Features archive
August 2025
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21 articles
- August 7
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- “We played a local gig and Jeff said, ‘Why don’t we go on tour with Brian Wilson?’” Nicolas Meier was playing in a London jazz club, when he looked up and spotted Jeff Beck standing a few feet away – it proved to be a life-changing moment
- “I missed out on being in one of the biggest rock bands in the world, but I don’t think I had the image!” Session pro and YouTube favorite Tim Pierce never wanted to be a rockstar – but he’s sure made a lot of their records
- “I always wanted to reconcile, tell him there weren’t any hard feelings and end things on a friendly note. I got to do that”: Jake E. Lee had a hero’s welcome at Back to the Beginning – but mending his rift with Ozzy Osbourne was what meant the most
- August 6
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- “Ghost Guitar is a beam of light coming in through a window and illuminating a big empty space”: Rafiq Bhatia breaks down the experimental techniques that earned him an Oscar nomination for his scores – and why it all stems from Jimi Hendrix
- “I know I’m being judged right now. I read comments saying, ‘You’ve got nothing on Brent.’ I’m not worrying. I feel free”: How Nick Johnston went from instrumental virtuoso du jour to joining Mastodon and playing Ozzy Osbourne’s final show
- “The ego is quite useless in a writing situation. I just ask myself, ‘What does this song want?’” Deacon Blue’s polymath guitar genius Gregor Philps dissects his six-string approach, and reveals his favorite Strat (clue: it isn’t a Fender)
- August 5
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- “Ozzy looked well. He did not look like he was two weeks away from passing… The feeling was similar to when Randy passed away – that dead void, that emptiness”: Rudy Sarzo on the lifelong kindness of Ozzy Osbourne – and the miracle of his final weeks
- “I thought maybe we’d have 2,000 people show up early, but our first performance was for 10,000 people. I was shocked”: Jake Kiszka on Mirador, his hard-riffing collab with blues brother Chris Turpin – and what it means for Greta Van Fleet
- “Being called a guitar hero was just awkward. Whether I’ve written a good song or not, that’s what counts to me”: Mark Knopfler on 40 years of Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms – the guitars, the riffs… the pressure of learning to play in time
- August 4
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- “We read all the complaints. We’re far from perfect, but we’re moving very quickly to get a lot better”: Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto is on a mission to win back guitar players’ trust
- “Glenn Frey said it best when he said we ‘created a monster with Hotel California, and it ate us’”: Don Felder on the making of the Eagles’ The Long Run
- “I wound up joining Spinal Tap in Phoenix and played bass along with Adrian Belew on Big Bottom. It was a huge comedy honor”: The chance encounters that led Abby Travis to play bass with Beck, Elastica, The Bangles and The Go-Go’s
- August 3
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- “When I played with Jason Newsted, I knew he was the one. Not that Robert Trujillo is a bad bass player, but Jason just has this edge”: In March 2003, Ozzy Osbourne introduced the world to his new bassist
- “It was painful for me to listen to Ian Anderson’s voice. I felt for him a lot”: Dave Pegg on why he quit Jethro Tull, beating Metallica to a Grammy, gigging with John Bonham and working with Nick Drake in a smelly squat
- August 2
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- “Car Bomb opened me up to playing bass with a pick. Now I’ve been a pick guy for so long I’m afraid to play fingerstyle!” Marrying savage hooks to technical prowess, Jon Modell is proof of just how heavy a 5-string bass can be in modern metal
- “The scene was super-underground. When the music industry developed, everyone got excited to start a band”: Meet Seera, Saudi Arabia’s first public all-female band, who are merging Nirvana and Tool with Arabic influences – and going global
- “Those tubes need to be burning. As I put it to the band, I like to smell dinner cooking”: With his gourmet phrasing and R&B hot sauce, D.K. Harrell is the blues hero you need in your life right now
- August 1
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- “I wouldn’t be surprised if the guitar moves in a digital direction where it doesn’t have strings”: How Ola Strandberg went from midlife crisis to revolutionizing headless guitars – and what he thinks could be next
- “It’s a daunting task. I’ll always have impostor syndrome… If the fans think it’s jive, we’ll pull it off streaming services!” Jakob Nowell opens up on using his late father’s gear and unreleased jams to create new Sublime music
- “I get a lot more feeling when I play with my fingers. Wes Montgomery was my reference as a kid for not using a pick”: Championed by Fender and signed to Blue Note, Maya Delilah might just be the most melodic guitar soloist since John Mayer
- “There was a blue arc of electricity, and I was shot back off the mic – that encouraged me to get a wireless system!” There are some rock ’n’ roll stories that you couldn’t make up. One is how ‘Grog’ Lisee was electrocuted by an unearthed microphone
