Legendary Australian composer Mick Gordon is to perform his seminal Doom video game soundtrack live for the very first time when he headlines the UK’s RADAR Festival in 2027.

For a generation of metal guitar nerds weaned on the claustrophobic brutality of the first-person shooter, this is like not only finding the Ark of the Covenant but breaking its seal, opening it and finding all of the secrets to his Meshuggah-through-the-event-horizon sound.

Gordon will be joined by a full band – and an orchestra – and of course he will be bringing his Doom Machine along for the performance.

“This isn’t a DJ set, and it isn’t a tribute act,” says RADAR Festival. “It’s the actual composer, the actual score – the riffs played properly loud in a room that can withstand all the ripping and tearing.”

We predict that sales of Schecter Damien 9-string guitars will rocket in the Greater Manchester area in the weeks following Gordon’s performance (though an Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci JP7 and a Mayones 8-string guitar were just as important to the Doom sessions).

Gordon’s Doom soundtrack is one of the foundational texts of progressive modern metal. It’s ugly, brutal, rhythmically audacious, super aggressive and yet still manages to send a chill down the spine with its post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

It’s the kind of headphones record that has you checking the corners upon entering a room. Heck, it’d make a municipal parking lot complex feel like hell itself.

Gordon probably won’t take to the stage in a powdered wig, red velvet jacket and gold brocade but he nonetheless has a Mozart-esque command over his sound, and an electric guitar tone that is far beyond electric, squished through layers of compression (the Origin Effects Cali76-TX was used extensively when making Doom).

He told Origin Effects that he saw “guitars as a flavour rather than a genre”. In his pursuit of modernism he had to almost destroy tone to reconstruct it for the Doom world.

“Well, you take angry 7, 8 and 9-string guitars, vintage Soviet synthesizers and punch-knuckle-smacked drums,” he told Bethseda. “Then, you spice it up with burning valve distortion, electrically starved transistors, dusty ancient reel-to-reel tape machines, bleeding feedback arrays and gut-grinding sub-woofers. Finally, you smash all these elements together, give the player a shotgun and let the hunt begin!”

Earlier this year, Gordon famously did give away all of his secrets, or at least those he saved down onto his Fractal, when he sold the Axe-Fx unit he used on the Doom soundtrack. The amp modeler also had his presets from Wolfenstein, Prey, and LawBreakers soundtracks.

So, gamers, djent-heads and fiends for quasi-mechanised chug, the time is almost nigh when you can hear this all live and in concert. Let’s just hope it isn’t a harbinger of things to come on this Toilet Earth of ours. We’ll keep the chain gun locked up in its gig bag for now.

RADAR Festival 2027 is hosted over the weekend of July 30 to August 1st, and Super Early Bird tickets are on sale from August 7. Sign up at RADAR Festival.

There is a distinct difference between watching a band work through a setlist and that rare experience of witnessing virtuosos caught up in pure, unadulterated joy.

On night one (7.28.26) of their four-night stand at Madison Square Garden, Rush delivered two-and-a-half hours of the latter – a rapturous jubilee that felt less like a choreographed arena rock show and more like master musicians kicking back and letting it rip – simply because they can.

From the opening swells of Xanadu, the energy inside the arena was beyond juiced – and it never let up. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson spent the evening trading “holy shit” grins and laughing out loud, visibly drinking in the deafening waves of adoration from the tri-state crowd, making decades of formidable prog-rock mastery feel like second nature.

Lifeson was sparkier and more unruly than ever. He knows the holy texts, of course, and he gave fans the brilliant, note-for-note solos on Tom Sawyer and Limelight they knew by heart. But for much of the night, he went off on his own loose-limbed benders, taking madcap detours and stretching out phrases just to see where they’d land. It was fretboard swagger at its most generous.

And Lee! After all the hand-wringing over his June bronchitis scare down in Texas, he came to rumble. There was no tentative easing-in, no cautious vocal pacing. He hit the microphone full-throated, leaning into his bass with a physical, nimble crunch. Whatever resting period that forced hiatus gave him, it worked – his voice had a bright, soaring punch that reached for the high rafters without a flicker of strain.

Then, of course, there's Anika Nilles. Stepping into the drum throne of the beloved Neil Peart (who passed away in 2020) is a monumental – and some would say, unenviable – task, but the German-born drummer proved to be a dream behind the kit: fast and fluid, swinging with a luscious, elastic groove that gives even the oddest of odd-time signatures a supple, human heartbeat.

In the time since the Fifty Something tour debuted at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA, in early June, cellphone videos of Nilles acing the around-the-kit tom fills to Tom Sawyer have been shared millions of times, but those viral clips don't prepare you for the physical impact of seeing her do it live – it’s the intoxicating spectacle of a genius executing genius things, and with a high-beam smile, no less.

Overhead, poignant video tributes to Neil Peart wove throughout the show, grounding the night’s jubilation in tender, warm remembrance. Rather than heavy eulogizing, the visuals captured Peart's humor, artistry and legacy, elevating the performance into a true-life celebration.

Setlist

Set One

• Xanadu
• Limelight
• Far Cry
• Subdivisions
• Freewill
• Bravado
• Headlong Flight
• La Villa Strangiato
• Vital Signs
• The Spirit of Radio

Set Two

• 2112 (Overture, the Temples of Syrinx, Grand Finale)
• Distant Early Warning
• Red Barchetta
• Dreamline
• Natural Science
• Time Stand Still
• Red Sector A
• YYZ
• The Garden
• Tom Sawyer

Encore

• By-Tor and the Snow Dog
• Working Man

Polyphia have announced a world tour, for which the modern virtuosos will be bringing some of the finest guitar talent on the scene with them.

The boundary-pushing band, led by Tim Henson and Scott LePage, have just put out their new house-music-gone-heavy track, CAN YOU FEEL IT, the first single from what will be their fifth studio album. They’ll soon be hitting the road to promote it.

They'll be joined by some of the biggest names in guitar playing with them. Australian prog-fusion maestro Plini and Intervals – the djent- and prog-metal-coded project from Wolfgang Van Halen’s favorite shredder, Aaron Marshall – will feature on select North American dates.

Plini has just released his latest album, An Unnameable a Desire, which sees him responding to a call of the wild as he explores new stylistic frontiers, and Intervals are fresh off the road supporting Karnivool.

Elsewhere, solo guitarist RJ Pasin – CAN YOU FEEL IT's do-producer, who has a similarly genre-defying style mixing metalcore, hyper pop, and electronic music – will play on all dates across North America, Europe, and the UK.

Ladrones, who use eight-string Strandberg guitars to mesh together metal, hip-hop, and regional Mexican music, are another act impressing Polyphia’s guitarists, and they’ll join for all North American dates.

It’s an assembled lineup that will stand as both a celebration of forward-thinking guitar playing, featuring some of the most innovative players around. But it’s also a tour that will kick-start a new era for Polyphia.

CAN YOU FEEL IT, which sees the band creating a wholly new style of music, has got the guitar community’s tongues wagging and sets the scene for their hotly anticipated new album.

They’ve already confirmed a host of guest stars. Henson’s new favorite guitar player is producing the record, which they’ve promised will be heavy.

French electronic genius, Perturbator, meanwhile, will join RJ Pasin on all European and UK dates as the band seemingly doubles down on the electronic party-music side of their evolving sound.

Tickets for the tour will be available starting with VIP and Artist Presales beginning Tuesday, June 16, at 11 am ET / 4 pm BST.

Additional presales will run throughout the week ahead of the general on-sale beginning Friday, June 19, at 10 am local time.

See Polyphia for more.

North America Tour Dates w/ Ladrones & RJ Pasin

> w/ Intervals
< w/ Plini

• Sept 5 – Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
• Sept 8 – Albuquerque, NM – Revel Entertainment Center
• Sept 10 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
• Sept 12 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
• Sept 13 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
• Sept 16 – Salt Lake City – The Union Event Center
• Sept 18 – Denver, CO – JUNKYARD
• Sept 20 - Waukee, IA – Vibrant Music Hall
• Sept 21 – Milwaukee, WI – Landmark Credit Union Live
• Sept 22 – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory
• Sept 24 – Chesterfield, MO – The Factory
• Sept 25 – Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom
• Sept 26 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore
• Sept 28 – Grand Rapids, MI – GLC Live at 20 Monroe
• Sept 29 – Toronto, ON – Great Canadian Casino >
• Oct 1 – Montreal, QC – L’Olympia >
• Oct 3 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
• Oct 5 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
• Oct 7 – Wallingford, CT – Toyota Oakdale Theatre
• Oct 8 – Washington DC – Echostage
• Oct 10 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore
• Oct 11 – Virginia Beach, VA – The Dome by Rutter Mills
• Oct 13 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater <
• Oct 15 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – War Memorial Auditorium
• Oct 16 – Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live
• Oct 17 – Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy
• Oct 18 – Nashville, TN – The Truth

Europe/UK Tour Dates w/ Perturbator & RJ Pasin

• Nov 18 – Zurich, CH – Halle 622
• Nov 19 – Lyon, FR – Le Radiant
• Nov 20 – Toulouse, FR – Interference
• Nov 22 – Barcelona, ES – Razzmatazz
• Nov 23 – Madrid, ES – Sala La Riviera
• Nov 25 – Milan, IT – Alcatraz
• Nov 27 – Munich, DE – Zenith
• Nov 28 – Prague, CZ – SaSaZu
• Nov 29 – Warsaw, PL – Progresja
• Nov 30 – Leipzig, DE – Haus Auensee
• Dec 2 – Hamburg, DE – Docks
• Dec 4 – Copenhagen, DK – Amager Bio
• Dec 5 – Berlin, DE – Tempodrom
• Dec 6 – Oberhausen, DE – Turbinenhalle
• Dec 7 – Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique
• Dec 8 – Amsterdam, NL – AFAS Live
• Dec 9 – Paris, FR – Zenith Paris
• Dec 11 – Birmingham, UK – 02 Academy Birmingham
• Dec 12 – Manchester, UK – Manchester Academy
• Dec 15 – Leeds, UK – O2 Academy Leeds
• Dec 16 – London, UK – O2 Academy Brixton

Eric Clapton brought a show in Madrid, Spain, to a premature end after he was hit by an object thrown by an audience member.

As captured in footage from the show, Slowhand was nearing the end of his performance at the Movistar Arena last Thursday (May 7) when what appeared to be a vinyl record was thrown, hitting the guitarist in the chest.

Clapton was winding down the set at the time, having just finished performing his cover of J.J. Cale’s Cocaine. Because of the incident, he didn’t return for the expected encore, which would have been Before You Accuse Me.

“Very sad image today in Eric Clapton concert in Madrid,” wrote on X account. “Some guy threw something to EC at the end, ending with no encore.”

Clapton was in the middle of an EU tour, which is set to conclude in Germany this week with shows at the SAP Arena in Mannheim (May 13); Lanxess Arena in Koln (May 15); and Olympiastadion München (May 17).

The blues guitar icon will return to the US later this year for a six-date tour of North America, kicking off September 6 in Detroit and wrapping up in Kansas City on September 17.

Like the Europe shows, Clapton will be joined by his usual backing band comprising Doyle Bramhall II and Nathan East, as well as drummer Sonny Emory, and keyboardists Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon.

Visit Eric Clapton’s website for a full list of dates and tickets.

Since its inception in 1999, Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival has featured the crème de la crème of guitarists who, in one way or another, have earned the blues-rock legend’s respect.

Now, the seventh edition of the festival will be held on September 26 and 27 in Austin, Texas, at the Moody Center, marking the 28th anniversary of the 1998 founding of the Crossroads Centre Antigua, the drug treatment facility spearheaded by Clapton himself.

Among the numerous Crossroads veterans returning this year will be Joe Bonamassa, Billy Gibbons, Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr., Sonny Landreth, John Mayer, the Del McCoury Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Jimmie Vaughan, as well as Clapton himself, who will be performing on both nights. Meanwhile, Trey Anastasio, Tommy Emmanuel, Julian Lage, and Pete Townshend will all be making their festival debut.

Guitar Center was also announced as the exclusive retail partner of the festival, and, in addition to onsite retail, there will also be a rare showcase of its Legends Collection. This includes Clapton’s 1956 Fender Stratocaster, “Blackie,” the 1964 Gibson ES-335 he played in Cream, and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s iconic 1965 Fender Stratocaster, “Lenny.”

Speaking about the festival in a 2019 interview with Guitar Center, Clapton said, “My identity is always going to be linked to Crossroads. I can't walk away, so I've come back to do the thing I know how to do best, which is play, and also invite people that I have high admiration for in the music world.”

He continued, “I like to use the festival platform as a way of getting [musicians] to come and play to a big audience, maybe for the first time. I think it's quite nice for the other musicians to meet them, too. I like cross-fertilization. I mean, that was a fascinating thing for me, the fantasy. And it worked.”

Tickets for the event will go on sale on April 3 at 10 a.m. CDT. For more information, head to the official Crossroads Guitar Festival website.

Slash reunited with his former Guns N’ Roses bandmate Gilby Clarke at a charity show in West Hollywood on Monday night, and they tore through a classic hit.

The pair, alongside longtime GNR bass player Duff McKagan, former drummer Steven Adler, and Faster Pussycat vocalist Taime Downe, performed the swaggering Appetite for Destruction cut, It’s So Easy at the Troubadour as the Rock For Jennifer – Loud And Legendary fundraiser.

The show was organised to honor the legacy of Jennifer Perry, the venue’s chief booker during the 1980s. That was a time when GNR made it their stomping ground, who passed away in February. She was also a vocal supporter of Poison and Warrant before they blew up, and was heavily involved in numerous editions of Ozzfest.

It felt right, then, that this throwback reunion of GNR alumni from various eras would be the feather in the night’s cap. And as video evidence from the night suggests, they nailed it.

“This is pretty cool,” Slash had said before McKagan propelled the group into the punk-tinted smash. “Jennifer would have wanted to be here.”

Clarke appeared on the band's covers album, The Spaghetti Incident?, but departed in 1994. Slash followed him out the exit in 1996, leading to a revolving door of players in his wake, which included Buckethead, DJ Ashba, and Bumblefoot.

The Slash-Clarke partnership continued into their collaborative project, Slash’s Snakepit, with Clarke left to dwell on what could have been had they stayed in the band.

“Slash went through the same thing as me – he had all these songs, but Axl wanted to go in a different direction,” he told Guitar World in 2024. “The truth is, between my songs and Slash’s, we could have had the next Guns N’ Roses record.”

More recently, Clarke was emergency cover for Alice Cooper after Nita Strauss had to step back from a tour, only for her stand-in, Orianthi, to be sidelined on the eve of the shows.

Slash, meanwhile, who paid tribute to Ozzy at the Grammys, has also teamed up with Joe Bonamassa for a special charity show, but the pair were shown up by a youthful shredder who appeared alongside them.

Eric Clapton has announced a run of US tour dates, which will take place later this year.

The six-show run is set to kick off on September 6 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, and will see Slowhand visit Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, before wrapping things up in Kansas City on September 17.

Fellow blues electric guitar hero Jimmie Vaughan will serve as the special guest at each show. Clapton’s band will feature Doyle Bramhall II and Nathan East, as well as drummer Sonny Emory, and keyboardists Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon.

The upcoming tour will commence almost a year to the date that Clapton last played in the US, after shows in New York and Uncasville in September 2025. The news follows the announcement that Clapton will be performing across a run of dates in Europe.

This will see Clapton perform in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland Spain, Germany and more, with a headline show at the Sandringham Royal Estate completing the run on August 23.

Artist pre-sale for the US dates goes live today (March 3), with a Live Nation pre-sale scheduled for March 5. General sale tickets for the shows will go on sale March 6 at 10am local time.

Head over to Eric Clapton’s website to find out more. A full list of dates can be found below.

• September 6 – Detroit, MI, Little Caesars Arena
• September 8 – Cincinnati, OH, Heritage Bank Center
• September 11 – Chicago, IL, United Center
• September 13 – Milwaukee, WI, Fiserv Forum
• September 15 – St. Paul, MN, Grand Casino Arena
• September 17 – Kansas City, MO, T-Mobile Center

Metallica have announced an upcoming residency at the Las Vegas Sphere.

The news comes after months of speculation surrounding the band, with many fans theorizing that Metallica would continue their M72 World Tour with a stint at the world’s most advanced live music venue.

As such, the Life Burns Faster residency is set to kick off in October later this year, and will continue the ‘No Repeat Weekend’ tradition that the M72 tour established. In other words, no songs will be repeated on each Thursday and Saturday through the course of the run.

Unsurprisingly, the eight-date residency is promising to expand Metallica’s live set and push it in all-new directions. In fact, it’s being dubbed as “a wholly unique and entirely new Metallica experience for all who attend – including James, Lars, Kirk and Robert”.

What presumably won’t be new to the band, though, will be the live rigs they take to the Sphere. After all, the Sphere is notorious for its rig requirements, owing to the way the venue has been physically designed. Loud stages with actual tube amps simply don’t work.

