By Steve Newton The first time I ever saw Jeff Beck in concert, Jan Hammer was all over the place. It was at the Seattle Kingdome on Aerosmith‘s Rocks tour in 1976, and Beck was one of the warmup acts–the other being the highly underrated New Jersey hard-rock band Starz. Four months earlier Beck had released … Continue reading That time Jeff Beck told me that Jan Hammer was “too good to sit around”
By Steve Newton J.J. Cale is the coolest musician I’ve ever interviewed, and I’ve interviewed quite a few. Talk about laid back and down to earth. And what a wicked guitar player, as if being one of the world’s finest songwriters weren’t enough. I did my first interview with him in 1990, and my second … Continue reading That time J.J. Cale told me that Eric Clapton had paid his rent for the last 30 years
@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 When I interviewed Jeck Beck back in January of 2001, just before the release of his You Had It Coming album, I asked the world’s greatest living rock guitarist if the 2000 Grammy nomination for a track from his previous album, Who Else!, meant anything to him. In typically modest Beck style he … Continue reading That time Jeff Beck told me that Grammys mean nothing to him–especially when he loses to Santana
By Steve Newton Back in 2016 I interviewed bass-guitar superstar Tal Wilkenfeld on the phone before going to see her gig at the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver–which was wicked, by the way. What a band she’s got! At one point in the conversation I asked Tal–realizing that she’d already accomplished a helluva lot for someone … Continue reading That time I asked bass goddess Tal Wilkenfeld what her career highlight was and she thought about it really…really…hard
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
By Steve Newton Legendary drummer Mick Fleetwood called me up a couple days ago to plug his upcoming gig at the Hard Rock Casino Vancouver, and I made sure to ask him all about his long-ago bandmate Peter Green. Fleetwood’s current outfit, the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, is performing several Green-penned songs from the early … Continue reading That time Mick Fleetwood told me that Peter Green shunned the guitar-hero status of Clapton, Beck, and Page
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 I’ve seen Iron Maiden in concert most every time they’ve played Vancouver since 1982, the year I interviewed original drummer Clive Burr, who sadly succumbed to multiple sclerosis in 2013 at the age of 56. In ’83 I did another Maiden interview, this time with singer Bruce Dickinson, before the band played Vancouver … Continue reading That time I asked 24-year-old Bruce Dickinson why Maiden had replaced Clive Burr with new drummer Nicko McBrain
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 Bass players don’t get much more special than Donald “Duck” Dunn. As a session musician for Stax Records, Dunn brought the bottom end on scores of legendary tracks, including gems like Otis Redding’s “Respect”, Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’”, and Albert King’s “Born Under a Bad Sign”. He was also the bassist … Continue reading That time Duck Dunn told me that Clapton was the best all-around guitarist he ever worked with
By Steve Newton Back in June of 1983 I did a phone interview with Bruce Dickinson in advance of Iron Maiden’s show in Vancouver on the Piece of Mind tour. During the course of our conversation Dickinson claimed that it would be “unthinkable” for Iron Maiden to make an album without producer Martin Birch, who … Continue reading Bruce Dickinson in ’83: “It would be unthinkable to make an Iron Maiden album without Martin Birch”
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”
