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May 2026

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65 articles

May 30
- “People are still trying to learn Free Bird and how to play like him. But he never got to hear all the praise about his playing”: Lynyrd Skynyrd legend Gary Rossington’s memories of his fellow guitarist Allen Collins and the band’s heroic ’80s comeback
May 29
- “You have no excuses to have bad technique nowadays”: Has Matteo Mancuso arrived as the world’s greatest guitar player?
- “Neil sat in the control room and played it. We looked at each other and we both knew it was a number one record. It was incredible”: How Neil Young created his biggest hit – with love in his heart and an ache in his back
- “John, Paul and George looked like they had gone back in time, like they were kids again, playing together for the sheer enjoyment of it”: The joyful making of The Beatles’ life-affirming finale
- Let's get quizzical: It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #8!
- “It comes across as a song about peaceful love and hippie stuff, but it was a protest song”: The story of Hold My Hand, the single that launched Hootie & The Blowfish, the most unlikely mega-selling band of the 1990s
- “Felder and Walsh were in the control room, one to the right, one to the left, like gunfighters! Felder was the ultimate technician. Walsh was the ultimate ‘feel’ guy. Together they were phenomenal”: The making of the Eagles’ masterpiece
May 26
- “I was speechless to see that kind of God-given ability. You never forget something like that”: Kiss frontman Paul Stanley on the 1969 gig that made him realise what it meant to be a rock star
- “Every time I sing ‘If everything could feel this real forever’ – and everyone else is singing it in time – that’s pretty powerful”: How Dave Grohl created the cathartic rock anthem that became the Foo Fighters’ signature song
May 25
- “When we went to record it, the record company said, ‘Man, they won’t play that, it’s too long.’ But we said, ‘We don’t care!’”: How the young Lynyrd Skynyrd turned a simple love song into a southern rock epic
- “I began writing a song in my head about the drudgery of being an astronaut. An entire verse fell out of my mind and onto the page”: The classic song that transformed Elton John into a global superstar
- “By using Sellotape I could make it play two preset rhythms at the same time, creating cool beats”: 50 years ago this summer, Jean-Michel Jarre began making the album that took electronic music global
May 24
- “It was very emotional. There was a feeling that this was the end”: The mystery of Abba’s melancholy parting shot
- “She sang it once. That was it. That’s the record, that’s the vocals. From a vocal standpoint, no one has that much courage. And of course it was spectacular”: How Alanis Morissette made You Oughta Know – with a little help from two Red Hot Chili Peppers
- “Kurt was sitting in the bathtub with a Walkman on, listening to the song, and when the tape ended, he kissed me and said, 'Oh, finally, now I don't have to be the only songwriter in the band!'”: Dave Grohl's evolution as a songwriter
May 23
- “If we had stuck together we could have been as big as Led Zeppelin – or at the very least, Deep Purple. We had the stuff!”: The heavy rock innovators whose hard-hitting drummer was a star before John Bonham
- “There was a native American reservation where single men would find comfort in a bottle of very cheap wine called Cracklin’ Rose. That wine became their woman. I had to write a song about that”: Neil Diamond on his classic hits and the art of songwriting
- “People have used it as their wedding song. I often think, ‘Hey, did you listen to the lyrics?!’”: The classic number one hit with a sting in its tail
May 22
- “I told them I was dying and they didn’t believe me. I could tell by the look on my doctor’s face that there was something very, very wrong with me”: Robert Smith on the madness and the magic of The Cure’s early days
- “I used to think expensive analogue synths were boring, but I learned how to make them exciting”: Olof Dreijer on vintage gear and why he "couldn't do what I do without Ableton"
- “It’s not dark yet, but it’s gettin’ there…”: How Bob Dylan confronted his own mortality in a hauntingly beautiful song – and re-established himself as an artist of real creative relevance
- Quizzy Gillespie: It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #7!