It’s proven to be quite the obstacle for guitarists in the past. It prompted Bob Weir to ditch his tube amps for an amp modeler, forced John Mayer to find a workaround to run his regular amp setup, and famously led The Edge to run through Universal Audio UAFX pedals.

Heck, Trey Anastasio – who also had to bury his amps off-stage for Phish's residency at the venue – once said it was impossible to play with onstage amps at the Sphere.

Metallica won’t face such issues, though. As a band that has already been converted to an all-digital live setup (they switched to Axe-Fx around 2013), they should have no problem with inserting their existing live setup into the Sphere’s notoriously quiet stage.

Whatever the case, Life Burns Faster has become a long time coming, and the seeds of the residency were sown during the venue’s opening night.

“About 12 seconds into the opening night of Sphere with U2 back in ’23, I thought, ‘We have to do this, it’s completely uncharted territory!’” ’Tallica drummer Lars Ulrich says.

“This residency gives us another chance to reinvent how we interact with our fans in a live setting. We are beyond excited to share this with the world in six months’ time, and way fuckin’ psyched to go next level!”

Life Burns Faster kicks off on October 1, with further dates slated for 3, 15, 17, 22, 24, 29 and 31 of that month. Tickets will go on sale on March 6 at 10am PT.

To register for tickets and for more info in the meantime, head over to Metallica’s website.

Fresh from his Album of the Year Grammy win, Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny – Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – lit up the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show last night at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

The 13-minute set went down in history for several reasons: Martínez Ocasio became the first male solo Latino artist to perform the halftime show and the first to perform a set entirely in Spanish.

It was a spectacular celebration of Puerto Rican – and, by extension, Latino – culture, one in which the guitar is so deeply embedded that it would have been remiss not to include the instrument in one way or another. In fact, at roughly the 9:24 mark, Bad Bunny's band member, José Eduardo Santana, is shown playing a cuatro.

The guitar-like instrument is Puerto Rican's very own national instrument, and Santana plays a heartfelt solo to introduce fellow Puerto Rican music legend Ricky Martin's interpretation of Bad Bunny's LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii, from his latest award-winning album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.

Unlike your typical six-string guitar, the modern cuatro typically has five double-strings – although some musicians add up to six metal strings to flex their virtuosity.

Although it's closely related to other Latin American string instruments, the Puerto Rican cuatro is wholly unique, tuned in fourths from low to high, with B and E in octaves; and A, D, and G in unisons: B3 B2 – E4 E3 – A3 A3 – D4 D4 – G4 G4. It also has a body typically sourced from endemic woods such as guaraguao, laurel, maga, algarrobo, cedro macho, and roble blanco.

The guitar-like instrument is also far from one-size-fits-all. It exists in a variety of forms, including the cuatro soprano, cuatro alto, cuatro tradicional (the standard variant), and cuatro bajo (bass), depending on the player’s preferences.

As Puerto Rico’s national instrument, it’s a staple of folk genres such as jíbaro music, plena, trova, aguinaldo, and seis. However, as demonstrated by Bad Bunny, it has also been given a new lease on life by a younger generation of artists who blend traditional folk with contemporary genres such as reggaeton.

Bad Bunny had previously employed the cuatro as a key part of his set during performances like his long-anticipated Tiny Desk concert, which featured cuatro player Fabiola Méndez, as well as a recent viral concert in Chile, which saw the artist, aided by his cuatrista Santana, pay homage to Chilean folk singer, Victor Jara through his own rendition of the 1971 protest song El Derecho de Vivir en Paz.

The guitar – and guitar-like instruments – featured heavily across all genres at this year’s Grammys, with standout moments including Justin Bieber wielding a 1988 Yamaha RGX 612S and Slash and Ozzy producer Andrew Watt repping Gibson during a star-studded tribute to Ozzy.

After last July’s Ozzy Osbourne farewell show, Back to the Beginning, high estimates were reported for how much the mega-event raised for its chosen charities: Acorns Children’s Hospice, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Cure Parkinson’s.

Media reports, as well as musical director Tom Morello, suggested that Back to the Beginning had grossed over $190 million for the three charities. However, it appears that the reported donation amount has been inflated, with Ozzy Osbourne's son, Jack Osbourne, recently clearing up the rumors on the Punk Rock Sober and Painful Lessons podcast.

“This is how you know the news is probably 90% bullshit, 'cause it was, like, CNN and New York Times was saying ‘Ozzy raised $150 million.’ And it wasn’t that,” he says.

“I think what it came down to was, like, when all was said and done, because it was a charity gig, you still have to pay for the actual gig. No bands got paid, and most of the crew donated their time.”

Osbourne asserts that “when all was [said] and done, each charity got, like, one and a half or two million pounds [approximately $2.7 million] each. So, it was, I think, six or seven million pounds [approximately $9.4 million].”

He continues, “That’s what was donated to the three charities. I mean, we would’ve loved it if it was hundreds of millions. We would have been, like, 'Fuck yeah.’”

Nonetheless, it is still an admirable feat – and Back to the Beginning has gone down in history as arguably the greatest one-day lineup of rock and metal bands ever assembled.

Shred phenom Hedras Ramos has enlisted two of his contemporary virtuosos under the Apex Breed Project banner, and they’re set to tour the US this January.

Described by the Guatemalan guitarist as “a dynamic musical initiative dedicated to showcasing original music and advanced improvisation by leading modern guitarists,” the trio is rounded out by Italian talent Daniele Gottardo and dextrous Eddie Van Halen disciple Filipe Rosset.

Steve Vai once called Gottardo his “favorite new young guitar player” and is prominent as a solo artist and as a shredder with jazz-rock outfit, the Nuts. His tapping game is off the charts.

Rosset, meanwhile, has been baffling the internet with his one-handed covers of Van Halen songs, which is no easy task. It's quite the billing.

Hedras, meanwhile, is a signature Cort artist; his latest model, the Mutility II, dropped in January, and his latest solo album, Front Line, followed quickly in its wake. During a candid chat with Guitar World about the record, he spoke about teaching Tosin Abasi tapping techniques, and hit out at “dishonest” Instagram fakers.

The trio will kick off the tour at Winstons in San Diego, CA, on January 20, with the eight-date run ending at The Starlighter in San Antonio, TX, 10 days later. All dates are happening in the California and Texas areas.

Support comes from technical guitarist and wielder of a rather bonkers Forshage guitar, Euphonia, and instrumental jazzers Huney Knuckles. They're two bands with plenty of talent of their own. No wonder Hedras' announcement of the tour on social media has the likes of Kiki Wong, Jordan Rudess, and Angel Vivaldi dropping excited comments.

This is the third edition of the Apex Breed Project, which presents a G3-like line-up of fretboard burners. Jack Gardiner is a notable alumnus, while Gottardo becomes the first name, excluding ringerleader Hedras, to make a second appearance.

Hedras's affinity for the G3 tour, organized by Joe Satriani, has been well-documented. In 2021, he posted a cover of a classic Dream Theater solo but, inspired by Petrucci's G3 appearance, added plenty of extra spice to it.

Head Bands in Town for tickets.

Joe Satriani and Steve Vai's maiden European tour as the SatchVai Band this past June and July was a milestone moment for the guitar world.

Now, the two are bringing their band to the States for a new leg of the aptly-titled Surfing with the Hydra tour in April and May 2026, with Animals as Leaders as support on all dates.

Speaking about the two’s first-ever collaborative States-wide tour, Vai says, “The SatchVai Band summer Euro tour of 2025 far exceeded anything I could have imagined. Joe and I struck pure jammin’ gold night after night.

“Being in the same band with Joe, playing songs we actually wrote together on stage, in real time, felt like watching a childhood fantasy step out of my teenage brain and stroll onto the stage. And somehow, it was even more rewarding, satisfying, and downright fulfilling than I ever thought possible.”

Alongside Satriani and Vai, the lineup is rounded out by drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Marco Mendoza, and guitarist Pete Thorn. They will not only be performing the collaborative releases the duo have put out so far, but also new material from a forthcoming Satch/Vai album and favorites from the pair’s prolific catalog.

Pre-sale tickets for the tour have just kicked off today with an Artist Presale, followed by local pre-sales tomorrow (December 11) and public on-sales on December 12.

For more information, head to the SatchVai Band's official website.

Earlier this year, the electric guitar titans released their sophomore collaborative single, the ’70s-flavored I Wanna Play My Guitar, with Glenn Hughes on vocals, which continued to tease what fans can expect from their upcoming album.

The 40th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony took place over the weekend (November 8), and as usual the event was filled with star-studded collaborations.

The White Stripes, Bad Company, Soundgarden, Carol Kaye, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Cocker, Outkast and Chubby Checker were all among the Rock Hall’s Class of 2025, along with Warren Zevon, Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins, Lenny Waronker and Salt N Pepa.

Soundgarden were inducted by Jim Carrey, who paid tribute to the band’s late singer Chris Cornell, remembering the time they crossed paths on Saturday Night Live – and was gifted a prized electric guitar signed by all Soundgarden members.

“I met the band in 1996 when I was hosting Saturday Night Live for the very first time, and I insisted on Soundgarden as the musical guest,” Carrey remembered. “By then, the lineup was Chris [Cornell], Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron on drums, and Ben Shepherd on bass. They launched into the dark, epic beauty of Pretty Noose.

“I stood right in front of them, letting the waves of electricity wash over me, like an audio baptism. They pushed me under and when I came up I was free.

“After the show, they handed me what is to this day, one of my most prized possessions. The Fender Telecaster Chris played on the show, signed by the whole band.

“Tonight, we make sure that Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, Hiro Yamamoto, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd go down in history as one of the most majestic, powerful and influential bands ever to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Long live Chris Cornell. Long live Soundgarden.”

Carrey’s tributes to Cornell and Soundgarden were accompanied by a performance from the surviving members of the band, who were fronted by Taylor Momsen and Brandi Carlile for covers of Rusty Cage and Black Hole Sun, respectively.

It was a heroic outing for grunge music. For Soundgarden’s set, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready – wielding a Gibson Les Paul for the occasion – doubled up Thayil’s riffs on Rusty Cage, while Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell layered up the leads for Black Hole Sun with his G&L Rampage.

It wasn’t the only performance dedicated to Soundgarden and Cornell. Toni, Chris’ daughter, was joined by Nancy Wilson for an acoustic rendition of Fell on Black Days, performed underneath an in memoriam photograph of the late vocalist.

Elsewhere on the docket, The White Stripes were honored by pop-rock duo twenty one pilots, who performed Seven Nation Army, and Olivia Rodrigo, who – fresh from her festival-stealing Glasto headline set – joined Feist with her acoustic guitar to sing We’re Going to Be Friends.

Flea also played bass for Stevie Wonder on a cover of Sly & The Family Stone’s Dance to the Music, and The Killers honored Warren Zevon with a performance of Lawyers, Guns and Money. Zevon was inducted by David Letterman, who, in his own speech, also recalled the time Zevon had gifted him a guitar.

Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi closed out the show with a cover of The Beatles’ With a Little Help From My Friends. Bryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper and Chris Robinson were among the song’s guest stars.

Trucks and his trusty Gibson SG were on guitar duty for the song, and though the spotlight was firmly on the singers, he still found room for some trademark fingerstyle licks sans slide.

You can catch up on the 40th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony and rewatch all the action at Disney+.

Heart's career-defining hit Barracuda is now being introduced to a new generation thanks to Chappell Roan, who has included the 1977 hit as one of her tour staples this year.

On September 21, Nancy Wilson gave Roan her stamp of approval by joining her onstage at Forest Hills Stadium in New York for a surprise collaborative rendition of the Heart classic.

Armed with her one-of-a-kind purple sparkle baritone Telecaster – which was stolen and later retrieved just a couple of months ago – Wilson, alongside Roan and her band, delivered a powerful rendition of the track, arguably living up to Roan's comments that it is among the greatest songs, perhaps even the greatest song, ever recorded.

“It gives me hope and positive appreciation for where the culture is going,” Wilson tells Vulture. “I was completely honored to do that for Chappell.”

As for how the two met, Wilson continues, “It was one of those things where, when we met, she was the sweetest person on earth. She said, ‘It’s an honor to be here and meet you.’ It was like, Where’s Chappell Roan? I thought she was going to be some big diva, but she’s this wonderful, sweet-hearted person, intelligent and funny.

“We went our separate ways, and she kept doing Barracuda on her tour. My hubby, Jeff said, ‘Well, maybe she’d want you to play with her sometime.’ So we put the idea out there and her team responded, ‘Whoa, would you really do it?’ I never would’ve thought of insinuating myself into her show, but it was natural, since she does Barracuda every night.”

At the show, Roan even mentioned that it's one of the songs she wishes she wrote, which doesn't go unnoticed by Wilson.

“I think she relates to the song for the reason of what it’s all about – the song kicks the asses of slimy guys in the culture,” Wilson observes.

“They’re still everywhere. They haven’t gone away. If anything, it’s worse now than it was in the ’70s. I think she’s really reactionary and intelligent about her own sexuality and her place in a culture regarding her individual personhood. Barracuda speaks to her, and she’s a radical and intelligent thinker.”

As for Barracuda and Heart's legacy, Wilson believes there is currently a shift happening among the younger generation toward rock and the rediscovery of classic rock.

“I’ve seen, even at the Heart shows, 9-year-old kids playing air guitar when we do Barracuda and Crazy on You,” she relates. “There’s a lot of singing along from college kids, and the original Heart fans always show up like the loyal fans they’ve always been. It’s a multigenerational situation.

“In the pop-culture world now with Chappell and Olivia [Rodrigo], a lot of the music had been so mechanized and auto-tuned – spoon-fed that way for a little bit longer than people realize. There’s a feeling of music history that comes from classic rock. It’s not completely disposable. It passes through the generations a bit more.

“There’s a personal story to it. The attention-span theater is growing back a bit longer because of the sense of history and security a classic rock song will give you, as well as unity among the people that love those songs,” she concludes.

Earlier this year, Chappell Roan's guitarist, Andrea Ferrero, spoke to Guitar World about her experience playing a custom mirrorball Gibson Les Paul on Roan’s hit, Pink Pony Club, at the Grammys.

Jack White was a special guest during IDLES’ Riot Fest set on the weekend, fizzing through an animalistic Never Fight A Man With A Perm armed with Lee Kiernan's storied pink Fender Mustang.

Headlined by Blink-182, Weezer, and Green Day, the Chicago festival was, for rock fans of a certain age, a jaw-dropping nostalgia fest. But the fast-rising British noisemakers weren't going to let those at the top of the bill have all the fun at Douglass Park.

“It is with great honor, I’d like to welcome on stage Jack White the First,” vocalist Joe Talbot had bellowed before the carnage ensued.

Video footage shows White and Kiernan in aptly riotous form, with squealing guitars and angular licks galore – not to mention a dollop or two of Whammy pedal wails. It's glorious pandemonium on stage, with the band clearly savoring the chance to trade off with one of their (ahem) idols.

The band haven’t said much following the performance – it speaks for itself, in truth. But IDLES’ other guitarist, Mark Bowen, posted a picture of White on stage with the group with the caption, “IFKYK.”

Lately, White has been running amok with his signature Telecaster – a model that’s found its way into the hands of Kirk Hammett and Vernon Reid, and his favorite new guitarist – but it’s the Mustang that gets a run out here.

Kiernan only got the guitar after a score of IDLES' preferred Fenders were stolen in the band's early days. That got the band an invite to Fender HQ, where, after a key modification, the Mustang stole his heart. It has since become one of his main axes, and it has the wounds to prove it.

“This was the first guitar I bought for IDLES, and it's been there ever since, and I've smashed it up, reglued it, snapped it... I love growing with it,” he told Andertons earlier this year.

Speaking to Guitarist in 2024, Kiernan dismissed digital amp modelers as “wack” as he dissected the band’s love of “violent, dark tones” and the often hodgepodge electric guitars they use to achieve them.

The band’s guitar tandem was selected to be the poster boys for Fender’s new Player II Modified series as their rise to the top of the contemporary rock pile continues.

Meanwhile, White has shown off the crazy guitar/bass hybrid built for him by Eddie Van Halen's go-to master builder, and we've never seen anything quite like it.

He's also on the hunt for a guitar he regrets letting go of as a teenager, and recently issued a plea to his fans to help him track it down.

Alice Cooper is the latest high-profile artist to pay tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne live on stage, after he – and a special guest – covered a Black Sabbath classic during a recent gig in London, England.

Last Friday (July 25), days after news of Ozzy’s death had been announced, Cooper added Paranoid as a last-minute addition to his setlist, slotting it in after I Love the Dead and right before the curtain closer, School’s Out.

It came after Cooper released an emotional tribute to Ozzy online, after he heard of his friend’s death “just minutes before going on stage in Cardiff, Wales”.

For the cover during the London gig, Cooper was joined by actor/guitarist Johnny Depp, who made a late entry onto the stage and locked in alongside Nita Strauss, Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen to hold down Tony Iommi’s iconic riff.

