Players archive

March 2026

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21 articles

March 30
- “I thought it was just a little bit too simple.” Tom Petty almost gave away his biggest hit — five years after he wrote it
March 29
- “I was feeling like I had so much s*** to hurl at the tape.” How Sheryl Crow broke up her hit-making band with just two words
- “We had to go to 50 radio stations and explain that it wasn’t ‘douche.’” Bruce Springsteen hated Manfred Mann’s “Blinded by the Light,” says singer Chris Thompson
March 28
- “Keith, your guitars only have five strings!” Brian Setzer recalls the day Keith Richards handed him his Les Paul
March 27
- “The window rolls down, and it’s Les Paul.” Randy Bachman was 15 and waiting for a bus when Les Paul pulled up with a proposition
- “Something very unfortunate happened.” Steve Howe reveals the accident that nearly destroyed the guitar behind Yes’s best-loved songs
March 21
- “That’s where they f***ed it up.” Why Keith Urban still plays the battered Telecaster behind his biggest hits
- “Play like you don’t know how to play guitar.” Miles Davis gave him a cryptic instruction. The result was jazz-fusion’s foundational album
March 20
- “I began to think about the bass more as a drum.” Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth on Brian Eno and the studio moment that changed everything for her
- “I don’t remember too much between the drugs and the alcohol.” Valerie Bertinelli opens up about life with Eddie Van Halen in rare comments about the late guitar virtuoso
March 19
- “It hit the floor on its face and split down the middle.” The night John McLaughlin broke his guitar — and changed Jeff Beck forever
March 16
- “I realized very quickly, ‘I do not f*** with this.’” Grace Bowers says she’s abandoning the sound that launched her career
March 15
- “They said we were just girls ripping off riffs.” How the Donnas fought rock’s double standard
March 13
- “Some might be a surprise. I was surprised, actually.” Lucinda Williams reveals the rock legends who turned out to be fans of her music
March 9
- “The only reason I picked them is so I can look at their behinds.” P.J. Harvey on why she stopped playing guitar onstage — and the real reason she chose her first pair of tour guitarists
- “There’s only one way out — break that guitar!” Jeff Beck on frustration, Fender Esquires and the limits of destruction
March 7
- “To him I was like this middle-age housewife from somewhere.” Melissa Etheridge walked into a guitar shop — and nobody knew who she was
- “Barbra was holding a long note. Our eyes met and it was electricity.” Barbra Streisand recorded over 30 takes of “The Way We Were.” Nothing worked. Then the bassist tried something different
March 6
- “All of a sudden it felt like that was the instrument I should be playing.” Pat Metheny on how a $100 guitar defined his career — and why he kept a toothbrush in it for decades
- “I got my fingers rapped with a ruler. They said, ‘Why would you want to compose music?’” Joni Mitchell on why she invented her own guitar language from more than 50 tunings
March 2
- “That’s the one I played at Quine’s house the last time I was there.” Why Bill Frisell bought Robert Quine’s blue Telecaster after his death