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“George Martin wasn’t going to leave his own studio, and Jeff never gave directions or said much, so there was nobody telling us what to do”: Listen to Wilbur Bascomb’s bassline on Jeff Beck’s Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
New York session bassist Wilbur Bascomb Jr. recorded on Jeff Beck’s 1976 version of this Charles Mingus ballad
“Mötley Crüe was a whole different animal from what I’m doing. Writing the anthems was what the band was all about. Then it got a little sideways…” Mick Mars opens up on the highs and lows of life in Mötley Crüe – and his solo rebirth
The legendary Crüe guitarist looks back on the good times and bad times with the world’s most outrageous band, how he knew it was time to retire from the road (but not the group), and why his hard-hitting new solo album is and isn’t a blues record
“My being fired was premature… We’d wrapped pre-production on Killers but I never got the chance to record”: Meet Dennis Stratton, the man who brought harmony guitars to Iron Maiden
Armed with a Les Paul Custom copy and an obscenely heavy old combo amp, Stratton only discovered metal when he joined the future giants – and left them the legacy of harmony guitar attack
“Every band wants to have a Sgt. Pepper’s type of moment. And American Idiot was that moment for us”: Billie Joe Armstrong on the making of the magnum opus that saved Green Day
The world's biggest punk band faced a crossroads in 2004 and it was a case of go big or go home. Armstrong explains how they supersized their sound – and saved the band
“I was playing a gig with Jack Bruce and one of my amps suddenly burst into flames!” Robin Trower's onstage disasters and famous firsts
The genius behind Bridge of Sighs talks flaming amps, favorite Strats and why he still practices every day – even if he didn't do it all that much when he was younger
“Jack loved that a kid like me, with a blue mohawk and plaid guitar, was making the songs my own – playing Cream and doing divebombs in the corner”: Blues Saraceno toured with Clapton’s Cream bandmates, recorded for Cher and had a bumpy ride with Poison
The ‘kid who replaced Clapton’ as a teenager and landed a double-salary stint with Poison moved into TV, movies and videogame soundtracks – and doesn’t plan to come back
“Jaco’s groove is like a fingerprint – nobody can duplicate it”: Listen to Jaco Pastorius’ isolated bassline on Weather Report’s Barbary Coast
Weather Report’s 1976 cut introduced the world to the full-tilt boogie of Jaco Pastorius
“At some point I might come up with a new single-cut unique enough not to upset anybody”: Nik Huber on the perils of riffing on the classics and the evolution of his powerhouse boutique brand
There’s always the risk that someone might object to a maker’s designs. In the case of Nik Huber’s Krautster, it came 15 years after the guitar was introduced…
“If you’ve ever seen Slash give that look to whoever when they hit a bad note… You get that look once, man. You don’t want it twice”: Gilby Clarke survived a baptism by fire in Guns N’ Roses – but one day the pay checks stopped coming
The guitarist played with GN'R during their chaotic Use Your Illusion era. Now he discusses his heart-stopping audition, the early-’90s Guns album that never was and why he was never actually fired from the band
“I’m now running a dual rig – it’s like hearing Queens of the Stone Age and Guy Ritchie movies mixed together!” Meet Kid Kapichi – the UK beat-punks busting out Chuck Berry moves and opening for Liam Gallagher
Ben Beetham is a pedalboard thrill-seeker whose tones make Kid Kapichi one of the most vital bands on the UK rock scene