Depp also had a stab at a solo, noticeably forgoing a guitar pick and instead noodling around the lower register of his Gibson Flying V using a fingerpicking style and some whammy bar action – something he most certainly picked up from his old friend, Jeff Beck.

Writing on social media prior to the Cardiff show, Cooper wrote, “Well, we all know that time is going to take us rockers, but when the giants fall, it’s really hard to accept. Even though everybody saw it coming with Ozzy, it just took our breath away when it happened.

“So Ozzy and family – your records and your music and your legend and all that you brought – the humor to the rock business – will live on forever and we’re gonna miss you man.”

Ozzy Osbourne passed away last week at the age of 76, weeks after his Back to the Beginning farewell show. In the wake of his passing, the guitar world has come out to pay tribute to his life, legacy, music and memory.

Wolfgang Van Halen has also paid tribute to the late Black Sabbath singer on stage, adding Mama, I'm Coming Home to his band's setlist after they heard about Ozzy's death during their soundcheck.

Zakk Wylde, Ozzy's longest-serving guitarist, recently sat down with Guitar World to look back on their final moments together onstage.

Pantera have announced they will be canceling some of their tour dates to allow time to mourn for the late Ozzy Osbourne, who passed away last week.

In a statement posted to social media, the band – which features former Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde in its ranks – confirmed that a handful of dates will be rescheduled, while others will be cancelled, to give “time and space to grieve”.

“Ozzy wasn’t just a legend who shaped the very foundation of heavy metal and inspired Pantera from the beginning – he was family,” the post reads. “A mentor, a brother, and a constant presence in our lives both on and off the stage. The bond we shared with him ran far deeper than music.

“In light of this profound loss, we need time and space to grieve – to be with our families, our crew, and each other as we process and honor the life of someone who meant so much to us. Out of respect, and to allow members of our team the time to mourn, we will be rescheduling the following shows.”

Pantera’s July 28 show in Saratoga Springs has been shifted to September 9, while their July 31 show in Holmdel will be moved to September 8.

As a result, three later shows – July 19 in Gildford, NH; September 8 in Birmingham, AL; and September 10 in Virginia Beach, VA – have been cancelled.

Ozzy Osbourne died at the age of 76 last week, mere weeks after returning to the stage and reuniting with his Black Sabbath bandmates for his Back to the Beginning farewell show. The announcement prompted an outpouring of tributes from all corners of the music world, as well as heartfelt tributes from Ozzy’s Sabbath bandmates – Geezer Butler included.

Likewise, Wylde – who was recruited by Pantera to step into the shoes of the late Dimebag Darrell in 2023 – has also paid tribute to Ozzy in an emotional new interview with Guitar World, in which he looks back on their final moments together on stage.

Wylde’s deep-rooted connection to Ozzy traces back to the late 1980s, when he was given the unenviable task of filling a role previously held by Randy Rhoads and Jake E. Lee. He would go on to become Ozzy’s longest-serving guitarist, and was by the singer’s side when he performed his last solo set at Back to the Beginning.

Steve Morse recently made a surprise appearance at a book launch in Annapolis, Maryland, where he handled classic rock staples with aplomb.

The guitarist once quit music altogether to become a commercial airline pilot, only to be lured back into the arms of rock ’n’ roll by Lynyrd Skynyrd. His showing at the intimate jam session ties into his pilot days.

“Steve and I have been friends since we met aboard the aircraft carrier Kennedy in '86 when I was in my first F-14 Tomcat squadron,” explains author and military commentator, Ward Carroll, who wrote the book the event was celebrating.

Morse was plying his trade in Kansas at the time, with the band aboard just off the coast of the Greek Island Crete for a USO (United Services Organizations) show.

“After the performance, he joined the aviators in our ready room for some guitar jams and a lot of talk about flying,” he continues.

Carroll then leaned into their long-standing friendship ahead of the release of his latest novel, Punk’s Force. Morse was joined by his solo band drummer Van Romaine, Dangerboy bassist TJ Collins, Carroll (on guitar), and guitarist/vocalist Tom Butwin for a five-song set.

That saw the group take on Led Zeppelin’s Good Times, Bad Times, Mountain’s Mississippi Queen, dedicated to the late, great Leslie West, and Cream’s 1968 hit, White Room. They rounded out the set with two Lynyrd Skynyrd classics, Gimme Back My Bullets, and Free Bird in light of the band’s role in his rock revival.

Morse was plugged into his signature and travel-friendly 20W Engl head, and his soloing is on point throughout – faithful to the glory of the originals, but with plenty of Morse-ified flair.

“When we were planning for the release of my latest novel, I asked Steve and his drummer Van Romaine if they'd join me for an ‘all-star jam’ of covers that would showcase Steve's guitar prowess,” Carroll continues. Morse certainly did that.

YouTube legend Rick Beato was also in the crowd, and he bore witness to the quintet of covers, and some hearty quips from Morse about that famed show with Skynyrd after a gruelling nine-flight shift.

For more classics given the Morse treatment, check out his take on Jeff Beck’s Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers.

He's also opened up about how a love for modding led to the creation of his ‘FrankenTele’ and Music Man signature, and he’s also revealed what's on his “hybrid” pedalboard.

Just months after revealing that he and Geddy Lee regularly jam, Alex Lifeson has joined Tom Morello on stage for a surprise guest spot in Toronto, during which they jammed a Rush classic in the band's home city.

The cheers that erupted after Morello uttered the words, “Please welcome Alex Lifeson to the stage,” are palpable, even via YouTube. Aptly donning his Godin Lerxst Limelight, built as a recreation of the Hentor Sportcaster that dominated Rush's early '80s material, Lifeson swiftly rolled back the years as soon as he started playing Limelight's iconic opening bars.

The spot happened at the city's Danforth Music Hall on July 17. Morello is currently touring as a solo artist and, after dedicating The Garden of Gethsemane to the late Chris Cornell and covering Ozzy's Mr Crowley, called upon Lifeson to help kick off the encore.

Proving he is human after all, Lifeson warms into the guitar solo but ends on a high, throwing Morello a wry smile and a shake of the head as he nails the final vibrato. The Canadian legend received another rapturous response upon the song’s end, with Morello beaming, “What a time to be alive.”

He also stuck around for the final song of the night, a cover of the MC5’s Kick Out the Jams, which was also covered by a newly reformed Soundgarden earlier this year.

Lifeson has recently released a second album with his post-Rush band, Envy of None, and it’s a release that has seen him embrace digital gear and reignite his passion for solos.

However, he’s also spoken candidly about his insecurities as a player, saying he’s always struggled from a lack of confidence in his abilities.

The Limeight performance continues Morello's hot-streak of shred-offs. He joined Jane's Addiction and rekindled his fiery partnership with Bruce Springsteen last year, traded licks with Slash in February, and spearheaded the heavy metal Yardbirds at Back to the Beginning earlier this month.

Marcus King has taken to the stage with yet another legendary electric guitar, using Rory Gallagher’s famed white Fender Telecaster to play a handful of songs at one of his recent shows.

King is certainly no stranger to playing hallowed six-strings steeped in rock ‘n’ roll history. Recently, he became the latest big-name player to wield Jeff Beck’s iconic YardBurst Les Paul, which had already passed through the hands of Lenny Kravitz’s guitarist, Craig Ross.

That guitar – like the Gallagher Telecaster that recently saw action – is currently in hands of French vintage guitar dealer Matthieu Lucas of Matt's Guitar Shop, and now he and King have worked together once again to bring the fabled single-cut out of its case and onto the stage.

Like many of Gallagher’s guitars, the white Telecaster was auctioned off earlier this year alongside the late blues rock great’s 1961 Stratocaster. It was one of Gallagher’s most cherished instruments, and eventually became his number-one slide guitar, famously starring during Gallagher’s 1970 Isle of Wight festival set.

When it went under the hammer, the guitar was snapped up by Lucas, who has now told Guitar World the story of how it ended up in the arms of King – who used it during a show in Belgium on July 10.

“We bought the Black Esquire and sold it to my friend JR in Argentina,” Lucas remembers, relaying how he once owned Gallagher’s other, equally iconic single-cut. “The White Telecaster was a dream guitar to get for the shop.

“When you look at that guitar, you think about Rory's first band Taste, most notably at Isle of Wight and all his career and legacy,” he adds. “The white guitar talked to me more than anything in that auction.”

That he was able to put this Tele in the arms of King was even more special, owing to the fact he believes King to be “the best guitar player of his generation and already one of the best in the world’s history”.

“I just think Rory was one of the best guitar players that ever lived and so is Marcus today,” he gushes. “The feeling of having that legendary guitar being played so beautifully is an incredible sensation.”

King used Gallagher’s white Tele to play a handful of tracks, including Rita is Gone, Homesick, and Save Me. The solo that King puts together for Rita... – with its soaring dynamics and effortless touch – is a particular highlight that stuck out to Lucas.

It also stuck out to King, as Lucas remembers: “He gave the guitar back to me after the set and said, ‘Oh man, it's such a good one.’"

The collaboration continues Lucas’ desire to put iconic instruments into the hands of active musicians, and to prevent fabled guitars from falling out of the public eye and into the obscurity of a storage facility.

“Our philosophy is to have the guitars being played on stage as much as possible,” Lucas tells Guitar World. In an Instagram post, he added, “We don’t believe in locking guitars in glass boxes. We believed in passing the torch. These mythical instruments were meant to be played.”

As such, the Gallagher Telecaster will be spotted out in the wild again soon. Not only that, expect Lucas and King to work together again to bring another famed example from Lucas’ sphere of influence to the stage. As for the guitar dealer himself, he already has his mind set on the next guitar.

“We never know what's next,” he teases. “I know that Marcus' favourite is Paul Kossoff and Eric Clapton's Cream 1955 Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty! We'll see what's next.”

Lucas has a history of facilitating high-profile guitar link-ups. In the past, he’s entrusted Steve Jones’ Sex Pistols Les Paul to Yungblud, Billie Joe Armstrong and Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley.

It was a historic weekend for music fans, not just because of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning farewell show – but because Britpop legends Oasis played their first shows together in 16 years.

Liam and Noel Gallagher’s hugely anticipated reunion was one of the biggest musical and cultural stories of 2024. The two brothers put aside their bitter rivalry, ended their decade-long feud and made every guitar fan's dream come true when they confirmed – after much speculation – they’d be reuniting for a staggering 41-date tour.

Now, the dust has settled on those first few Oasis reunion shows, which took place over the weekend at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, and the message from those in attendance has been received loud and clear: the Gallagher brothers sound better than ever.

You need only watch the thrilling pro-shot footage of the pair belting out Acquiesce in front of thousands of emotional fans to fully grasp the gravity of the reunion, and if there were any remaining doubts over whether Oasis still had after all these years, they have now been well and truly put to bed.

Part of the reason Oasis have managed to make such a fine comeback and return with such an incredibly revived sound is, of course, down to the stellar OG musicians recruited for the job – Gem Archer and Andy Bell among them – but also Noel Gallagher himself, who seems to be something of a guitar player reborn.

One of the biggest talking points to emerge from those first few shows is that Noel is already looking – and sounding – seriously confident behind the guitar, and while his rhythm chops have never been in question, it’s his lead playing that has left a mark.

Noel looks like a lead player reborn going into this new era of Oasis, and after taking a step back from the role during his High Flying Birds days – during which he’d largely delegate lead duties elsewhere or forego them entirely – Gallagher is clearly relishing his return to guitar solos.

Indeed, some of Oasis’ catchiest solos and licks were crafted and executed by Noel, whose simple-yet-melodic mastery of the pentatonic box resulted in cuts such as Don’t Look Back in Anger, Champagne Supernova and Some Might Say.

Noel, by his own admission, took a step back from solos when Oasis split, but his passion for lead playing never left.

Speaking to MusicRadar in 2011, following the launch of his solo debut, Gallagher admitted, “In Oasis, I was doing a completely different thing than what I’m doing now. I was playing lead guitar. And… I do miss that. I miss being at the end of the stage and just turning up my fucking amp as loud as possible and kissin’ the sky. I do miss that, I have to say.

“[What] I'm doing now, yeah, it's different, so I have to rein in my natural urges to go for it. I'm part of the rhythm section now, so I've got to hold things down. I can't just go off on the guitar. But I'm enjoying that, really. I've got to say, I'm a much better rhythm guitarist than a lead guitarist."

Because of the nature of the gig, Noel never answered his heart’s call to resume this role in High Flying Birds, instead largely taking up the rhythm guitar. Gem Archer, who joined the lineup, often took on solos on stage, while engineer Paul Stacey recorded some in the studio.

There was also that unfortunate video that went viral of Gallagher fluffing his lines while performing Don’t Look Back in Anger back in 2023.

With the return of the Oasis, though, Gallagher is now well and truly re-embracing his solo side, and has even gone as far as to venture outside the box of his usual plucky, pentatonic-heavy style, pulling in some new techniques and licks to boot.

From a guitar fan's perspective, seeing Gallagher rekindle his passion for leads is, as mentioned, one of the reasons why the Oasis reunion has got off to such a high-flying start.

From the mountain of fan-filmed footage available, a goosebump-inducing, vibrato-heavy riff through the Live Forever solo – his first time performing it in years – is a particular highlight, while the pick scrape that launches the band into Slide Away is another indicator of a man thoroughly enjoying the return to a role he held down all those years ago.

Noel’s Champagne Supernova solo, though, is what sums up this new lease on lead-playing life that Gallagher is going through. Hair-raising bends, and some tremendous whammy bar work on the Bigsby, are utilized with impressive effect.

That Noel is playing more solos for an Oasis reunion shouldn’t come as a surprise, really, but given the length of time between the break-up and make-up, it’s nice to see Noel isn’t just tentatively picking up the reins again; he’s fully leaning back into the role of lead guitar player – and the Oasis reunion is all the richer for it.

The most anticipated heavy metal event of all time, Back to the Beginning, took place last weekend (July 5), and as expected, the nine-hour affair proved to be the perfect send off for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath.

To bring the curtain down on Ozzy and Sabbath’s epic live careers, the legendary band were joined by a who’s who of guitar royalty, with the likes of Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Halestorm, Lamb of God all making up the lineup.

Throughout the evening, these guitar heroes and special guests were arranged across a stacked itinerary, with some playing 15 minute sets (Ozzy and Sabbath covers included) and others joining forces for special one-off supergroups.

Billy Corgan’s ‘metal yardbirds’ were arguably the most hyped supergroup of the night, but they were given a run for their money when Steven Tyler made a triumphant return to the stage with a three-song set that also featured Ronnie Wood, Nuno Bettencourt, Tom Morello and Andrew Watt.

Tyler, whose high-profile vocal injury forced Aerosmith to retire from touring last year, showed absolutely zero signs of a musician whose powers were apparently waning, instead putting in a strong case for ‘vocalist of the evening’ as he confidently and robustly belted through The Train Kept A-Rollin’, Aerosmith’s Walk This Way and Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love.

The supporting cast of guest guitar heroes played their part, too. Wood, fresh from his Glastonbury 2025 appearance alongside Rod Stewart, sauntered through the sleazy, untethered bends and riffs of that first song, before giving up the stage to Nuno, Watt and Morello for the rest of Tyler’s set.

Watt – longtime Ozzy collaborator and super-producer to rock’s elite – donned an SG for the occasion, while Morello and his Arm the Homeless Superstrat helped hold down the classic Aerosmith and Zeppelin riffs.

And then there was Nuno, whose contributions to the evening cannot be overstated. A foundational presence throughout the entirety of Back to the Beginning, Bettencourt was – in the words of Guitar World’s Michael Astley-Brown, who watched the entire show – the MVP of the evening.

His presence for the Tyler cameo was equally influential, padding out riffs when required, supporting in the vocals department, and serving as the six-string supergroup glue that, in large parts, held the evening together.

All this is to say, Tyler looks to be in seriously good form, and though a one-off appearance lasting 15 minutes is a very different to sustaining an entire show, it makes chatter of a potential Aerosmith send-off all the more believable.

Last week, Joe Perry said there had to be “at least another Aerosmith gig”, while bassist Tom Hamilton previously admitted, “I refuse to consider it over,” when asked about a potential return.

With Tyler sounding as good as this (especially on Aerosmith classics) a reunion now looks more likely than ever – and, as the evidence shows, it would sound killer...

“The greatest day in the history of heavy metal, in honor of the band that started it all.” That’s how musical director Tom Morello billed Back to the Beginning, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s final-ever show. And he wasn’t kidding.

Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Alice In Chains and Gojira were among the acts taking part at Villa Park in the band’s hometown of Birmingham, UK.

40,000 people were in attendance, but an estimated 5.8 million tuned in via livestream (myself included) – surely making it the biggest celebration of metal music in history.

With (mostly) 15-minute sets and seven-minute turnarounds between acts, it was a breathless affair, despite being nine hours long. And it’s testament to the affection for Ozzy and Sabbath that so many big names showed up to play three songs then take a back seat.

Outside of the big bands, there was a roll call of guitar hero guests taking the lead in a series of supergroups. Jake E. Lee, Ronnie Wood, Nuno Bettencourt, Billy Corgan, Vernon Reid, Andrew Watt and Lzzy Hale all had their moment in the spotlight.

