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Podcast 546: Michael Daves and Jacob Jolliff on Jim & Jesse
Guitarist Michael Daves and mandolinist Jacob Jolliff join us this week to talk about their latest project, ‘We Like Jim & Jesse!’ The album, a tribute to Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys, features 10 tracks by the famed bluegrass duo.
During our conversation, we talk about the magic of Jim & Jesse McReynolds, some of the unique quirks of their performance style (including Jesse’s wild fingernail routine), how Michael and Jacob recorded this tribute and more.
https://michaeldavesjacobjolliff.bandcamp.com/album/we-like-jim-jesse
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A petition has been started for a Randy Rhoads memorial statue in Burbank – and it’s gaining momentum fast
Many of the world’s most influential guitar players have had statues made in their honour commemorating their enduring impact. And the ones that don’t are regularly at the heart of fierce campaigns to have them recognised.
In November, it was revealed that a campaign to erect a statue in Belfast in tribute to blues icon Gary Moore had been successful, and that creation was underway.
Now, Ozzy Obsourne’s once-right-hand man Randy Rhoads is the centre of a campaign to get his statue erected in his hometown of Burbank, California.
The Randy Rhoads Memorial Project – started by musician and Randy Rhoads fan Bill Lonero – already has the backing of Randy’s sister, Kathy Rhoads D’Argenzio, as well as former Ozzy Osbourne bassist Bob Daisley, music photographer Neil Zlozower and Rhoads’ former Quiet Riot bandmate, bassist Kelly Garni.
At the time of writing, a petition to make the Randy Rhoads statue a reality has amassed 5,200 verified signatures on Change.org.
“Randy Rhoads is widely regarded as one of the most influential guitarists in rock history,” says Bill Lonero. “His groundbreaking work with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot reshaped heavy metal, inspired generations of musicians around the world, and set new standards for guitar performance and composition.”
“Burbank is not just where Randy lived, it’s where he grew, where he taught, where he inspired, and where his legacy truly began,” the petition adds. “Honoring him there is more than appropriate, it’s personal. It’s meaningful. It’s home.
“If there is any place in the world that deserves to celebrate Randy Rhoads and preserve his legacy for future generations, it is the city of Burbank. Now is the time to make that recognition permanent.”
To add your signature to the petition, head over to Change.org. You can learn more at the Randy Rhoads Memorial Project.
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Ritchie Blackmore claims “most guitarists aren’t nice people”
Over his years playing in Deep Purple and Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore has crossed paths with plenty of musicians – but that doesn’t mean he got on with all of them.
In a recent Instagram live to celebrate his 81st birthday, the guitarist reveals that, behind the scenes, he’s been quite disappointed by his guitar-playing peers. “Most guitar players aren’t nice people,” he jokingly admits.
However, that doesn’t extend to Tommy Bolin, the guitarist who joined Deep Purple in 1975 to replace Blackmore. “He was such a nice guy that I couldn’t believe he was a guitar player…” Blackmore says. “I would go around his house, and we’d often have fun just talking to each other.”
Though, he does note one flaw with Bolin’s approach to guitar. “I said to Tommy once, ‘When did you last change your strings?’ ‘cause they were so caked in dirt and grit,” he says. “And he looked at me, like, ‘I should change them?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ And he said, ‘Well, probably about five years ago!’ He was a brilliant player, a great player, but he never changed his guitar strings!”
Regardless, Blackmore stands by Bolin’s skills and the value of his friendship. He concludes by saying: “There was never ever any envy, no competition whatsoever.”
Those themes of “envy” and “competition” seem to be at the centre of Blackmore’s “guitar players aren’t nice” claim; considering the rockstar ethos can come with a side of ‘ego’, it makes sense that a sense of competition and envying others might impact how nicely an artist treats their peers.
There’s plenty of competitiveness within the guitar world, with Exodus recently declaring themselves “faster” than thrash rivals Metallica and Megadeth. However, plenty of artists are trying to cut down on the toxic mindset of guitar-playing being a “competitive sport”.
Back in 2024, Swedish star Yngwie Malmsteen took to Instagram to encourage people to stop focusing on guitar rivalries and competitiveness. “Even if you are making a career out of it, if you play with the thought that I’m going to compete with another guitar player or another musician, you will be miserable,” he wrote. “Competition is for sports and athletes, not for guitar playing, period. [Guitar playing is] not a competition. The instrument of the guitar is to be played and enjoyed at any level.”
Last year, Mateus Asato shared similar reflections in his Guitar.com cover story. “After I won a guitar contest, I realised I never want to mix those things again in my life…” he said. “I understood that if I didn’t win, that would have probably sent me down a very melancholic road where I’d have probably decided that I did not want to play guitar any more… I know now that it’s not about competition.”
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“There’s so much hate and fear – it’s such a drag”: Dave Grohl speaks on the state of American politics
While the Foo Fighters aren’t known for having outwardly political lyrics, frontman Dave Grohl has previously stated that it’s “pretty easy to figure out where [he falls] on the map”. Consider the band’s response to Donald Trump’s 2024 election campaign, which saw him using the track My Hero without permission; the band denounced the usage, then donated all the royalties to Democrat Kamala Harris’ rivalling campaign.
In a new interview with the Irish Times, Grohl allows another glimpse into his political leanings, reflecting on how divided America is in its current state. “It’s hard not to feel political living in America, where we’re deeply divided,” he says. “There’s injustice, and there’s so much hate and fear, and it’s such a drag.”
“I try to love everyone, because I think that’s what you’re supposed to do – and I do,” he continues. “But there needs to be change in that direction, and it’s been hard to find in the States.”
