow guitarist George Harrison had become enamored of Delaney & Bonnie’s music and begun performing with the group. Clapton also recorded with them and brought several of their musicians into his orbit, eventually recruiting keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon — Coolidge’s boyfriend at the time — to form Derek & the Dominos.

Despite helping write ‘Groupie (Superstar),’ Coolidge was entirely omitted from its songwriting credits. She later explained to Relix that she was reluctant to challenge the omission, partly because of the consequences she feared it might have for the other people involved.

“When that record came out and I saw [written by] ‘Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell,’ Bonnie even said, ‘Why didn’t you say something, Rita?’ And I said, ‘Because, I knew if I did, then Delaney would beat the shit out of you and it wasn’t worth it.’”

Despite the omission, Coolidge got an early opportunity to showcase the song herself. In 1970, she performed it, retitled “Superstar,” as part of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour, and her performance was featured on the live album recorded during the tour.

Still, that lost credit would soon prove costly. Two years after Delaney & Bonnie made their recording, the Carpenters recorded their own version. Featured on their 1971 album Carpenters, “Superstar” was released as a single and climbed to number two on the U.S. charts. The song would go on to appear on multiple Carpenters greatest-hits collections.

Coolidge’s experience with “Superstar” preceded an even more consequential omission. Her contribution to “Layla” was the piano coda that follows the song’s main section. She and Gordon had written the music as a separate composition, titled “Time (Don’t Let the World Get in Our Way).”

“We finished the song and decided that we should make a demo since we were on the way to England to record with Eric,” she told Relix. “The day we were in the studio with Eric, I sat down at the piano and played it and sang. Eric seemed to like it, so I gave him a cassette and left it on the piano. Everybody in Delaney & Bonnie were there — Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle. The whole band who was there witnessed it.”

As with “Groupie (Superstar),” Coolidge didn't realize her contribution had gone uncredited until she heard the finished recording.

“I was in the studio having pictures made for my new album on A&M and I hear this music come over the PA system in the studio and it sounded so very familiar,” she said. “As it went on, it suddenly dawned on me — that’s my music, that’s why it’s so familiar. It had become the coda for ‘Layla.’”

Coolidge first detailed the stories behind “Superstar” and “Layla” in her 2016 memoir, Delta Lady. Their publication prompted some people to question why she was only speaking out about the incidents decades later. But, she insisted, the stories were nothing new.

“I’ve told this story my whole life and, when the book was released, I saw where people had written stuff, which I stopped reading, saying, ‘Why are you just telling this story now?’” Coolidge said.

“Well, it’s not just now,” she added. “I’ve been telling this story since 1970. I didn’t sit back on my thumbs — I knew what had happened.”

Cream were a revelation when they emerged on London's blues scene in 1966. Until the power trio's arrival, blues guitar had typically been slow, intentional and emotional. Unlike others before them, Cream — Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker — brought rock and roll fire, flair and ferocity to the genre — along with a fair helping of jazz-inspired jamming — and in doing so helped change the game.

Yet despite comprising three superlative musicians — including Clapton, who had forged a formidable reputation with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers — Bruce believes the group was, from its start, destined to pull itself apart.

His comments — from a 2012 interview with Guitarist conducted two years before his death — centered on the supergroup’s creative apex, 1967’s Disraeli Gears.

“I think Eric thought he was going to have this little blues trio and he would be sort of like Buddy Guy standing out the front," Bruce offered. "And then I thought, Great, I can be a composer and get some songs out there. And I think Ginger just wanted to conquer the world, basically, like Genghis Khan or somebody. We had different ideas.

“Meanwhile, the management was thinking, ‘Let’s milk this for all it’s worth because it ain’t going to last. So let’s get them out there and make them play every toilet in the US for as long as they’ll last before they go barmy or kill each other.’”

What management never imagined, according to Bruce, is that Cream would not only become an influential blues-rock crossover act but also cross the pond and catch fire in America.

“[They] thought it was going to be an all-star band that would fill the blues clubs, and maybe be a nice festival attraction,” Bruce said. “They never thought it would spread; they never thought it would get to America; they never thought we’d have hit songs. They had absolutely no bloody idea. And when you look at it, it’s a miracle that it happened.”

Bruce was certainly correct about Clapton's aims. Seeing Buddy Guy perform live at London's Marquee Club in 1965 inspired him to sever ties with the John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and launch his own group.

