Music is the universal language
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” - Luke 2:14
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Dawsons opens online store in Australia, serving “one of the most passionate and creative music communities in the world”
[Editor’s note: Dawsons is a brand under Vista Musical Instruments, which, along with Guitar.com, is part of the Caldecott Music Group.]
Music fans down under can now access Dawsons’ curated selection of premium, vintage and pre-loved instruments, as the music retailer unveils its brand-new Australian online store.
The new digital store offers a vast range of guitars, accessories and pedals from a diverse selection of brands. So far, the brands on offer include Heritage Guitars, MONO, TC Electronic, Behringer and more, as well as used and vintage products provided by used instrument specialist retailer, Well Played Gear.
Dawsons also plans to add more brands to the store within the coming months.
“Australia has one of the most passionate and creative music communities in the world,” David Nam Le, Managing Director at Vista Musical Instruments, explains. “We are beyond excited to join that energy and support artists at every level. Whether you’re picking up your first instrument or producing your next record, Dawsons is here to be part of your journey.”
Dawsons’ arrival in Australia comes two years after the music retailer first began to re-establish itself back in 2023. The company kicked things back off with the launch of a brick and mortar store on Denmark Street in London, which was also the birthplace of NME.
The new Denmark Street location marked the music retailer’s first new physical store in London since the brand’s foundation back in 1898.
While Dawsons hasn’t shared plans to launch a physical store in Australia, it has set up a local service location in Melbourne to help support its customers. The online store also boasts a dedicated team, if you can’t get to the Melbourne support centre. It’s the company’s way of giving that personal, expert’s touch to your shopping experience.
Right now, there’s free delivery on every order over $100. Dawsons also offers a 10% off Music Education Discount for full-time students and music educators.
Head to Dawsons Australia to find out more.
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“There would be no metal without you”: Jack White, Tom Morello and the guitar world react to the passing of Ozzy Osbourne
Founding Black Sabbath vocalist and overall metal legend Ozzy Osbourne has died at the age of 76, just weeks after performing his farewell show with the band. His family released a statement today reading, “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love.”
Osbourne leaves behind an immense and incomparable musical legacy. Ozzy joined forces with bassist Geezer Butler in 1967. By 1969, the band had recruited guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward, and officially landed on the name Black Sabbath. Their first self-titled album introduced the world to a sound that would form the basis of an entire genre: a driving rhythm section and massive guitar riffs, both underpinning Ozzy’s frantic wail. Sabbath drove hard rock into darker, doomier territory, and there’s a reason that so many huge names from the world of metal came out for Black Sabbath’s farewell show – it’s undeniable that without Ozzy, Geezer, Tony and Bill, metal as we know it would not exist.
Aside from forging an entire genre, Ozzy also had a keen eye for guitar talent. He used his solo material to highlight some incredible guitar talent, from Randy Rhoades and Jake E Lee, to Zakk Wylde and Gus G.
Tributes have begun flooding in from the guitar world, with artists from metal and rock and, indeed, far wider, honouring the Prince of Darkness and his impact on music.
“I just can’t believe it,” writes Ozzy’s Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi. “My dear, dear friend Ozzy has passed away only weeks after our show at Villa Park. It’s just such heartbreaking news that I can’t really find the words, there won’t ever be another like him. Geezer, Bill and myself have lost our brother.”
Metallica, who performed at Sabbath’s farewell show at Villa Park, have made no secret over the years that they wouldn’t exist without Black Sabbath. In their tribute post, they share an image of James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich and Cliff Burton with Ozzy.
“RIP Prince of Darkness,” writes Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Kiki Wong. “Thank you for all you’ve given back to the world. There would be no metal without you.”
Tom Morello, who served as the Musical Director for Back to the Beginning, writes simply: “God bless you Ozzy.”