While it’s unclear whether the upcoming Foo Fighters record, Your Favourite Toy, is set to explore more political themes, Grohl takes a moment to praise Neil Young’s candid political lyricism. “Fucking Neil Young is angrier than ever – jeez, Louise,” Grohl says.
Not only has Young previously pursued legal action against Trump for using his music without permission on presidential campaigns, but Young also released a track aimed at the US President just last year. Big Crime was directed squarely at Trump, with the rocker proclaiming: “Got to get the fascists out, got to clean the White House out… No more ‘great again’”
Back in 2017, following Trump’s first political win, Grohl voiced similar fears, noting how a “conservative wave” had washed over America. “I’m looking at a candidate that has blatant disregard for the future environmentally [or] when it comes to women’s rights,” he told Kerrang! magazine. “I have three daughters that are going to survive me for decades – how are they going to get on unless there’s some positive and progressive change?”
Grohl isn’t the only musician critiquing Trump at the moment. Just a few days ago, Jack White was hot on Trump’s tail following the President seemingly likening himself to Jesus Christ, posting an AI-generated image of him ‘healing’ veterans.
“How did so many millions of people fall for this conman?” White ponders in an Instagram post. “He’s already got worst President in the history of America on lock, but I’m gonna go ahead and take the honour of pronouncing Trump ‘Worst American of All Time.’”
The Foo Fighters’ new record, Your Favourite Toy, drops Friday 24 April.
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Iron Maiden aren’t attending their Rock Hall induction ceremony – but not for the reason you might think
After many years of fans believing Iron Maiden were entitled to a place, the British metal icons are finally set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year.
It turns out that Maiden won’t be attending the ceremony in November, but not for the reasons you might immediately think.
In the past, Bruce Dickinson – as well as bassist and bandleader Steve Harris – has spoken repeatedly about his disinterest in joining the Rock Hall, even calling the institution an “utter and complete load of bollocks” during a spoken word tour in 2018. He even said he’d “refuse” an induction if offered, according to the Jerusalem Post.
But their snub of the 2026 ceremony has nothing to do with their previous distaste for the institution, but rather due to scheduling conflicts, as the band will be in Australia on their Run For Your Lives tour.
“As the most observant have already noticed, the band will be on tour in Australia around the November date of the Induction ceremony for the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in Los Angeles,” Maiden manager Rod Smallwood tells Billboard [via Louder].
“In accepting, Iron Maiden made it very clear to the R&R HoF that the fans always come first and that the shows will of course go on.”
“We would like to assure all our fans in Australasia that the Australian and New Zealand dates will remain unaffected, and we look forward to bringing the Run For Your Lives Tour to them on the penultimate stop of our 50th anniversary celebrations.”
Smallwood thanked the Rock Hall for Iron Maiden’s induction last week, saying: “Iron Maiden have always been about our relationship with our fans above anything else, including awards and industry accolades. However, having said that, it’s always nice to be recognised and honoured for any achievements within the music industry too!”
Also among the list of 2026 Rock Hall inductees are Oasis, Billy Idol, Wu-Tang Clan, Joy Division/New Order and Phil Collins.
Like Iron Maiden, Oasis have shared similar less-than-positive takes on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the past, with Liam Gallagher writing on X after the announcement of Oasis’s induction last week, somewhat sarcastically:
“I wanna thank all the people who voted for us. It’s a real honour ever since I was a little kid and singing in the shower I’d dream about one day being in the RnR hall of fame. It’s true what they say, anything is possible if you have a dream.”
I wanna thank all the people who voted for us it’s a real honour ever since I was a little kid and singing in the shower I’d dream about 1 day being in the RnR hall of fame it’s true what they say anything is possible if you have a dream LG x
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) April 14, 2026
This year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on 14 November.
Learn more at rockhall.com.
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“I wanted to give Ozzy one last hug, but I realised I probably wasn’t needed”: Gus G on his omission from Black Sabbath’s final concert
From Metallica, to Guns N’ Roses, to Slayer, the Back To The Beginning line-up was certainly star-studded. However, not everyone was fortunate enough to receive an invite – including Ozzy Osbourne’s ex-guitarist, Gus G.
Despite serving as Ozzy’s lead guitarist between 2009 and 2017, Gus reveals that he was never asked to attend Black Sabbath’s triumphant farewell show. Speaking on the Signals From Mars podcast, he explains: “I would’ve definitely loved to be there. I really wanted to see Ozzy one last time, to give him one last hug.”
However, Gus doesn’t hold any resentment over his lack of invitation. Plenty of killer guitarists were in attendance, including his predecessor Zakk Wylde (who proved to be his eventual successor, when he reclaimed his role in Ozzy’s band in 2017). “I realise that I probably wasn’t really needed there – there were so many other people!” he admits. “So, it didn’t really bother me in that sense.”
Instead of ruminating on how he wasn’t able to attend, Gus instead focuses on how impressive the event was. “My mindset was more as a fan,” he explains. “When I saw the press release, I was like ‘Oh, cool! Ozzy’s finally doing his last show! He really wanted to get back on stage… and he’s gonna go out in the biggest way possible!’”
The excitement surrounding the gig was also somewhat overshadowed by one of Gus’ own personal milestones – the birth of his first child. “I had my kid the day before the show in Birmingham…” he smiles. “Wven if I was invited, I probably would’ve had to sit out of the rehearsals… I just came to the realisation that I had something much more important that I should be attending.”
While he may not have performed alongside Ozzy last July, nothing can take away Gus’ impact on Ozzy’s career. Even if we consider Nuno Bettencourt’s involvement in Back To The Beginning, the Extreme guitarist famously auditioned for Ozzy’s band and was ultimately turned down – Gus, in contrast, was Ozzy’s right-hand man for 8 strong years.
