That time I told Ace Frehley that I thought the first Kiss album was the best Kiss album
By Steve Newton I was crazy about Kiss when their first album dropped back in the Year of Our Lord, 1974. I was 16 at the time, which is all […]
Search Results for: ace frehley
Wallflowers guitarist more influenced by Ace Frehley than Jakob Dylan’s dad
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MARCH 20, 1997 Most guitarists for hire would jump at the opportunity to join a band featuring Bob Dylan’s son as singer-songwriter; name recognition […]
Former KISS man Ace Frehley still has a few tricks up his sleeve
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MARCH 12, 2008 By Steve Newton When Kiss played the Commodore Ballroom back in early 1975, the band had just released its second album, Hotter Than […]
That time Stevie Ray Vaughan told me what it was like having two guitarists in Double Trouble
By Steve Newton I’m a huge Stevie Ray fan. Got a ton of his albums, seen him in concert a buncha times, interviewed him twice, got his autograph, shook his […]
That time I asked Alex Van Halen about his earliest memories of jamming with Eddie
By Steve Newton I haven’t interviewed that many drummers over the years–mainly because I like talking to guitarists more–but when Van Hagar was heading to Vancouver for a show in […]
That time I asked Eric Johnson what he thought it was that made guitar aficionados so crazy about him
By Steve Newton As a hardcore fan of electric guitar music, I’ve managed to interview some of the top practitioners of the trade, Eric Johnson being one of them. When […]
That time Allan Holdsworth told me about his connections to Eddie Van Halen and Ted Templeman
By Steve Newton If you were reading the top guitar magazines back in the early ’80s you may have heard the buzz about this phenomenal British player named Allan Holdsworth. […]
That time I told Gene Simmons that I saw Kiss in a club on the Hotter Than Hell tour
By Steve Newton Some concerts experiences are just seared into memory–if you’re lucky–and one of the most unforgettable for me was seeing Kiss at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom in January of […]
That time 29-year-old Steve Vai told me that he suffered making “For the Love of God”, but that blowjobs also do the trick
By Steve Newton I did my first interview with Steve Vai when he was touring with Whitesnake in May of 1990, but I was more interested in talking about his […]
Kiss’s first-ever box set is a Kiss completist’s wet dream
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 2001 By Steve Newton Musicwise, I’ve always thought that Kiss went downhill after the release of its third album, Dressed to Kill. Of […]
Album review: Various Artists, Dragon Attack: A Tribute to Queen (1997)
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 5, 1997 By Steve Newton The folks behind previous Jeff Beck, Ace Frehley, and Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute CDs deliver a fourth laudatory […]
Remembering Kiss before the reunion tour got Gene Simmons back in diapers
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, AUG. 29, 1996 By Steve Newton If you were a rock-loving teenager in the ’70s, you probably have some kind of Kiss story to […]
Rolling Stone can piss right off: here’s the 100 Greatest Guitarists (that I’ve interviewed) and 50 that I haven’t (yet)
By Steve Newton Google “100 greatest guitarists” these days and what shows up at the top is a total joke. It’s the high ‘n’ mighty Rolling Stone‘s list of the […]
B’z guitarist Tak Matsumoto speaks little English, lets his signature Les Paul to the talkin’
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 16, 2003 By Steve Newton Up until a few weeks ago, my knowledge of popular music in Japan was pretty slim. About all […]
Static in Stereo sets the controls for the heart of the seventies
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 5, 2001 A silver Keith Richards–style skull ring catches the glare of the dressing-room lights as Todd Kerns wraps his fist […]
Kiss releases Animalize, Eric Carr says he’s still a fox
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 28, 1984 By Steve Newton It was a snowy and cold January afternoon in 1975 when several high school friends and I headed […]
Mötley Crüe’s scuzzy antics in Vancouver make the Newt pine for Brownsville Station
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 1, 1999 So why would I want to go see Mötley Crüe when I don’t even care for its juvenile brand of exploitative […]
That wild ’70s weekend when Kiss brought the glam and the Pistols brought the punk
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 5, 1996 The Rocket really nailed it. The Seattle music paper’s latest cover sports hilarious caricatures of Kiss’s Gene Simmons and the Sex […]
Dickey Betts plays Vancouver, with a “wicked” Warren Haynes on slide
By Steve Newton On April 2, 1989, southern-rock legend Dickey Betts brought his new band to Vancouver for a show at the 86 Street Music Hall. One of the coolest […]
The mighty KISS marketing machine pulls off another fast one with IKONS
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, DEC. 3, 2008 By Steve Newton I’ve always argued that KISS’s best album was its self-titled 1974 debut, and that musically the band went downhill from […]
Bruce Fairbairn: legendary Vancouver rock producer tells all in 1998
By Steve Newton I have no particular reason for posting this interview with Bruce Fairbairn today. It’s not like it’s the 25th anniversary of the release of Slippery When Wet, […]
Nashville Pussy’s Ruyter Suys saw KISS in Vancouver on the Dynasty tour
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 20, 2005 By Steve Newton Nashville Pussy lead guitarist Ruyter Suys was born and raised in Vancouver, but for the last six years she’s called […]
Rob Zombie says the Allman Brothers are his favourite band
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 3, 2006 By Steve Newton Five years ago I covered the local shoot of Halloween: Resurrection for British horror mag Shivers. I spent several hours […]
New Odds mix lightness and darkness
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 3, 2008 THERE ONCE WAS a Vancouver band called the Odds, which rose up from its night job as a cover band at the Roxy Nightclub […]
Subpar KISS all about the special effects in Vancouver
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, NOV. 15, 2009 By Steve Newton Boy, Vancouver’s costume and makeup shops must have done a booming business in the days leading up to November 14’s […]
Swan’s debut album hits all the right notes
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, NOV. 16, 2010 That pesky new legislation that sets you up for a roadside suspension after just one lousy drink sure is having an effect on […]
Interviews
Some of my interviews, arranged alphabetically, from AC/DC to ZZ Top AC/DC Malcolm Young & Brian Johnson, 1983 AEROSMITH Joe Perry, Sept. 2010 AEROSMITH Steven Tyler, 1997 AEROSMITH Joe Perry, 1997 […]