Ozzy’s influence stretched far and wide, not only inspiring legends like Metallica to play music, but younger acts like Yungblud, too. In his tribute post, he writes: “You were so full of life and your laugh filled up the room…
“I will never forget you – you will be in every single note I sing and with me every single time I walk on stage. Your cross around my neck is the most precious thing I own. You asked me once if there was anything you could do for me and as I said then and as I will say now for all of us the music was enough. You took us on your adventure – an adventure that started it all. I am truly heartbroken. You were the greatest of all time.”
Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready reflects on the time he discovered Black Sabbath in high school. “War Pigs as terrifying and mesmerizing at the same time,” he says.
“It was Ozzy’s voice that took me away to a dark universe. A great escape. Then when The ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ record came out I was instantly a fan. Randy Rhoads was an influence on me to play lead guitar. Luckily I got to play on the song “Immortal” on the last record. Thanks for the music, Ozzy – it makes our journey in life better.”
Jack White’s tribute meanwhile, uses few words, but says it all: “He made it.”
Tributes have also come from the likes of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, blues guitarist Jared James Nichols, Tetrarch’s Diamond Rowe and Sophie Lloyd, who reshares a video of her covering Sabbath classic Paranoid.
This is devastating news,” says Joe Bonamassa. “A one of a kind singer, artist, personality and larger than life performer. I had the privilege of playing a solo on his Undercover album 20 years ago. I will always consider that as one of the great honors of my life.”
Rest in peace Ozzy your music and creativity will be dearly missed,” adds YouTuber Rob Chapman. “Some of my earliest musical memories were from Black Sabbath… even my first vinyl records after I bought Postman Pat were the first four Sabbath albums… Amazing that [his] farewell gig raised so much for charity as well – one incredible family.”
Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has expressed his sorrow at Ozzy’s death, writing on his Instagram story: “Without Ozzy, there is no me. My heart has broken.”
This is a developing story.
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Guitar Center secures three-year debt extension to “provide the time necessary to deliver on its business plan”
As an increasing number of brick and mortar guitar stores are being forced to close down, Guitar Center has announced its latest plan to keep its physical stores up and running.
According to Business Wire, Guitar Center has reached an agreement with investors to extend the payback period on its debts. The three-year debt extension is intended to allow the company more time to “deliver on its business plan”.
The plan is to carry out a Senior Secured Notes Exchange, essentially meaning that it will be reaching new terms and repayment conditions with its investors. While 8.5% of the company’s Senior Secured Notes were originally due for repayment in 2026, 70% of its investors have agreed to renew their terms, moving the repayment deadline to 2029.
The company hopes to have all of the new terms and conditions for its Senior Secured Notes investors finalised by August.
It’s a challenging time for physical music stores. Just last year, Sam Ash shut up shop, and Guitar Center’s CEO Gabe Dalporto also went on record saying that the company needs to “evolve” to survive.
“If you want to experience musical instruments and start off or accelerate your journey as a musician, the world needs Guitar Center,” he told Music Inc last May. “Our customers need us and our vendors need us,” he says. “But in order to earn the right to be here, we need to evolve and execute better.”
“I want customers to walk into [a store] and have the same experience I had when I was younger and just be hit in the face with, ‘Wow, this is amazing. This is a playground. This is where I belong,’” he added. “And that means having a much more premium assortment that’s more easily accessible where I can get in and grab a guitar and plug it in and try all these pedals and effects and just geek out and have a great time.”
Earlier this year, Dalporto also discussed how the human touch is the key to company maintaining its status as the biggest music store chain in the US. “It really is the premium product where people are going to take that time and care a lot and want to experience it [in person],” he explained on the Know Your Gear podcast. “That’s why it’s important to us. We are leaning into that really high-quality, premium product where experience matters. That’s where we can win against Amazon.”
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“We are basically married, just without any of the fun stuff”: Joanne Shaw Taylor on her friendship with Joe Bonamassa
![[L-R] Joe Bonamassa and Joanne Shaw Taylor](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/JoBo-Joanne-Shaw-Taylor@2000x1500.jpg)
Over the years and through their shared love of the blues, Joe Bonamassa and Joanne Shaw Taylor have struck up quite the friendship.