Not only is Gus is one of a small handful of guitarists to have served in Ozzy’s band, he also had the honour of appearing on Ozzy’s 2010 record, Scream. With all that in mind, Gus feels pretty positive about things. Whenever someone focuses on the “pity” of him not attending Ozzy’s last show, he believes that to be “looking at it from half-empty glass” perspective.
“You hear all these stories from all these incredible legendary players [about] how they auditioned… and then those guys never got the gig…” he reflects. “I’ve read a lot of those stories since Ozzy’s passing… and think ‘Wow, they must have auditioned everybody in Hollywood’. Just by putting all these stories together, [I can tell] how rare it was.”
“What were the chances of a guy like me – a kid from Greece, not even from America, that has really no history in heavy metal – to even get to that level,” he continues. “[To have the chance] to be there in that room with them and to get the stamp of approval. So, to me, that means everything. It’s like one of those stamp of approvals that is for life.”
He also expresses gratitude over just how long he was able to stand by Ozzy’s side. “It’s incredible that I got to do a whole album [with Ozzy], because I was originally signed to do an album and a tour, and I ended up being with the Osbournes for about seven years,” he explains. “I got a lot more time with Ozzy on stage and off stage than I was offered originally. So, I have no complaints.”
The post “I wanted to give Ozzy one last hug, but I realised I probably wasn’t needed”: Gus G on his omission from Black Sabbath’s final concert appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“The largest tape transfer project in the history of rock ‘n roll”: Grateful Dead’s new streaming app boasts over 400 live shows, rare vault recordings, and weekly drops
The Grateful Dead have opened up their vast live archive with the launch of a dedicated streaming app, offering fans unprecedented access to decades of recordings pulled directly from the band’s vault.
Launched in partnership with live music streaming platform nugs.net, the new Play Dead app arrives with a sizeable initial offering of over 400 full live shows and 20 previously unreleased performances.
For long-time listeners and collectors, the app aims to centralise material that has previously been scattered across formats, releases, and archival drops – including recordings that were previously only available on CD, now presented in higher-than-CD quality for the first time.
New content will continue to roll out weekly, curated by David Lemieux, the band’s longtime archivist and legacy manager, with two new releases arriving every Tuesday. Fans will also get to enjoy previously released live recordings presented in both hi-res and chronological order by performance date, a first in Grateful Dead history.
“Play Dead is the most complete way we’ve ever been able to share the vault,” says Lemieux. “These recordings capture the band’s journey night by night, and bringing them together in chronological order, with newly transferred and mastered audio, gives fans an entirely new way to experience this music. There’s always more to discover in the vault, and I’m excited to share something new every Tuesday.”
Credit: Play Dead
According to nugs founder and CEO Brad Serling, the project also represents a major undertaking in live music preservation and audio restoration.
“Play Dead kicks off the largest tape transfer project in the history of rock ‘n roll. We are pulling tapes off the shelf of the vault and transferring them at their highest resolution to date, and mastering in the studio for the first time,” says Sterling.
“These tapes were in the room with the band each night, and Play Dead will be the official hi-res streaming home of the vault, browsable chronologically in the order the music was performed. Working with Grateful Dead Productions and Rhino, we are giving listeners unprecedented access to 30 years of live recordings, via one of the greatest live archives ever assembled, with new discoveries coming every single week.”
The app is available as a standalone subscription ($9.99/month or $99.99/year) or as part of a bundle with nugs.net, with pricing tiers designed for both new listeners ($17.98/month or $169.98/year) and existing subscribers ($4.99/month or $49.99/year).
Learn more at Playdead.
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Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields review – your new playground for modulated fuzzy adventures?
€349/£349 (€399/£399 with ‘It’), bluefxdevices.com
Fuzz pedals have been around for an awful long time – did you know there’s a MkII Tone Bender in the Bayeux Tapestry? – so it’s only right that modern makers should be playing around with the formula in search of something new.
In the case of Blue FX Devices and the Fuzz Fields, that means combining JFET-based clipping with a synth-style filter section to create dramatically focused voicings, envelope-following swoops and – with a bit of external assistance – fuzzy tremolo, vibrato and phaser effects. You can see why it’s billed as ‘the ultimate modulated fuzz’.
Image: Richard Purvis
Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields – what is it?
This pedal is hardly a lip-smacker in aesthetic terms (and it isn’t even blue!), but it does present an appetising array of knobs and switches for those who like to get hands-on with their noisemongering. In fact, there’s so much going on here that I’m going to have to breeze through the highlights and let you check the online manual if you want the full picture.
Hit the bypass footswitch once and you’ve got a simple fuzz, controlled by the big knob in the middle. ‘Filter’ cuts treble to the left and bass to the right, with a toggle for mid-scooped mode, and ‘gate’ lets you get spluttery. Now hold down that footswitch for a second and you’ll engage the envelope follower, which sets the filter frequency to track the level of the signal coming into the pedal.
Image: Richard Purvis
There’s more, including a bonkers self-oscillating feature that you can awaken with the left footswitch, but the only other thing you really need to know about is ‘It’ – an optional module that plugs into the CV input to give you the aforementioned tremolo, vibrato and phaser sounds with its depth and speed knobs.
Yes, the Fuzz Fields is a complex and potentially confusing piece of kit – and I really wish the status LEDs were further away from the switches, to stop them being obscured every time a foot comes near – but it takes less time than you might think to get the hang of basic navigation.
Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields – what does it sound like?
