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

“I have come a very long way in the last two-and-a-bit years” • Back from the brink: the Thunder vocalist who survived major medical trauma returns.

RIP • Thank you… and good night.

JD Souther • November 2, 1945 – September 17, 2024

Nick Gravenites • October 2, 1938 – September 18, 2024

Freddie Salem • May 15, 1954 – September 23, 2024

Tito Jackson • October 15, 1953 – September 15, 2024

Robin Guy • June 14, 1970 – September 8, 2024

Matt Long • November 7, 1993 – October 6, 2024

Kris Kristofferson • June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024

Pink Floyd sell catalogue for $400 million • David Gilmour insists it’s all to end the arguments.

NEWS

Gary Marx • Co-founder of Sisters and then Ghost Dance, the influential goth guitarist has returned to his glam roots.

Sacri Monti • Meet the psychedelic rockers who don’t know where they’re going but dig the journey.

Thin Lizzy go ‘unplugged’ • Eric Bell involved in AI-assisted new release.

“Good has won…” • Arnel Pineda won’t be leaving Journey after all.

Fantastic Negrito • Xavier Dphrepaulezz on his concept album inspired by the tumultuous relationship with his late father.

Crossbone Skully • Welcome to Alice Cooper guitarist’s Mutt Lange-produced 80s-rock-leaning project.

Meat Loaf I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) • It was the power ballad to end all power ballads, and 30 years later people still ponder what the ‘it’ is that the singer wouldn’t do.

Joan Armatrading • The singer-songwriter on her new album, inspirations, being a ‘band’, what her key was about, meeting Nelson Mandela…

WHAT’S THAT SOUND? • Welcome to 1984: it was the album that would see Van Halen straddle the planet like a rock colossus, but it would also mark the end of the original line-up featuring charismatic talisman Dave Lee Roth. This is its story.

YOU GOT TO ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES TO GET TO WHAT’S REAL • In an exclusive extract from his touching new autobiography Brothers – a tribute to Eddie (see p.88 for the review) – Alex Van Halen recalls the recording of 1984.

High Rollers • When Ronnie Wood, the Stones and some A-list mates holed up at his house to help with his solo album, it sparked a days-long party, a Rolling Stones hit and the last album by arguably their finest line-up.

THE NAME OF THE GAME • When ABBA-mad Opeth leader Mikael Åkerfeldt met one of their singers, he “lost it”. She didn’t sing on their new concept album, but some other, perhaps unlikely, big names did.

BASS-IC INSTINCT • Plucked from obscurity in 1975 to be in David Bowie’s band, then unceremoniously out of the picture five years later, bassist George Murray looks back on his time with the Thin White Duke.

IN THE BEGINNING • With previously unseen photographs from their early days as featured in the new Queen I Collector’s Edition, Sir Brian May talks us through sights of the band in the early seventies.

“LET’S NOT FORGET ABOUT HAVING FUN” • With their ninth studio album In Murmuration, Finnish rockers Von Hertzen Brothers have replaced their erstwhile prog epics for a more...