And in a new interview with Classic Rock, the pair recall how it started at the Notodden Blues Festival in 2008.
“We ran into each other at the hotel check-in,” Bonamassa reveals. “And I offended you. Because you wanted to show me your really nice old Les Paul, and I just said: ‘I don’t like Les Pauls’ and walked off,” Taylor tells him.
After the pair later struck up a friendship, Taylor recalls once having to drive from Maine to Detroit. “Joe would phone and keep me company,” she says. “I didn’t have any money. And you’d say: ‘Okay, I’ve booked you into a nice Marriott, get a good night’s sleep. Don’t pull into some dodgy shithole.’”
On why they clicked in the first place, Bonamassa reflects: “We share a dry, cutting sense of humour. Joanne loves it when I go off, ranting and raving.”
“And I poke the bear,” Taylor adds. “There’s also massive trust between us. That was a real benefit when Joe started producing me. We recorded Fade Away, which is about losing my mum, and he’s one of the few people – because she passed away a long time ago – who’s actually met her.”
“When I met Joanne, my life had just changed,” adds Bonamassa. “I’d played the Albert Hall for the first time. Next thing you know, there’s more people waiting for a meet and greet than were at the shows two years before. Things had got weird. I don’t believe I handled the pressure very well. And Joanne got me through a lot of that.”
When asked whether they are secretly a couple, Joanne Shaw Taylor replies: “We are basically married. Just without any of the fun stuff.
“We live next-door to each other in Nashville. After this interview is done I’m walking to his apartment, because I noticed there’s a dead bird on his patio!”
Joe Bonamassa recently performed three shows in Ireland in tribute to Rory Gallagher. In a reflective post on social media, he called the shows “the biggest honour and greatest challenge of my musical life”.
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Richie Sambora turns to NFL rehab experts to help him play guitar again after “gruesome” hand injury
Richie Sambora has turned to NFL rehab experts to help him play the guitar again after a “gruesome” hand injury he suffered earlier this year.
According to People, the former Bon Jovi guitarist is on the road to recovery after an accident in April that had him needing emergency surgery to rebreak and reset his left hand.
Now, he’s undergoing rehabilitation with top-tier sports medicine experts who typically treat NFL athletes – and he’s healing at double the typical rate, according to a source speaking to the publication. Despite describing the process as “arduous, slow, and painful,” the source says Sambora remains focused on regaining his strength and getting back into shape.
- READ MORE: “You couldn’t be in a rock band unless you looked a certain way”: Why Tim Pierce didn’t join Bon Jovi – despite playing guitar on their first hit
Sambora’s injury happened just a week before his scheduled performance at the Unbridled Eve Derby Gala on 2 May. While playing a casual game of touch football back in his hometown of New Jersey – where he’d been caring for his mother – the guitarist caught a pass and was knocked into a curb, fracturing his hand in two places.
“He caught a ball and some guy gave him a touch right into a curb. He was completely swollen, and fractured his hand in two places,” the source told People. “He’ll undergo surgery next week.”
Sambora, 65 at the time, eventually underwent emergency surgery to rebreak and reset the bones. Incredibly, he still took the stage at the Derby Gala, performing four Bon Jovi hits – Livin’ on a Prayer, It’s My Life, I’ll Be There for You, and Wanted Dead or Alive – all of which he co-wrote.
Richie “rocked the house” despite being in “so much pain,” the source said. “When he told the doctor he was going to the Derby, the doctor said, ‘You’re out of your mind.’ But he said, ‘See ya! I’m going.’ That’s the kind of guy Richie is. He’s a man of his word.”
Now 66, Sambora spent his birthday earlier this month (11 July) in Princeville, Hawaii, enjoying a relaxed round of golf with friends as he continues to rest and promote his new single, Born to Rock.
“It’s a fun and happy anthem for those who were born to rock! Plain and simple,” Sambora told People. He also shared the song on Instagram, writing, “My birthday gift to you.”