Each band tackled a classic Sabbath or Ozzy track – and you can only imagine the arguments over who played what song. Anthrax won the coin toss with Into the Void – Iommi’s Fifth Symphony – but you have to feel for Pantera and Rival Sons, who somehow both ended up covering the sludgy (and lengthy) Electric Funeral. Must have been some crossed emails.

But whatever this Rolodex of guitar royalty played, there was no mistaking the grins on their faces. This was their chance to play the riffs they grew up learning in their bedrooms in front of a stadium of fans – their opportunity to be Tony Iommi or Randy Rhoads. It was a childhood fantasy come to life.

It was also a daunting proposition. To play some of rock and metal’s most iconic tracks in front of the heroes who wrote them? And a sea of people who knew every riff, every lick, like the back of their hands? No pressure.

Every band on this bill would not sound the way they do today without Sabbath, and they each drew something different out of the originals with their own takes.

Lamb of God’s Children of the Grave was a pummeling chug fest updated for the late-Noughties metal revival. Never Say Die became a hair metal anthem at the hands of Guns N’ Roses, while Hole in the Sky sounded like something Metallica could have sneaked onto the tracklisting forLoad.

Many of the renditions leaned more into the legacy of Sabbath as metal trailblazers – upping the aggression and taming the groove. But Iommi and co were schooled in the blues, so more traditional rock outfits like Rival Sons, Guns N’ Roses (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath) and, especially, Alice in Chains (Fairies Wear Boots) were arguably most successful in their looser, more dynamic covers – and all the heavier for it.

Iommi’s influence on a spider diagram of genres is such that the lineup – while loaded with big names, albeit far from diverse – didn’t have space to tap into all the styles Sabbath spawned. You had your thrash (Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax), hard rock (Halestorm, GNR), groove metal (Pantera, Gojira), but stoner and doom weren’t represented. Some Sleep or Kyuss to break up the mid-scooped assault that dominated much of the daytime sets would have been welcome.

But Sabbath’s psychedelic side was at least represented by Tool, who lent into a bluesy Hand of God, sandwiched between an abbreviated Forty Six & 2 and Ænema. It must have been their shortest set in decades.

It was heart-warming to see Ozzy’s other right-hand axemen represented, too. Morello said he couldn’t imagine this show without Jake E. Lee, who made an emotional return after he was shot multiple times while walking his dog last year.

When you have Nuno Bettencourt bowing down before you, you know you’re in for something special, and Lee’s fluid renditions of The Ultimate Sin (with Lzzy Hale) and Shot in the Dark (with David Draiman) were a reminder that he remains an underrated player in the pantheon of Ozzy six-stringers.

Bettencourt proved, as he so often does, to be the MVP of the show’s supergroup proceedings, tackling Bark at the Moon’s acrobatic leads alongside Vernon Reid; Sweet Leaf with David Draiman; Flying High Again with Sammy Hagar; and Walk This Way/Whole Lotta Love with surprise guest Steven Tyler. Ronnie Wood even sauntered up to play a sleazy The Train Kept A-Rollin’.

Other highlights included a rendition of Judas Priest’s Breaking the Law plus Sabbath’s Snowblind with K.K. Downing and the ‘metal Yardbirds’ Tom Morello, Adam Jones and Billy Corgan (who was sadly sans guitar), plus an onscreen rendition of Mr. Crowley featuring Jack Black along with Revel Ian (son of Scott) and Roman Morello (son of Tom).

There were two moments that gave me chills. The first was when Ozzy rose up out of the floor on a none-more-black throne complete with carving of a bat/demon thing.

His voice was better than anyone could have been expecting on I Don’t Know, and his five-song set rocketed by in a blur of Zakk Wylde squealies. There was a touching tribute to fallen hero Randy Rhoads during the Crazy Train solo, where he appeared onscreen as Wylde blazed through the iconic lead.

The second goosebumps moment was hearing 40,000 people sing along to Iommi’s solo in War Pigs with equal, if not louder fervour, than Ozzy’s “Oh Lord, yeahs!” That, ladies and gentlemen, is when you know you’ve achieved guitar god status. The same can be said for Iron Man’s lumbering riff which, had it been released in a more metal-tolerant era, would have been a stadium chant long before Seven Nation Army.

Bar a brief chord fumble in the outro of War Pigs, Iommi was absolutely unimpeachable. After eight hours of hearing other guitarists take their own shots at his riffs and solos, you realize that – even with a lifetime of study and influence – it is impossible to come close.

There’s a paradoxical relaxedness about Iommi’s style. Combined with Bill Ward’s (this evening, inexplicably topless) drumming, it has a drag and swagger. Maybe it’s the effect of those prosthetic fingertips, but there’s something about the behind-the-beat timing, the calm confidence that makes Iommi’s command of the fretboard so disconcerting.

In N.I.B., he summons lightning strikes of pentatonic flurries and blood-curdling bends: he’s far from the fastest player here today, but easily the most recognizable from tone alone.

One quick blast through Paranoid – never the most representative of Sabbath’s oeuvre, but among the most fun – and it’s over. We’re unlikely to see Ozzy onstage again, but his voice will echo through the ages.

Iommi hasn’t hung up his SGs just yet, though. He’s still on fine form – and there remains the tantalizing prospect of a new solo album (and collaborative record with his old mate Brian May).

But should he decide to call it a day, he can be left in no doubt that he changed the course of music history – and, as Back to the Beginning showed, every band with even the mildest heavy leanings owes him a debt of gratitude.

Ozzy Osbourne and his Black Sabbath bandmates bid farewell last night (July 5) at a star-studded final show in their hometown of Birmingham, UK.

Back to the Beginning was all-day affair that started at 1.30pm and continued for nine hours as rock and metal’s biggest names lined up to pay tribute to the band who gave birth to the genre they hold dear.

Organized by Rage Against the Machine guitarist (and Ozzy super-fan) Tom Morello, the event featured arguably the greatest lineup of rock and metal bands ever assembled on one day.

Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Lamb of God, Halestorm, Anthrax, Rival Sons and Mastodon all performed whistle-stop 15-minute sets, each featuring their own take on an Ozzy or Sabbath classic.

Interspersed with the full band sets were a series of supergroups, which paved the way for a parade of guitar heroes to join the fray.

Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt had a five-song set of covers, while ex-Ozzy guitarist Jake E Lee made an appearance for covers of The Ultimate Sin and Shot in the Dark.

Sabbath’s fellow Birmingham rockers Judas Priest were honored with a rendition of Breaking the Law featuring Billy Corgan, Tom Morello, K.K. Downing and Adam Jones, while Living Colour’s Vernon Reid hopped onstage for Bark at the Moon with Ghost’s Papa V Perpetua (aka Tobias Forge).

The day’s biggest surprise was the appearance of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler accompanied by Ronnie Wood for The Train Kept A-Rollin’, before Ozzy producer Andrew Watt was joined by Morello and Bettencourt as Tyler gamely tore through Walk This Way and Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love.

The evening was closed, of course, by a five-song set from Ozzy, who performed in a suitably gothic chair, flanked as usual by Zakk Wylde, before Black Sabbath brought the night to a close with four songs of their own.

The full setlist is below.

Black Sabbath: Back To The Beginning setlist

Mastodon

1. Black Tongue
2. Blood and Thunder
3. Supernaut (with Mario Duplantier, Danny Carey and Eloy Casagrande)

Rival Sons

4. Do Your Worst
5. Electric Funeral
6. Secret

Anthrax

7. Indians
8. Into the Void

Halestorm

9. Love Bites (So Do I)
10. Rain Your Blood on Me
11. Perry Mason

Lamb of God

12. Laid to Rest
13. Redneck
14. Children of the Grave

Supergroup A

15. The Ultimate Sin (with Lzzy Hale, Nuno Bettencourt, Jake E Lee, David Ellefson, Mike Bordin and Adam Wakeman)
16. Shot in the Dark (with David Draiman, Jake E Lee, David Ellefson, Mike Bordin and Adam Wakeman)
17. Sweet Leaf (with David Draiman, Nuno Bettencourt, Scott Ian, David Ellefson, Mike Bordin and Adam Wakeman)
18. Believer (with Whitfield Crane, Nuno Bettencourt, Scott Ian, Frank Bello, II [Sleep Token] and Adam Wakeman)
19. Changes (with Yungblud, Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, II and Adam Wakeman)
20. Mr. Crowley (with Jack Black, plus Revel Ian, Roman Morello and other young musicians on screen)

Alice In Chains

21. Man in the Box
22. Would?
23. Fairies Wear Boots

Gojira

24. Stranded
25. Silvera
26. Mea culpa (Ah! Ça ira!) (with Marina Viotti)
27. Under the Sun

Drum Off

28. Symptom Of The Universe (with Chad Smith, Travis Barker and Danny Carey, plus Tom Morello, Nuno Bettencourt and Rudy Sarzo)

Supergroup B

29. Breaking the Law (with Billy Corgan, Tom Morello, K.K. Downing, Adam Jones, Rudy Sarzo and Danny Carey)
30. Snowblind (with Billy Corgan, Tom Morello, K.K. Downing, Adam Jones, Rudy Sarzo and Danny Carey)
31. Flying High Again (with Sammy Hagar, Nuno Bettencourt, Adam Wakeman, Rudy Sarzo, Chad Smith and Vernon Reid)
32. Rock Candy (with Sammy Hagar, Nuno Bettencourt, Adam Wakeman, Rudy Sarzo, Chad Smith and Tom Morello)
33. Bark at the Moon (with Papa V Perpetua, Vernon Reid, Nuno Bettencourt, Adam Wakeman, Rudy Sarzo and Travis Barker)
34. The Train Kept A-Rollin' (with Steven Tyler, Ron Wood, Nuno Bettencourt, Tom Morello, Andrew Watt, Rudy Sarzo and Travis Barker)
35. Walk This Way / Whole Lotta Love (with Steven Tyler, Nuno Bettencourt, Tom Morello, Andrew Watt, Rudy Sarzo and Chad Smith)

Pantera

36. Cowboys From Hell
37. Walk
38. Planet Caravan
39. Electric Funeral

Tool

40. Forty Six & 2
41. Hand of Doom
42. Ænema

Slayer

43. Disciple
44. War Ensemble
45. Wicked World
46. South of Heaven
47. Raining Blood
48. Angel of Death

Guns N' Roses

49. Never Say Die
50. Junior's Eyes
51. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
52. Welcome to the Jungle
53. Paradise City

Metallica

54. Hole in the Sky
55. Creeping Death
56. For Whom the Bell Tolls
57. Johnny Blade
58. Battery
59. Master of Puppets

Ozzy Osbourne

60. I Don't Know
61. Mr. Crowley
62. Suicide Solution
63. Mama, I'm Coming Home
64. Crazy Train

Black Sabbath

65. War Pigs
66. N.I.B.
67. Iron Man
68. Paranoid

It saddens us to write this, but Glastonbury – the U.K.’s most prestigious music festival and one of the biggest in the world, which plays host to the best artists around the globe over a stacked weekend lineup – is officially over for another year.

That means, as the campsites get cleared up and the Pyramid Stage starts to make its way into storage, we can sit back and reflect on what has easily been the finest three days of live music this year has seen so far.

Of course, the Glasto lineup is always a diverse cast, but one thing remains constant: the show will always be stolen by some iconic electric guitar moments, and 2025 was no different. In fact, across the 3,000 performers at Worthy Farm, the biggest musical moments largely played out with a guitar in the picture.

Neil Young’s headline-making set, for example, had a de facto special guest in the form of Hank William’s iconic Martin D-28 – also played by Bob Dylan in the past – which was brought out for Looking Forward.

At the other end of the generational spectrum, Olivia Rodrigo’s history-making set was littered with guitar moments. While the singer herself stuck to offset Fenders, her bandmates Arianna Powell and Daisy Spencer opted for Jackson and Charvels, and Shabat offsets, respectively, in a move that continued the metal/pop guitar crossover that has gained steam over the past few years, thanks to the likes of Phoebe Bridgers.

In a similar vein, Wet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers flipped the script by playing a B.C. Rich Mockinbird (which, Guitar World has been reliably informed, was found on eBay a few weeks ago) and a Kramer Jersey Star, while Wolf Alice's Ellie Rowsell soundtracked her indie rock set with help from a Gretsch Super Chet jazz box.

Jackson’s domineering presence was certainly a theme this year, and hardcore punk outfit Turnstile – one of the heaviest bands on the lineup, following Deftones’ late cancellation – further repped the shred brand as guitarists Pat McRory and Meg Mills brought out a pair of Soloists of their own.

Then we have Matty Healy, who took to the stage with The 1975 playing a Masterbuilt Levi Perry Fender Telecaster loaded with fuzz and delay circuits, and Glass Beams, whose penchant for oddball builds was further demonstrated thanks to an especially bonkers Maton Ibis.

Stills and clips from the shows – which once again prove the rude health of the guitar in contemporary music – can be found above and below.

Yungblud capped the second edition of his grassroots musical festival, Bludfest, by inviting a fan onstage to play Fleabag.

The Epiphone signature artist picked 15-year-old Thomas Addenbrooke from Oxford, England, to join him on stage, with the pair tearing through his 2021 hit in front of 30,000 fans at Milton Keynes Bowl.

Launched in 2024, Bludfest was created to showcase top-tier talent at affordable prices. Yungblud had pledged to “cut the corporate bollocks” and put fans first.

He’s taken that ethos to heart and, incredibly, it was only the second time Addenbrooke had performed live, according to the Oxford Mail. His first was at an open mic night at an Oxford café.

The teenager played one of Yungblud’s Epiphone Junior signature guitars for the performance, his hair impressively spikey and serving early Sum 41 vibes with aplomb. As per the video below, he shows absolutely no nerves as he struts around the stage with unbridled confidence. It's a joy to see.

Yungblud has been making a habit of fan jams, having done likewise at last year’s inaugural bash. Those who join the guitarist and his band on stage have walked away with his signature SG Junior.

Discussing his guitar giveaways with Total Guitar last year, he said, “We’d been sent some cool prototypes to tour with. I wanted to try them out and switch between my main ’60s Gibson and the Epiphones. I started to mix and match on stage.

“We were headlining a festival in Prague, and I asked the crowd, ‘Does anyone want to come up and play this next song with us? Does anyone actually know how to play it?’ Everyone went a bit mad and it was crazy looking at 60,000 people screaming, ‘Yeah!’ There was one kid in the middle screaming, ‘Me!’ I got him up, his name was Simon, and it was like we’d been playing with him our entire lives.

“I handed him the guitar at the end, saying, ‘You can keep that!’ And the next day it had millions of views.”

Addenbrooke is the latest benefactor of the trend, pocketing a P-90-equipped Junior for his efforts. Not bad for his second gig.

But Addenbrooke isn’t the only one getting his hands on a new guitar: Yungblud himself was afforded the chance to play Steve Jones’ Sex Pistols Les Paul on stage last year. The guitar was bought at auction for $390,000, and its owners have been putting it in the hands of some big-name players, including Billie Joe Armstrong and Deryck Whibley.

Any Smashing Pumpkins fan missing the Melissa Auf der Maur era was in for a treat last Friday in Montreal, as the former Pumpkins and Hole bass guitar hero joined Corgan and his new band, the Machines of God, on stage in her hometown.

She joined the band for the encore track The Everlasting Gaze in Montreal, Canada, on June 13 as the newly formed group celebrated the Pumpkins’ turn-of-the-century material.

According to fan footage, the bassist even recalled her first-ever conversation with Corgan.

“Billy, do you remember the first words we ever exchanged, on July 23rd, 1991?” she asked the Pumpkins frontman. “I walk to the side of the stage after you played I Am One, and you were packing up your gear, and do you remember what I said?” He quipped, “I love you, never leave?”

“Very close,” she added with a laugh. “I said, ‘On behalf of Montreal, Canada, I apologize for the broken beer bottle that was thrown at him, and I am Melissa from Montreal and I will follow you ’til the end of time.’”

The band – spearheaded by Auf der Maur – then launched into the final song on the setlist – The Everlasting Gaze from 2000’s Machina/The Machines of God, an apt nod to Auf der Maur’s era with the Pumpkins.

In a video posted to the Pumpkins’ socials, Corgan and his former bandmate share a warm embrace before digging into the song’s hardened groove. Their chemistry is tangible, even in a phone-filmed video.

The former Hole bassist joined Corgan’s crew for one year in 1999. She held down the low-end across the Sacred and Profane tour, and features in a number of music videos from that period. Her time ended when Corgan disbanded the group, which she knew about from the offset.

Speaking to Bass Player last year about her time with two of the bands that defined ’90s rock, she said, “Courtney and Billy were both very different. But I have so much respect for both of them. My time with Hole was more character definition, creating me as a person, and then my crash course in music, one on one, was with the Pumpkins, who refined and defined my musicianship.

“Billy in particular: his level of efficiency and musicianship and his commitment to art was pretty remarkable. He was a real mentor in that way.”