May 21
- “You can’t make music in a test tube and do math. There has to be spontaneity with a little planning and a lot of mistakes”: How Tool created enigmatic, brain-bursting alternative rock with a late-’90s masterpiece
- "It’s mad, the splits now - the major labels own your masters. They want 88% and that's standard across the board. So every act who signs to a major is not making money": We talk the modern music industry with Dea Matrona
May 20
- “Bowie’s literally three feet away, then the hairs on the back of my neck went up and I was like, this is insane – how does this happen?”: David Torn tells us about the time David Bowie's genius was on full display in the studio
- “It’s a unique Moog synth that looks nothing like the rest of their line-up – that’s where our name comes from!”: Jump Source on rare Moogs, closet studios and why the best gear “has to have character”
- “I'm a kid of the '80s, so The Smiths were right there for me. That might explain the Radiohead phenomenon – if we’re going to exorcise this darkness we’re going to go really dark”: Ed O’Brien explores the relationship between music and mental well-being
- “It’s our Stairway To Heaven, our Hotel California. It’s a song that we’re never going to able to duplicate”: The No 1 rock anthem inspired by a “nasty” breakup – written by a singer who dreamed of being in Metallica
May 19
- “Everyone's using the same plugins – if your stuff sounds unique, it’s going to give you an edge”: Carlos de la Garza on the new Death Cab For Cutie project and why drummers make the best producers
- “We have a vision that’s going to take us through multiple albums”: Meet Saint Clair - the artful four-piece that sound like a collision of Radiohead and Pixies
- “A barometer is if I wouldn’t say it out loud, then I probably wouldn’t use it as a lyric”: How Olivia Dean’s joyous breakthrough song was crafted
May 18
- “Just the quirky 7/8 time reminds me of Roger. It’s not a song I would have written. It points itself at Roger”: The classic track from The Dark Side Of The Moon that gave Pink Floyd their first US hit
- “Rick put me on the spot. He said, ‘So, this is a Les Paul.’ I was like, ‘I know.’ Then he went, ‘Okay, and this is a Marshall…’”: Why The Cult scrapped an entire album and re-recorded it with Rick Rubin
May 17
- “It was the record that changed our lives. The record that won us freedom of creative expression”: Rush frontman Geddy Lee recalls how the band's 1976 prog classic 2112 transformed their fortunes
May 16
- “I was sitting at the bar with Keith. He asked me what I was doing with Guns, and I told him about the situation with Axl. And Keith said, ‘You never leave’”: When Slash turned to Keith Richards for career advice
- “So he said, ‘I'm envisioning a very kind of crafted little arrangement, kind of like a music box’”: The story of the delicate, human-sized power ballad that was the Bangles’ last hurrah
May 15
- “We were on the Howard Stern show. My personal assistant asked me, ‘Would you mind switching places with someone? I said, ‘Eff off!’ He said, ‘Let me tell you who it is first. It’s Paul McCartney.’ I said, ‘It’s done!’”: Ozzy Osbourne’s funny stories
- “I saw this big mane of hair coming down the hallway. I could hear her saying, ‘Where is he?’ Someone said, ‘There he is.’ And Tina says, ‘Bryan, I loooove this song! I wanna record it!’”: When Bryan Adams and Tina Turner created an all-time great duet
- Quizzy Rascal: It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #6!