If I had to cut this section down to a single word, that word would be ‘huge’. Two words would be the same preceded by an expletive. For Big Muff fans who like to bathe in oceanic fuzz, the scooped mode on this pedal is an instant triumph, but what’s really impressive is the way it stays just as smooth and pleasing with the mids pushed instead, and at virtually all filter settings. It’s a fluffy, cuddly monster of noise.
Image: Richard Purvis
The envelope thing sounds great too – somewhat more complex and textural than the all-out swooshy arc of a typical filter fuzz – but let’s not overlook the gate, which can be used for subtle tone-tightening, full-on spitty squishing or classic on/off noise-killing. Gated fuzzes can be tricky to work with; this one somehow just does whatever you want it to do.
The left footswitch’s ‘gravity’ and ‘freq’ options are both interesting – the latter is the self-oscillating mode I mentioned earlier, and it can generate some truly wild octave-down glitching – but many players will prefer the more conventional modulation effects offered by the cute little module. These range from slow phasing to robotic ring-modulation, via some almost Hendrix-y Uni-Vibe pulses. If you can spare the extra pennies, you should definitely go for It.
Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields – should I buy it?
There are clear reasons not to buy this pedal – mainly the price and the fact that it’s complicated, perhaps more so than it really should have been – but those reservations might just evaporate as soon as you hear what the Fuzz Fields can actually do.
The bottom line is, it sounds gorgeous. The added dynamic features are cool, but set those aside for a moment and what you’re left with is a big, sweet, grainy fuzz that’s up there with anything wielded by the venerated knights of ye olde rock’n’roll.
Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields alternatives
This pedal’s two closest rivals might be the Collision Devices TARS (€332.50/£299) and Death By Audio Crossover Fuzz ($320/£329). The much cheaper Dreadbox Disorder (€123/£130) makes some wicked filter-sweep noises, while the Stone Deaf Rise & Shine (£218) offers a range of unique fuzz and tremolo tricks.
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6-Stage JFET Phaser Pedal
“You’re not going there to see a band – you’re going to see screens”: Why Paul Stanley was against Kiss performing at the Las Vegas Sphere
![[L-R] Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Kiss-new-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Boasting a 580,000 square-foot spherical enclosure packed with 1.2 million programmable LED puck lights, the Las Vegas Sphere, it could be argued, currently sits as the pinnacle of venue design.
Capable of hosting up to 20,000 concertgoers, the venue, since opening in 2023, has hosted acts from across the music spectrum, from Eagles, U2 and Dead & Company in the rock world to dance artists like Anyma and Zedd.
Indeed, more and more artists seem keen to jump on the bandwagon and see how their unique artistic styles fare on the Sphere’s ma-hoosive spherical screen, including Metallica, who recently made waves by announcing their 2026 residency at the venue.
But not everyone is quite so convinced, it would seem. Speaking to American Songwriter, Kiss frontman Paul Stanley explains why the glam rockers were never tempted at the thought of performing at the venue.
“Towards the end of the [End of the Road farewell] tour, people were saying, ‘Why don’t you play the Sphere?’” Stanley recalls. “The truth of it is, the Sphere minimises a band. It makes a band miniature. You’re not going there to see a band – you’re going to see screens.”
While Kiss officially hung up their black-and-white outfits and makeup bags in 2023 with a massive swansong set at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the band are set to continue with a string of widely anticipated avatar shows, in which hologram technology will be used to project their likenesses onto the stage, much like ABBA’s Voyage shows.
So it would seem Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer aren’t totally averse to new and emerging technologies, just not the Sphere itself as a concept. He continues:
“We wanted to incorporate the highest of technology, but we want to be the centre of it. It’s a very, very different experience than going to see a postage stamp with a band on it. This is the antithesis of that – it’s 180 degrees from that. The show is going to be spectacular, but it’s only as good as what you put into it.”
Stanley concludes: “If you’ve seen the ABBA [Voyage] show, everybody who’s there is having an amazing time. You become immersed in those four people on stage. This takes it even further.”
Paul Stanley isn’t the only rock veteran against the idea of playing at the Sphere. In August 2025, Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson revealed he hated the idea of the band playing at the venue, saying: “What’s the point of even being there, if you’re a band?”
Kiss’s avatar shows are tentatively scheduled for 2028. Check out a list of upcoming events at the Las Vegas Sphere.
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“A good amp will make almost any guitar sound good”: Jake E. Lee picks a side in the great rig debate
The search for tonal nirvana never really ends, but strip away the pedals, plugins and endless tweaks, and every electric rig still hinges on two essentials: the guitar and the amp. Which matters more, though, is a debate that’s rumbled on endlessly for decades. Now, Jake E. Lee has thrown his hat into the ring – and he’s firmly on Team Amp.
If the question sounds familiar, that’s because it’s divided players at every level of the game. Yvette Young of math rock band Covet has previously argued that a great amp can elevate even the most budget-friendly instrument, while Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X insists the guitar itself is the foundation of your tone.
Speaking in a recent interview with Guitarist, Lee doesn’t hesitate when presented with the classic rig dilemma, even if he’d rather avoid it altogether.
“Oh, no! Not this question,” he laughs. “I’d rather have a good amp. The shitty amp will make any guitar sound shitty, but a good amp will make almost any guitar sound good. I have some really cheap guitars that I love, where the action is high and [they’re] kinda funky-sounding. But I don’t have any amps that are shitty. The amp is more important.”
It’s a perspective shaped not just by decades onstage – including his tenure with Ozzy Osbourne – but also by a lifetime of gear hunting, where amps have often delivered the biggest surprises.
Recalling his time touring England during the Bark at the Moon era, Lee tells the story of stumbling across what might be the ultimate vintage bargain: an overlooked Marshall combo gathering dust in a small shop.