“It was just a very dramatic coincidence. Billy said, ‘You're gonna be in my band!’ And I couldn't say no, because it was a dream come true,” she continues. “It was fulfilling a teenage fantasy but it was also the best music lesson of my life.

“I knew it was only for one year because they told me they were splitting up. And knowing I was going to be taught their back catalog was incredible.”

Corgan, meanwhile, has said his new project is focused on fusing classics with deep cuts. Material from Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness, Machina/The Machines of God, and Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, as well as 2024 release, Aghori Mhori Me, will feature.

“The A Return to Zero Tour,” he adds, “reintroduces a four-piece, two-guitar lineup in which music from these seminal Pumpkins albums were created.” Now Auf der Maur, who was a key player in the band’s purple patch, has also been reintroduced.

She reprised her spot in the band for, quite possibly, one last time, giving her hometown Pumpkins fans a moment to savor.

Billy Corgan is also set to star in a supergroup with Tom Morello and Tool's Danny Carey at Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning as heavy metal's forefathers bow out with one hell of a party.

Duane Eddy. The very name is synonymous with a sound: simple melodies played on the low strings, enhanced with tremolo, deep reverb and a feathering of the whammy bar. In a word – the word that became Eddy’s badge of distinction for over 60 years – twang.

On a chilly April night at the Opry House, the iconic home of Nashville's century-old Grand Ole Opry radio show, a star-studded roster is taking to the stage for the Titan Of Twang: A Celebration of Duane Eddy.

Guitar World is here to pay our own respects, following his death last year and to try to figure out what it is about Eddy”s playing that can still draw together a line-up of guitar greats classic and contemporary.

The bill sees the likes of Peter Frampton, Vince Gill and Albert Lee rubbing shoulders with Grace Bowers and blues-rock firebrand Toby Lee. Joe Bonamassa is in the building, as is Steve Earle, JD McPherson, and a host of other musical talent.

The glowing image of Eddy watches proceedings from above, and at stage right, in a spotlight, his trademark Gretsch 6120 sits with his fedora on the headstock.

“His sound was really compelling because it was not a ton of information,” Vince Gill says ahead of his performance. “It was minimal, part-driven and always memorable. For guitarists it’s a great lesson to relearn, over and over again, how important the melody is.”

Many in the audience are of a vintage who can remember buying Eddy singles like Rebel Rouser and Peter Gunn in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Yet what unfolds over the next two-and-a-half hours is a testament to how his influence has not only cut across genres, but generations.

Those thundering Eddy lines have become a key part of the DNA of rock guitar and, whether modern players remain conscious of it or not, his playing is a building block for the instrument.

Eddy was born in New York in 1938 and started playing guitar at age five. When he was a teenager his family moved to Phoenix. The vastness of the surrounding desert set him dreaming of how he might convey it with his guitar.

Later, working with producer Lee Hazlewood, that’s exactly what he did – scoring a staggering 34 Top 40 hits in the US and UK, including Rebel Rouser, Cannonball and Movin’ and Groovin’.

It’s easy to forget the sheer scale of his success – and that he did it all through instrumental tracks, letting his guitar do the talking. Indeed, he remains the most successful instrumentalist of the rock era.

The Titan of Twang show is both a tribute and a timely reminder of his legacy. Covers of those early hits conjure up a lost era of beach parties (McPherson on Yep and Ramrod) drag races (Albert Lee on Forty Miles Of Bad Road) and spy capers (Henry Mancini’s Peter Gunn).

While songs inspired directly by Eddy – Steve Earle’s Guitar Town, Bill Lloyd’s Whoa!, Toby Lee’s Stingray and Molly Tuttle and Grace Bower’s White Rabbit – show that his sound still reverberates through country, blues, psychedelia, rock ’n’ roll and even jazz.

The latter is evident in Joe Bonamassa’s swinging cover of Bye Bye Blues, taken from Eddy’s 1967 album The Roaring Twangies. Lacing the melody between stair-stepping horn lines and walking bass, Bonamassa cops Eddy’s signature sound, with a touch of Les Paul thrown in. “I’ve been practicing that all week!” he tells the crowd.

“Duane Eddy was one of those incredibly rare guitar players who didn't need a vocalist to sing a song,” is how Bonamassa puts it, direct to Guitar World.

“His use of space, sound, vibrato, and songwriting transcended anything that could have been sung over those songs – Peter Gunn doesn't need a vocal – and he created a sound that we all copy today.

“Before he created that sound, nothing sounded like it. He just used simple gear to create this wonderful twang that had never been done before. None of the musical instrument manufacturers envisioned that their equipment would be used in such a way to create such a sound."

The blues ace is followed tonight by Gill (who’s flown in from the Eagles’ residency at the Las Vegas Sphere) trading tasteful, steel-like licks with Bowers on country weeper Making Believe and his own hit Whenever You Come Around.

Of all the accomplished players on the bill, the one who sounds most in tune with Eddy’s spirit is Albert Lee. He knew him first as a fan, then as a friend.

“I saw him play the infamous concert at the Lewisham Odeon,” Lee tells Guitar World, referencing Eddy’s breakthrough show in England, in 1960.

“He was opening for Bobby Darin and the audience were going, ‘We want Duane! We want Duane!’ Poor Bobby was backstage, almost in tears – from there on, Duane finished the shows out.”

Music paper Disc said of that show: “The twang flooded the auditorium until the very walls vibrated. Duane tried at first to announce the numbers, but the roar of applause was as unstoppable as Niagara Falls.”

It’s not surprising the moment left an impression. Years later – following his dismissal from Eric Clapton’s notorious late ’70s band – Lee got to know Eddy through his work with mutual friends the Everly Brothers, and fondly remembers Eddy stopping by his house with his old Gretsch.

“Later I did a gig with him at the Baked Potato in LA,” Lee recalls. “Eric was in the audience with Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer; they were there digging us! They’d come to see Duane, not knowing I was playing second guitar with him.”

Eddy made being a guitarist look cool to a generation of teenagers – Clapton, Beck and Albert Lee, included.

On the cover of his 1958 debut Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel, he’s perched on a hardshell case, quiffed and staring pensively, looking like a cross between James Dean and Jack Kerouac – he’s the hipster troubadour.

The instrument inside that case, an orange Gretsch 6120 hollow-body, still holds sway over guitarists. In the Opry lobby there’s a long line at the Gretsch Guitars booth, players waiting to try the latest DE series reissues. Along with Chet Atkins and George Harrison, Eddy is probably the best salesman the brand have had.

Speaking of Harrison, the show is interspersed with video messages from artists and fans, one of whom is Harrison’s widow, Olivia.

She recalls how George was excited and nervous when he got to record two songs with for Eddy’s 1987 self-titled album – The Trembler and Theme For Something Really Important. “He was like a kid meeting his hero,” she recalls.

In turn, it reminds me of a great quote from Harrison: “When The Beatles played a low E, it sounded like a low E. When Duane plays it, it sounds an octave lower!”

Another message of love is beamed in from Bruce Springsteen. Holding his Telecaster backstage before a show, he says, “Without Duane Eddy, there’d be no…” He picks the low-string riff from Born To Run and signs off with: “Duane, rest in peace, and play on in that big house of a thousand guitars. We love you.”

The Opry House feels a fitting venue for the tribute given its poignant location in the city Eddy called home from 1985. The ace backing band includes local session cats who’d collaborated with him, including guitarist-producer Richard Bennett, E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent and Linda Ronstadt’s steel guitarist Dan Dugmore.

After Frampton closes his set with Rebel Rouser and While My Guitar Gently Weeps, everyone gathers on stage for the finale of Peter Gunn. and we see what’s surely the best part of Eddy's legacy: the pure joy of playing a riff on the guitar.

Buddy Miller perhaps describes it best: “Duane was the master of cool. His sound had such elegance and tone. But really, it was all in his hands – and in his heart.”

• Titan Of Twang: A Celebration of Duane Eddy will be aired by NPT in the near future.

Less than a week after Eddie Vedder donned Jack White’s signature Acoustasonic for a rampaging deep cut, Pearl Jam welcomed Peter Frampton to the stage for a fresh rendition of Black.

The band's Nashville stop on May 8 provided the ideal opportunity to link up with one of their earliest guitar heroes, with Frampton and Mike McCready trading licks as Eddie Vedder teased Frampton's mega-hit, Do You Feel Like We Do.

“This gentleman was someone we looked up to before the Ramones,” Vedder told the crowd prior to Frampton’s arrival. “Some of our first guitar heroes, [like] Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend, he was right up there.

“It was one of [the] reasons why we loved live records, and later we decided to release bootlegs because of his influence,” he adds, alluding to Frampton’s celebrated live LP, Frampton Comes Alive!

“He’s such an incredible human being on top of it. It is our honor because at this point he’s become a good friend to the group. He’s recorded with Mike [McCready] and [drummer] Matt Cameron [the pair guested on Frampton's 2006 album, Fingerprints, covering Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun] and we get to play with him tonight.”

The Les Paul-loving guitarist, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, is having to adapt his playing as he battles a degenerative disease, but he has said he will continue to play guitar for the rest of his life – and as this spot shows, he’s still got oodles of class.

Frampton takes the first solo, delivering soulful licks with a tender sprinkling of overdrive before McCready – wielding an all-white Stratocaster for the occasion – weaves the song's motif around his improvised playing. And Frampton looks to be loving every second of it, with the Nashville crowd in full voice throughout.

The guitarist will embark on one final tour later this year, having made a surprise appearance at NAMM 2025. In March, he played a Beatles classic with Grace Bowers and Trey Anastasio and there were guitar solos galore.

“Every note I play now is so much more important because I know one of the notes will be the last I play,” he commented of his playing.

His diagnosis of inclusion body myositis (IBM) – a degenerative condition that affects the legs, arms, wrists, and fingers – has already forced him to perform seated, and prompted him to announce a farewell tour in 2019. But the pull of the stage is strong, and Frampton is proving defiant in the face of adversity.

It’s a quality Andy Timmons has been quick to acknowledge – “Even in the face of adversity he still plays with complete joy,” he has said – and, after penning a song in tribute to him, Frampton ended up guesting on it.

The Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir recently made a surprise guest appearance with the Best of All Worlds band, playing Sammy Hagar's Gibson Explorer alongside Joe Satriani and co. for a rendition of Montrose's Bad Motor Scooter earlier this week (May 7).

The red rocker is in the middle of his Las Vegas residency with his Van Halen-honoring band – whose lineup comprises Satriani, Michael Anthony, and Kenny Aronoff – at the Park MGM. Weir and John Mayer, meanwhile, have been making The Sphere their second home during their second residency at the futuristic venue across the city.

Dead & Company have been enjoying some downtime recently, with their tour schedule set to resume tonight (May 9). However, Hagar wasted no time seizing the opportunity to get his long-time friend up on stage to play the Montrose classic.

“Bob is fearless,” Hagar wrote on Instagram after the event. “He’s always willing to take chances with music of any kind. This was a blast.”

The clip first shows the band running through the track backstage, with Weir playing a Les Paul. But it's Hagar's go-to Explorer that he takes to the stage, and which he uses to deliver an improvised, scrappy-in-a-joyfully-free-flowing-way, solo.

When they aren't supping tequila together, Hagar and Weir are always grabbing the chance to jam. In 2018, Weir joined Chickenfoot to jam Otis Redding with Taj Mahal and REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin during the Acoustic-4-a-Cure concert.

The 2023 edition of the event also saw the revival of the Hagar/Weir partnership, with Taj Mahal, Michael Anthony, and singer-songwriter Chris Isaak also present.

At 77, Hagar has said he prefers residencies to the rigors of touring city-to-city, which explains his current residency slot.

Weir’s own Las Vegas residencies haven’t been without note, either. John Mayer has played Jeff Beck’s Custom Strat at select shows, as well as an off-the-shelf Jerry Garcia Strat replica that was “too good to put down.”

In related news, Mayer also revealed the secret hiding place for his amps as he battles with the venue's stage volume limitations. During their first residency, a hand injury forced him to rethink his playing style.

Weir, who dropped his third signature D’Angelico last August, says he and Mayer have learned a lot about one another from a decade of guitar partnership, believing they now enjoy a “telepathic relationship.”

Jack White is continuing to share his signature guitars with players he admires, recently gifting Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder one of his signature Fender Acoustasonics – which was used onstage in Nashville to play Green Disease.

The fuzz-loving White Stripes hero dropped a score of signature Fender gear last year, including the mod-heavy Triplecaster, an amp with plenty of tricks up its (metaphorical) sleeve, and a new take on Fender's intriguing electric-acoustic hybrid, the Acoustasonic.

Vedder was gifted the latter, and it was promptly given its live debut in front of an enthusiastic crowd in Music City on May 6.

“This is my new guitar, given to me by Mr. Jack White, another future Hall of Famer. He's such a great human,” Vedder told the crowd.

Discussing White's Third Man Hardware company, which has also put out some drool-inducing pedals like the Knife Drop, Vedder adds, “You wanna know the secret between having a quality product and making money? The secret is you won't make money, but you'll make people happy.

“That's what we've seen Jack do. I'm very proud to be his friend, and thank you Jack for my nice new guitar.”

The attitude and punk-powered Green Disease was a fitting song choice, with Vedder laying into the strings with plenty of vigor.

Vedder joins a growing list of players to have snagged a taste of White's latest signature gear. White made an impromptu signature swap with Living Color’s Vernon Reid after they bumped into one another at an airport, while Kirk Hammett has joked that “Greeny is getting a bit jealous” after his legendary Les Paul watched from the sidelines as he took the Triplecaster for a spin. White also got a Greeny production model in return and was once afforded the opportunity to play the original Greeny on stage.

White has also used his signature collection to shine a light on lesser-known talents: he gifted his favorite new guitarist, who is based out in Japan, a Triplecaster.

Jack White, as a member of the White Stripes, will follow Soundgarden and some other long-overdue talents into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year. The guitarist is responsible for writing one of the most Googled guitar riffs, which came together almost by accident during a soundcheck in Australia.

He took to Instagram earlier this year for an impassioned rant about his approach to playing live and why you’ll never see him play a three-hour show. In November, he joined Paul McCartney on stage in Mexico to jam the Beatles.

Guns N’ Roses are back out on the road and have continued a heartfelt tradition by bolstering their setlist with a Thin Lizzy classic – which has seemingly been included as a tribute to the late John Sykes.

Slash and co. are currently out in Asia, and during their show at the K-Arena Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan, on May 5, bass player Duff McKagan assumed vocal duties for a cover of Thunder and Lightning.

The song is taken from Thin Lizzy's 1983 album of the same name, which proved to be the band's last LP following Phil Lynott's passing in 1986. It was the only Thin Lizzy record to feature guitarist John Sykes, who was brought in to replace Snowy White. The record was one Lizzy's heaviest outings, boasting a heavy metal panache with Brian Downey on drums and Sykes' union with Scott Gorham proving fruitful.

Sykes, who passed away aged 65 in December last year, would go on to join Whitesnake for a two-album spell afterward, and it seems Guns are using the song as a way to pay tribute to the underrated guitarist.

Going off fan-filmed footage, the song gets no introduction, but it does see Slash swap his trusty Les Paul for a black Gibson SG, which is a rare sight.

The bassist's voice helps give the song a strong punk flavor – it already had the snarling attitude – but it is Slash and Richard Fortus’ interweaving lead lines around the 2:30 mark that really steal the show. They have no right to make countering guitar solos work as well as that. Slash solos a handful of other times across the song, his wah pedal seeing plenty of action throughout.

“Mr. Duff McKagan,” Axl Rose can be heard bellowing above the applause once the final notes had rung out. “A little thunder and lightning.”

Tributes poured in for Sykes after news of his passing broke. Elsewhere, Steve Vai – who had to follow in his wake in Whitesnake – recently spoke about the challenge he faced when it came to following in his footsteps.

It's not the first time GNR have paid tribute to late guitar heroes during their sets. In the wake of Chris Cornell's untimely passing in 2017, Soundgarden's set list staple Black Hole Sun was weaved into their live shows as a mark of respect.

McKagan would go on to front the surviving members of Soundgarden during a charity show late last year, and it’s been confirmed the band will get together again for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction later this year.

Guns’ latest tour run, which began at South Korea’s Songdo Moonlight Festival Park on May 1st, is the first tour to feature new drummer Isaac Carpenter who was announced just 24 hours after the departure of long-serving stickman Frank Ferrer.

In April, Slash made a surprise appearance at former Hannoi Rocks singer Michael Monroe’s show at the Whisky A-Go-Go, Les Paul, top hat and all.

The 2025 American Music Honors, presented by the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, honored some bona fide legends with a star-studded event saluting guitarists and singer-songwriters from across the musical spectrum.

Among them was Tom Morello, John Fogerty, Joe Ely, and Emmylou Harris, as well as the multi-hyphenate crooner Smokey Robinson. All honorees were in attendance, except for Ely, who could not make it to the ceremony due to health issues.

Bruce Springsteen himself and members of the E Street Band were also present, with the Boss playing host and wielding his Fender Tele to perform with some of the honorees.

