By Steve Newton As you may have already heard, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2019 a couple of days ago. It includes: Stevie […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 2, 1988 By Steve Newton Donald Kinsey knows the meaning of the blues. Lately–in the wake of Roy Buchanan’s suicide–he knows it better […]
roger fritz photo ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 8, 1988 By Steve Newton Blues guitar giant Roy Buchanan makes his yearly visit to Vancouver this week, and fans of […]
By Steve Newton When it comes to unheralded guitar geniuses, Danny Gatton is right up there. He’s never achieved the fame of a Clapton, Beck, or Page, but in-the-know guitar […]
By Steve Newton Man, I sure have been lucky as far as interviewing great guitarists go. Sometimes–in the case of guys like Joe Satriani, Buddy Guy, Dickey Betts, and […]
By Steve Newton I’ve been getting quite a few hits lately for a blog I posted last year about Danny Gatton, which included an audio excerpt from the interview I […]
By Steve Newton On January 26, 1986, I did my first interview with guitar legend Roy Buchanan. He was coming to Vancouver for a show at the Town Pump, so […]
shoulda got Roy’s autograph when I had the chance ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, FEB. 14, 1986 By Steve Newton There were some people who felt that Roy Buchanan […]
me ‘n Roy backstage at the Pump, February 10, 1986 ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, FEB. 7, 1986 By Steve Newton Not many guitarists can say they were invited […]
By Steve Newton Not sure exactly when this was taken. Mid-’80s, maybe? I’d interviewed The Master of the Telecaster on the phone and then gone to see him play the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
By Steve Newton I freakin’ love guitar solos, where some talented artist carefully chooses the perfect notes and uses vibrato and tremolo and all that other technical shit to come […]
By Steve Newton I did my first interview with David Lee Roth in June of 1994, when he was promoting his Nile Rodgers-produced album Your Filthy Little Mouth. He called me from […]
By Steve Newton Since I got “temporarily” laid off from work yesterday–after 35 years with the Georgia Straight newspaper in Vancouver–I’ve been wondering which of my hundreds of old interviews […]
By Steve Newton When I interviewed Stevie Ray Vaughan in July of 1990, six weeks before his death, I asked him what he’d been listening to in his spare time–if […]
By Steve Newton The first time I interviewed blues legend John Mayall was in December of 1988, shortly after he’d released his Chicago Line album, which featured smokin’ guitarists Walter […]
By Steve Newton I did my first interview with Steve Vai in May of 1990, when he was just 29. He had just released his solo album Passion and Warfare, […]
By Steve Newton Just finished watching that ZZ Top documentary on Netflix, That Little Ol’ Band from Texas, and it was pretty cool. I especially liked the way it focused […]
By Steve Newton When I interviewed Steve Morse for the first time in May of 1991, the American instrumental-rock scene was making great strides. While Morse himself was winning over […]
By Steve Newton I did my second interview with Stevie Ray Vaughan six weeks before he died in that goddamned helicopter crash, which was itself less than a month before […]
By Steve Newton When I interviewed Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea back in 1996 I was instructed to call his Phoenix hotel and ask for “Mr. Ugly Stupid”, the […]
