That time I told Ronnie Montrose that I really liked Speed of Sound, and he said that he liked Music From Here more

By Steve Newton Like most hard-rock freaks in the seventies, I went nuts when I heard the debut Montrose album in '73, and the fierce glory of Ronnie Montrose's cranked guitar unleashed. I continued to love the music he made with singer Davey Pattison in the more prog-oriented rock band Gamma. And when Ronnie went … Continue reading That time I told Ronnie Montrose that I really liked Speed of Sound, and he said that he liked Music From Here more

That time Ronnie Montrose told me that singer-songwriters with a real passion are hard to find

By Steve Newton Today the world's top hard-rock/heavy-metal expert, Canada's own Martin Popoff, sent me an autographed copy of his new book, Rock the Nation: Montrose, Gamma and Ronnie Redefined. That got me thinking that maybe I should post another audio excerpt from my one and only interview with Ronnie Montrose, which occured in 1994 when he … Continue reading That time Ronnie Montrose told me that singer-songwriters with a real passion are hard to find

That time Ronnie Montrose told me why he didn’t want to make a fourth Gamma album

By Steve Newton Dedicated fans of guitar great Ronnie Montrose know that, after he made his mark on the hard-rock scene with Montrose, he formed a more prog-oriented band called Gamma with singer Davey Pattison that continued making great music. I snapped up the group's debut album, Gamma 1, as soon as it came out in … Continue reading That time Ronnie Montrose told me why he didn’t want to make a fourth Gamma album

That time Ronnie Montrose told me that Sammy Hagar had always wanted to be a, quote, “rock star”

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”

That time Ronnie Montrose told me that the Montrose LP marked his “kindergarten days” as a guitarist

By Steve Newton Very few albums that I bought as a teen in the seventies had as huge an effect on me as Montrose. I mean, from the very first riff of the very first track of the very first Montrose album, I was like "Holy shit!" It was 1973, I was 17 years old, … Continue reading That time Ronnie Montrose told me that the Montrose LP marked his “kindergarten days” as a guitarist