May 14
- “Fran knew Barry, and I knew Fran, and Fran had played with Sib, and Sib had played with Tom, and Barry knew Tom, and Tom knew me, but Fran didn’t know that I knew that he knew Barry too”: The strange tale of Boston’s record-breaking debut album
May 13
- “The head of LA’s Mexican mafia was in a cell next to me. He passed me a note and asked for an autograph for his daughter”: The hair-raising adventures of ’90s rock icons Stone Temple Pilots and their doomed singer Scott Weiland
- “I knew it was a better song than I’d written up to that point. I’d turned a corner as a songwriter. But in terms of thinking it was a hit, I had no idea”: How a pilgrimage to the crucible of rock ’n’ roll inspired the ’90s classic Walking In Memphis
May 12
- “I knew I was good. But they wanted Lindsey. They wanted somebody to play like Peter Green. They did not need another woman in the band”: Stevie Nicks on Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham and a whole lot of drama
- “Lots of people say that song is gibberish. It's not. It's totally about that”: How Thom Yorke channelled his tour exhaustion into the track that saved Radiohead from oblivion
- Native Instruments’ Komplete 26 is here, and this vast collection of instruments and sounds has just about everything a producer could ever need
May 10
- “Walk on. Press a button. Leave the gear to play a song all on its own. While we piss off back to the booze in the dressing room and chortle to ourselves”: The mistakes and judicious choices that made New Order’s Blue Monday
May 9
- “It was like panning for gold. Amongst the brown murky waters, I saw this track all shiny and glimmery, shining like a big rock of gold. It said, 'Play me, play me!”: How Gorillaz deployed some sublime music theory to build their most beloved tune
May 8
- “Some of the public found Genesis with Peter Gabriel a bit too strange. But there was a lot of fear about whether we could carry on without him”: How Phil Collins became the singing drummer and led Genesis from despair to superstardom
- "Until then, I’d always thought that putting tongues in mouths was disgusting, but when he gave me my first proper kiss, I did indeed ‘have to let it linger’": How the Cranberries bucked '90s trends and made the surprise hit that's become huge once again
- What just happened? It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #5!
May 7
- “It was time to put all that behind us. Then he played me this one part for this new song and I was like, ‘Oh yeah’”: How Calvin Harris and Katy Perry buried the hatchet and crafted their groovetastic 2017 hit Feels
May 6
- “The whole thing was so exciting for me – to actually have control of my baby for the first time. I was very nervous, too – because you really wonder if you’re capable”: How Kate Bush created a classic single and became a completely self-sufficient auteur
- “I wasn't allowed to do that when I was on a label. They saw success in one song, and they thought, ‘We've got to replicate that’”: Emily Burns on shunning the majors and the freedom of becoming a self-releasing artist
May 5
- “All through our set, pimply-faced young boys wearing Iron Maiden shirts would be giving us the middle finger”: How Stone Temple Pilots fought their way to the top – inspired by Jane’s Addiction and championed by Dave Mustaine
May 4
- “You don’t get the sale price - you’re going to pay the full $150”: Thinking of making your next music tech purchase on a rent-to-own plan? Read this first
May 3
- “Back in the ’70s he got up with us and played Train Kept A-Rollin’. That was amazing, but of course I was intimidated. He’s a genius. He’s Mozart!”: Joe Perry salutes his guitar heroes Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck
May 2
- “I love writing songs. I love being in the studio. I love touring. That stuff’s the greatest. All the rest of it is literally the worst thing you could experience”: Why an underground hero is calling time on one of 21st-century metal's greatest bands
- “It was too successful really - we weren’t cut out for it. We were fish out of water”: How the Boo Radleys wrote one of the most optimistic radio hits of the ‘90s, with fresh insight from its singer
May 1
- “The synths only let you play one note at a time, which was great as we couldn’t play chords anyway”: How Depeche Mode launched their career with one of the most important synth-pop records ever released
- “David Lynch used to refer to it as firewood - how ideas are just fuel and if they’re getting in your way, then burn them”: Johnny Jewel on his relationship with synths and working with David Lynch
- “I was driving and I had to pull over to the side of the road - it blew my mind. It was a shock": Brian Wilson was obsessed with Be My Baby - this is its story
- “I guess they can’t sue us because I’m writing about it after it happened”: How Pearl Jam created a powerful signature song inspired by a real-life tragedy
- What just happened? It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #4!
- The ultimate synth shoot-out 2026: Hardware classics vs. their software successors - but can you really tell which is which?
- “I wasn't prepared for what I saw that night”: How a classic song recorded live in London set Bob Marley on the path to global superstardom