“If I hear my name again, I’m going to fucking throw up,” Springsteen joked when he took podium. “Let’s talk about someone else.”

And with that, the spotlight shifted to the veritable list of honorees. Tom Morello graced the audience with his take on Springsteen’s Woody Guthrie-inspired The Ghost of Tom Joad – using his Arm the Homeless custom guitar – and delivering a searing, rage-filled solo reminiscent of Hendrix's iconic Star-Spangled Banner Woodstock performance.

“That is called ‘playing the shit out of the guitar!’” commented Brian Williams, the evening's official host, right after the Rage Against the Machine guitarist’s performance.

Fogerty performed Creedence Clearwater Revival classics Bad Moon Rising, Proud Mary, and Fortunate Son on a rented black Gibson Les Paul Custom – a performance made even more emotional by his long battle to reclaim the rights to his catalog.

“Inside I knew I loved music, and the rest of it just kind of burned me out," he asserted. "The worst part about it was I didn’t own my own songs. So, it became a lifetime battle… For a long time, I didn’t even sing my own songs because I was so angry or bitter about the whole thing. But I still loved music. Music is my best friend.”

Emmylou Harris was accompanied by Patti Scialfa – who called Harris “one of my favorite artists in the world” – in performing Red Dirt Girl, from the veteran artist's 19th studio album of the same name, while Steven Van Zandt honored Robinson and joined him for a spirited duet of Tears of a Clown.

“I have singer heroes, songwriter heroes, song arranger heroes, and music producer heroes, and when you have all of them in the same guy, you get Smokey Robinson,” said Van Zandt. “One can obviously connect a dozen of my songs to his influence.”

The encore saw Springsteen join forces with both Van Zandt and Robinson for their own rendition of The Miracles' Going to a Go-Go, before 2024's honoree Jackson Browne joined the supergroup for a raucous take on Take It Easy, the Eagles' debut single.

The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music aims to preserve the legacy of the Boss – while also celebrating the history and breadth of American music. The research center is currently located on the Monmouth University campus, with a new 30,000-square-foot facility scheduled to open in spring 2026.

In other Springsteen news, Shayne Fontayne recently opened up about the challenges of filling the shoes of Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren as the Boss’s guitarist during the 1992–1993 “Other Band” Tour.

Each year, surprise collabs prove to be a key part of Coachella’s festivities. Pop superstar Benson Boone continued that tradition by tapping Brian May for a firework-laced finale to his festival set, which included a romp through Bohemian Rhapsody.

The American singer-songwriter has shot to fame in double-quick time and, was placed just below Lady Gaga – who would later rock a Suhr Custom Classic T for her performance – and Missy Elliot on the bill. However, he was evidently determined to make the most of his time on the world’s most famous festival stage – and the Queen electric guitar legend was to be his trump card.

Dressed in a white and blue jumpsuit and very regal cape that gave more than a whiff of Freddie Mercury, Boone began the cover playing a grand piano – which he then front-flipped off as May and his Red Special guitar soon rose out of the stage high above him in time for his guitar solo.

But not everyone in the crowd was as excited as Boone for the collab, with his flip getting a louder cheer than his fevered shout of “Brian May everybody!”

May stayed on for the show's closing number, Boone's chart-smashing hit Beautiful Things, which was given an altogether riffier sound. May had teased the performance on Instagram earlier in the day, posting a picture of Boone’s scheduled slot saying “Who's gonna be there tonight? This guy will shake the world.”

Afterward, Boone took to TikTok to make light of the underwhelming response May, a hero in the singer’s eyes, received on the night. He called Brian May an “absolute legend” and championed the “cultural impact he has had on the world”, but an apparent generational divide in the crowd meant the cameo fell slightly flat.

Returning to social media the next day, May clearly loved every second of his spot, saying: “I'm still reeling from last night at Coachella. Thanks to all of you folks who made it feel so special… this particular way of concluding Bohemian Rhapsody will be hard to beat in the years to come! I'm awestruck.”

This was one of May’s first major shows since suffering a minor stroke last year.

Elsewhere, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong donned an SG Junior for his guest appearance during the Go-Go's afternoon showpiece, powering through their 1984 anthem Head Over Heels. An excitable Armstrong exclaimed, “Holy shit, I’m playing with the Go-Gos,” before hurtling into the song’s first verse.

Lady Gaga's Suhr-fuelled headline performance, meanwhile, came hot on the heels of her latest album, Mayhem, for which she's cited Nine Inch Nails as a surprise influence. Her guitar choice was likely inspired by her band member's employment of the brand, with Gaga reuniting with long-time guitarist Tim Stewart earlier this year.

Some additional guitar goodness came courtesy of Beabadoobee and LISA, whose own set was filled with some sensational solos.

Last year’s big Coachella collab shock came when Nile Rodgers and his trusty Stratocaster joined K-pop sensation Le Sserafim, while AP Dhillon's guitar-smashing antics caused controversy, leading Guitar World to ponder whether smashing instruments was still deemed cool or not.

Fusion virtuoso Matteo Mancuso has announced his first headline tour dates in the US and Canada, with over 30 shows scheduled across May and June.

The Yamaha-endorsed guitarist had electric guitar greats like Steve Vai, Tosin Abasi, and Al Di Meola purring over his talents long before he released his debut album. His lofty reputation has always preceded him, and now he's finally hitting the road for an extensive run of headline shows in North America.

Kicking off at Boston’s City Winery on May 20, and wrapping up with a June 30 spot at Le Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, the trip represents the first time that North American audiences will be able to witness Mancuso's guitar mastery as part of a broader headline tour.

A few years ago, Steve Vai called Mancuso “the evolution of guitar” while Tosin Abasi said he was “a virtuoso beyond virtuosos” and Di Meola says the “phenomenon” is “lightyears ahead” of his peers.

Since then, he's added to his impressive body of work, with a hugely acclaimed debut album, a blazing single last year – which saw him pay tribute to one of his guitar heroes on a Bacci baritone guitar – and much more.

Speaking to Prog about the hype that surrounded his debut album's release, he admitted that having a string of virtuosos shout your praises “puts a lot of pressure on you”.

“It’s a dream come true,” he added. “All I want to do with my life is play and make music, and that’s what I’m doing now” – and he's certainly done that since.

His unique style and genre-melding proficiency has seen him share the stage with Joe Bonamassa – “It felt like I was daydreaming,” he’d later reflect. He's also raised eyebrows by revealing that fake nails are the secret to his otherworldly finger-picking techniques.

Though his stock is rightfully high, he appreciates that modern players can’t afford a bad gig, which he uses as a motivator. Still, he is happy to embrace mistakes. Talented though he may be, he doesn’t want to let his technique overshadow the human aspects of his playing.

“I’m always trying to find that balance. I don’t consider myself one of the best technical players; there are so many good players who can play twice as fast as me, or they know more leads and have more vocabulary,” he told Guitar World last year.

“But people don’t care about your technical stuff; people care about the emotion of it. I’m always trying to search for that.”

Ticket sales for Mancuso's long-overdue first US headline tour will be staggered, so readers are advised to check with their local box offices for on-sale details.

Head to Matteo Mancuso for more.

Tour dates:

• 5/20 Boston, MA City Winery Boston
• 5/21 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Bowl
• 5/22 Ardmore, PA The Ardmore Music Hall
• 5/23 Red Bank, NJ The Vogel
• 5/24 Washington, DC The Hamilton Live
• 5/25 Cumberland, MD Allegany County Fairgrounds
• 5/27 Pittsburgh, PA City Winery Pittsburgh
• 5/28 Lansing, MI Grewal Hall at 224
• 5/29 Ferndale, MI The Magic Bag
• 5/31 Cincinnati, OH The Ludlow Garage
• 6/01 Kent, OH The Kent Stage
• 6/02 Indianapolis, IN The Vogue
• 6/04 Minneapolis, MN The Dakota
• 6/05 Milwaukee, WI Vivarium
• 6/06 Chicago, IL Garcia’s
• 6/07 Chicago, IL Garcia’s
• 6/10 Denver, CO Cervantes’ Other Side
• 6/13 Sante Fe, NM The Bridge at Sante Fe Brewing
• 6/14 Phoenix, AZ MIM
• 6/15 Tucson, AZ The Rialto Theatre
• 6/16 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern
• 6/17 Highland Park, CA Lodge Room
• 6/18 San Juan Capistrano, CA The Coach House
• 6/20 Berkeley, CA The UC Theatre
• 6/22 Portland, OR Aladdin Theater
• 6/23 Seattle, WA Neptune Theatre
• 6/24 Vancouver, BC Rickshaw
• 6/25 Victoria, BC Wicket Hall
• 6/28 Syracuse, NY Syracuse Jazz Fest
• 6/29 Buffalo, NY Electric City
• 6/30 Montreal, QC Le Festival International de Jazz de Montreal

When Joe Satriani and Steve Vai announced they were forming a new band together, the news came hot on the heels of a G3 reunion run alongside Eric Johnson, not to mention their own Satch/Vai tour. So, naturally, we were left wondering: just how different would this new project be?

As it turns out, it may end up sounding quite unlike any other performance the pair have been involved with throughout their lengthy careers, as the very first SatchVai Band rehearsal footage shows.

The one-minute clip, posted to Satriani’s YouTube channel and captioned “Something’s stirring behind closed doors…”, finds the pair not only performing their own classics, but taking on the leads and melodies of each other’s.

So, you can hear Vai soloing over Satriani’s If I Could Fly, before both guitarists tackle the iconic two-hand-tapped run in Always With Me, Always With You.

But the highlight has to be hearing the two guitar heroes harmonizing Vai opus For the Love of God’s legendary leads with pitch-perfect precision. It’s breathtaking stuff.

The clip ends with the duo busting out the main riff of Metallica’s Enter Sandman – a staple on the G3 reunion tour that carries extra nostalgia given Joe Satriani’s role as Kirk Hammett’s guitar teacher (as well as Vai’s, of course).

It’s also our first chance to see the band’s rhythm guitarist, Pete Thorn, in action. You can spot him deploying a Fender Acoustasonic Jazzmaster for the acoustic parts in If I Could Fly, while you know that Suhr backline is getting cranked for the higher-gain numbers.

Speaking of, Satch appears to have brought his 3rd Power DRGN 100 rig – which was specially designed to tackle Eddie Van Halen’s tone in Best of All Worlds – into the instrumental arena, rather than his typical Marshall JVM410HJS setup.

All of which is very exciting: it looks as if Satch and Vai – alongside Thorn, bassist Marco Mendoza and longtime Satch drummer Kenny Aronoff – could be trading solos for the entire show’s duration, as opposed to the separate sets and closing jams that typically feature in their live collaborations.

We’ll find out when the SatchVai Band tour kicks off in York, United Kingdom on June 13 – head over to SatchVaiBand.com for full dates.

Dez Dickerson, guitarist with Prince and the Revolution from 1979 to 1983, has reflected on Prince’s disastrous stint opening for the Rolling Stones in 1981.

Those shows are some of the most notorious in rock history, with Prince facing such an onslaught of abuse (and bottles) that he abandoned the stage after 25 minutes.

Dickerson, however, tells Guitar World, “those shows have gotten twisted out of context.”

On the opening night at LA’s Memorial Coliseum, Prince was greeted by a barrage of fried chicken, cans, and bottles, not to mention racist and homophobic abuse.

Revolution bassist Brown Mark recalled, “Next thing I noticed was food starting to fly through the air like a dark thundercloud. Imagine 94,000 people throwing food at each other; it was the craziest thing I had ever seen in my life. I got hit in the shoulder with a bag of fried chicken; then my bass guitar got knocked out of tune by a large grapefruit that hit the tuning keys.”

“It was mostly Hell’s Angels,” Dickerson remarks now. “They didn’t like Prince’s bikini underwear.”

He insists, though, that the majority of the crowd was on Prince’s side.

“I found out later that the Stones’ audience threw things back at them – that was their way of showing their love. Prince got freaked and cut the set short. The rock stations reported that we got booed off the stage, but that wasn’t true.

“Statistically,” Dickerson argues, “they say 5 percent of any audience isn’t going to like what you do.”

Prince, however, was unimpressed and insisted he would not play another show. “We went to the dressing room and found out that Prince had gone straight to the airport,” Dickerson remembers. “He went home and wasn’t coming back. Mick Jagger called Prince and asked him to come back, but he said, ‘No, I’m not doing it.’”

Jagger’s failure might have been related to his dismissive attitude. In a 1983 interview, he said dismissively, “I talked to Prince on the phone once after he got two cans thrown at him in LA. He said he didn’t want to do any more shows.”

After Prince’s management also tried unsuccessfully to coax Prince back, Dickerson tried himself.

“Finally, management came to me and said, ‘Look, Prince listens to you. Will you call him?’” says Dickerson. “I appealed to our manhood as a band and said, ‘We can’t let them run us off like this. We’ll never live it down.’ He came back and we did the second show.”

That second show was met with a similar response, and Prince never again shared a stage with the Stones.

For the full interview with Dickerson, check out the latest issue of Guitar World, available now from Magazines Direct.

Grace Bowers is showing no signs of slowing down. Peter Frampton recently named her as one of his favorite rising guitar stars, calling her “a wonderful, wonderful talent” – now, Bowers has continued to build her already hefty résumé by playing alongside the veteran electric guitar legend himself, as well as Phish's Trey Anastasio, at the Love Rocks NYC benefit concert at The Beacon Theater on March 6.

The three guitarists joined forces for a heartfelt rendition of The Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps – which, as one might expect from such a powerful trio, was anything but short on guitar solos.

“[I'm] a huge, huge fan of both of them. One is a lady that is going to be on your mind for the rest of the weekend because she is an incredible player, [and] one of the up-and-coming phenomenal players. I've known her for a while now, and her name is Grace Bowers,” Frampton says in a fan-recorded video.

“This gentleman that I've always wanted to meet and play with, he has an album called Hampton Comes Alive,” Frampton continues, referring to Phish's live album, whose title is a play on 1976's Frampton Comes Alive! “Please welcome Trey Anastasio.”

What followed was a 10-minute-plus guitar extravaganza of the Beatles classic, which Anastasio and Frampton kicked off with an improvised duet before Bowers joined in.

Armed with her trusty Gibson SG, she delivered a masterclass in soloing, visibly impressing both Anastasio and Frampton. From their end, Anastasio and Frampton showcased their staying power, taking turns flexing their unique approach to solos – Anastasio on his Languedoc and Frampton on his Phenix Les Paul – before culminating in a soaring crescendo that saw all three guitarists bursting into a jam.

Frampton's performance in New York follows his recent appearance at NAMM, where he continued to open up about his decision to tour despite his inclusion body myositis (IBM) diagnosis back in 2015.

However, in order to do so, Frampton revealed to Guitar World the ways he has evolved his playing to overcome the challenges posed by the condition.

Mastodon shocked the guitar world last week when the progressive metal heavyweights announced that founding guitarist Brent Hinds had left the band.

Now the story has taken a fresh turn: the band recruited well-respected YouTube guitarist Ben Eller for their set at the 'Tool in the Sand' festival over the weekend (March 9).

The news of a mutual parting of ways after 25 years came on the eve of the event at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with the group reassuring fans that “all 2025 touring plans will remain intact” despite Hinds’ departure.

Considering how important dual guitar parts are to Mastodon’s thick, sludgy sound, questions were raised about whether Bill Kelliher would go it alone for the upcoming shows, or if a replacement was lying in the wings. It turns out Eller was drafted in for the job, with video footage from the event showing him professionally weave through the band’s twisting guitar parts.

It seems there was at least a little coordination involved from the Mastodon camp, seeing as Hinds’ departure was announced just before the show. That apparently gave enough time for Eller to be sworn in, but the timeline seems a tight one.

“Can you learn 17 Mastodon songs immediately?” bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders had told the crowd of Eller’s involvement mid-set; clearly, he didn’t have any time to lose.

The band opened with Pain With an Anchor, with classics like Megalodon, Ghost of Karelia, and Blood & Thunder later featuring.

A little mystery still lingers around the Mastodon camp and, surprisingly, at the time of writing, Eller’s social channels are suspiciously quiet. So, is Eller a stand-in or Hinds' permanent successor? Mastodon are due to hit the road with Periphery and Coheed & Cambria in May and will also feature at Black Sabbath’s blockbuster farewell show this summer. We likely won't have to wait long to find out.

Eller is perhaps best known for his 'This is Why you Suck at Guitar' video series. Like so many metal guitar players, he first first fell in love with Metallica, before discovering guitar virtuosos à la Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen. He has over 500,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Several of his videos have seen him deep-dive into Mastodon's guitar work and what makes it so brilliant. He previously stated that the band's tectonic plate-shaking Leviathan record “instantly became one of my favorite records of all time” when he first heard it in 2004. As such, his intimate knowledge of the band's material and the dizzying array of nuances therein has made him a shrewd choice, if only in the short term.

“We’re deeply proud of and beyond grateful for the music and history we’ve shared and we wish [Brent Hinds] nothing but success and happiness in his future endeavors,” Mastodon's statement read. “We are still very inspired and excited to show up for fans in this next chapter of Mastodon.”

