Behind the Scenes at GW's Bloodiest Photo Shoot with Slayer

Watch this video of Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King getting bloody for our November 2009 cover shoot.

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Prince (left) and Levi Seacer Jr perform onstage at Brabanthallen in Den Bosch, Netherlands on August 9, 1992

Prince was a master guitarist with a singular musical vision, but he didn't always go it alone on the instrument. These are the oft-overlooked players who joined him onstage, and in the studio

Jonathan Hultén wears white makeup and black lipstick and eye-liner and is photographed in the woods with an Ibanez acoustic electric guitar

“I will use mattresses for isolation and try not to bother the neighbors too much… I was just following the songs to see what happens”: How Jonathan Hultén channeled Nick Drake’s Pink Moon and recorded an entire album in his walk-in closet

David Hood of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section (The Swampers) performs on stage with Traffic at Birmingham Town Hall on Wednesday March 20 1973. He plays a Fender Jazz bass guitar.

“Paul Simon called Stax and said, ‘Who are those Jamaican musicians?’ They told him, ‘Those are some white boys from Alabama!’” David Hood on being starstruck by Aretha Franklin, what Otis Redding taught him, and tales from golden age of Muscle Shoals

The Legendary Eddie Hazel of Parliament-Funkadelic poses in a black-and-white archive pic; while his successor, Michael Hampton, aka Kidd Funkadelic, wears a cape and plays a solo onstage with George Clinton's band.

“Even today, there’s little nuances that Eddie did, and I can get close, but it’s about trying to capture the feeling”: Why George Clinton’s P-Funk All Stars never shined so bright as when ‘Kidd Funkadelic’ and Eddie Hazel joined forces on Maggot Brain

Mike Inez of Alice In Chains performs on stage on Day 3 of Sonisphere Festival on August 1, 2010 in Knebworth, England.

“A personal crowning moment for me was having Lemmy ask me to play on a Motörhead record!” Alice in Chains’ Mike Inez on why Cliff Burton ruled, Paul McCartney's influence – and what John Entwistle told him (that he already knew)

King Diamond and guitarist Andy La Rocque: The King is in his traditional stagewear, undertaker's hat, crossbones mic stand, totally morbid corpsepaint. La Rocque frets a chord on his signature ESP.

“Listening to Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert… all kinds of crazy-fast players. And you tried to keep up with them”: Andy La Rocque on why he is no longer a 120mph soloist – and what we can expect from the long-awaited King Diamond album

Randy McStine plays a sunburst Les Paul as he performs with Steven Wilson.

“This was specifically wanting it to have the sort of grandiosity of a Comfortably Numb-type guitar solo but without really referencing that vocabulary”: Randy McStine reveals all behind his cosmically epic solo on Steven Wilson's The Overview

“I play the double-neck and trade solos with Joe Walsh on Hotel California. It’s a bit terrifying, but it’s the greatest thing ever”: Chris Holt landed The Eagles without an audition – but his gigs with Mike Campbell and Don Henley might have helped

Elliott Easton of the Cars plays a black Danelectro singlecut on a stage lit in purple.

“John Lennon hated doubling his vocals. The chief engineer at Abbey Road came up with a way to add a delay and put it onto another track. That’s what that pedal does”: The Cars’ Elliot Easton on the secrets of his pedalboard – and the wizard who made it

“I wasn't familiar with PRS. If anything, I was like, ‘The birds are too flashy!’ But the moment I played one I was like, ‘Whoa, I can play faster now!’”: Meet Mei Semones, the Berklee graduate reimagining New Orleans vibes with an intricate indie flair

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