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“You can learn to do this with your own two hands!”: The stinging rebuke Chet Atkins gave John Fahey over unfounded accusations
Chet Atkins may have been known as the Country Gentleman, but even he wasn’t one to let unfounded claims about his guitar playing slide.
In a recent interview with Guitar World, Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler reflects on his time working with the fingerstyle legend – and recalls the one time he ever saw Atkins genuinely annoyed: when fellow guitarist John Fahey suggested he relied on double-tracking to pull off his intricate playing.
- READ MORE: “I got away with murder!”: Is Mark Knopfler a ‘guitar hero’? He certainly doesn’t think so
“I only remember him being slightly put-out once, when John Fahey said he’d been double-tracking. Chet was not pleased by that,” says Knopfler. “And he wrote to whatever magazine it was and said, ‘You can learn to do this with your own two hands; you don’t need double-tracking.’”
While Atkins wasn’t opposed to multi-tracking in his own recordings, Knopfler notes that the musician only used it when “doing something even more complicated.”
“I mean, Chet liked multi-tracking too, of course, but only if he was doing something even more complicated,” he explains. “But he could play Yankee Doodle and Battle Hymn of the Republic at the same time.”
The two guitarists formed a bond in the late ’80s that eventually led to their Grammy-winning 1990 album Neck and Neck. Their friendship grew with informal jams in Atkins’s office, where the musician’s modest tastes often surprised Knopfler.
“I remember, Chet Atkins gave me a [call]. Because we were both pickers in that sense – but, of course, Chet was otherworldly,” he says. “I used to go round to his office and hang out, and I’ll never forget, we once played and sang the song Kentucky all morning.”
“Chet had such facility and knowledge, and yet what he wanted to do was play Kentucky – which has two chords – all morning long. He’d say to me, ‘You’re pretty good, but you’re no Mark Knopfler.’”
“He always had good jokes,” Knopfler continues. “You know, you’d get to the end of something and he’d go, ‘Very educational.’ And then he’d say, ‘A little below above average.’ Or something like that. Very dry.”
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Meet Rig Advisor, Guitar Center’s new in-store AI shopping assistant: “It’s like having a professional gear consultant in the palm of your hand”
Guitar Center has officially launched Rig Advisor, an “AI-powered shopping assistant” designed to help musicians navigate the often overwhelming world of music gear.
Dubbed the first-ever in-store AI shopping tool in music retail, Rig Advisor promises a smoother and smarter browsing experience by delivering real-time, personalised recommendations based on your local store’s inventory.
As Guitar Center would have you know, Rig Advisor isn’t just another chatbot slapped onto a screen. Rather, it’s a mobile-based tool that “helps customers discover, compare, and explore gear in real time by prioritising products available at that specific store location”.
You can access it by scanning a QR code in-store, where you can then ask questions, compare products, or search for gear inspired by specific songs or artists. Whether you’re chasing John Mayer’s tone or building your first podcasting setup, Rig Advisor provides instant, store-specific suggestions based on what’s available on the shelves.
“Rig Advisor is like having a professional gear consultant in the palm of your hand, delivering lightning-fast answers as you explore our music stores,” says Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto. “It will turn our stores into tech-powered music hubs where creativity, curiosity, and inspiration lead the way.”
Besides its friendly interface, the beauty of Rig Advisor lies in its practicality. Say you’re curious about the difference between a tube amp and a solid-state one – Rig Advisor will break it down in plain English. You can even build full rigs – pedals, amps, mics, the whole deal – based on your current setup or a goal you have in mind.
And because it pulls from your chosen store’s live inventory, whatever it recommends is actually there to try today. No more falling in love with a piece of gear online only to find it out of stock.
The tool is also available in multiple languages, with the AI smart enough to respond in whatever language you use to ask your question.
Now live in locations across the US, Rig Advisor aims to “[enhance] the in-store experience by giving musicians an easy way to navigate options and make more confident decisions, whether they’re browsing solo or working with a store expert.”
In other news, a Guitar Center employee from Ohio was recently found to have used customers’ credit cards for personal purchases after they were rude to him.
