Johnstone on the left, Plant on the right. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 17, 1988 By Steve Newton Let’s say you’re a songwriter with a whole bunch of tunes you want the world to hear. You’re not sure who to send them to, but you figure “What the hell”, and mail a bunch of them off … Continue reading Robert Plant keyboardist Phil Johnstone says they don’t do “Stairway to Heaven”
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 7, 1994 By Steve Newton The first time I ever laid eyes on Kiss–I think it was on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert–I thought the band was just a bunch of Alice Cooper copycats. A short time later, though, I heard Kiss’s 1974 debut album and became a huge … Continue reading Album review: Various Artists, Kiss My Ass (1994)
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MAY 27, 1994 By Steve Newton From his early-’70s glory-and-glitter days as the muscular, platinum-haired axeman in David Bowie‘s Spiders from Mars to his workmanlike late-’80s club gigs with Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson always proved himself a rock guitarist of the highest order. When Ronson succumbed to cancer on … Continue reading Album review: Mick Ronson, Heaven and Hull (1994)
By Steve Newton Lynyrd Skynyrd doesn’t fly the rebel flag in concert anymore, from what I’ve heard. But back in 1997 they sure did. So when I interviewed guitarist Rickey Medlocke before a ’97 show in Vancouver I asked him if, from his Native American perspective, he found there to an intolerance among southern-rock fans … Continue reading That time Rickey Medlocke told me that the rebel flag was just a symbol of where Skynyrd came from
By Steve Newton Back in June of 2000 the Vancouver newspaper I’m still working at (god willing), the Georgia Straight, introduced a new column called Payback Time, where ticked-off readers could write in and vociferously complain about the music critics’ opinions, before the scribe under attack was allowed to defend himself with a potentially witty … Continue reading That time some chick called me “a Skynyrd-loving moron” so I hummed a few bars of “Free Bird”
By Steve Newton Today I posted the 300th audio recording on my Patreon page, and I wanted it to be something special. So I looked around in my cassette stash and found a tape from March of 1993 that included my interview with Mojo Nixon and Country Dick Montana. At the time they were touring … Continue reading That time I called up Mojo Nixon and Country Dick Montana and we aced the art of the speakerphone
By Steve Newton Dash Rip Rock were an awesome cowpunk trio from New Orleans. Actually, hold on…I just checked Wikipedia, and it looks like they’re still around, so… …let me just say that Dash Rip Rock are an awesome cowpunk band from New Orleans. I interviewed singer-guitarist Bill Davis almost 30 years ago, back in … Continue reading That time I asked Bill Davis of Dash Rip Rock how he felt about opening for the Cramps
McCafferty, left, with Nazareth in the ’70s By Steve Newton Just had some sad news relayed to me by my nephew Jeff, the rock-loving dude you may have heard about through my backstage memories of Iron Maiden and Motley Crue. Jeff let me know that Dan McCafferty, the original vocalist for Scottish guitar-rockers Nazareth, had … Continue reading Nazareth singer Dan McCafferty dead at 76
By Steve Newton Back in June of 1981 Blue Öyster Cult released it’s eight studio album, Fire of Unknown Origin, and I immediately snapped it up, just like I’d done with their previous nine discs (including the two live albums). I’d been absolutely crazy about B.O.C. ever since I’d bought Tyranny and Mutation because of … Continue reading God bless Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser’s guitar solo on Blue Öyster Cult’s “Burnin’ For You”
By Steve Newton British author and music historian Richard Houghton just sent me an autographed copy of his new hardcover book, Thin Lizzy: A People’s History, and man does it look awesome. I haven’t read it yet, but what I can tell you is that it brings together memories of that amazing band from hundreds … Continue reading Thin Lizzy: A People’s History celebrates one of the greatest rock bands of all time
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JAN. 7, 2010 By Steve Newton A minute-and-a-half into “We’ve Got a Long Way to Go”, the opening track on Joe Perry’s new solo album, Have Guitar, Will Travel, the rock legend from Boston reminds you just what it was about his playing that hooked you in the first … Continue reading Album review: Joe Perry, Have Guitar, Will Travel (2009)
By Steve Newton Back in March of 1992 I did my first interview with Canadian blues singer and Telecaster slinger Sue Foley. This was just before the release of her debut album, Young Girl Blues, and she was heading to Vancouver to perform as part of the Antone’s Women Blues Revue. At one point in … Continue reading That time 23-year-old Sue Foley told me that she didn’t pick up a guitar to get chicks–or guys, for that matter
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 24, 2022 By Steve Newton On the phone from her home in Santa Monica, Chaka Khan ponders the question of when she first discovered her love of music. It doesn’t take her long to decide that she can’t remember, exactly. “I must have been born with that,” she says. “I think … Continue reading Chaka Khan says you have to follow your heart, and trust it