Speaking to Guitar World last year, Kelliher discussed how his and Hinds’ playing styles oppose one another. Often across the band’s history, that’s proven to be a winner – Kelliher’s precision playing and Hinds’ more erratic, country-inspired stylings bring a lot of flavor to the band’s collective broth.

“We’re opposite sometimes,” he admitted. “When I write songs, I’ll spend months piecing them together, whereas Brent says, ‘Let’s jam and write whatever on the spot in the studio.’

“That sometimes works for me, but I generally want to be organized and try out every possible avenue of where the songs can go.”

Lollapalooza 1991 may have been headlined by Jane’s Addiction, but every Gen Xer in attendance left the alternative festival’s first iteration with the same three words on their lips: Nine Inch Nails.

Trent Reznor’s burgeoning industrial rock outfit would take to the stage at 4pm, while the sun was still up, and tear through tracks from debut album Pretty Hate Machine, before taking out the angst accumulated throughout their set on their equipment.

By all accounts, it was a sight to behold. Dave Navarro branded their sets “one of the most exciting things that I’d ever seen”. Tom Morello succinctly summarized, “Nine Inch Nails kicked everybody’s ass.”

In this exclusive extract from Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival – the latest tell-all book from Guitar World writers and Nothin’ But a Good Time authors Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour – the full story behind NIN’s tumultuous sets is laid bare: the frantic music store dashes to buy more cheap guitars to destroy; the last-minute repairs; and that time Body Count smashed a pricey Gibson by mistake.

But as Trent Reznor observes, it’s a sacrifice worth making in the name of art.

“I am not going to be pretentious enough to say I never realized that if I break things it gets reactions. It is entertainment, right? That’s the bottom line.”

RICHARD PATRICK (guitarist, Nine Inch Nails) Job number one on Lollapalooza was to be as punk as fuck. We were absolutely dedicated to total mayhem and anarchy. Trent would tackle me several times during the show, I would throw beers at him, I would throw beers at the audience. It was the most decadent, crazy, do-not-give-a-fuck thing.

FRITZ MICHAUD (monitor engineer, Nine Inch Nails) I had to cover every single monitor wedge with Visqueen plastic wrap and duct-tape it on there every show, because Trent would throw beer and water in the crowd all day long, and he would immediately throw it right into the monitors if I didn’t cover them. Then the horns would stop working and the monitors would sound like there was a blanket over them.

JON KLEIN (guitarist, Siouxsie and the Banshees; touring guitarist, Sinéad O'Connor) They’d be filling the keyboards up with beer and smashing them, busting the guitars up…

MARK O’SHEA (tour manager, Nine Inch Nails) Trent was throwing Richard around onstage, yelling at the crowd, “Come on, you fuckers! Let’s go!” Just working the audience up.

TRENT REZNOR (singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, Nine Inch Nails) The show developed as we got more angry at the audience and they liked it. And then it got more abusive and dangerous and they seemed to like us more.

RICHARD PATRICK My knees are still fucked up from that tour. I actually had to have back surgery because I walked with a limp for, like, ten years. Because my whole right leg was just whaled on. Chiropractors and doctors were like, “How long did you play college football?” I’d go, “It wasn’t college football. It was Trent Reznor.”

JON KLEIN They had this thing where every time they’d turn up in town, the crew would go out and buy cheap secondhand guitars and keyboards.

MARKY RAY (guitar tech, Nine Inch Nails, 1991; roadie, Ministry, 1992) So what happened was, on a day off, Mark O’Shea would give me a couple grand in cash. And we’re in the middle of America. Lollapalooza was the stay-forty-five-minutes-outside-of-every-major- city-in-America-tour, okay? So we’re at the Great Woods in Mansfield [Massachusetts]. We’re at Waterloo Village in New Jersey. We’re at Blossom Music Center outside of Cleveland, where I live.

They’d give me money and I would have to call up a pawnshop, a music store, find whatever was open. And remember, this is pre-internet. No cell phones, no anything. I’m calling on a landline using the Yellow Pages in a hotel room. I’d be like, “Do you have any…” We always needed to have a Kramer, a Schecter, a Jackson, a Charvel Charvette, some cheap student-line guitar.

MARK O’SHEA As long as we could get something with great pickups in it, which most of those guitars at the time had, we were good to go.

MARKY RAY So I’d be at a hotel in the middle of nowhere, I’d have to get to an airport, rent a car, drive into the city with my two thousand dollars in cash, find a pawnshop, and go, “How much you want for these five Charvels and a Schecter?” “Two grand? Here you go.” Then I’d take all the guitars – no cases, not even strung – throw them in the trunk, drive back to the venue, and set them up. And we had one song in the set, Ringfinger, that Trent would smash the guitar.

CHRIS HASKETT (guitarist, Rollins Band) I’d be on the bus with poor Marky Ray, who was having to rebuild guitars that Richie Patrick and Trent had smashed that day, getting them ready and working for the next day.

MARKY RAY The other thing I’d do is I’d go out there like the guy cleaning up shit after the elephants and take all the broken parts and literally put them in a trash can that Kevin Lyman and I would throw on the back of the semis at the end of the night.

And yes, we learned how to fix guitar necks so they could use them the next day. And that consisted of, you take a broken neck and you throw as much wood glue as you can in there, and then you C-clamp it, and then you run drywall screws countersunk on either side of the truss rod, and then you break off the ends on the back of the neck and sand them down, and then you sit ’em overnight, and you can restring ’em just enough that they’ll hold for maybe a song. Maybe. And those would be some of the guitars I would hand to Trent to smash.

RICHARD PATRICK Trent always wanted to raise the bar higher. He would be hyper-focused on trying to figure out different ways to elevate the show. We still had the punk ethic of “Fuck you, we’ve got a lot to prove.” It wasn’t the fully realized thing that Nine Inch Nails became. We were paying our dues, but at the same time, we were very, very, very confident as to what was going on. We knew we were the shit.

MISSY WORTH (marketing consultant, Lollapalooza 1991) I was the promoter at the venue in Ohio [the Blossom Music Center], and Nine Inch Nails is from Cleveland and had not played Cleveland in forever. We all kept telling the venue, “You need more security than you’ve got.” But also, “The security has to be really cool. They can’t just go crazy.” So Nine Inch Nails starts playing… and the place goes fucking wild. Everyone from the lawn is now in the seats. Everyone is everywhere.

MARK O’SHEA Basically they came down en masse, and you could see all the ushers literally turn sideways, like a turnstile gate. They just let everybody run down.

MISSY WORTH This is mayhem that you’re not gonna fix. You lost the venue. Like, “Holy fuck!” Now all you can do is pray and hope that no one’s getting hurt. And thankfully no one did. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a show. And it was my own show.

MARK O’SHEA The Cleveland show is where Eric Avery and Dave Navarro were encouraged to come out and play guitar on Head Like a Hole.

DAVE NAVARRO (guitarist, Jane’s Addiction) We smashed guitars, we did a lot of stage diving and banging into each other and just the whole thing that was going on with them at the time.

MARK O’SHEA There was this mass of people up front, so Eric and Dave smashed their guitars and then dove into the audience. Then Trent stage dives. Then Richard stage dives. Next thing you know, I’m in the audience and I’m trying to grab Richard and throw him back up onstage. When I finally pulled him out, he had nothing left but his combat boots and his tighty-whities.

MARKY RAY The Head Like a Hole thing, during the course of the shows, Fritz and I started playing on that song. I think the first time we did it was at Sandstone Amphitheater, near Kansas City. We came up onstage, and all the crews and bands lost their shit. They were like, “Oh my god, that’s so cool! You guys played live auxiliary guitar on Head Like a Hole!”

After that, it was open season. Everybody wanted to do it. The next thing you know, Eric and Dave were playing. Ernie C from Body Count. The Butthole Surfers. Ice-T would come up to me and he’d be like, “Marky Ray, I want to smash a guitar.” And I’d go, “But Ice, man, it’s the last one I got.” Then John Malm would say, “Marky Ray, give Ice-T a guitar.” I’d hand him a guitar, and he’d go out onstage and wouldn’t even plug it in. He just acted like he was playing, like blinka… smash!

JON KLEIN The last Lollapalooza show Nine Inch Nails did, Dave Navarro gave me his video camera and said, “A load of us are going to jam, ’cause they’ve invited us to smash guitars up.” And I sat on the side of the stage filming it for Dave. And what I remember is all the usual suspects come out and grab a guitar. And then one of the big Body Count geezers comes out. And it’s like, “Oh, this looks interesting…”

Zoom in on him. He wasn’t the kind of guy that you’d normally see picking up a guitar. And he walks up, walks straight past the rack of cheap guitars, grabs one of Trent’s really expensive ones and turns it into matchwood. I seem to remember it was a Gibson Explorer that he smashed up that night.

MARKY RAY Henry [Rollins] would sit there on our bus, incensed, going, “How can a guy break a fifteen-hundred-dollar Explorer? What kid wouldn’t give his right nut for something like that?”

RICHARD PATRICK We just did not give a fuck. We were just out to satisfy our animal instincts onstage. I think we spent forty thousand dollars on gear that we smashed on Lollapalooza.

Excerpted from LOLLAPALOOZA: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour © 2025 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press.

• Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival is out on March 25, and available to preorder from Amazon.

The Melbourne Guitar Show took place on March 1 and 2, bringing the latest and greatest to Australian guitarists. Having attended, performed at and hosted Q&A sessions at previous MGS events, I was curious to see how the switch to a new venue would change the vibes. The biggest and best change was placing everything on one level; no more lining up at the escalators to pop upstairs to see the acoustic room or catch a performance on the main stage. And the flow-on result was a more relaxed, social and fun experience.

There are four main aspects to the MGS: the gear, the seminars, the performances and the hangs. There are the latest products, including advance previews of stuff that isn’t in Australian stores yet, like the phenomenal new Marshall pedals replicating the JCM800 and JCM900, DSL, JVM and Plexi. Or the only LTD Mick Thomson MT-I signature model guitar in circulation. You can listen to talks on topics like songwriting, guitar maintenance and pedal stacking. You can catch performances by the likes of Dallas Frasca, Dallas Crane (big Dallas year apparently), Brett Garsed and many more. And like NAMM or PAX or any number of conventions, you get to catch up with your buddies, meet reps from your favourite makers, strike up a conversation with a guitar legend in the coffee line.

Everywhere I looked at the Melbourne Guitar Show I would see something else cool and unusual. At the expansive Mannys booth I found an Ibanez J.Custom Australis 50th Anniversary RG made for the Australian market and featuring Aussie timbers. I saw a selection of Fender Custom Shop instruments including a beautiful lefty Strat that was so perfectly crafted that I almost wish I was born left-handed. I checked out the work of local gear builders like KINK pedals, Maton and Cole Clark. I saw stuff you rarely see here like James Tyler guitars (I checked out one that was $18,000 and felt like every cent of it). Curios like the Dean Kerry King signature model with its aggressive pointy bits and mean matte finish, or the impeccably hand-crafted MLJACKIE pickups with their vast array of models and cover options. Headless MOOER guitars. A Powers Electric Guitars A-Type built by the Taylor Guitars design legend (and it is seriously one of the lightest and most resonant guitars I’ve ever met).

One of the most impressive instruments I got my paws on was a beautiful guitar built by Mark Gilbert, a Hobart guitar builder who uses Australian timbers to create investment-grade guitars that play as good as they look. I plugged in a Tele-style build with P90 pickups and featuring the artwork of the legendary Albert Collins. I fretted the 7th fret of the low E string to test the volume of the Carr Lincoln amp and with the barest nudge of the pick the note bloomed forth with heavenly sustain cascading into perfectly controlled feedback. I was hooked.

On the seminar side of things, Something For Kate’s Paul Dempsey spoke with journalist Greg Phillips for the 30th anniversary of Australian Musician Magazine (and 31st of SFK), sharing his wisdom and playing acoustic versions of classics like ‘Monsters.’ Rock Academy Australia’s Phil Ceberano gave a wide-ranging and hilariously expletive-laden presentation that touched on everything from navigating your pedalboard to overcoming stage fright, rocking his trusty modified and heavily played Fender Strat Plus. Modern Musician hosted a guitar maintenance workshop that was so informative that I stopped by to catch it again on the second day. YouTuber Leon Todd was all over the show giving presentations and ripping out killer licks (you should have heard that dude play on a Fender Jack White Triplecaster: that guitar can absolutely shred when needed to).

The main stage hosted a huge variety of performers and special events. Rock Academy’s students played some killer covers including a ‘Killing In The Name Of’ that brought the house down. I didn’t get a chance to catch Phil Ceberano, Marcel Yammouni and Brett Kingman’s Ultimate Guitar Tone Challenge but hoo boy, those guys talking tone? I feel sick I missed that one. Minnie Marks’ incredible blues guitar and elaborate foot-played drum kit? That was unforgettable. And Paul Mason capped off the weekend with a tribute to Jeff Beck featuring the legendary Brett Garsed. If you ever have the chance to watch Brett play up close you’re going to see the most relaxed, every-note-tucked-perfectly-in-its-place guitar playing you can imagine. And Mason’s Beck-isms are spot on. Incredible stuff.

And on the social side, I had a great time catching up with friends I haven’t seen since the last guitar show, buddies I know from gigs and jams, and reps from various brands I’ve worked with or reviewed over the years. I chatted with Andrea Krakovska about her upcoming Aerial Guitar show in Melbourne (think shred meets P!NK), bantered with CMI’s Tim Gauci about the interest in the Mick Thomson LTD, checked out Japanese Telecasters with Mitch Cowen, and just generally nerded out with anyone who was up for a chat. And for all the great gear, amazing performances and insightful seminars, it’s still the people who make the Melbourne Guitar Show great. The connection to other musicians, other dreamers, other gear-obsessives, other songwriters, other people who feel this passion in the same way. I can’t wait for next year.

Last Thursday (February 27), Phil X and Richie Sambora shared the stage with Matt Sorum and Orianthi for a fundraising performance of Livin’ on a Prayer during the Rock For Responders LA wildfire benefit concert.

The performance made headlines, and for good reason: it saw Phil X – the electric guitar player who formally replaced Sambora in the legendary rock outfit – team up with his predecessor – the man who, in turn, helped Bon Jovi actually write the classic track – as two eras of Bon Jovi combined on stage.

And, speaking to Guitar World writer Andrew Daly, Phil X reflects on the occasion, and recalls how the unexpected collaboration first came about – and how the show’s organizers were unsure whether it’d be something the pair would be happy to do.

“They called me a couple of days before,” the guitarist says. “They were like, ‘Hey, so Richie wants to come out and play Livin’ on a Prayer…’”

“I was like, ‘Hey, what a great song for the cause.’ They were like, ‘Is that going to be OK?’ Because nobody knows, right? That was a good question. But I said, ‘Yeah, we’re both adults. Yeah… it’ll be OK. It’ll be fun.”

“I had been playing all night,” Phil X continues. “Then, he [Sambora] finally got onstage, came over, and we started playing Livin’ on a Prayer. We had rehearsed it the day before, so he and Ori could play their parts, and I just played more of a supportive role.”

Indeed, Sambora took lead vocal and lead guitar duties for the song, and though the rendition ditched the talk box, it kept the solo, which Sambora took for a quasi-improvised spin.

However, it turned out to be a rather enlightening occasion for Phil X, who was able to observe up close the differences between how he and his predecessor both tackle the Bon Jovi hit.

“One funny thing is that he doesn’t do the modulation at the end that I do when I play with Bon Jovi,” says Phil X. “I just had to stay in my head. I’d be like, ‘OK, don’t do the modulation, don’t do the modulation.’”

It turned out to be a successful evening, and while the wider public perception may be that Phil X and Sambora are at odds with each other owing to the Bon Jovi connection, Phil X insists this isn’t the case.

“Man, we were buds before and after. It was really cool,” he goes on. “Like, it was a really amazing day. Hanging out with all those guys was killer. He [Sambora] was just one more guy hanging out backstage. I felt like, you know, I like to engage, and sometimes, I had to sit back and go, ‘Holy shit. Is this really happening?’ It was really cool.”

Sambora left the band officially in 2013, but Phil X had been brought onboard as a fill-in around 2011 for a number of tour shows. In 2016, he was minted as the official Bon Jovi guitarist, and in a recent interview with Guitar World, he confirmed new music and tour dates were in the works.

Earlier this year, the heavy metal world was sent into a tailspin when it was announced that Ozzy Osbourne would be performing his last-ever live show as part of a historic event that would also see the OG Black Sabbath reunite.

Scheduled for this July, the ‘Back to the Beginning’ concert will feature a solo set by Osborne, as well as special guest performances from a huge bevy of big names, from Metallica, Pantera and Anthrax to Slayer, Alice in Chains, Halestorm and many more.

The entire day is being masterminded by Tom Morello, after the Rage Against the Machine hero was handpicked by the Osbourne camp to serve as musical director for the historic gig.