Reports claim that management had learned of the purchases after a customer called about a transaction made at the store that was not his. The employee, 18, is also believed to have copied the credit cards of two other customers.
Learn more at Guitar Center.
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These are Taylor Swift’s six biggest guitar influences
Taylor Swift is unquestionably one of the most popular and successful artists of the 21st century. Her music has been categorized as everything from pop to folk to country to rock, and while it would be a stretch to call her music guitar-centric, she does play guitar and has nonetheless inspired a generation of people to pick up the guitar and start trying to find their own voice. In that sense, it’s worth taking a look at some of the artists who inspired Swift herself to become the musician she is today.
Shania Twain
Few influences are more important than the one who inspired you to pick up a guitar in the first place and for Taylor Swift, she has often claimed that it was Shania Twain. This should come as no surprise, as Shania was very popular during Taylor’s formative years. While Twain is not known for her guitar-playing prowess, she does play guitar, especially in her early career.
For Twain and Swift, the guitar is not used for flashy, impressive solos; it is merely a tool for conveying the songwriting ideas they both have. Nobody is going to put Taylor Swift or Shania Twain on a list of great technical guitar players, but as far as using the guitar as a tool to write hit songs, they are both hugely influential.
Shania Twain provided an essential step in the musical evolution of Taylor Swift, most notably the first step – the inspiration to pick up a guitar and make music with it. That step should never be underestimated. Swift has in kind no doubt inspired millions of young people to pick up a guitar and play music. It’s the wonderful legacy of the guitar as a pop music icon that continues to bear fruit over 70 years after it first appeared.
Matt Slocum
The guitarist of Christian rockers and one-hit wonders Sixpence None The Richer might not be on many guitar playing Mount Rushmores, but they hold a special significance for Taytay. After she had been inspired to pick up a guitar by Shania, Swift has stated in several interviews that the first song she actually learned to play was Kiss Me – and from that moment, the music world would never be the same!
Ronnie Cremer
Every musician has to start somewhere by learning the basics of guitar playing. For Taylor Swift, that came in the form of a guitar instructor named Ronnie Cremer who lived in her hometown of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Some might imagine formal guitar lessons to be a highly structured, “run through the scales again” sort of affair.
But according to most reports, Cremer was instrumental in teaching Swift the basics – chords, tuning, how to use a capo, etc. From there, they focused on real world applications of those building blocks such as using the guitar as a tool for songwriting – not necessarily technical proficiency. These lessons took place for about two years in 2002-2003 – Swift would have been about 12 years old at the time.
The Chicks
While Taylor Swift may never be known for her technical guitar playing prowess, she will forever be known as an electric performer. At the time of writing this article, she has the highest-grossing tour of all time at over two billion dollars.
According to an interview with ABC Swift claimed that her electric live performances were inspired by The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks), “Early in my life, these three women showed me that female artists can play their own instruments while also putting on a flamboyant spectacle of a live show,” she explained.
The Chicks’ influence is also evident in her daring songwriting that leans into feminist empowerment. Swift continued, “They taught me that creativity, eccentricity, unapologetic boldness and kitsch can all go together authentically… Most importantly, they showed an entire generation of girls that female rage can be a bonding experience between us all the very second we first heard Natalie Maines bellow ‘that Earl had to DIE’.”
Joni Mitchell
It has been said that Taylor Swift’s 2012 album Red was inspired by Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue. Both artists have written deeply personal autobiographical songs with lyrics that could be described as confessional. Swift would no doubt call Joni a trailblazer for the path she is currently treading through the industry. Mitchell’s influence on Swift’s songwriting style is evident to even untrained ears. Swift has also claimed that she learned to play Mitchell’s song A Case of You early on in her career.
Liz Rose
Liz Rose is a songwriter from Nashville who has worked with Swift throughout her career. Her role seems to have been very much that of a mentor who was able to sculpt Swift into the songwriter she is today, perhaps more specifically, her understanding of melody. She was instrumental in encouraging Swift to write songs about her own personal experiences which ended up working out incredibly well for her. Rose co-wrote several hit songs with Swift, such as You Belong With Me, Teardrops on My Guitar, White Horse, and All Too Well.