“I used to go into every mom-and-pop shop and see what they had. One day, we were in Northern England and I went into this one shop and an older gentleman in his 60s was behind the counter.
“I see this old Marshall with the plexiglass logo, covered in dust. I said to the guy, ‘How’s that Marshall? Where is it from?’ He says, ‘I don’t know… it’s been here for the last 20 or 25 years.’ I was like, ‘What? Does it work?’”
“It was a 45 with the cream back panel and the gold, square plexiglass logo on the front,” Lee continues. “He picked it up, dusted it off and even though it had been sitting there for years and years, it was brand fucking new. Not a scratch. He said it had been there since maybe ’64 or ’65, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ He said, ‘No. Why? Do you want it?’ I said, ‘I’ll take the chance if it’s cheap enough,’ and I got it for around £60 [approx. $80].”
“For that amount of money, even if it didn’t work, I’d have figured it out – but it worked. I went to soundcheck, plugged it in and it wasn’t the kind of sound I was looking for with Ozzy – really creamy and sweet and smooth and compressed, with a little sag. That was my greatest find.”
Guitars, however, are a different story. Lee admits one of his biggest regrets isn’t a bad purchase, but rather, one he didn’t make.
“About 20 years ago, I was in a local guitar shop… there was nothing new but this ‘67 Telecaster. And I don’t like Telecasters… But I picked this one up anyway and it felt really good, so I plugged it in. It sounded really good and I had a connection with it.”
“But I put it back down and said, ‘I don’t really like Teles… I don’t even know why I picked it up,’” says Lee. “Two days later, I went back in there because I couldn’t quit thinking about it and it just felt right, but they’d sold it already. So that’s a different kind of buyer’s remorse, right? Maybe we’d call that no-buyer’s remorse [laughs]. I still think about that Tele every once in a while… there was just a connection there. I really wish I’d bought it.”
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Patreon Song of the Month: “Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow”
Ronnie Wood remembers living with “sweet man” Jimi Hendrix: “He’d just sit back and play right-handed or left-handed – that blew my mind”
![[L-R] Jimi Hendrix and Ronnie Wood](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Ronnie-Wood-Jimi-Hendrix-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Rolling Stones legend Ronnie Wood has spoken about his relationship with guitar icon Jimi Hendrix, remembering the time the pair lived together in the late ‘60s.
In an extract from his new book Fearless: The Anthology – shared exclusively with Guitar.com – Wood, who is also a keen painter, reflects on his friendship with Hendrix, sharing a painting of the two at New York’s Scene Club in 1968.
“During the time I was with the Jeff Beck Group,” he writes. “Jimi liked how I played bass and he’d say to Jeff, ‘Let the bass player play,’ so Jeff would have to let me take long solos. That’s how I got to know Jimi more – we’ve have jamming sessions. He used to just turn up and come and play.”
In the late 1960s, both Ronnie Wood and Jimi Hendrix shared a house in Holland Park, which belonged to soul singer Pat “P.P” Arnold. During this time, Wood remembers being “mind-blown” by Jimi’s playing chops – particularly his ambidexterity.
“He was quite quiet as a flatmate,” Wood reflects. “He’d just sit back and play right-handed or left-handed guitar – that ambidextrousness blew my mind. If I try to play left-handed it’s like giving a child a guitar.
Credit: Genesis Publications
“Sometimes we’d get out the acoustics and swap blues licks for him to warm up before a show. He always said, ‘I don’t like my voice.’ And I’d say, ‘Don’t worry, your guitar playing takes care of that.’ He was a very sweet man.”
Described as Ronnie Wood’s “musicography”, Fearless: The Anthology charts – in his own words – some of the most defining moments from his illustrious career, from performing in London clubs with The Birds in the ‘60s to his time as bassist with the Jeff Beck Group, all the way to his five decades with the Rolling Stones.
This edition also opens up Ronnie Wood’s archive for the first time, showcasing via special photography everything including legendary guitars and other rare instruments, custom-made straps, amps, designer stage wear, concert setlists and so much more.
Some of Wood’s most important stage and studio guitars are featured including his Duesenberg Starplayer TV, Versoul Raya, Gibson Firebird and even his collection of lap and pedal steels.
“Every detail – the colours, patina, wear and tear and unique modifications – has been captured to tell the story of Ronnie’s extraordinary journey through music,” says a press release shared with Guitar.com.
Fearless: The Anthology is available now for pre-order. While copies of the Deluxe Edition have already sold out, the Collector’s Edition is still up for grabs, priced at £325, and shipping in May 2026.
Learn more at RonnieWoodAnthology.com.
The post Ronnie Wood remembers living with “sweet man” Jimi Hendrix: “He’d just sit back and play right-handed or left-handed – that blew my mind” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I’d go back to my mother’s house and sleep in my childhood bed and feel like life is still real”: Dave Grohl on coping with Nirvana’s sudden mainstream success
Sudden, world-conquering success might sound like the dream for any musician – but for 22-year-old Dave Grohl, that reality quickly became overwhelming.
In a new interview, the former Nirvana drummer opens up about anxiety and coping with fame at the height of the band’s explosion. Speaking in a recent chat with Logan Kelly on Logan Sounds Off, the Foo Fighters frontman reflects on just how disorienting Nirvana’s sudden mainstream success was.
“We didn’t think that it would be as popular as it became,” Grohl begins. “But I knew that the songs were so good. Kurt [Cobain] wrote amazing songs. His voice was so amazing and as a band we made this crazy noise and so I knew that it was special but I didn’t really think anyone else would understand the way that we did.”
“So when it became hugely popular it kind of freaked us all out. We were not expecting that to happen and it’s a lot to deal with. We were young too. I think I was 22 years old and I didn’t have much life behind me at that point. So yeah, it kind of freaked us all out.”
