Features archive

July 2025

Filter

Year
Month

36 articles

July 11
- “It was a true surprise. And to be shouted out alongside Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ to boot? That felt surreal”: Meet Jesse Williams, the Joe Bonamassa-backed singer-songwriter tackling the mountain blues
- “I try not to be Alex Lifeson from Rush… my days of shredding and playing like a crazy maniac are over. There are a million people on Instagram that do that now”: Alex Lifeson on throwing sonic curveballs with Envy of None – and why he’s all in on plugins
- “The Kennedy Center thing was a wild experience – being around that many famous people and shaking Robert DeNiro’s hand at the White House”: How Goose took flight to become the world’s hottest jam band
July 10
- “I just went nuts and added lots of parallel distortion!” Thunderstruck on bass? With slapping and tapping? Modern-day bass hero Toby Peterson-Stewart flexes his formidable chops in tribute to AC/DC
- “People shied away from its political edge – they didn’t get their love songs. But for us it was a lot of fun”: Junior Marvin on Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Survival – and the influence Hendrix’s guitar pedal guru had on its sound
- “That was also where Mitch Mitchell brought Jimi’s white Woodstock Strat for me to set up, prior to him selling it”: My afternoon interviewing Hank Marvin over beans on toast and chickening out of a Paul McCartney 'audition'
July 9
- “Korn was doing their 30th anniversary show with Gojira. I was like, ‘I have to go give Christian a guitar, and I have to give Head a guitar’”: Tetrarch on the joy of handing out signature models to their heroes and designing metal’s gnarliest tones
- “Rule number one: When you’re not using a pedal, your guitar must sound like your original guitar sound”: Steve Stevens on the pedalbord the guru Dave Friedman made him, his favorite Klon klone and why he can't use chorus anymore
July 8
- “We were doing War Pigs… Ozzy looks at me and mouths, ‘What are the words?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ So he started singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm”: Jake E. Lee on his wild Ozzy Osbourne days and why Tony Iommi is harder to emulate than Randy Rhoads
- “You gotta quit at the right moment, and Gary did the worst thing any band member can do. I was angry, man”: Scott Gorham on how his guitar partnership with Gary Moore came to a dramatic end – and building bridges with the late guitar hero decades later
- “The audience got on my side when I came out with this broken guitar… it started life as a Baby Taylor but got stepped on and snapped”: He's been called the UK's “best, most humane songwriter” but a broken acoustic is the secret to Richard Dawson's sound
July 7
- “The songs, the artwork, the image, Ozzy’s sinister, untrained monotone, Iommi’s monolithic riffs. This was the emerging sound of heavy metal”: The complete history of Black Sabbath – lineup by lineup, album by album
- “Journeyman guitars have the lightest relicing available, as if the guitar has been used but not abused during its fictitious lifetime”: Up close with Fender Custom Shop’s ’59 Journeyman Stratocaster – a stunning vintage repro fresh out of the box
- “People think it’s a banjo or a toy, and they’re stunned when they hear it. I put a Slash humbucker and some SG electronics in it, and let me tell you, it rips!” Meet The Frst’s Mikei Gray, the virtuoso whose guitar is made out of a ’50s Buick hubcap
July 6
- “He got really upset and ran off down the street. He turned the corner, and I never saw him again”: Jack Bruce’s final encounter with Jaco Pastorius
- “Hearing the crowd sing the War Pigs solo gave me chills”: Back to the Beginning was Ozzy Osbourne’s night – but it was also a tribute to Tony Iommi’s singular impact on guitar music
July 5
- “If we played a two-hour show, the blood would be dripping down the bass!” Nile Rodgers on what made Bernard Edwards a bass genius – and the making of some iconic 4-string moments
- “That one’s a ’62. It’s also been shot. There’s a mark on the bottom where the bullet went in”: From his legendary Franken-Les Paul, Old Black, to his Hank Williams-owned Martin, and a pedalboard “ugly button,” Neil Young's rig is like no other