For Morello, a Sabbath superfan and devout follower of all things heavy metal, it is the MD gig of a lifetime. And as he explains in a new interview with Guitar Player, he’s taking a history-spanning approach to organizing the day – which will also pay tribute to one of Osbourne’s guitarists.

One of the biggest names attached to star in the show is Jake E. Lee – the electric guitar virtuoso who joined Osbourne’s solo band in the early 1980s following the tragic death of Randy Rhoads in 1982.

And, when asked about Lee’s involvement, Morello says he views the event as a tribute to Ozzy’s entire musical lineage – and as such will take the opportunity to honor the memory of Rhoads.

“Yes! Jake E. Lee is going to be there, too, dude! It’s historic on a lot of levels for someone who is a big fan of the Ozzy records,” Morello notes.

“We’re celebrating Black Sabbath, but it’s Ozzy Osbourne’s final show, too,” he continues. “It is, in some ways, also a tribute to the great Randy Rhoads, who was on a poster on my wall when I was practicing eight hours a day.

“That was the musician’s musician. Like, I take the job of curating this day very, very seriously. Not just to honor the living members of Black Sabbath but also Randy Rhoads, who is so important to me personally, and to the genre. To have that be a part of the day, too, is pretty special.”

The Back to the Beginning show is set to take place at Villa Park, Birmingham, UK, on Saturday July 5. Other confirmed guests include Billy Corgan, Duff McKagan, Slash, Sammy Hagar, Wolfgang Van Halen, KK Downing and more.

In related news, Ozzy recently downplayed the role he’ll have during the Sabbath set, saying he’ll only be on hand to do “little bits and pieces” with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward.

Elsewhere, it was confirmed that the show will play host to a surprise supergroup comprising members of Tool, Rage Against the Machine and Smashing Pumpkins.

Visit Live Nation for tickets.

Bon Jovi guitarists old and new, Richie Sambora and Phil X, joined forces with Orianthi and Matt Sorum at the Rock For Responders benefit concert on Thursday, February 27, with Livin’ on a Prayer headlining the supergroup’s mini performance.

Phil X became a full-time member of the rock giants in 2016, having initially served as a stand-in for Sambora on a number of tours after 2011. And, while a Sambora-Bon Jovi reunion may be off the table, the two lead guitarists offered perhaps the next best thing with an era-combining show.

Sambora wielded a heavily relic’d Henrik Danhage signature Charvel, while Phil X opted for a gold Gibson SG as the pair put on an initially subdued – and notably Talkbox-less – take on the 1980s classic, with an octaver-laced solo from Sambora helping crank through the gears.

He’d started by thanking the responders who “risked their lives to save ours” during the wildfires before asking the crowd, “Wanna sing with me?” as the droning opening chords of the song cut through the PA.

Taking place at the Battleship Iowa Museum in San Pedro, California, the show was the latest in a long line of benefit concerts that have been put on to raise much-needed funds in the wake of the LA wildfires that swept through the city in January.

The concerts haven’t disappointed so far, with a female-powered Nirvana reunion, Blink-182 performing with Matt Skiba, and a star-studded show being compared to Live Aid all delivering the goods previously.

Orianthi, meanwhile, made one of her first public appearances since being forced off the Alice Cooper tour due to injury. The guitarist had been forced to perform sat down at PRS's recent 40th anniversary bash.

Last month, Phil X confirmed that new Bon Jovi music – featuring at least one killer guitar solo – is in the works, along with more tour dates, as the band looks to build on the momentum of 2024’s Forever. That record featured Jon Bon Jovi’s first-ever acoustic guitar, after the frontman was reunited with it 45 years after he sold it.

The news seemingly keeps any possibility of a Richie Sambora return on ice. Mind, Bon Jovi had rather brutally shut the door on a reunion last summer, when he hit back at the manner of Samobora's departure, saying: “He wasn’t kicked out, he quit. And he hasn’t made any great overtures about coming back.”

Sambora, meanwhile, has detailed Bon Jovi's disastrous first arena show when, opening for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden, he blew his amp in the first 60 seconds.

Blink-182 reunited with Matt Skiba last Thursday (February 13) during an LA Wildfires benefit show, which saw the band's former guitarist/vocalist perform alongside Tom DeLonge for the first time.

Skiba filled in DeLonge’s spot in blink-182 for a few years after 2015 while the Starcaster-wielding guitarist focused on other projects. After Skiba's recruitment, Bored To Death was the band’s first single sans DeLonge.

Skiba, best known elsewhere as the frontman of Alkaline Trio, was a key player in the creation of the song, which has remained part of the band’s live setlist since DeLonge rejoined in 2022.

Fittingly, blink-182 ushered in the reprisal of the band’s classic lineup as Skiba, DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker performed Bored To Death during the gig.

There's clearly no bad blood between Skiba and the man he replaced – and was then replaced by – as they locked in together, before DeLonge put his guitar down to place an arm around his peer mid-performance. The pair embraced at the end of the song, before DeLonge joked that there was “so much sexual tension” in the air.

“The moment everyone came to the @hollywoodpalladium to see: Matt Skiba playing Bored to Death with Tom DeLonge,” one attendee wrote on Instagram. “In 2016, the song was the first single that Blink 182 released featuring Alkaline Trio singer/songwriter Skiba, following the indefinite departure of founding guitarist DeLonge.

“The biggest pop from the crowd tonight was from the moment they hugged after the song.”

Skiba had said he was “truly happy” to see the band’s classic line-up return, even if it came at his expense, adding that he was “truly grateful” for his time in the band.

All money raised from the show will go towards the Pasadena Humane Society, California Fire Department, LAFD Foundation, and ARC Firefighter Fund at the Hollywood Palladium.

“Los Angeles this is a show meant for you,” bass player and vocalist Mark Hoppus said during the show. “Give it up for the firefighters, first responders, the volunteers, and everyone who’s been working so hard to put this city back together – we love you all.”

The LA Wildfires have affected countless musicians, with Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith and Primus’ Larry LeLonde among those to have lost their homes during the disaster.

Gibson, Fender, Guitar Center, and Spiritbox’s Mike Stringer are among those to have launched initiatives for players affected by the fires, or made donations to various charities, while a host of other benefit shows have made headlines.

There was a female-fronted Nirvana reunion, with St. Vincent and Joan Jett two of the four frontwomen starring, and a John Mayer and Dave Mathews duo performance.

Ozzy Osbourne has downplayed the role he will play at Black Sabbath’s blockbuster final show later this summer, saying he will only be doing “little bits and pieces”.

The heavy metal legends – who forged the sound of the genre from Birmingham’s smoke-filled industrial air and Tony Iommi’s Gibson SG – are set to perform one last show in their hometown this summer, and they’ve got quite the cast joining them.

The list reads like a who’s who of metal and rock royalty, with Pantera and Sleep Token among the generations-spanning bill, which will also play host to Osbourne's final solo set.

However, questions have been raised over the level of involvement Osbourne himself will have in the show, owing to the fact he retired from touring due to health reasons in 2023.

Now, in a new episode of Ozzy Speaks on SiriusXM, Osbourne has shed light on his prospective role in the concert, and downplayed the involvement he will have.

“I'm not planning on doing a set with Black Sabbath but I am doing little bits and pieces with them,” Osbourne says (via Louder). “I am doing what I can, where I feel comfortable.

“I am trying to get back on my feet,” he expands. “When you get up in the morning, you just jump out of bed. I have to balance myself, but I'm not dead. I'm still actively doing things."

As first revealed in 2022, in the wake of some canceled solo tours, the singer has been battling Parkinson's Disease since 2003. He was present for his second induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame late last year but remained seated on a bat-adorned throne during an event that saw Wolfgang Van Halen perform Ozzy songs with a star-studded band.

The role of Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward – whose own involvement in the band has been reduced due to health reasons – has also been the subject of speculation in the lead up to the event.

After all, Rage Against The Machine’s Brad Wilk featured on the band’s final album, 13, and Ozzy’s solo drummer, Tommy Clufetos, has typically filled the vacant drum throne for Sabbath shows over the past decade, save for rare guest appearances.

The show's lineup, however, offers some potential clues over how it might play out. It seems several guest musicians could perform alongside big-name acts like Metallica, Gojira, and Alice In Chains.

These include a lot of singers and drummers, such as Ghost’s Papa V Perpetua, Korn’s Jonathan Davis, and Sleep Token’s acclaimed sticksman, II. As such, it seems possible that both Sabbath members will feature infrequently, with some top-tier performers filling the gaps throughout their set.

Meanwhile, Ozzy has announced the supergroup that will feature doing his last solo performance.

Saturday Night Live! celebrated its 50th anniversary last Friday (February 14) with a Homecoming Concert that saw Nirvana reunite for the second time in two weeks – but this time they drafted in another guest musician to front the band.

For the show, Pat Smear, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl linked up with underrated electric guitar player Post Malone, who helped the band through an infectious rendition of Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Introduced by actor/comedian Adam Sandler, the quartet put on one of the celebratory concert’s standout performances, which has drawn plaudits from artists and Nirvana fans alike.

For the show, Post Malone brought grit and angst to the vocals, and proved once again he is one of the guitar world’s most under-appreciated talents as he absolutely tore through the main progression.

He was also given the chance to flex his familiarity with the fretboard of his Gibson Les Paul, blasting through the lead hook as a Gibson CS-6-toting Smear duly took on rhythm duties.

Post Malone is certainly no stranger to Nirvana’s catalog – he previously performed a 15-song set of Nirvana classics during lockdown – nor is he out of touch with the wider guitar world.

After all, while many may be quick to point to his rap, hip-hop, and R&B background, the singer-guitarist has continually proven himself to be a criminally underrated player, one that’s wholly dedicated to his six-string craft.

Last summer, for example, he surprised Bonnaroo with a pyro-fueled guest spot alongside Billy Strings. Previously, he's nodded to his rock roots with covers of Alice in Chains’ Them Bones and Eric Johnson’s Cliffs of Dover in a guitar battle with Andrew Watt. Oh, and he’s apparently written a “phat jam” with Tom Morello.

“A special rendition,” writes broadcaster Peacock of the performance on Instagram, and many spectators are in agreement.

“How crazy would an actual tour be with this lineup,” writes one fan. “This is my dream lineup for a Nirvana reunion tour,” gushes another. “Sick!” offers Machine Head’s Robb Flynn.

As mentioned, it was the second time in two weeks that Nirvana reunited with the help of guest musicians to fill the role of the late Kurt Cobain. On January 30, the band teamed up with St. Vincent, Kim Gordon, Joan Jett and Violet Grohl for an unannounced FireAid performance concert.

The announcement of Ozzy Osbourne's return – and last-ever live performance – on July 5 marks the historic reunion of the original Black Sabbath members for their first show in 20 years.

Dubbed ‘Back to the Beginning’, this homecoming – and, frankly, celebration of a great legacy – takes Sabbath back to where it all began: Birmingham.

However, instead of a traditional headliner-and-support-style show, this event will bring together some of rock’s most influential, generation-spanning talents – a supergroup, if you will, or a “very supergroup,” as Tony Iommi shared with Planet Rock – for what already looks like an event destined for the history books.

Most intriguing among the lineup is a Tool, Rage Against the Machine and Smashing Pumpkins supergroup, teased by Sharon Osbourne, who appears in the same interview.

“Tom Morello is going to be playing with Billy Corgan and you know the drummer from Tool [Danny Carey]. You wouldn't have thought that you would see those three guys together, but they're all from Chicago, so they're all home guys,” says Osbourne.

“Then you’ll see Slash and Duff [McKagan] and whoever they choose to play with,” she elaborates in an interview with NME. “David Draiman [Disturbed] is going to come up and sing, Jonathan [Davis] from KoRn is going to be here and he could be playing with [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Chad Smith or whoever! Alice In Chains are coming and they’re playing as the band.”

As Osbourne explains, assembling all these big names was no easy feat – but their willingness to commit is a testament to Ozzy’s legacy and, by extension, Black Sabbath’s.

“People are coming in from all over the world – they're all gigging because it's the summer, so everybody's out doing festivals, and somehow, it worked. Bands like Anthrax, we asked them to be a part of it, and they said, ‘Oh, don't even bother to send us a ticket. We're going to be there no matter what.’”

After all, as Osbourne puts it, “This is a celebration – of the genre and the pioneers who started it and passed it on to all these bands. Usually, this thing is done when you’re dead – so it’s nice that these guys can be alive to be appreciated!”

Tickets for the mega-event go on sale on February 14, with proceeds from the show set to be shared equally between Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice.

Visit Live Nation for tickets.

Ozzy Osbourne has announced he’ll be coming back for his last-ever live performance this summer, as part of a history-making “Back to the Beginning” show that will see him reunite with his original Black Sabbath bandmates – and share the bill with some of the biggest names in rock and metal.

The event comes after plans for a final Black Sabbath show had been mooted last May, when Geezer Butler confirmed he and Osbourne were both up for a blockbuster curtain-closer.

However, after Osbourne’s retirement in February 2023 and the cancellation of all his remaining live shows, the prospect of a Black Sabbath finale looked unlikely.

Now, though, one last show is indeed set to take place at Villa Park, Birmingham, on July 5, and it will see Osbourne reunite with his OG Black Sabbath bandmates – Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward – for their first gig in 20 years.

Not only that, they’ll be sharing the bill with a bevy of elite heavy metal and rock acts. It’s easily going to be the metal event of the year, but in all honesty, it looks like it is shaping up to be the metal event of the entire decade, too.

As per a press release, Osbourne will play his own short set before joining Black Sabbath for his final bow.

The all-star event will also feature appearances from (brace yourself): Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Halestorm, Lamb of God, Anthrax and Mastodon.

Additional performances come via Billy Corgan, Jake E. Lee, Duff McKagan, David Draiman, Lzzy Hale and Jonathan Davis, as well as Mike Bordin, Rudy Sarzo, Sammy Hagar, Slash, II from Sleep Token, Tom Morello, Wolfgang Van Halen and more.

It is, simply put, one of the biggest guitar and metal lineups we’ve ever seen, and as Morello himself puts it, “This will be the greatest heavy metal show ever.”

“It’s my time to go Back to the Beginning… time for me to give back to the place where I was born,” Osbourne says. “How blessed am I to do it with the help of people whom I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever.”

Even more names are set to be announced for the all-day event in the run-up to the show. Tickets are set to go on sale Friday 14 February, and all profits from the show will be shared equally between Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice.

Visit Live Nation for tickets.

Last weekend played host to the 67th Grammy Awards, during which the likes of St Vincent, Andrew Watt, Gojira and other guitar acts all scored big wins.

Aside from the glittering awards and emotional speeches, the evening’s itinerary also included a number of stand-out performances, with Joe Bonamassa, Billie Eilish, Bruno Mars and more all taking the stage at various points.

Perhaps the most intriguing performance, though, came from Grace Bowers and Chris Martin, as the rock/funk/blues electric guitar wunderkind teamed up with the Coldplay frontman for an awe-inspiring performance of All My Love.

The song – lifted from Coldplay’s 2024 record Moon Music – was performed without Martin’s bandmates, and its Grammys run-out was dedicated to the memories of a number of musicians we recently lost, including late punk pioneer Steve Albini and One Direction frontman Liam Payne.

Bowers, her Gibson SG and her spell-binding solo chops were on hand to help a piano-positioned Martin – and a string section – navigate the powerful memorial moment, and although a full clip is yet to be posted online, a snippet from Bowers’ Instagram shows off a snippet of her lead passage.

Leaning away from the out-and-out rock licks for which she’s become so revered over the past year, Bowers instead showed a more cinematic side to her playing, conjuring up anthemic, reverb-soaked and delay-tinged runs that tug at the heartstrings.

The experience and sheer prestige of playing the Grammys stage with Chris Martin surrounded by the music world’s most influential names was not lost on Bowers, who explained in the accompanying Instagram caption that the performance took her somewhat by surprise.

“A few days ago I got a text from @flytetymejam [Jimmy Jam, producer] asking me if he could send my name over to an 'artist' for a 'show,'” she wrote. “Long story short it ended up being Chris Martin from @coldplay who graciously invited me to play the Grammys.

“The honor is not lost on me, and being in a room with all these amazing artists was insane. Thank you Chris and Jimmy for giving me this opportunity, I’ll never forget it!”

It was perhaps Bowers’ most high profile performance to date, and yet another milestone in her skyrocketing guitar career. It certainly gets her 2025 off to a flying start, after she spent much of 2024 establishing herself as one of the finest young guitar talents of her time.

“I feel like an old soul in a young body,” Bowers told Guitar World when discussing her whirlwind year. “People tell me I was born in the wrong era, but I think the reverse is true.

“I love music from the ’60s and ’70s, and I want to update it for current times. I see people my own age in the audience, and their minds are blown. I’m making this stuff sound new to them.”

As mentioned, the 67th Grammys proved to be a successful night for those flying the flag for guitar music. St. Vincent bagged Best Alternative Music Album, Best Rock Song and Best Alternative Music Performance, while Gojira went home with the Best Metal Performance award thanks to their showing at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.