"What [Guy's performance] said to me was 'This was possible,’” Claton recalled of the change-making show decades later. “If you were a good enough guitar player, you could do it as a trio. It seemed to be so free, you could go anywhere. With Jack in my filing cabinet, I was thinking about that as a way of breaking free.”

But Clapton's Guy-inspired foundation would form just one facet of the group's musical direction. Bruce was eager to take the blues to new places.

“Eric was really into the blues and he knew a lot of stuff that I didn’t know," the bassist said. "So I was being a bit presumptuous by saying, 'I love the blues', but I’d want to take it a step further and use the language of the blues as a way to write music for us. I always thought I could really change the world through music.”

in fact, both Bruce and Baker had jazz backgrounds, unlike Clapton. The late Peter Brown, who co-wrote lyrics to Cream songs like "White Room" and "Sunshine of Your Love," believed that helped Clapton elevate his playing to new heights.

“They didn’t put Eric down,” he said of Bruce and Baker. “They didn’t say, 'You don’t know enough about chords, or, You don’t know enough about jazz to play with us.' What they did say was: 'You’re a terrific player with terrific feeling, and if you play with us then this thing will happen. The magic will come.'”

The magic came and went, with Cream disintegrating after four studio albums, leaving behind an untouchable legacy.

Reflecting on what they left behind, Bruce mused, “I think you always would like another go.

“You’re never quite happy about it,” he said. “There’s definitely things that could be changed and, obviously you only hear the mistakes. But once it’s finished, it’s finished.”

There’s no doubt you've heard Brent Mason play guitar. He’s appeared on records by Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw, Brooks & Dunn, Vince Gill and Trisha Yearwood, as well as hundreds of others. His work has been heard in dozens of movies, including Bridget Jones's Diary, A Few Good Men and The Thing Called Love, as well as on such TV shows as Friends, Becker and King of the Hill.

His guitar playing have even appeared during commercial breaks for products like Budweiser, Country Time Lemonade, Dodge Trucks, Revlon and countless others. To top it off, he’s in both the Musician’s Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame Nashville Cats.

Since arriving in Nashville in the early 1980s, Mason has put his impeccable chops and uncanny versatility to ubiquitous use, making the multiple-award winner Music City's first-call picker and one of the most recorded guitarists in history.

Why have so many top-flight stars and producers called upon Mason's services?

“Man, I wish I could tell you,” he says with a laugh. “Then I could bottle it and sell it.”

Mason launches into a story about how, several years ago, he heard some fine guitar playing while relaxing on his back deck.

“My neighbor was cranking tunes next door, and the music was coming out through his opened windows,” he says. “This song by Alabama came on, and man, the guitar solo was hot! Some guy was playing a Tele and doing three-part harmonies. I was like, ‘Wow, that guy’s good.’

“Then it dawned on me: Wait a minute. That’s me! I sound amazing!

“I’ve done so many sessions, I forget ‘em sometimes.”

Pausing a moment to reflect, Mason offers this assessment of his popularity among artists and producers.

“I think it all comes down to timing, like so many things,” he says. “I was the right player at the right time when I hit Nashville”

He chuckles. “Of course, I had to wait a little while for people to realize that, but once they did get an earful of what I could do, it sounded right to them.”

What sounded right to so many Nashville record makers was the fact that Mason, along with cohorts like bassist Glenn Worf and drummer Lonnie Wilson, didn't fit in with the pristine, direct-recorded sound that had become de rigueur on country-oriented albums during much of the 1980s.

“They were doing a lot of things digitally, and they had stopped using amps on records,” Mason recalls. “You plug straight into the board, and that takes the edge off the guitar.

“I don't want to sound derogatory, but they were making records sound a little fluffy and sweet—a little too polite.

“So what we did was try to bring in more of a raucous sound, like you just walked into a club and were hearing a band tear it up. I'd go to sessions with an old, smoky amp, and I brought the roadhouse with me. That sounded pretty good with Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson and all the others.”

(For the record, it was his blazing solo on Jackson's “I Don't Even Know Your Name” that made Nashville sit up and ask, “Who the hell is Brent Mason?” )

Mason's path to session-king status began early, while growing up in Grover Hill, Ohio, “It was farmland in the middle of nowhere,” he says. “The nearest city was Fort Wayne, Indiana.” He picked up the guitar at the age of five and taught himself to play by listening to records by Merle Haggard, Chet Atkins and Buck Owens. When Mason's father, a keen country music fan, brought home a copy of Jerry Reed's Nashville Underground, the effect it had on his young son was profound.