- “I watched Tony a lot. We became friends. It was emotional – not in a ‘pinch me!’ sense, but realizing how on-point he was – and how much he was not phoning in that performance”: Rival Sons’ Scott Holiday on what it’s like to open a Black Sabbath show
- “My dad stepped in to greet the ensemble – and then in came The King”: Billy Gibbons shares the story of the “treasured moment” he sat in on a B.B. King session – as a child
July 4
- “Oz said, ‘Let’s just do Free Bird twice. That should take up an hour!’” Zakk Wylde on Tony Iommi’s genius, Black Sabbath’s immeasurable influence – and Ozzy’s unlikely Back to the Beginning demands
- “The original blue Strat that I bought in ’88 became the ‘Bob guitar’… that was when I started reinventing the way I looked at guitar”: From Hüsker Dü’s “fighter jets” to Sugar’s “sheets” of guitar, how Bob Mould built his wall of sound
- “I don’t even think he had a pick. He just heard the tracks once and was ready to go”: Ricky Warwick on welcoming Lita Ford, Charlie Starr and Billy Duffy to vintage guitar nirvana for his new solo album – and the magic of seventh chords
July 3
- “Am I supposed to feel jealous or something? Sid Vicious had his moments – but I can have my moments as well. I’m no shrinking violet!” Glen Matlock on how the Sex Pistols have changed, while his bass rig never has and never will
- “Instead of being like, ‘Hey, man, you’re my favorite guitar player,’ I was like, ‘Watch out for that cable running across the floor’”: Bill Kelliher on his awkward Tony Iommi encounter and Mastodon’s Back to the Beginning plans
- “Epiphone’s ’50s-style Flying V is a perfectly decent guitar that emulates the spirit of the real thing without being completely vintage-accurate”: Can we turn an Epiphone Flying V into a vintage Gibson unicorn? It’s easier than you might think
July 2
- “I knew the record was good, but when you hear the way he plays, there's no question that Stevie was an all-time great guitar player”: How Stevie Ray Vaughan's biggest hit benefitted from one of the baddest rhythm sections in blues history
- “I took Heaven and Hell to a sleepover – the other girls looked at me like I had aliens crawling out of my ears”: Lzzy Hale on how Halestorm ended up playing Ronnie James Dio’s final show – and doing the same for Ozzy Osbourne
- “He turned out to be George Harrison’s gardener. He gave the CD to George… Next thing I know George and Olivia call to ask if we’d play at their Christmas party”: Meet Robin Nolan, the Gypsy jazz guitarist who collaborated with a Beatle
- “Sabbath and AC/DC are similar to me because people make the mistake of thinking, ‘That’s so easy. It’s like a caveman. Anyone could play those parts’”: Tony Iommi was such a big influence on Scott Ian that he tried to play left-handed
- “Exceptional tuning stability, bright and articulate tone, and enhanced output”: Pro musicians’ go-to guitar strings, Cleartone Strings – founded by music legend Phil Everly – are now available in the UK and Ireland
July 1
- “What we've created is a platform where you can upload your collection, and put in whatever prices you want, which only you can see”: We speak to the people behind an all-new, safe way to buy and sell vintage guitars online
- “People hear surf guitar in our music, but I think that comes more from the fact Dick Dale was Greek – so Misirlou was a Greek tune”: Introducing LA LOM, the LA trio turning fiberglass guitars and psychedelia into a dance party of guitar instrumentals
- “Judas Priest were doing something different. Black Sabbath gave us a real confidence boost to carry on what we were doing”: K.K. Downing on coming up with fellow metal gods Black Sabbath in Birmingham, and why no-one can play like Tony Iommi
- “We wanted to play a 20-minute crazy solo. An extended, jammy outro used to be a pretty common thing, and now it feels completely dead”: Meet Dutch Interior, the SoCal indie-rock outfit channeling the Allman Brothers with six – yes, six – guitarists
- “Alice in Chains have had a long relationship with Ozzy, who gave us one of our first breaks – and gave us a bass player”: Jerry Cantrell on his lifelong love of Black Sabbath and touring with Ozzy Osbourne (before taking his bassist)