Eric Clapton has spent sixty years being called the greatest guitarist who ever lived, and sixty years being more honest about his own limitations than the people making that claim. The specific quality that distinguishes Clapton’s self-assessment from false modesty is its precision — he does not make general gestures of humility toward the guitar-playing … Read more
Ray Manzarek spent fifty years as the keeper of the Doors flame — the surviving member most willing to discuss the band’s history in specific detail, most committed to ensuring that the full scope of what the band had attempted was understood by an audience that sometimes reduced them to Light My Fire and Morrison’s … Read more
There is a version of greatness that requires a stadium and a lighting rig and a hundred thousand people singing the words back at you. Bruce Springsteen has that version. He has sold out Giants Stadium multiple nights in a row, has performed to crowds so large that the back rows could not see the … Read more
The fluorescent lights in Room 714 had a way of making everything look slightly unreal, like a stage set someone had forgotten to finish. Outside the door I stood with my phone raised, the screen already misted by tears I could not blink away. Inside, a mountain of a man in an ill-fitting tuxedo jacket … Read more
By the early 1980s, Aerosmith was, by most reasonable industry assessments, finished. Joe Perry and Brad Whitford had both left the band, driven out by a toxic combination of drug addiction, internal resentment, and the specific exhaustion of a band that had achieved enormous success in the 1970s and then nearly destroyed itself trying to … Read more
Legendary rock icon Rod Stewart experienced a frightening health scare during a recent concert in Utah but demonstrated his trademark determination by finishing the performance despite the incident. During his June 19 show at Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre in West Valley City, the 81-year-old singer appeared noticeably less energetic than usual. According to reports … Read more
The long-running debate over who deserves a place among rock’s greatest guitarists has flared up once again, this time with Joan Jett delivering a blistering response to Ted Nugent’s criticism of her inclusion on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. The feud began late last year when Nugent took aim … Read more
In the mid-1970s, Ann Wilson and her sister Nancy formed Heart with a sound built on Ann’s extraordinary vocal range and the band’s fusion of hard rock power with folk-influenced songwriting — a combination that produced Crazy on You, Magic Man, and Barracuda, songs that demonstrated a level of musicianship and vocal control that placed … Read more
By the time David’s lawyer called again that evening, the tone had already shifted from confidence to concern. “Captain Carter,” he began carefully, “there may have been a misunderstanding about access and communication with the children—” “It’s not a misunderstanding,” I interrupted calmly. “It’s a lockout. And a false statement made about parental contact.” There … Read more
On the eighth day, I couldn’t ignore it anymore. The smell of untouched food was starting to fade in the kitchen, and every time I passed her bedroom door, there was the same silence—thick, complete, almost deliberate. My husband brushed it off. “She’s just in her honeymoon phase. Let her be.” But something about it … Read more