“Jerry was unbelievable,” Mason enthuses. “Such command of the guitar. I was blown away. I studied him like you wouldn't believe, just copying every lick he played. He became a real idol of mine’

Shunning lessons, Mason continued his private study course into his teens, copying guitar parts off records and studying album sleeves for credits.

“I committed everything to memory,” he says. “I was more impressed with the session guys than the actual stars on the front cover. I listened to what Reggie Young was doing,” he says, referring to the guitarist heard on tracks by everyone from Elvis Presley to Johnny Cash to Willie Nelson. “I picked apart his licks.

“And Roy Nichols, who played with Merle — I was listening to him. I was already grooming myself to be a session player. I just wanted to come to Nashville, where it was like a melting pot of everything. I wasn't sure how I was going to go about it, but I wanted to get into the business somehow.”

Mason arrived in Nashville after completing high school. Armed with his first electric guitar, a Hagstrom, he set out on his mission to infiltrate the studio session scene.

“It’s like a club nobody invites you to join,” he observes. “You have to crash your way in.”

With doors not exactly swinging open, Mason hit the nightclubs, landing a steady gig with a local Top 40 outfit, the Don Kelley Band.

“I figured I stood a good chance of getting noticed if people saw me playing live,” Mason explains. “This went on for a few years.”

During this time, he sidelined his Hagstrom for a 1968 Telecaster that he purchased for $300 at Hewgley’s Music Shop just outside of Nashville.

“I really wanted a Les Paul and a Tele, but I couldn't afford both,” he explains. “So I stuck a mini humbucker in the neck position and had two single-coils in the middle and bridge. It worked really well. I played that guitar for years.”

Just when it seemed as if Mason's club tenure would continue indefinitely, opportunity came knocking in the most unexpected of ways. Chet Atkins, who was working on a record called Stay Tuned, on which he played alongside other guitar greats, walked into a club with his buddy George Benson. The two were suitably impressed by Mason's playing, and after the set Atkins approached the unknown guitarist and asked him if he'd like to play on song that would also feature Mark Knopfler.

“It was crazy,” Mason says with a laugh. “I was looking at my calendar book and trying to act cool, like, ‘Yeah, I think I could fit that in’ Meanwhile, I'm flipping out. It was like, ‘Are you kidding? This can't be happening!’”

Mason's lively playing on the jazz-rock “Some Leather and Lace” neatly complemented the nimble lines of Atkins and Knopfler, and it was the first real signal to Nashville's munic elite that an exciting new talent was in their midst.

But the guitarist had another trick up his sleeve: his songwriting. “I was recording demos of my songs, which people liked, but they all said the same thing ‘Hey, who's playing guitar on that?’” he recalls. “Pretty soon, people started asking me to play on their records.”

The floodgates opened in a major way after Keith Whitley not only decided to record one of Mason's originals, “Heartbreak Highway.” but also asked the guitarist to play on the track. (Sadly, the cut appeared on Whitley's 1989 album, I Wonder De You Think of Me, which was released three months after his alcohol-related death.)

Starting in the early 1990s, country music began to dominate the Billboard charts, and for the next couple of decades Mason was living the studio life that he had dreamed about as a teenager.

“Every room in town was booked night and day,” he says. “I was working all the time. One week I'd do a Tim McGraw album, another week I'd have Faith Hill, and then the next week I'd be working with Lee Ann Womack. Then it would be Alan Jackson or Brooks & Dunn, and then it'd be Reba McEntire.

“It went like that for years. I used to read about how things were with the Wrecking Crew back in the States. We were experiencing the same kind of thing.”

So back to that first question about what it takes to have Brent Mason’s success. It might have something to do with listening as much as — and as well as — you play.

“You gotta watch out when you go in there,” he told Guitar World earlier this year. “Studio musicians like to play a song, jam and get loosened up to check and see if everything is clicking. But sometimes you can play too much.

“You’ve really gotta listen to the vocalist and mark down on your chart where the fields go, make sure you’re off the vocal point and make sure you understand what the artist wants.”

It’s as simple as asking, he says.

