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July 2026
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114 articles
- July 31
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- Modest Mouse part ways with Simon O’Connor after allegations he sent inappropriate messages to a minor
- “The console had quit. They didn't like that at all.” How Grady Martin, Nancy Sinatra and Ann-Margret helped fuzz become every guitarist's favorite effect
- "Perhaps the best version Fender has produced so far." We review the Fender Vintera III Mid ’60s Jazzmaster
- Bands hired Alex Lifeson for the Rush sound. He loved disappointing them
- How the Beatles reinvented the recording studio with Rubber Soul. “EMI had very firm rules,” Paul McCartney recalled, “which we always had to break”
- July 30
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- Bono, Springsteen and Ed Sheeran mourn Glen Hansard: “A musical and mischievous archangel”
- A lost John Lennon song has been found for the Beatles’ Rubber Soul reissue — but its origins remain a mystery
- Brian May names Freddie Mercury’s “most beautiful” Queen song — and it’s not “Bohemian Rhapsody”
- “He said, ‘God, when I asked for a song, I didn’t expect this!’” Tom Petty and Mike Campbell on the song they couldn’t give Stevie Nicks — and the one they did that became a hit
- “It’s my least favorite Beatles song.” Elvis Presley inspired it. John Lennon hated it. Behind the Rubber Soul track he wished he'd never written
- July 29
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- “It seemed kind of a natural progression.” George Harrison never understood why Bob Dylan going electric caused such outrage
- “It’s a great album, it rocks!” Tony Iommi announces his first solo album in years and premieres thunderous new single, “World Alone”
- “There probably couldn’t be two to three musicians like him in the world.” Derek Trucks on the musician and instrument that made him a better slide player
- “I just want it known I'm allowed to put four songs on the album, whatever happens.” John Lennon had a plan to keep the Beatles going into the 1970s. Paul McCartney rejected it. The rest is history
- “My biggest fear is that she was just dropped off on the street somewhere.” Linda Perhacs, influential psychedelic folk songwriter, reported missing
- July 28
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- “It's never that easy to play, even after all these years.” Brian May on the Queen song that requires him to “keep my wits about me”
- “John Lennon didn’t really like anybody.” Dave Davies revisits the Kinks’ Beatles rivalry — and reveals the only Fab Four member he admired
- “I sent him a postcard: ‘You gotta get out of Winnipeg.’ So he went to Thunder Bay, met Stephen Stills and started Buffalo Springfield.” Randy Bachman on sharing guitars and amps with Neil Young as rock and roll upstarts
- “One conversation you won’t want to miss.” Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth to make rare public appearance together this week
- Modest Mouse guitarist Simon O'Connor is accused of sending inappropriate messages to minor
- “We were watching this Beatles concert on TV when Keith comes walking down the stairs.” Keith Richards had a priceless response when he caught his band watching the Fab Four
- July 27
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- “I’m up there like the folk singer I always hoped I would be — before I saw the Beatles.” Lenny Kaye on finally making his first solo album
- “If the answer is yes, you’re doing all right. That’s your dream guitar.” Joe Bonamassa explains his trick for finding the guitars you’ll want to keep forever
- “I was the drummer!” Bon Scott had never played bagpipes before AC/DC used them on “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ’n’ Roll)” — so he had to learn them fast
- “Left to my own devices, I will have 85 pieces of paper with a couple of words on each.” Joe Walsh reveals what Stevie Nicks taught him about songwriting
- “I got so into the feedback coming out of the amps, I started smacking the guitar with my fist.” Jimi Hendrix’s roadie claims in his new book that he played guitar for him at his biggest show. A recording from the event says otherwise
- July 26
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- “He says to me, ‘Keep vamping, just jam,’ while he’s having a heart attack. Then he started grabbing his chest.” The show that ended David Bowie’s touring career — and the song that became his last hit
- “They were asking, ‘Can we go home now?’ We said, ‘No. Have a cup of tea.‘” George Harrison on the night the Beatles got George Martin and his crew high
- July 25
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- “They gave themselves credit, stuck it on an album and never paid me. It was a little bit disappointing.” John Lennon looked to Frank Zappa for career guidance. Zappa said the former Beatle got considerably more