Taylor Swift has cemented her legacy as one of the greatest pop stars in history, alongside The Beatles and Michael Jackson. But her journey is not over, and it seems like the guitar – and her guitar influences –will always have a place in her music.
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“The spectre of being sent to the jungle and getting killed – getting relief from that was a big deal. So after my discharge, I ran in my house and picked up my guitar”: John Fogerty on the origins of Creedence Clearwater Revival mega-hit Proud Mary
![[L-R] Doug Clifford and John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival perform in 1970](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/CCR-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on a river… Whether you’re thinking of the original Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 roots rock classic, or the Grammy-winning 1971 Tina Turner cover, Proud Mary is an undeniable classic. But it wouldn’t have been written if John Fogerty hadn’t had a six month stint in the army…
In a new interview with Classic Rock, the CCR frontman reflects on his time in the army in 1967. While it isn’t an experience he looks on fondly, his eventual honourable discharge encouraged him knuckle down on his creativity. “There’s nothing like having something taken away to make you appreciate it,” he reflects.
“In the army, you’re not free, you’re not self-determining. And so, when you get back home and you now have time to decide your own schedule, you also decide to be a little more careful what you spend your energy on.”
For Fogerty, his priority was channelling his energy into his music. “I decided, for one, ‘Wow I gotta get more organised about my songwriting,’ because I’d always kinda done it haphazard – not really a specific approach,” he explains.
“So, I went and got a little notebook… I guess the idea in my mind was simply, ‘Well, you’ve got to have a place where you write every down so it’s all in one place’… and that was a big change in my life.”
With the help of his new notebook and creative determination, Fogerty would help piece together Proud Mary. It’s his own musical ode to freedom. “It’s a strange story behind the song that not many have as their motivation, I suppose,” he says. “But, for me, the hype of the Vietnam war and the spectre of being sent to the jungle and possibly getting maimed or dying, getting relief from that was a very big deal.”
“So, getting my honourable discharge, I ran right in the house and picked up my guitar, and the first line of Proud Mary is, ‘Left a good job in the city/Working for the man every night and day’. I mean, that’s exactly it. I felt relieved and elevated that I was finally free.”
Last year, Fogerty reflected on the importance of Proud Mary, noting it as a pivotal moment in his musical career. In fact, it was the first time he had ever fully finished a song. “When I finished Proud Mary, that was such an amazing experience — almost like being abducted by a flying saucer,” he told Guitar Player. “I had never really written a great song before, even though I had tried many times.”
“When I finished, I was holding that piece of paper in my hand, almost 90 percent of it was on the page there, and I had a title and a chorus,” he continued. “And I could just hear it… and I realised I had just written what you’d call a classic. I was awestruck.”
“I was excited, trembling. I was almost scared of it! It was almost as if you’d walked into a room and discovered some amazing treasure and secret. And at that first moment, I was terrified that this might be it, that I would never get to do this again.”
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“People think, ‘Oh, you’re a rich rock star.’ No. I sell shirts outta my f**king closet”: Gary Holt on the reality of being a metal guitarist in 2025
With the rising cost of touring and infamously low streaming revenue, even rockstars can struggle to make ends meet. In fact, Exodus and Slayer guitarist Gary Holt has spoken out about how he even sends out his own merch to earn more money.
In a recent chat with German outlet Medal.de, Holt explains that everything on his Holt Awaits webstore is packaged and delivered by him. “People think, ‘Oh, you’re a rich rock star’… No!” he admits. “I sell shirts, and I sell them outta my fucking closet. Pack this one up, label it, send it off.”
While it doesn’t cover all of his living costs, selling merch is something that “helps” Holt get by. “It doesn’t pay the bills,” he says. “[But] it helps… It helped a lot in the pandemic.”