As the band’s profile grew, so did the pressure and the scale of what they were dealing with.
“It got to the point where I would have anxiety,” the guitarist explains. “The shows were getting bigger and I was nervous about that. Crazy shit was happening – shows were turning into riots.”
To cope, Grohl found himself retreating to something far removed from the chaos of Nirvana at their peak: “Whenever I had that anxiety or felt uncomfortable with it I would just go back to Virginia to my mother’s house and I would sleep in my childhood bedroom and hang out with my buddies from high school and be like ‘okay well life is still real.’ Like there’s still real life here.”
“I think everybody needs that,” he adds. “I think Kurt maybe didn’t have that and being the front person of the band he really did bear the brunt and responsibility of whatever it was. That could be difficult for anybody, especially at a young age. But I’ve always kind of relied on that.”
These days though, Grohl says he’s found a different kind of safety net – one built within his own band.
“It’s funny now as a band since we’ve been together for so long, just as I would lean on or retreat to my family when I was young, I can do that now with our band. We’ve just been together for so long that if I’m losing my fucking mind and the band is really busy and things are crazy, I can sort of step into the band instead of out of it for comfort.”
Elsewhere in the chat, the Foo Fighters leader also reveals his newfound fascination with Quebec rock duo Angine de Poitrine, noting how their music “absolutely blew my fucking mind.”
Watch the full interview below.
The post “I’d go back to my mother’s house and sleep in my childhood bed and feel like life is still real”: Dave Grohl on coping with Nirvana’s sudden mainstream success appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I patently refuse to use AI in my music creation”: Billy Corgan calls AI “a deal with the devil” that could “wipe out” generations of songwriters
Billy Corgan is no fan of AI, and the world certainly won’t be seeing him use it in his music any time soon, if ever.
Appearing on the latest episode of And The Writer Is… podcast, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman slams artificial intelligence as “the most cataclysmic technological innovation” since the invention of moving pictures, framing its rise as an existential threat to songwriters and the creative process itself.
“You didn’t ask me, but I’m gonna make a declaratory statement,” Corgan begins [via Blabbermouth], “I refuse, refuse, patently refuse to use AI in my music creation. Because, to me, it’s a deal with the devil. Simple. Whether it’s the Promethean fire myth or whatever, to me you’re literally leaning into the thing that will destroy you. Period.”
For Corgan, the value of making music lies in the struggle itself: the doubt, the creative blocks, and the slow process of finding something new.
“The pressure, the inspiration, the soul searching, the ‘I’m not sure I got anything else to say’, that’s all part of the journey that a songwriter needs to go through,” he explains. “I’m saying it’s good that a songwriter has doubt, it’s good that a songwriter’s not sure they have anything left to say, it’s good that a songwriter has to think of a new chord that they haven’t thought of. That’s where the magic comes from.”
Removing that struggle risks changing not just how music is made, but how it is valued. In an AI-shaped future, he argues, authenticity itself could become a selling point.
“Maybe people will listen to me and continue to listen to me into my old age because they know it’s coming from me. That actually might be part of the sale.”
But Corgan’s concern extends beyond individual artistry. What begins as a creative tool, he warns, could reshape the entire ecosystem around music-making.
“I’m saying I’m making a bigger argument,” he continues. “We, us, we’re flirting with the thing that will destroy us as a economy, as a business, as a movement. We’re asking to be eradicated. We’re giving them our information. They already have all our other information. God knows what the labels are doing… You’re asking to be wiped out.”
“I think the real fallow winter that’s coming is you’re gonna lose generations of songwriters.”
He then draws a comparison to the rise of superproducers like Max Martin, and a music landscape whereby the “producer-writer is more important than the artist”, noting how AI could accelerate that shift to its extreme, to the point where the human musicianship is no longer central to creation at all.
“You’re gonna see the rise of the guy who knows how to run the programs better than the other guy or girl,” says Corgan. “And he’ll be branded and he’ll have a sponsorship and he’ll be doing commercials [saying] ‘you can be just like me… I’m just really good at knowing how to put this information together. I don’t even know fucking music. I just know what I like.’”
While he acknowledges that every generation has its technological ‘shock’, Corgan believes this one will hit harder than most.
“Let’s face it, this shit’s gonna wipe out a lot of people,” he says. “This might be the most cataclysmic technological innovation in this town since the change from silence to talking pictures. A lot of people are gonna lose their gig and there’s gonna be a lot of new faces who are suddenly boy or girl wonder because they know how to press some fricking buttons.”
The post “I patently refuse to use AI in my music creation”: Billy Corgan calls AI “a deal with the devil” that could “wipe out” generations of songwriters appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I had to change his strings every day. He would play one song and destroy them”: Slash guitar tech reveals what it’s like working for the Guns N’ Roses legend
Ever wondered what it takes to keep one of rock’s biggest guitarists stage-ready night after night? In a new interview, Slash’s longtime guitar tech Ryan Redler peels back the curtain on life in service of the Guns N’ Roses icon – and it’s every bit as relentless, high-pressure, and gear-destroying as his ferocious playing style suggests.
Speaking on Shane Theriot’s Guitar Channel, Redler reveals the brutal workload that comes with maintaining Slash’s road-worn arsenal, starting with a seemingly simple task that quickly becomes anything but.
“Slash, I had to change his strings every day,” Redler explains. “He would play one song and destroy [them], because of the sweat and just how hard he plays.”
“So I was stringing his guitars every day – six, seven, eight, at least, stretching the strings, too, making sure the nut’s all set,” he says. “Man, I was wrecking my hands. I was changing so many guitars of his a day that on days off, I’d just rest my hands.”
