Latest articles by Paul Elliott
“I said to Ozzy, ‘I don’t think we should do it’”: Tony Iommi says that Black Sabbath’s final show almost didn’t happen
“I hadn’t seen Ozzy for a bit, and it was difficult seeing him like that”
“Ozzy said, ‘You still got that guy George in your band? He’s crazier than I am!’”
“I told him, ‘If you hit me, you’re probably gonna knock me out. But if I get up, you better run’”
“I always wanted to write with Bob Dylan. A crazy idea. Why would he pay attention to a peanut like me?”
“I’m so proud of it – but I couldn’t get Bob to write the lyrics”
“The very day when I'm supposed to record this song, I hear that Steve's passed away”: Brian May's tribute to Steve Cropper
May’s lyrics refer to Cropper’s famous co-write (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay
Carl Palmer recalls how an eccentric pop star almost ended up singing for ’80s rock supergroup Asia
The guy who wrote Owner Of A Lonely Heart was also in the running
“Somebody threw a live chicken on stage. I threw it back – and the audience tore it pieces!”: Alice Cooper’s crazy early years
“I didn’t want Alice to be a hero – I wanted him to be a villain”
“Eddie would say, ‘Can you hit this note?’ I’d hit it and everybody would go, ‘Wow!’”
“The studio was a two-car garage turned into a control room and a room. It was really tight in there”
“When it didn’t sell 16 million copies, there was anxiety”: Lindsey Buckingham's highs and lows with Fleetwood Mac
In previously unpublished extracts from a major interview, Buckingham discusses the band’s classic albums and more
“I sang it and he was crying”: How Dolly Parton’s heart-wrenching ballad became a global hit
“We had one of those love-hate relationships – it was just hard to move on”
Jackson Browne’s golden years – by Bruce Springsteen and Browne himself
The Boss spoke of the “emotional power” in Browne’s songs
“I said, ‘That’s really bad. I don’t think Van Halen would put that on the B-side of their worst record’”
His tough-talking approach helped create one of the band’s biggest hits
“People often crack jokes about that album”: Carl Palmer on the flop that led ELP to break up
Keith Emerson called it “an embarrassment against everything I’ve worked for”
“Mutt said, ‘If it doesn’t work get rid of the guy’”: Why Def Leppard fired Jim Steinman as producer
“The food budget for the Steinman sessions was probably as much money as The Dark Side Of The Moon cost to record”
“I said, ‘What if Ozzy sang on this song?’ But then I said, ‘How about Rob Halford? The Metal God!’’”
“Rob is really into heavy metal, like really into it. After all these years, he just loves heavy metal”
“I remember saying to Clapton, ‘You try playing that one riff for eight minutes!’”: The secret to Status Quo's riff power
"That song is where the Quo twelve-bar boogie shuffle came from"
“The last time I saw him was three weeks before he died”: Scott Gorham on Thin Lizzy legend Phil Lynott
“Even if he had stopped taking drugs right there on the spot, I think it had still gone too far”
“Queen were great but their fans threw things at us – lighters, shoes, a loaf of bread, whatever”
“We learnt a lot from that whole experience”
“It was one of those scary, scary moments. But ELP always liked a bit of pressure!”
“The rumours said we were broke. That is not true”
“I wrote those songs before she died – with the exception of one”: Jackson Browne’s ’70s classic
“Her death was a total surprise. Maybe it should not have been, but it was”
“They weren’t the best band in the world, but they were stars”: The doomed rivals of Kiss
“They just exuded this flamboyant glittery rock ’n’ roll”
“It’s the best album ever made! It transcends rock boundaries”: The Queen classic hailed as the GOAT
“The whole album means so much to me. It blew my mind”
“It’s one of the first classic rock ’n’ roll videos”: Carl Palmer on ELP’s greatest hit
“We played California Jam and 120,000 people paid and another 100,000 smashed down the fences and broke in”
“This bloke is walking around on the stage as we’re playing. I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on?’”
“He said, ‘I don’t think anyone’s actually ever recorded your band properly’”
