By Steve Newton I interviewed Devin Townsend for the second time in September of 1993, shortly after he’d hooked up with Steve Vai and they’d recorded Vai’s Sex & Religion album. He was 21 at the time, and has since gone on to become one of the most acclaimed and prolific metal musicians in the … Continue reading 10 minutes on the phone with 21-year-old Devin Townsend in 1993
By Steve Newton I did my first interview with Steve Hackett in October of 1993, when he called me from upstate New York while touring behind his tenth solo album, Guitar Noir. I’d always loved his work with Genesis in the seventies, especially on albums like Selling England By the Pound. Early on in the … Continue reading 10 minutes on the phone with Steve Hackett from Genesis in 1993
By Steve Newton I interviewed John Mellencamp for the first time back in May of 1983, when he was still called John Cougar. He was touring behind his latest album, American Fool, but for some reason the Vancouver show got cancelled and the interview I did with him in advance never ran. At one point … Continue reading That time John Cougar told me that the high he gets from writing good songs is better than sex–and heroin
By Steve Newton One fine October day in 1983 I went to a fancy Vancouver hotel and hung out with Malcolm Young and Brian Johnson of AC/DC, who were kicking off a tour to support the new Flick of the Switch album. New drummer Simon Wright was there too, but he didn’t say much. Note: … Continue reading 10 minutes in a hotel room with AC/DC in 1983
By Steve Newton I did my first interview with hugely successful hard-rock producer Bob Rock in December of 1991. I went to meet him at Vancouver Studios, where he was working on albums by the London Choirboys and his own band, Rockhead. Four months earlier the massively popular album Rock made with Metallica, The Black … Continue reading 10 minutes in a studio with producer Bob Rock in 1991
By Steve Newton I interviewed Minneapolis rocker Tommy Stinson back in June of 1993, when his band Bash and Pop was heading to Vancouver for a show at the Town Pump. Stinson is best known for his work with his previous group, the Replacements. He was only 14 when the Replacements released their first album … Continue reading That time I asked Tommy Stinson if there was anything he’d change about his time with the Replacements
By Steve Newton Way back in July of 1985 I interviewed Metal Church rhythm guitarist and main songwriter Kurdt Vanderhoof. At the time the Seattle-based band was touring behind its self-titled debut album, and taking part in a two-night show at Vancouver’s New York Theatre called Metal Massacre. That gig also featured fellow up-and-coming heavy-metal … Continue reading That time I asked 24-year-old Metal Church guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof what he thought of mainstream metal
By Steve Newton I’ve long held the opinion that AC/DC’s Powerage is their best album. Keith Richards agrees, and he knows a thing or two about rockin’. And more importantly, Malcolm Young himself has named Powerage as Number One. When I met Young backstage after an AC/DC show in Vancouver back in 2001 I mentioned that … Continue reading Eddie Van Halen’s favourite AC/DC album was Powerage
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OCT. 25, 1985 By Steve Newton Let’s get one thing straight: This isn’t heavy metal, no matter what the record company calls itself. Heavy Metal Records is a new label–distributed by Quality Records–that seems to be trying to cash in on the fierce attraction that “heavy metal” has among youngsters these days. … Continue reading Album review: Jim Dandy’s Black Oak Arkansas, Ready as Hell (1985)
By Steve Newton I did my first interview with Diamond Dave while he was promoting one of his lesser-appreciated solo albums, the Nile Rodgers-produced Your Filthy Little Mouth. He was in L.A., where 10 days earlier O.J. Simpson had committed double-murder, so we chatted about that whole media circus, among other things. Dave’s an outgoing, … Continue reading 10 minutes on the phone with David Lee Roth in 1994
By Steve Newton I interviewed Rhode Island blues guitarist and vocalist Duke Robillard back in February of 1995, when he was touring behind his eighth album, Temptation, and about to play a show at the famed Antone’s in Austin, Texas. A few years earlier he’d been playing with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, having taken over the … Continue reading That time I asked Duke Robillard if there were big shoes to fill replacing Jimmie Vaughan in the Fabulous Thunderbirds
By Steve Newton I interviewed Mr. Big guitarist Paul Gilbert back in March of 1992, when the band was in Detroit, touring behind its second album, Lean Into It. That’s the one that spawned the #1 hit single “To Be With You”, and went platinum in the States. Mr. Big was gonna be playing Vancouver … Continue reading That time 25-year-old Paul Gilbert told me how he wangled a ride from a Mr. Big fan to see Pat Travers near Vancouver
By Steve Newton Here’s a special treat for all you Van Halen freaks out there–even the ones who liked the Sammy years. For the first time ever the entire audio of my 1995 interview with Alex Van Halen is being offered to the public for free, thanks to a partnership between Ear of Newt and … Continue reading Ear of Newt and the Tapes Archive present the Alex Van Halen 1995 interview
