Alan di Perna
In a career that spans five decades, Alan di Perna has written for pretty much every magazine in the world with the word “guitar” in its title, as well as other prestigious outlets such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, Creem, Player, Classic Rock, Musician, Future Music, Keyboard, grammy.com and reverb.com. He is author of Guitar Masters: Intimate Portraits, Green Day: The Ultimate Unauthorized History and co-author of Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Sound Style and Revolution of the Electric Guitar. The latter became the inspiration for the Metropolitan Museum of Art/Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibition “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock and Roll.” As a professional guitarist/keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist, Alan has worked with recording artists Brianna Lea Pruett, Fawn Wood, Brenda McMorrow, Sat Kartar and Shox Lumania.
Latest articles by Alan di Perna

How Dick Dale made the Stratocaster the ultimate surf-rock weapon
By Jackson Maxwell published
The surf guitar king was not only a Fender man to his bones – he had a close working relationship with Leo Fender himself

How Ric Ocasek formed an unlikely partnership with an alt-rock icon
By Jackson Maxwell published
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

The creation and evolution of the Stratocaster
By Alan di Perna published
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

How one of rock's most storied Les Pauls changed hands from one guitar hero to another
By Jackson Maxwell published
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

For David Gilmour, Pink Floyd’s wildly ambitious the Wall tour was a blast – and a challenge
By Jackson Maxwell published
Used to experimenting and improvising onstage, Gilmour suddenly found himself juggling a multitude of new responsibilities, and, on one occasion, dodging burning drapes...

When Rory Gallagher was asked to fill Eric Clapton's shoes in rock's pioneering power trio
By Jackson Maxwell published
As Cream began to disintegrate barely two years into their existence, the enormously successful band's managers were desperate to keep them going

The making of the album that virtually invented a new genre, sold 30 million copies, and changed rock forever
By Alan di Perna published
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

Through 50 years of triumph and tragedy, they remain hard rock's greatest titans
By Alan di Perna published
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

Released weeks before his murder, John Lennon’s final album paired him with some of the era’s finest session guitarists
By Alan di Perna published
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

The mod that made Kurt Cobain's $6 million MTV Unplugged Martin one of a kind
By Jackson Maxwell published
According to Nirvana guitar tech Earnie Bailey, Cobain was far from a vintage guitar fiend, and had no qualms with making his already weird D-18E even more unusual

“We knew we didn’t want to do an acoustic version of Teen Spirit”: The story of Nirvana's seminal MTV Unplugged set
By Alan di Perna published
Resisting network pressure to simply play the hits, Kurt Cobain, Pat Smear, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl pulled together a remarkable and eclectic set that served as the haunting apex of Nirvana's final chapter

“I remember my first lesson with Joe. I had a guitar and a set of strings. I’d never really played. I didn’t know how to tune or string it”: Steve Vai and Joe Satriani discuss the evolution of guitar playing, and what they taught each other
By Alan di Perna published
In 1990, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani sat down for an extensive discussion with Guitar World, during which they joked that – when they were older – they would record a song called The Sea of Emotion. Now, more than three decades later, that premonition has come true

“We didn’t realize we were breaking up as it was happening”: The Beatles intended to go back to their roots on Let It Be – instead, they documented the collapse of their magical creative partnership
By Alan di Perna published
A mix of rootsy, spirited rockers, stunning ballads, and unfocused jams, Let It Be captured the Fab Four looking to find their footing as a group again

“When Keith and I are together, we talk through our guitars. We never say, ‘You do this and I’ll do that.’ We weave”: How Brian Jones, Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood made the Rolling Stones what they are today
By Alan di Perna published
The story of three different eras and three different players, all bound by the ability to bob and weave through Keith Richards' unforgettable riffs and drive the Stones ever-forward

“It was considered a no-no to chain two Fuzz-Tones together. But I saw Hendrix chain five of them!” Billy Gibbons remembers opening for Jimi Hendrix with his pre-ZZ Top band the Moving Sidewalks
By Jackson Maxwell published
Before the long beards, sold-out arenas, spinning fur guitars and MTV stardom, Billy Gibbons cut his teeth in a psychedelic group called the Moving Sidewalks, who opened for – among other A-tier rock acts – one James Marshall Hendrix...

“For me, Wish You Were Here is the most satisfying album. I really love it. I'd rather listen to that than Dark Side of the Moon”: David Gilmour opens up on the creative tension that built Pink Floyd's classic records
By Alan di Perna published
In this classic GW interview, the Stratocaster icon discusses the “egocentric megalomaniacal tension” that shaped Dark Side of the Moon, how he constructed the Comfortably Numb solo, and the time he used a mic stand leg as a slide

“I knew exactly what I wanted to do in every respect”: How Jimmy Page built Led Zeppelin from the ashes of the Yardbirds
By Alan di Perna published
Using knowledge gleaned from his time as a first-call session pro – and his brief but crucial tenure alongside Jeff Beck in the Yardbirds – Page formed a rock colossus from the ground up

The Lovin’ Spoonful's Zal Yanovsky is one of the Sixties' most overlooked guitarists – here's how he fearlessly blended genres to forge the 'Americana' guitar sound
By Alan di Perna published
Yanovsky brought the weird, wonderful and the none-too-serious to Good Time Music, and was a genius player, but did he get the credit he deserved?

Keith Richards: “They haven't really improved the electric guitar since Les Paul and Leo Fender put their touch to it. Everything else is trying to sound like them”
By Alan di Perna published
In this classic interview from 2002, The Human Riff reflects on the key guitars, songs, and sounds from 40 years with The Rolling Stones

How Indian slide maestro Debashish Bhattacharya made the 24-stringed chaturangui come alive on The Sound of the Soul
By Alan di Perna published
Bhattacharya is a genius of slide guitar whose new album is an uplifting twist on Hindustani classical ragas, featuring “the best instrument to unify cultures”

Custom Flying Vs, strange open tunings and massive bends: how Albert King created his own strain of the blues – and inspired Hendrix, Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan
By Alan di Perna published
A left-hander, King flipped a right-handed guitar upside down, put it in an unorthodox tuning, and forged a style steeped in steely drama and epic bends

Jeff Beck – the ultimate interview: one of the electric guitar's most prolific innovators reflects on his sprawling career
By Alan di Perna published
In this classic 2009 Guitar World interview, the guitar legend waxed lyrical on his formative years with The Yardbirds, how his radical technique inspired a new era of instrumental guitar, and his musical relationships with Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton

The greatest rock concerts in music history
By Richard Bienstock last updated
From Metallica's Damaged Justice to Ozzy Osbourne's Diary of a Madman tour, Guitar World presents the most incredible concerts and roadshows in rock and metal history
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