photo by rebecca blissett ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JULY 30, 2011 By Steve Newton Due to its proximity to Seattle, Vancouver has enjoyed a special kinship to the famed grunge bands of the Emerald City. Before making it big the plaid-clad lads in Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, hungry for gigs, would head north to … Continue reading Soundgarden’s grungey return leaves little to complain about in Vancouver
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 25, 2004 By Steve Newton Unless you’re an avid follower of guitar players–and slide-guitar specialists, in particular–you may not have heard of Sonny Landreth. According to Eric Clapton, he is “probably the most underestimated musician on the planet”. But that didn’t stop Landreth from earning a Grammy nomination for his 2003 … Continue reading Sonny Landreth hoped some of Albert King’s cosmic dust would rub off on him
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 26, 2008 By Steve Newton That Lux Interior sure knows a hit when he hears one. Back in the late ’70s, when the B-52s first journeyed from their native Athens, Georgia, to make the scene at underground Manhattan clubs like Max’s Kansas City and CBGB, the outrageous Cramps frontman heard them … Continue reading B-52s guitarist Keith Strickland recalls the Cramps’ Lux Interior loving “Rock Lobster”
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 25, 2005 By Steve Newton Looking back, 1973 was a wicked fuckin’ year for American guitar-rock albums. It saw the release of Alice Cooper‘s Billion Dollar Babies, Blue Oyster Cult‘s Tyranny and Mutation, Johnny Winter‘s Still Alive and Well, and the debuts by Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Montrose, and the New York Dolls. … Continue reading The New York Dolls’ David Johansen says that the Harlots of 42nd Street were his favourite band
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 5, 1993 By Steve Newton Big Country? You mean those guys from Scotland who had the guitars that sounded like bagpipes? Didn’t they have a hit song back in ’83 called “In a Big Country”? Yeah, I remember the chorus: “In a big country dreams stay with you, like a lover’s … Continue reading Big Country’s Stuart Adamson plays just what he feels
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 24, 2011 By Steve Newton There’s a quote on Carlos Santana’s official website that reads: “When you love what you do, you don’t have to work a day in your life.” If that’s true, then anyone who’s heard Santana effortlessly channel the sound of pure joy through his instrument knows that he hasn’t … Continue reading Carlos Santana says you get the tone with what you’re thinking
By Steve Newton On August 22, 1982, I was at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum watching my hard-rock heroes from the States, Blue Öyster Cult, kick butt on a bill with Canadian one-hit-wonder Aldo Nova. How do I remember the precise date of that ancient gig, you ask? Well, it’s not like I still have the ticket … Continue reading Where were you in ’82? Rockin’ with Blue Öyster Cult & Aldo Nova too?
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, APRIL 24, 2013 By Steve Newton When music legend Taj Mahal calls from a tour stop in Phoenix, it’s been just a few days since he played Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival at Madison Square Garden in New York. He’d been asked to play the event before, and never had the … Continue reading Taj Mahal wasn’t so much shocked as pissed off by Jesse Ed Davis’s death
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OCT. 26, 2011 By Steve Newton When Judas Priest announced its final world tour last month headbangers far and wide, young and ancient, stained their black-leather pants with a torrent of tears. The British metal icons had been bringing the noise to its followers—off and (mostly) on—since 1969, traversing the globe and … Continue reading Glenn Tipton says Judas Priest was shocked by K.K. Downing’s departure
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 4, 1983 By Steve Newton When Nicolette Larson released her first album, Nicolette, in 1978, she proved right from the start that her talents as an interpretive singer were vast and capable of taking her through many musical styles. On that album alone she wove a dreamy tapestry of songs by … Continue reading Nicolette Larson talks good friend Neil Young, current roommate Linda Ronstadt, and favourite songwriter Lowell George
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JULY 1, 1983 By Steve Newton Three of Britain’s heaviest heavy-metal bands–Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Fastway–played the Pacific Coliseum last Wednesday in a full night’s worth of brutal, gnashing raunch and roll. I spoke to Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson over the phone from Los Angeles prior to the show and asked … Continue reading Bruce Dickinson on Martin Birch, the exit of Clive Burr, and the lobotomization of Eddie on Iron Maiden’s new album Piece of Mind
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 5, 2008 By Steve Newton It’s been 17 years since the grunge revolution blasted full-throttle out of Seattle, but Chris Cornell remembers it well. As the frontman for Soundgarden, Cornell was a chief architect of the genre, which formed as a backlash to the stagnating commercial rock of the day. “At … Continue reading Chris Cornell on the rise of grunge and the job of the rock icon
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 AEROSMITH Tom Hamilton, 1994 AEROSMITH Joe Perry, 1988 AEROSMITH Tom Hamilton, 1983 THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT Lenny Zakatek, 1983 ALDO NOVA 1983 TOMMY ALDRIDGE 2001 … Continue reading interviews