“A lot of times, you can ask the artist, ‘Hey, give me your vision of what you’re looking for on this.’ Then you can sit down with a pen and pad of paper and take notes — if you want to look real dignified.”

He laughs.

“Or you could just nod your head, and go, ‘Yeah, I got you!’”

Part of this story originally appeared in Guitar Aficionado, Volume 9, Number 3.

Steven Tyler isn't ready to call time on Aerosmith's touring career — despite comments from the stage at the band's recent Hollywood Bowl concerts that suggested otherwise.

The group returned to the stage for its first live performances in more than three years on Friday and Sunday, playing a shortened headlining set after an all-star cast of guests, including Heart and Guns N' Roses, paid tribute with performances of Aerosmith songs. The format recalled Ozzy Osbourne's Back to the Beginning farewell event.

But fans were caught off guard when comedian Bill Burr, who served as master of ceremonies, introduced the October 29 concert by describing the occasion as “this amazing event” and declaring it would be the “final two shows in Aerosmith's history.” His remarks quickly sparked speculation online that the band was calling it quits.

Tyler wasn't having it.

“So Bill Burr said these are our final shows, huh?” he asked the Hollywood Bowl audience on Sunday. “Doesn't he know that you can't get rid of Aerosmith? In fact, at the end of the fucking world, there will only be cockroaches, Aerosmith and I guess, Bill Burr!”

The singer appeared to take the joke in stride, later describing Burr as “Boston's own Charlie Brown with a bad-ass attitude.”

Still, Tyler's own words toward the end of the performance did little to settle the question of what comes next. “Before we say goodnight, I just want to say what a ride it has been with my brothers. 55 years, you guys, 55 years.”

Guitarist Joe Perry offered no clues about the band's future, instead thanking the musicians who had joined them to perform their songs. “I gotta say thank you to all the performers that came out tonight and played our songs,” he said, before adding, with characteristic self-deprecation, “A lot better than we ever did.”

Brian May has an idea for what Queen could do at the Sphere, but don't expect the band to take over the Las Vegas venue anytime soon.

The prospect of a Queen residency at the cutting-edge entertainment complex has been circulating for more than a year. May and drummer Roger Taylor have both made comments that have kept speculation alive, and the band's music and visual legacy would seem ideally suited to the venue's immersive, 360-degree presentation. But May says there is little movement toward making it happen.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, the guitarist was asked about the possibility of Queen playing the Sphere. His response suggested the idea remains more of a concept than a developing plan.

“I don’t know what to tell you about that,” May said. “I don’t even know where we are on that. I really don’t. Things change so fast.”

He remains intrigued by the creative possibilities, however, and has already imagined how Queen might approach the format. With popular songs that include “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “We Are the Champions,” Queen’s catalog is ripe for an immersive experience.

However, May insists the band wouldn't simply replicate ABBA's successful virtual concert experience.

“I’m still very much caught up with the idea of this 360-degree surround environment for music, and particularly for us in some kind of retrospective,” May continued. “It wouldn’t be like the ABBA thing. Everybody says, ‘Oh, you’re gonna do what ABBA did.’ But no, it would be something different from that, because we have a different history and a different path or whatever. And I still have a template in my head of what we could do, but I don’t think we’re progressing very fast on it for various other reasons.”

The guitarist's comments come after he caused a stir by suggesting Queen was finished with touring. He subsequently clarified that his remarks had been misrepresented, but his latest interview makes clear that he's in no hurry to return to the road.

For now, May is relishing the chance to pursue interests that took a back seat during Queen's years of touring. That includes spending time with his family, exploring astrophysics and expanding his work in animal welfare and campaigning. May has also been taking it easier since suffering a minor stroke in 2024

“I feel like I’m on a break, and I’m enjoying my break, and I’m getting to do all the things which I dreamed of doing when there was no time all those years on the road,” he explained. “So I’m getting to see my kids, I’m getting to see my grandchildren, getting to do a lot of projects on the side which I’ve dreamed of doing. I get to do more astrophysics. I get to do more animal welfare and animal campaigning work. And all round, it’s been a good decision for me so far.”

That doesn't mean May has ruled out performing live again. He can imagine a change of heart down the line, but the prospect of another marathon tour is a different matter.

“Maybe one day I’m gonna wake up and think, ‘Ah, maybe we should get out on the road,’” the rocker conceded. “But I don’t think I will be committing to nine-month-long tours again.”