That same intensity also extends beyond strings and into last-minute gear curveballs. During the interview, Redler recalls one particularly tense moment during the 2015 World on Fire tour that nearly derailed a show. Tasked with prepping a last-minute double-neck guitar, he was hit with an unexpected request just minutes before showtime.
“We went to Europe, and he decided he wanted to play a song where he needed a double-neck. We didn’t take his with him, so I found him a double-neck, and right before the show, I showed it to him, and the pickup covers were still on.”
Redler continues, “He goes, ‘You got to take the pickup covers off.’ And I was like ‘now?’ And it was getting close to showtime, and I had a lot of stuff to do. So that meant four pickup covers off, and they’re soldered on there.”
“One of my friends just told me, 11 years later, he’s like, ‘Oh, there’s a really easy way to do this.’”
“But [at the time] I had to do four of them, and it was hot. We were outdoors. I didn’t have my whole work case. So I started doing it. I’m taking the pickguards off… I was melting the solder to get that off, and one of those springs goes flying,” he says. “I was nervous enough, and that spring goes flying, and it’s an old wooden stage. And I didn’t have my stuff with me. I didn’t have a spring, and I don’t know what I would have done.”
With the clock ticking and the stage moments away from going live, Redler scrambled to recover: “I looked for about 15 minutes, and time’s running out. It’s showtime… but I found that spring. I did it, and hopefully it was in tune that night!”
Beyond repairs, Redler’s guitar tech’ing duties with Slash also extend into the performance itself.
“If he’s playing a lead, [I had to] hit a boost or a chorus,” says Redler.
Even so, the pair’s working relationship remains surprisingly grounded: “If we had something go wrong, I could always go talk to him and say, ‘Hey, man.’ He’s always available. You could always go into the dressing room after and say, ‘Hey, I screwed up.’”
The post “I had to change his strings every day. He would play one song and destroy them”: Slash guitar tech reveals what it’s like working for the Guns N’ Roses legend appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Line 6 Helix Stadium XL review – “bewilderingly ambitious… but it feels like the future”
$2,199.99/£1,980, line6.com
On their current development trajectory, floor-based guitar processors will control the entire known universe by 2046. Digital amp modelling has come a long way since the original Line 6 Pod appeared in 1998, and it’s the same company that’s now pushing forwards towards cosmic domination with its new twin flagships, the Helix Stadium and Stadium XL.
This is the latter. It’s big, it’s heavy, and in pricing terms it’s a cost-of-living crisis in a box. But it’s also stuffed with new processing tech and advanced features, which should make it more useful – and more tonally realistic – than any previous offering in the Helix line.
Line 6 Helix Stadium XL – what is it?
When you see a huge black rectangle like this, either you’re watching the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey or there’s a new deluxe guitar processor in town. In fact, the Helix Stadium XL is slightly less monolithic in dimensions than the old Helix Floor, despite having the same basic layout – two rows of six footswitches plus an expression pedal – and a bigger display: a full eight inches instead of six and a bit, and now with touch control.
What it’s packing on the inside is, in a word, everything – and that includes such bonuses as imported backing tracks, stomp-free looping and automated setlists – but let’s start with the modelling basics. Plug your guitar in at one end, and connect one of the assorted outputs straight to a live PA, a recording interface or simply a pair of headphones; you now have access to 134 amplifier models, plus 46 speaker cabinets and 246 effects pedals. These can be arranged in up to 512 user presets, all controlled by swishing a fingertip around on that screen (with some help from the many knobs and buttons plus the touch-sensitive footswitches).
Image: Adam Gasson
Of course, having a touchscreen is nothing new in this field – the HeadRush Pedalboard had one back in 2017, and Line 6 is really catching up with everyone else here – but there’s more that’s new in the Stadium XL… starting with the all-important amp models. These have been built using a new technology called Agoura, which claims to provide more lifelike sounds and feel than ever before. This is thanks to its component-level capturing of real amplifiers, right down to such ultra-nerdy details as measuring impedance levels between gain stages and current flow within valves at different voltages.
Mind you, if you still don’t trust anyone else to supply your amp tones, you can always use your own: also new is a system called Proxy, which is Line 6’s take on profiling, cloning, capturing or whatever else you want to call ‘the Kemper thing’. This wasn’t ready for the initial launch but has arrived with firmware version 1.3, allowing you to clone your own amps and pedals so you can take them on the road in virtual form.
And finally, there’s Showcase – the ‘live automation engine’. This lets you set the unit to switch automatically between different settings at precise points – including recording loops then playing them back later in a song – and sync those cues with external MIDI gear. You can also use it to import stereo backing tracks and send different mixes to different outputs – Line 6 gives the example of routing a click track to a drummer via the headphone socket while everything else goes to the main stereo outputs.
Image: Adam Gasson
So basically, you’re no longer dealing with a mere guitar processor here but a sort of robot performance hub. You might find that idea wildly exciting; you might find it utterly irrelevant to your guitar-playing life. Either way, note that all the Showcase stuff happens in the Helix Stadium PC/Mac app, with your files jumping over to the unit afterwards via WiFi.
Line 6 Helix Stadium XL – is it easy to use?
Unless you nodded off halfway through the previous section – don’t feel bad, it happens all the time – you’ll have gathered that this is an extremely powerful and complex piece of equipment. That means one of the main design challenges for Line 6 was ensuring ease of use; and on the whole, thanks in no small part to that spacious touchscreen (it’s about the same size as an iPad Mini), they’ve succeeded.
