Classic Rock

Every month Classic Rock is packed with exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes features on rock’s biggest names, from Led Zeppelin to Deep Purple, from Guns N’ Roses to the Rolling Stones, from the Sex Pistols to AC/DC and beyond. Each issue plays host to the heftiest rock reviews section on the planet. In an average issue, you’ll find over 150 albums reviewed, all from the ever-varied, multi-faceted world of rock - whether it’s hard rock or heavy metal, prog or punk, goth rock or southern rock, we’ve got it covered.

WELCOME

This month’s contributors

CLASSIC ROCK

U2 Take Live Music Into The Future • Mind-blowing, but does the multibillion-dollar Sphere’s ‘multi-sensory’ experience threaten gigs as we know them?

Terry Kirkman

RIP

The Wanton Bishops • Nader Mansour on giving up screaming, dating wild women and the insecurity of musicians.

Stephen Ackles

Ron Haffkine

Jon Kennedy

Roger Whittaker

New Bruce Dickinson And Priest Albums

Iommi Jams With Black Sabbath Ballet

MEWS

Graveyard • The retro-rocking Swedes return with a “contemplative” new album with isolation-themed lyrics.

Green Lung • Horror theatricality and Zeppelin-style folk diversify the doom diet beyond Sabbath alone.

Michael Catton • Meet the British/Danish rock singer with Iron Maiden in his veins and the 80s in his music.

ZZ Top • Celebrating a real-life Texan brothel, the visiting of which Billy Gibbons says was in its day “a rite of passage”, after 50 years it’s still one of the band’s best-loved songs and a must-play at shows.

Chris Shiflett • The Foo Fighters guitarist on his solo projects, his hair-metal history, and why surfing might hold the key to happiness.

"I'VE BEEN ROCKIN' SINCE THE DAY I WAS BORN" • Well, no one saw this album coming. Dolly Parton, the undisputed Queen Of Country, talks about her new rock album and the Who’s Who of rock royalty who clamoured to appear on it, and looks back over her extraordinary life.

THIS IS WHO I AM • Ahead of the publication of his revealing autobiography, Geddy Lee talks about some of the events and people who have helped to shape his life as a person and as a musician.

IS THIS REAL LIFE? • There have been wild nights, bad decisions, imposter syndrome and much more, but The Struts never stopped wanting to be the biggest and the best.

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE • With songs about God, love and hope, Duff McKagan’s new album Lighthouse might be a long way from the music he’s best known for, but he says it still reflects the punk rocker in him.

THE MAN WHO SAW THE FUTURE • In 1970, David Bowie the one-hit wonder was on the verge of becoming David Bowie the decade-defining artist. The Man Who Sold The World was the album that helped him recalibrate his sound and vision.

AIN`T NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING • On Nashville’s mainstream country highway, the Brothers Osborne have marked out their own independent lane. Now, having weathered a few years of personal disclosures that might have derailed their career, they return with an album that celebrates freedom and inclusiveness.

THE ITALIAN JOB • Thirty years ago, Guns N’ Roses released The Spaghetti Incident?, an album of covers, and brought a load of mostly obscure, mostly punk-rock tracks to a wider audience. We take a look at the originals that fired up Axl and co. enough to want to record their own versions.

EVER MEET LEMMY? • He was so nervous about playing with Bruce Springsteen that he thought he was going to throw up; there was “something other worldly” about Mark Lanegan; meeting Tom Morello put him in a head spin; Jon Bon Jovi is “a real-life rock star, in the very best way”… He is The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon, and these are...