By Steve Newton When I interviewed Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts back in July of 1991, the band had just released its Shades of Two Worlds album, its second to feature the amazing Warren Haynes as a fully-fledged member. As on the previous year’s Seven Turns album, Betts and Haynes had written or cowritten the vast majority … Continue reading That time Dickey Betts told me about Gregg Allman’s writer’s block
By Steve Newton As we enter a new year I find myself thinking: “Man, there aren’t many singer-songwriters like Warren Zevon around anymore.” That dude was one of a kind, that’s for sure. In my 35-plus years of interviewing musicians, chatting with him has gotta be in my Top 10. Too bad I only got … Continue reading That time Warren Zevon told me that “Werewolves of London” wasn’t as big a hit as people think
By Steve Newton I was a big Emerson, Lake & Palmer fan back in the day. Actually, I was mostly a big Brain Salad Surgery fan back in the day, that day being sometime back in 1973. I didn’t own a lot of other ELP albums, mainly because I was too busy buying albums with … Continue reading That time Greg Lake told me that what attracted diehard Emerson, Lake & Palmer fans to the band was “music”
By Steve Newton Back in 1986 I interviewed Metallica’s James Hetfield in his messy Vancouver hotel room. The band had just hired Jason Newsted, who had beaten out a barrage of hopefuls for the prized role of bassist, taking over from the deceased Cliff Burton. At one point Hetfield explained how Metallica had found Newsted, how … Continue reading That time 23-year-old James Hetfield told me that Metallica’s new bassist was “fairly goofy”
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 26, 1987 By Steve Newton Talk about moving up in the world! It was a little more than a year ago that New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi played the now-defunct Embassy on Davie. They were in town recording their Slippery When Wet album, and they wanted to see … Continue reading Jon Bon Jovi talks strippers, scenery, and hype as Slippery When Wet tops the charts
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MARCH 31, 1989 By Steve Newton Southern rock. The raw bite of the blues tempered by a free-wheelin’, down-home country feel. Gruff, unencumbered vocals and soaring, twin lead guitars. Songs about ramblin’ men, poison whiskey, and Saturday night specials. You have no choice: ya gotta like it. Unfortunately, in … Continue reading Dickey Betts ponders an Allman Brothers reunion and wonders what Duane would think of the music scene in 1989
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 25, 1993 By Steve Newton Ever since Wayne’s World came out, I’ve been considering legal action against writer/star Mike Myers. You know that scene where Wayne and Garth are driving around with their buddies in a purple Pinto, singing along and banging their heads to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”? Well, I think … Continue reading Queen guitarist Brian May doesn’t have much interest in doing “virtuoso stuff”
By Steve Newton I’ve been a big fan of “southern rock” since I first heard the Allman Brothers Band‘s version of “One Way Out” on the Eat a Peach album back in high school. Some of my other fave bands in the seventies were Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Outlaws, Molly Hatchet, and Blackfoot. So when I … Continue reading That time I asked Dickey Betts if the Allman Brothers were the originators of “southern rock”
By Steve Newton When I interviewed guitar hero Tosin Abasi before the Animals as Leaders concert in Vancouver in 2016, I asked him a few questions about the pickers he’d performed with earlier that year on the Generation Axe tour. As well as Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, and Nuno Bettencourt, Abasi was in the company … Continue reading Tosin Abasi doesn’t think Yngwie Malmsteen is a pompous ass: “It’s just his clarity of vision”
By Steve Newton Back in September of 1992 I did my second interview with punk-rock guitar legend Johnny Ramone. (Here’s my first one, from 1983.) At the time the Ramones were touring South America, promoting their brand new album Mondo Bizarro. Johnny took my call at his hotel in Rio, just as he was about … Continue reading That time I called Johnny Ramone up in Rio and he said the Ramones were huge down there
By Steve Newton Back in ’94 when I did my one-and-only interview with guitar legend Ronnie Montrose, I told him that, as a teenager in the ’70s, I’d really gone nuts for the debut Montrose album. After he told me that those were “kindergarten days” as far as his knowledge of guitar went, I asked Ronnie … Continue reading That time Ronnie Montrose told me that Sammy Hagar had always wanted to be a, quote, “rock star”
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 24, 1987 By Steve Newton England’s Iron Maiden is different than most other heavy metal bands in a lot of ways. For one thing, they can all play their instruments, and very well. Their songs are quite complex, and the lyrics aren’t simple-minded: there are no likes like … Continue reading Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray, age 30, says “it’s good to know we’ve got a few years to go yet”
By Steve Newton Back on January 28, 1992, Warren Zevon called me up from a soundcheck in Alabama. I know what you’re thinkin’: how cool was that? Pretty damn cool. At the time Zevon was touring behind his Waddy Wachtel-produced Mr. Bad Example album, and his road band was the Odds, the Vancouver power-pop quartet who’d … Continue reading That time Warren Zevon called me from Alabama and said that the Odds had “pretty big feet”