Image: Adam Gasson
You’ll probably want to set aside a distraction-free evening for getting used to the main navigation procedures, but the fundamentals are all pretty intuitive and there’s plenty of help at hand from the online guides and tutorials. Even the cloning process is just about foolproof: all the steps are laid out clearly on the screen.
If you do want to dive into the Stadium XL’s more advanced features, be prepared for some head-scratching along the way – but honestly, there’s so much going on without them that you might never feel the need.
Line 6 Helix Stadium XL – what does it sound like?
People get awfully combative about why their preferred amp modeller sounds so great and all the others are so crap, don’t they? But it seems to me that the differences are getting smaller year by year… and if Line 6 was behind the competition in terms of sheer realism before, it isn’t any more. The Agoura models sound consistently excellent, to the extent that it’s hard to see what more you could possibly ask of them. And that goes for the playing feel too.
Image: Adam Gasson
As ever, there are dozens of factory presets to scroll through in order to get a sense of what the device can do; and as ever, most of them have too much reverb. But everything is covered, from chiming black-panel cleans to roaring Marshall crunch, from oddball ethereal ambiences to aggressively gated modern metal tones – and there are no obvious weak points.
A couple of new tone-shaping features are worth mentioning here: Hype and Focus View. The former is an extra control that lets you push an amp beyond strict realism into something a bit more ‘big’ and compressed – think of it as a sort of pre-mastering option – and the latter, much more interestingly, is a way of adjusting multiple controls at once by moving the cursor around a screen with different tone types in each corner. This is adding nothing in terms of available sounds, but as an extra-intuitive way of navigating a virtual amp (or pedal) it’s wonderfully clever.
The effects are good too, within certain limitations: I couldn’t get a Muff to sound as expansive as my Stomp Under Foot Ram’s Head, or a Klon to quite match my Bondi Effects Sick As… and there’s still no such thing as a satisfactory digital emulation of the Deluxe Memory Man. But they’re generally very close, and I had no complaints about any of the modulation pedals.
Image: Adam Gasson
And I was, in the end, able to get an absolutely identical sound to that Ram’s Head… by cloning it. The Proxy tech works really well on both pedals and amps, though the process does take a while and, like rival systems, involves a lot of strange noises if you’re using a speaker cab and microphone to get the full picture. Make sure the windows are closed if you’ve got easily spooked neighbours.
The power of Showcase is also impressive. Its most useful element is probably the ability to import multiple backing tracks, then tweak their levels and panning in mid-performance, turning the Stadium XL into a highly flexible virtual band on top of all its other skills.
One practical issue to mention is the half-second gap when switching between presets. But this is easily avoided as long as you don’t insist on changing amps in mid-song: if you use ‘snapshots’ instead to store and jump between different settings within the same rig, the changes are gapless.
Line 6 Helix Stadium XL – should I buy it?
The Stadium XL is full of ‘wow’ moments; it’s just unfortunate that one of them is for the price. If that’s not an issue for you, then go for it – this is a fabulously powerful processor with a user-friendly interface and a sackload of top-quality tones.
For the rest of us, it might make sense to wait and see if Line 6 rolls out a more affordable model as a replacement for the Helix LT. If that comes along with the same touch display and Agoura amp modelling as the Stadium and Stadium XL – never mind Proxy and Showcase, which are very cool but inessential for the average player – then it will surely be the one to get.
Line 6 Helix Stadium XL alternatives
We gave the Neural DSP Quad Cortex ($1,799/£1,449) a 10/10 review, although that was five years ago and its seven-inch screen is no longer the state of the art. The Fender Tone Master Pro ($1,599.99/£1,499) is another strong contender with a seven-inch display, but don’t forget the non-XL version of the Line 6 Helix Stadium ($1,799.99/£1,549), which saves you more than a few pennies by chopping off the expression pedal.
The post Line 6 Helix Stadium XL review – “bewilderingly ambitious… but it feels like the future” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Adding Strap Locks to Your Guitar Has Never Been Easier
These limited-edition Emerald Night Gretsch Penguin and Falcon guitars are real lookers
Gretsch has launched two new guitars offering alluring and modern takes on two classic designs.
Both reimagined versions of designs dating back to 1958, the C6134TG-58 Limited Edition 1958 Custom Penguin and G6136TG-58 Limited Edition 1958 Custom Falcon arrive as real lookers, sharing a dark Emerald Night finish, plus Bigsby tailpieces and TV Jones Ray Butts Ful-Fidelity Filter-Tron pickups.
These TV Jones pickups are made according to the personal notes and designs of late Filter-Tron inventor Ray Butts, and are said to produce a tighter bass response and slightly more top end than modern Filter’Tron pickups, while the absence of wax potting “results in a more open, three-dimensional sound”.
Both models share similar spec sheets, with a Space Control bridge with a pinned ebony base, gold hardware, Standard U neck profiles and 22 medium jumbo frets. As a forward-thinking appointment, both guitars feature Luminlay glow-in-the-dark side dot fret markers, plus gold plexi pickguards with their respective birds etched in.
In terms of where they diverge, the Penguin has a mahogany solid body and neck with a Bigsby B3GP String-Thru vibrato tailpiece. Its body is chambered just like the Duo Jet, making it lighter and more resonant than most solid-body guitars.
The Falcon hollow body has a maple body and glued-in neck, and it has a Bigsby B6GP String-Thru vibrato tailpiece. The body was constructed with 1959 trestle bracing, running 2.75” deep.
“Both models deliver rich vintage tone with elevated playability,” Gretsch writes. “These rare birds are crafted for players who want a classic Gretsch feel with standout performance.”
Both guitars are available now, with the Penguin priced at £3,739, and the Falcon at £4,339.
Head to Gretsch for more information.
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