Latest articles by Alan di Perna
From the Archive Starting from the repurposed CBGB’s club, and harnessing a style based on their utter inexperience, the NYC punk antiheroes rewrote a 40-year-old rule about playing guitar
From the Archive Back in the ’70s, the Deep Purple guitarist was on the hunt for a specific sound, look and wattage, so the Marshall team found a way to get the best of all worlds (even if it meant using a rivals’ components)
Guitarist Steve Jones reflects on the making of the Pistols' incendiary studio album, Johnny Rotten's overdub myths, and why they had to keep Sid Vicious away from the studio
From the Archive The AC/DC guitar hero has tried getting copies made to no avail
Blizzard of Ozz was the Prince of Darkness' solo debut – but it forever marked Rhoads as a guitar hero for the ages
With Celebrity Skin, Love shifted Hole's musical direction and created their final opus, in the midst of great tragedy
Turns out, Otis Redding's rendition was the right one all along…
In a 2014 GW interview, Thomson revealed his disdain for melodic choruses, and how he fought hard for the band to maintain their artistic integrity post-Wait and Bleed
Proving beyond doubt that the band's range extended far beyond dense, brooding epics, it remains the Cure song to reference for those who know only of the band's name and maybe their frontman's inimitable hairdo
The year is 1994: Prince has changed his name to O(+>, is at war with his label, and is readying a smoldering, guitar-heavy blues/funk trio album. GW was given rare access to his inner sanctum – his band, his studio, and even the elusive man himself
In 1994, Prince changed his stage name to 'O(+>' due to contractual disputes with his label, and, amid the turbulence, he granted Guitar World access to his onstage inner sanctum
Recorded under threat of a lawsuit, while in the midst of his infamous “Lost Weekend”, Rock 'n' Roll was the craziest ride of the Beatle's career – featuring top players and a gun-wielding Phil Spector
The destructive antics began as an unwelcome byproduct of something else the Who guitarist helped add to the guitar lexicon: wild feedback odysseys
Keyed in by their mentors-of-sorts, Led Zeppelin, Mick Ralphs and co recorded their enormously successful debut album at the legendary Headley Grange house, which certainly provided a certain vibe to the proceedings...
Though the band's set at the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival was ragged, it confirmed in stone a hugely consequential decision Lennon had made just before the festival
The surf guitar king was not only a Fender man to his bones – he had a close working relationship with Leo Fender himself
For what would become his fifth solo album, Ocasek reached out to Smashing Pumpkins mastermind Billy Corgan, and came away impressed by his arranging talents and technical abilities
Timeless, iconic, yet also indisputably a product of the era in which it was designed, the Stratocaster was shaped in huge part by a few oft-overlooked players – one of whom suggested the whammy bar so he could get more money as a session guitarist
Page had known Joe Walsh, then a budding guitar hero with the James Gang, since his pre-Zeppelin days with the Yardbirds. And Walsh had a proposition for him
Used to experimenting and improvising onstage, Gilmour suddenly found himself juggling a multitude of new responsibilities, and, on one occasion, dodging burning drapes...
As Cream began to disintegrate barely two years into their existence, the enormously successful band's managers were desperate to keep them going
One of the best-selling albums of all time, Nirvana's Nevermind re-shaped popular culture and guitar-based music almost overnight. This is how it was made
AC/DC's Angus Young traces the lineage of one of rock's greatest bands – from his air-tight six-string chemistry with his brother Malcolm, that time he tried one of Malcolm's guitars, and why he avoided Strats at all costs
Hesitant to step back into the spotlight but powered by renewed creative energy, the former Beatle joined forces with Earl Slick, Hugh McCracken, and – though their collaborations weren't released for a number of years – Cheap Trick