- “His battle is over now and he can finally rest.” Lou Koller, iconic frontman for Sick of It All, has died at 59
- “It was chaotic.” Inside the secret recording session that turned Simon & Garfunkel’s flop into a number-one hit — without Paul Simon knowing
- July 24
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- “He said, ‘I ain’t going to let you see a thing!’” Buddy Guy on the blues giant who turned his back on him — and the hilarious reality check that followed
- “From the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry. I hope you’re well. I hope there’s not a physical problem.” David Lee Roth cancels U.S. tour and gets words of support from Sammy Hagar
- “This is the kind of guitar playing that melts me.” Brian May on the guitarist who left even the Queen legend humbled
- “Bob turned around like, ‘What the eff are you doing back there? I'm trying to talk up here!’” Mike Campbell on the time he broke his guitar in two onstage with Bob Dylan with just one wrong move
- July 23
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- “I thought it was a bit of a mistake — a hype, really.” Eric Clapton on Chas Chandler’s misstep with Jimi Hendrix — and why he “fell in love with him” anyway
- “I saw blood everywhere. But I kept going because I knew there were 12 guys down there I wanted to meet.” Tommy Emmanuel says a fatal gang fight triggered a lockdown before his gig at San Quentin Prison. He went on anyway
- “The world is filled with blues lawyers playing ’59 Les Pauls and clowns like Steven Seagal playing beefed-up pentatonics.” Eric Clapton’s Beano album just turned 60, but you’re still missing the point of what Slowhand achieved
- “He asked, ‘Can I have it back?’ I said, ‘No way. This is a real good ’un.’” Duane Allman wanted his first electric guitar back. Delaney Bramlett refused to hand it over
- “Listen, I’ve actually sat in a room with her and a guitar, watching those tiny hands. She made it look so effortless.” Watch Amy Winehouse stun audiences with her voice and a Stratocaster
- July 22
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- “I said, ‘God, you nicked all my things!’ And he said, ‘Yeah, but it’s like an homage to you.’” Mick Jagger on his rivalry with David Bowie — and the Ziggy Stardust–era track that was Bowie’s Rolling Stones tribute
- “I had been walking around with the melody in my head for a couple of years.” Ozzy Osbourne’s biggest solo hit was years in the making. It took a touch of southern rock to make it the anthem of his lifetime
- “The guy said if people donated, they’d never to play it again.” Robert Plant once paid a radio station to stop playing Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”
- “Ozzy requested a remote switch so he could turn the pedalboard off from the next hotel room.” Randy Rhoads’ constant practice drove Ozzy Osbourne crazy. The solution? A tiny pedalboard designed to please them both
- July 21
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- “I was rather embarrassed to realize we were named after a dead guy who invented the seed drill.” Ian Anderson reveals his guilt over Jethro Tull’s name
- “I just don’t think he is a good guitarist.” Ronnie Montrose offered a brutal assessment of Sammy Hagar two years before he joined Van Halen. But Sammy had the last laugh
- “I had a dream where Chet came out with his red guitar, and he showed me how.” Tommy Emmanuel on the guitar hero who became a father figure after his dad died
- July 20
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- “He strapped it on and started jerking and pulling on the neck. He goes, ‘Where’s the B-Bender?” Vince Gill explains how his fingers became the secret to the Telecaster sound that fooled a steel guitarist
- “There are babes jumping up and down. I’m going, ‘That guy's copping my song.’ And then I realized it was me!” Bonnie Raitt on learning her guitar work was the theme for the hit TV show ‘Baywatch’
- “If I had thought, ‘This is going to be discussed a half century later,’ I would’ve screwed it up. Simple as that.” Lenny Kaye on Nuggets, his 1972 grab bag of lost rock tracks that unintentionally predicted the future of punk
- “With a very heavy heart we announce that our beloved bandmate, friend and fellow troublemaker has passed away today.” L7 bassist Jennifer Finch has died at age 59
- July 19
- July 18
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- “I’m just standing there strumming a chord. And the audience looks at me and goes, ‘How does he produce that noise?’” Pete Townshend on the Who's real lead guitar player
- “He said, ‘This is Eric Clapton. This may sound like a hoax but it’s not.’ I was like, ‘What is going on?’” Derek Trucks reveals the voicemail that launched his professional relationship with Slowhand
- July 17