Considering his work in thrash metal hasn’t set him up for life, Holt jokes that his retirement plans might have to centre around some illegal activity. “[I might] turn to a life of crime, maybe,” he says. “I don’t know. I haven’t found a way to make money being charming, so I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”
If Holt doesn’t fall into a life of crime, he thinks he’ll stick within the realms of metal. “If I honestly retired, I’d probably do more producing,” he muses. “I’d stay in music. But sometimes I daydream about not leaving the house.”
Of course, a full retirement is still a few years away. Slayer pulled off a killer performance at Black Sabbath’s final farewell show, and Exodus just rounded off a European Summer tour, with a pair of shows set for September. “I’m not full of energy – I’m fucking tired,” Holt notes. “But we’re gonna do this as hard as we can, as heavy as we can until we can’t.”
“That’s why we recorded so much music [for Exodus’ next record]. We figured, do it now while we are still able to. Who knows? I’ve had elbow problems, hand problems, and shoulder problems now. Maybe in five years, age will catch up, and the arthritis will get bad, and I can’t do it. I don’t know.”
In a recent chat with Serbian journalist Jadranka Janković Nešić, Holt also discussed Exodus’s follow up to 2021’s Persona Non Grata. “It’s going to be released as two totally separate records,” he revealed. “We had so much material that we just [thought], let’s work extra hard.”
“I wish we had 20 songs done instead of 18, because then we would have the next album done! Then I could go on vacation or something. I’ve never had one.”
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The time Robert Fripp claimed Jimi Hendrix “wasn’t a guitarist” and that Eric Clapton was “mostly quite banal”
King Crimson’s Robert Fripp certainly has a way with words, and while these days his lack of filter often gives himself and wife Toyah Willcox the giggles, it seems back in the day he wasn’t one to hold back on his musical opinions either.
Among the era of the band’s Red album, as well as Starless And Bible Black, Fripp sat down for a chat with Guitar Player. In the 1974 interview, which has been newly shared on the publication’s website, Fripp had some incredibly bold opinions on the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and guitar in general.
“I’ve never really listened to guitarists, because they’ve never really interested me,” he told the magazine. “I think the guitar is a pretty feeble instrument. Virtually nothing interests me about the guitar.”
He went on to add, “I haven’t been influenced by Hendrix and Clapton in the way that most people would say it. I don’t think Hendrix was a guitarist. I very much doubt if he was interested in guitar playing as such. He was just a person who had something to say and got on and said it.
“Clapton I think is mostly quite banal, although he did some exciting things earlier in his life with Mayall. I saw Cream live once and I thought they were quite awful. Clapton’s work since, I think, has been excessively tedious.”
As scathing as some of these hot takes are, there was one guitarist who Fripp let off the hook – Jeff Beck, whose playing he said he could “appreciate as good fun”.
Despite Fripp’s old and bold remarks, he’s since had a lot of fun covering both Hendrix and Cream classics for his Sunday Lunch covers series on YouTube alongside Willcox, which you can watch below.
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Guitar Center employee admits to using rude customers’ credit cards to steal over $5,000
A Guitar Center employee from Ohio used customers’ credit cards for personal purchases after they were rude to him, reports claim.
Management allegedly learned of the purchases after a customer called about a transaction made at the store that was not his. The employee, 18, is also believed to have copied the credit cards of two other customers.
The report comes from news outlet Cleveland.com, which says a further investigation revealed that the employee had charged $5,087 to the other two credit cards. It claims the man chose customers as “victims” who were “rude to him, used foul language and made situations bad for him”.
The report does not clarify the outcome of the investigation, or what has happened to the employee since these thefts occurred. Guitar.com has reached out to Guitar Center for further information.
In other Guitar Center news, the company’s CEO, Gabe Dalporto, said he wasn’t afraid of competition from large brands like Gibson and Fender in a recent interview. His comments arrive among rising competition as more brands continue to sell directly to their customers thanks to online shopping.
“This is a competitive market. It always has been,” he told Guitar World in June. “We welcome it. I think if we give an amazing experience, we win.”
