Art Garfunkel has never fully forgiven Paul Simon for Graceland. That is not the standard narrative about the album — the standard narrative is one of triumph, of creative reinvention, of a middle-aged musician traveling to South Africa and finding in township music a sound that revitalized his career and produced one of the most … Read more
The date was January 1967. The venue was the Bag O’Nails club in London. Eric Clapton was 21 years old and had already been called God — literally, in graffiti on a London Underground wall: “Clapton is God” — by a British public that had decided he was the greatest guitarist alive and that the … Read more
In the history of popular music, there is no rivalry more studied, more mythologized, or more genuinely consequential than the one between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the 1960s. It is usually described from the Beatles’ side — as the dominant force, the innovators, the ones setting the pace while everyone else responded. … Read more
There are voices and then there are forces of nature that happen to live inside human beings. The distinction matters because forces of nature cannot be fully explained by the things that explain voices — training, technique, range, control. Those things can be measured and taught and improved. What Freddie Mercury had included all of … Read more
There is a version of artistic suffering that is romanticized and dishonest — the idea that pain automatically produces greatness, that misery is a prerequisite for genius. John Lennon’s story is not that story. His story is more specific and more uncomfortable than that. It is the story of a man who, at several precise … Read more
Life in the spotlight has never been easy for Pink and her husband Carey Hart, but things became especially intense when online criticism targeted their 14-year-old child over parenting decisions that quickly exploded across social media. What started as a simple family moment turned into a storm of judgment from strangers online. Thousands of people … Read more
For most artists, sharing a stage with one of their musical heroes would be nerve-racking. For Taylor Swift, it turned into one of the most unforgettable fangirl moments of her career when she performed the legendary breakup anthem “You’re So Vain” live alongside its creator, Carly Simon. The moment happened during Taylor’s Speak Now tour … Read more
For most artists, sharing a stage with one of their musical heroes would be nerve-racking. For Taylor Swift, it turned into one of the most unforgettable fangirl moments of her career when she performed the legendary breakup anthem “You’re So Vain” live alongside its creator, Carly Simon. The moment happened during Taylor’s Speak Now tour … Read more
The day the hotel manager told me over the phone that my son would have to enter his senior prom through the service door “for safety reasons,” I felt something inside me break clean in half. Seventeen years of watching Noah battle Duchenne muscular dystrophy—seventeen years of narrow doorways, steep curbs, and strangers who looked … Read more
“These bikers are going to finish me off while I bleed out.” That was my last coherent thought at 3:17 a.m. as I sat pinned behind the wheel of my brand-new BMW, its crumpled hood wrapped around a guardrail like a tin can. The airbag had shattered my nose. A jagged piece of the guardrail … Read more