ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, DEC. 10, 2014 By Steve Newton One of the biggest music stories of 2014 concerned the trials and tribulations of AC/DC, which had one original member retire due to dementia and another facing criminal charges. The return of Pink Floyd after two decades also made a few headlines—or garnered a ton … Continue reading Newt’s Top 10 albums of 2014
By Steve Newton I did my second interview with the Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie in November of 1992, one month after the release of the Fully Completely album. As you may already know, that’s the best Hip album ever, partly because of the uber-Canadian song “50 Mission Cap”, which mentions a hockey card and … Continue reading That time Gord Downie told me about Bill Barilko and the story behind the Tragically Hip’s “50 Mission Cap”
By Steve Newton I guess one of the cooler in-person interviews I’ve ever done was that time back in October of ’83 when I hung out with three members of AC/DC–singer Brian Johnson, rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young, and then-new drummer Simon Wright–at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver. The Aussie earbusters were in town to … Continue reading Hangin’ with AC/DC on the Flick of the Switch tour while Malcolm Young and Brian Johnson talk Bon
By Steve Newton I often wish I could have started my journalism career 10 years earlier than I did–like in 1972 instead of ’82. Then maybe I would have had the chance to pull a Cameron Crowe and interview Led Zeppelin on its 1973 North American tour or some crazy-ass shit like that. But whoa … Continue reading That time Robert Plant told me he wasn’t “a dumb cluck who wears tight jeans and sings fast songs about women’s parts”
By Steve Newton The vast majority of stories posted on Ear of Newt are taken from my 38 years (and counting!) as a freelance writer for the Georgia Straight newspaper in Vancouver, but every now and again I’ve landed articles in other publications. Back in 1998 an interview I did with 18-year-old slide-guitar wunderkind Derek Trucks … Continue reading That time 18-year-old Derek Trucks told me that Jimi Hendrix was beyond comparison to anybody
By Steve Newton Here’s the last audio excerpt I’m gonna post from the fourth interview I did with Gordon Downie, back in July of ’95. As the interview wound down I asked the legendary Canuck rocker if the Tragically Hip ever got pressure from its record label to crank records out by a particular date. … Continue reading That time Gord Downie told me that the Tragically Hip would love to make a record every month
@shotbykevin By Steve Newton I graduated from high school in 1975, and, holy crap, was that ever a great year for rock music! Lizzy‘s Fighting, Floyd‘s Wish You Were Here, Zep’s Physical Graffiti, Neil‘s Zuma, Beck‘s Blow By Blow, Seger‘s Beautiful Loser–the list of killer albums went on and on. But none of them thrilled me … Continue reading That time I asked Mick Ronson what he thought of Great White’s version of “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”
By Steve Newton Now here’s a fun little soundbite I digitized off an old cassette I had lying around from 1993. It’s an AudioMagnetics XHE 60, so good on them for making tapes that still work decades later. That particular tape also includes 1993 interviews with Devin Townsend, Steve Hackett of Genesis fame, and Stuart … Continue reading That time Robert Plant told me he was “very very pissed off” that Black Sabbath wasn’t going to reform
By Steve Newton Back in January of 1984 I called Tony Iommi up for a chat at his home in Birmingham, England. I was pretty psyched, since Sabbath albums like Paranoid, Volume 4, and Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath had meant a lot to me as a metal-loving teenager in the ’70s, growing up in the wilds of … Continue reading That time Tony Iommi told me about the guys from Black Sabbath blowing up singer Ian Gillan’s boat
By Steve Newton When slide-guitar master Derek Trucks was only 18 I called him up at his place in Jacksonville, Florida, and we chatted for a while. This was five months after the release of the Derek Trucks Band’s self-titled debut album, and already his playing style was being compared a lot to that of … Continue reading That time I asked 18-year-old Derek Trucks if he got tired of the Duane Allman comparisons
me ‘n Jeff By Steve Newton In my 35 years of writing about rock musicians I’ve never been as psyched as I was back in January 2001 when I got the chance to interview Jeff Beck. He was heading to Vancouver for a rare club appearance at the historic Commodore Ballroom, and I contacted him in … Continue reading That time Jeff Beck told me that John McLaughlin was “the greatest player around”
By Steve Newton Back in 1985 I interviewed British art-pop legend Kate Bush, who was promoting her new album Hounds of Love, which you may recall spawned the hit single “Running Up That Hill”. At one point in the conversation she told me about working with David Gilmour as a teenager, discovering Pink Floyd, and … Continue reading That time Kate Bush told me about working with David Gilmour and experiencing the “profound” Pink Floyd
By Steve Newton Back in November of 1985 I did a phone interview with Kate Bush, who was promoting her new album The Hounds of Love at the time. Three months earlier she’d released the single “Running Up That Hill”, which I really liked, but I hadn’t yet seen the new video for it. So … Continue reading That time Kate Bush told me about creating the music video for her new single “Running Up That Hill”