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- “All through our career, every time we would play that song, I would feel that rush of adrenaline, as if it was the first time I heard it.” Mike Campbell on the Tom Petty song that stunned him at every performance
- “I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down.” Mark Knopfler reveals the surprising influence behind the Dire Straits hit “Money for Nothing”
- “There are a lot of guys who can play that. But I don’t.” David Gilmour says he never learned to play one of his most iconic Pink Floyd guitar solos
- “I didn’t like the band when I met them. They didn’t seem particularly eager to welcome me.” Jeff Beck on the day he replaced Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds
- “Our preference has always been dialogue and practical solutions—not litigation. Unfortunately, Thomann chose a different path.” Fender sues Thomann in latest escalation of its Stratocaster copyright crackdown
- July 16
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- “I took John’s advice — which is very stupid of me.” Mick Jagger says John Lennon talked him out of meeting Elvis Presley — and he still regrets it
- “You have an army behind you,” Green Day, Pearl Jam, Garbage and others rally around L7 bassist Jennifer Finch as fund to support her brain cancer fight tops $350,000
- “She plays like Gary Moore. She’s got the vibrato of a 55-year-old man.” How one FaceTime call helped 19-year-old Anna Cara land her Alice Cooper gig
- July 15
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- “Can we try one without the conga player?” Phil Collins heard one sentence on an old George Harrison tape — and thought he’d solved a 30-year mystery
- “He was buying his grass from him. He said, ‘I know a band that needs a manager!’” Famous shock rocker says one unexpected visitor changed his band’s fortunes overnight
- “I’ve heard it’s responsible for a whole generation being conceived.” Paul Rodgers on Bad Company’s rock anthem that took years — and an entirely new band — to complete
- July 14
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- “More good days behind her than ahead.” Joan Jett and Garbage rally around L7 bassist Jennifer Finch after she receives brain cancer diagnosis
- “I wasn’t enjoying it anymore.” Peter Frampton on why he quit Humble Pie just as the band was becoming famous — and the band member who helped push him out the door and into his solo career
- “We did our best work with Dave.” Alex Van Halen explains why David Lee Roth was Van Halen’s secret ingredient
- “It was a spiritual download that just flowed through me.” John Lennon played it on repeat. Frank Sinatra called it the best song of the 1970s. How a simple C9 chord inspired a timeless top-10 hit
- July 13
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- “He was singing like Bob Dylan. And his two guitar players were horrible.” Don Felder on helping out Tom Petty, recording with Joni Mitchell and writing the Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ solo with Joe Walsh
- “It just took me back to high school.” Nita Strauss reveals why Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” made her burst into tears — and how she reinvented it on guitar for the group’s upcoming tribute album
- “I’d join a band with him any day.” George Harrison had no interest in a Beatles reunion — but there was one former bandmate he said he’d happily start a new group with
- “It’s rather unfair for Stevie.” Mick Jagger recalls the onstage pie fight that ended the Rolling Stones’ 1972 tour with Stevie Wonder
- July 12
- July 11
- July 10
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- “Get that guy who looks like Cleopatra backstage!” When Ron Wood first met Eric Clapton
- Danny Cedrone recorded possibly “the best rock and roll solo of all time” – twice! – but a cruel tragedy meant that he never got to perform it
- “I immediately picked up the guitar and went, ‘Why didn’t I write that?’” Noel Gallagher on the Coldplay song he wishes he’d written
- “Don’t waste hours, weeks, and years trying to get to 224 beats per minute on the metronome. No one’s ever going to want to see you do that!” Joe Satriani on the “small realities” every player needs to hear
- “These are the notes that comprise that marvelous chord.” How one man used math to solve the Beatles’ greatest guitar mystery
- “The time to stop is when you can't do it anymore. There's no passing of the goddamn torch…" Keith Richards: The Guitar Player Interview, 1983
- $99 for full access to Guitar Tricks online lessons is an absolute steal with this Summer Black Friday deal – especially if you’re a beginner
- July 9
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- “We had to set some boundaries…” Mastodon addresses Brent Hinds’ departure and untimely passing in emotional short film
- “We used to be in the studio all night, trying to make up songs that weren’t written”: The Rolling Stones says they used to labor in the studio, but now they take a “bulldozer approach”
