By the time the police arrived, nearly everyone in the parking lot had already decided who the villain was. The old biker. At least that’s what every phone camera was recording. Mine included. If you watched only the first twenty seconds of the video, you’d see exactly what the internet loves. A gray-haired man in … Read more
In Hawaii, there is a powerful word: mana. It describes a person’s spiritual energy, presence, and life force. It can be felt in the way someone speaks, sings, or carries themselves. For legendary Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, his mana shone through every note he sang. Those who heard Israel perform often spoke of the warmth, … Read more
The relationship between Noel and Liam Gallagher is the most publicly documented sibling conflict in rock history — documented not through the accounts of outsiders but through the participants themselves, both of whom have shown a consistent willingness to say exactly what they think about each other in public forums, with a directness that ranges … Read more
On June 18, 2011, Amy Winehouse walked onto a stage in Belgrade, Serbia, as part of a European tour that had been booked for a period when the people closest to her had serious reservations about whether she was in a condition to perform. The Belgrade concert was the third date of the tour. The … Read more
Queen’s internal dynamics have been discussed in the accounts of the surviving members with the careful selectivity of people who loved each other, worked with each other for decades, and have decided that what is owed to the dead is a form of honest protection — not concealment of what happened but not full exposure … Read more
Bob Dylan’s relationship with his own songs is unlike any other musician’s relationship with their catalog — not because the songs are uniquely excellent, though many of them are, but because Dylan appears to genuinely believe that a song is not a fixed object but a living thing, capable of meaning different things in different … Read more
There are songs that exist in a musician’s catalog in a different category from all the others — not better or worse in any technical sense, but weighted differently, carrying a specific personal gravity that the public history of the recording does not fully reveal. For Elvis Presley, that song was My Happiness — the … Read more
For more than sixty years, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones have stood as the two towering giants of rock history. Fans have spent decades arguing over which band reigns supreme, but behind the scenes, the musicians themselves have always shared a deep respect for one another. Despite years of friendship and occasional vocal collaborations … Read more
Few live performances have reached legendary status quite like Prince’s unforgettable guitar solo during the 2004 induction of George Harrison into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The all-star tribute performance of While My Guitar Gently Weeps initially belonged to an incredible lineup of musicians. Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne shared lead vocals, while … Read more
Geddy Lee is one of the most technically accomplished musicians in rock history — a bassist, vocalist, and keyboardist whose combination of skills on a single stage has been described by musicians across genres as among the most remarkable in live performance. He has spent fifty years inside Rush’s catalog with the specific intimacy of … Read more