"It’s very, like, trippy Rubber Soul vibes": Ariana Grande reveals how a classic Beatles album inspired her new record, Eternal Sunshine By Ben Rogerson published 13 March 24 "It’s very different for me," she says of her "favourite" song from the album
“This definitely needs Moog bass”: Watch Snarky Puppy keyboard player Justin Stanton jamming over just the vocals and drums of Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now, a song he’s never heard before By Ben Rogerson published 12 March 24 It’s fair to say that he takes it in a very different direction
“He didn’t just work here; he lived and embodied the spirit of the brand”: Mike Lewis, legendary head of the Fender Custom Shop, has died By Jonathan Horsley published 12 March 24 Lewis had toured with Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones, and owned a guitar store before joining Fender in 1991, and his attention to detail was such that he once gave a '59 Gretsch an actual MRI and CAT scan
Not just Ken: Slash, Wolfgang Van Halen and Mark Ronson join Ryan Gosling as he delivers a showstopping performance of his Barbie anthem at the Oscars By Ben Rogerson published 11 March 24 Billie Eilish and Finneas took home the Academy Award for Best Original Song for What Was I Made For?
Watch Slash cover Howlin’ Wolf’s Killing Floor on first single from new blues album, with AC/DC’s Brian Johnson on vocals, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler on harmonica By Jonathan Horsley published 8 March 24 Orgy Of The Damned finds the GNR guitarist tackling blues standards with an all-star cast of vocalists – watch Slash rock a Bigsby-equipped ES-335 in the video for Killing Floor now
“I didn’t think I was really producing anything because I was writing and singing over drum ‘n’ bass beats”: PinkPantheress says she never thought she'd be recognised as a producer and that “even now, people don’t want to take my music seriously” By Ben Rogerson published 8 March 24 “As a woman of colour in electronic music, specifically two-step drum ‘n’ bass, it has taken a lot in the genre to be recognised on a wider scale"
“When people went in to look at the gear they went in on jet skis… So many people lost their guitars”: Peter Frampton says he lost 44 guitars in the 2010 Nashville flood By Jonathan Horsley published 8 March 24 One of the guitars to survive the flood was Frampton's Epiphone Texan that he famously used to write Show Me The Way and Baby, I Love Your Way both on the same day
Jack Antonoff jams with Zane Lowe on his analogue synths, and says he doesn’t know where the “spark” he has with Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey comes from By Ben Rogerson published 8 March 24 “We have all the best gear in the world, but it’s basically an apartment,” Antonoff says of his room at Electric Lady Studios
“We recorded that song in a toilet with quite a cheap microphone, a Shure SM58”: Phil Oakey lifts the lid on the birth of The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me By Ben Rogerson published 7 March 24 In 1981, the band were enjoying their first flush of commercial success
Steely Dan pianist and keyboard player Jim Beard has died, aged 63: “He was the glue and such a great presence on so many projects,” says drummer Peter Erskine By Ben Rogerson published 7 March 24 Beard also worked with Wayne Shorter, John Mayer and John McLaughlin