- Guitar Center just slashed up to 25% off high-velocity shred machines, iconic guitar amps, and legendary guitar pedals in this epic sale
- David Bowie's timeless advice for musicians: Step out of your comfort zone
- "Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen are genius guitar players. But I can't relate to it." Neil Young on why guitar virtuosos and music schools doomed the future of rock — and why one note is enough
- July 8
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- “He’s guitar batman!” Johnny Marr just helped a session ace track down her lost vintage Gretsch
- “Don't expect too much, too fast”: John Mayer's guitar teacher, Tomo Fujita, thinks that always looking to level up your guitar skills is a dangerous game
- “Part of the deal was we couldn’t disturb the penguins.” From Metallica playing in the Antarctic to Van Halen performing in a blizzard — here are the wild stories behind three of rock’s coldest concerts
- "If you want one tube amp that can genuinely do it all, then the Mesa/Boogie Mark VII 1x12 Combo is an investment you won’t regret." We review the Mesa/Boogie Mark VII 1x12 Combo tube amp
- “Duane was sitting on the floor playing slide with this Coricidin bottle. I said, ‘How do you do that?’” Don Felder on the moment Duane Allman showed him how to play slide guitar
- “Maybe I didn't like the strippers enough for his taste…” What happened when Desmond Child was asked to write a song with Van Halen
- July 7
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- “All the people around him said, ‘Whatever you do, don't ask him to play guitar’!” How Paul Rodgers made Jimmy Page play guitar again after John Bonham’s death
- “Loser gatekeepers want you to believe that you need 20-plus chords in a song. In reality, you need two”: Wet Leg's Rhian Teasdale on why you only need two chords to write a “banging” song
- “I was nervous for about a minute. And then I said, ‘Forget it’” Steve Vai on replacing Eddie Van Halen as David Lee Roth’s guitar foil for ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’
- The Beatles debuted All You Need Is Love live to an audience of 400 million. Is it any wonder George fluffed his solo?
- July 6
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- “I don’t want to rage bait, but…” Did the Beatles cause guitar quality to nosedive in the 1970s? This session player thinks so
- “We had to rent these pedals. They turned up and the band realised – they were THEIR pedals…” How Rush were unexpectedly reunited with their old effects pedals for their final albums
- Paul McCartney dusted off a classic Beatles hit for Taylor Swift’s wedding
- "I hit it with a hammer…" How J.J. Cale created one of the craziest guitars you'll ever see
- “We realized we were a better live band than studio outfit. A light bulb finally went off: We need to make a live album.” Dickey Betts and Gregg Allman reveal the complete story behind rock’s definitive live album
- July 5
- July 4
- July 3
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- “I credit Taylor Swift for letting me sing that song with her at Madison Square Garden many years ago.” John Rzeznik says Taylor Swift helped turn Goo Goo Dolls’ ‘Iris’ into a song for a whole new generation
- 10 mega sales in this weekend's massive 4th of July guitar blowout with discounts hitting up to 60% off
- “Why didn’t we put that on a Van Halen record?” Sammy Hagar on the song Eddie Van Halen loved, Alex Van Halen rejected — and later regretted he passed up
- July 2
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- “The guitar solo was an embarrassing thing to do. Jack White brought it back.” Matt Bellamy on White’s contributions to rock — and their pinch-me moment backstage at Coachella
- “Who’s gonna know if I play on this kid’s record?” Eddie Van Halen explains how he broke a band policy to shred on Michael Jackson’s ”Beat It” — and why he didn’t earn a penny for his iconic guitar solo
- A jaw-dropping $899 off a Gibson Les Paul Modern has just kicked off a wave of 4th of July guitar savings - here are 9 deals on guitars from a genuine Gibson and Epiphone addict
- July 1
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- “This finger canceled three shows on this tour.” As Rush are forced to reschedule dates on their reunion tour, we recall how Alex Lifeson’s broken finger once stopped the band at a crucial moment in their rise
- He changed electric guitar forever — and did it all in just two-and-a-half years before his death at 25
- “Freddie said, 'No, no, no, no — it's a piano song!’” Freddie Mercury didn’t want a guitar solo. Brian May fought for it — and created one of Queen’s most celebrated moments on record
- “I think of it as maybe the first really heavy guitar riff.” Sean Lennon says his dad deserves more credit for shaping heavy music
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