Latest articles by Paul Elliott
“Joni hates the word ‘confessional’ as it implies you’ve done something wrong”: Brandi Carlile names her favourite Joni Mitchell album
Carlile and Mitchell have formed a strong bond in recent years
“We were very secretive about the song title. For a long time we called it Burger King!”: The story of ’90s pop banger Barbie Girl
“We never had the urge to be credible – it’s just not us!”
“A&M Records didn’t know we were signed to them – even though we’d done two albums for them!”: Supertramp's rise and fall
“Breakfast In America took eight months to finish – some people would call us anal!”
“John Lennon said that it’s the one song he wished he would have written”: The disco classic that influenced songs by Lennon and ABBA
How the leader of KC And The Sunshine Band created a perfect floor-filler
“It’s essentially a ballad, but we put a pounding beat to it”: The classic ’80s No 1 by A-ha that inspired a U2 anthem
“The melody line must have been lying in Bono’s subconsciousness”
“Bon liked a drink, but he wasn’t just a wild man”: The life and times of legendary AC/DC singer Bon Scott
As Angus Young said: “Bon joined us pretty late in his life. But that guy had more youth in him than people half his age”
“Brian Jones was the first steel slide player I heard”: Keith Richards pays tribute to Stones guitarists past and present
“Once I heard Brian playing Elmore James, I thought, ‘I’ve found a guy here who I can mess with’”
“Simon said to Rodgers, ‘If you want to hit anyone, hit me’ – so he did”: The supergroup who split after a punch-up
Bad Company made some of the greatest rock music of the 1970s
“People told me they heard it at weddings – with a guy singing it at the organ. Oh God!”: Bryan Adams and the ballad that ate the world
The Groover from Vancouver’s record-breaking hit
“He wrote some of the best parts of Hotel California and Desperado”: Don Henley’s praise for his Eagles bandmate Glenn Frey
“We wrote the soundtrack to a lot of people’s lives”
“When Tarantino first sent me the script I hated it”: Why Neil Diamond refused to have his song used in Pulp Fiction
The legendary singer-songwriter also turned down Jay-Z
“The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band”: The story of a cult classic
“A savage series of atonal thrusts and electronic feedback”
“We were labelled ‘the new Led Zeppelin’. But it was a blessing and a curse”: A great rock band that had it all – and then blew it
As one critic said, this band had “more good riffs in one song than there are in the first four Black Sabbath albums”
“Black Sabbath and Judas Priest invented true heavy metal music”: How Priest singer Rob Halford remembers their breakthrough moment
And how they triumphed amid the ‘mudbath’ of the first Monsters Of Rock festival
“In terms of the guitar solo, he just keeps going!”: The genius of David Gilmour – by Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett and more
Plus! Comfortably Numb or comfortably dumb? Find out with our Pink Floyd quiz challenge
“That was a big mistake. I underestimated just how difficult it would be”: When Phil Collins played drums with a Genesis tribute act
Plus: the Collins solo record that Charlie Watts bought
How a singer’s beloved pet cheated death during the making of a star-studded ’80s No.1
A dramatic story also starring Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder and Elizabeth Taylor
“Lars and I saw him at the Whiskey. ‘Let’s get that guitar player… oh, he’s playing bass!’”: James Hetfield on Cliff Burton
“I feel like Cliff was my ally in the battle”
“I don’t think we’ll have to take peyote and puke like we did”: How Don Henley and Glenn Frey remembered the Eagles’ wild years
“Certainly, we don’t want to fail. We’ve never really known much failure”
“We wrote it on an old Wurlitzer piano”: When Sylvester Stallone wanted another Eye Of The Tiger, he knew who to call
“Every word in that song is chock full of meaning”
“I’m never gonna be ashamed of that song”: But Kings Of Leon frontman Caleb Followill laughed when he first sang it
“It was a hook, although I knew it didn’t really make sense”
“A metalhead had a list of names for his fanzine. Metallica was on there”: James Hetfield on Metallica’s early days
“We were out for world domination!”
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to write a song with just one chord?’”: When Neil Diamond teamed up with Robbie Robertson
“That song had to stay on that one chord to maintain the tension of the whole thing”