He added, “Nike tried to go direct and tried to pull back from retailers, and Nike got crushed. It’s important, if you are a brand, to have those relationships with your vendors, but bring the competition on. I just think we have a much larger, more integrated experience. You can experience all the products, not just one.”
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“They just happened to sound like someone else, but that’s not their fault. So, stop it”: Tobias Forge defends Greta Van Fleet – and says the future of rock is bright
![Tobias Forge, Greta Van Fleet's Josh and Jake Kiszka [inset]](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tobias-Forge-GVF@2000x1500.jpg)
Is rock ‘n’ roll dead? Well, despite some – including Kiss‘s Gene Simmons, thinking it is – Ghost frontman Tobias Forge believes the future of rock music is bright.
In a new interview with Consequence, Forge insists that the next big rock ‘n’ roll act is just waiting in the wings.
“I think it was Gene Simmons that said it most times, but a lot of people have said that rock ‘n’ roll is dead and there will be no new headliners,” he says. “I understand that it’s been sparse, but I think that with the unfortunate disappearance of a lot of [legacy] bands… I do believe that with time I think that there will be more [headlining rock] bands.”
With genre veterans like Kiss breaking up after 50 years, it’s certainly time for new blood to enter into the rock world. Forge points to the likes of Sleep Token, Måneskin and Greta Van Fleet as those bearing this flag.
“They are all new bands. I think they prove that you can absolutely go places. You can form a band tomorrow and theoretically become a big band within a few years. I think you do so by trying to want to create something.”
In Forge’s eyes, there’s somewhat of a prejudice towards new bands. “I think that there’s this strange time phenomenon that happened somewhere in the 2000s where everything that was sort of old was ‘old’, and everything that came after was ‘new’,” Forge explains.
It’s something Forge chalks up to age. Older music fans often abide by the rock and metal “hierarchy”, Forge notes. “There’s this idea in large swaths of metal community that the hierarchy is based on age,” he says. “[Post-2000s bands] just keep on being labelled as new, especially by people who at the time were in their 20s or 30s or 40s and now are in their 40s, 50s, 60s.”
He goes on to defend Greta Van Fleet, who Rolling Stone labelled ‘expert forgers’ in 2018 for sounding like Led Zeppelin. The band have been labelled as ‘derivative’ since they first hit the rock scene. “I don’t wanna hear anything about Greta Van Fleet now, because I think that their intentions are true,” he insists. “They just happened to sound like someone else, but that’s not their fault! So, stop it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Forge harks back to Avenged Sevenfold’s Download Festival headline debut in 2014. Much like with Greta Van Fleet, it felt like another form of older fans rejecting anything they consider to be ‘new’, regardless of a band’s quality.
Forge has found that younger rockers feel less prejudice towards ‘new’ bands, as they grow up with them. “If you ask a lot of our fans who are 15 years old now, just the fact that our band has been around for 15 years, do you think that they think that we are a new band?” he says. “No! And that’s how it should be.”
Of course, Forge is aware that certain acts – including Ghost – receive flack for being inspired by the ‘old’ bands. But, in his eyes, plenty of up-and-coming acts take their inspiration as a springboard, forging something entirely new.
“I understand that we’re just a Mercyful Fate/Blue Öyster Cult/Alice Cooper wannabe band,” he jokes. “But you need to do something new. Don’t look at your one idol and say, ‘I wanna be like him. I want to be like her. I want my band to sound exactly like that band.’ That’s most likely not gonna get you anywhere.”
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EQD Chelsea Low-End Fuzz Driver review: bass-friendly big muff
$179/£189.99, earthquakerdevices.com
While it might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of dance-punk legends LCD Soundsystem, a fuzzed-out bass guitar has still underpinned some of the band’s best tracks. The pedal producing that fuzz happens to be a V6 transistor Big Muff, one purchased by bandleader James Murphy all the way back in 1989. This unit has now found a second life as the Chelsea, a signature recreation of the pedal from EarthQuaker Devices, named after the guitar shop it was purchased in all those years ago.
Image: Adam Gasson
What is the EQD Chelsea?
The Chelsea is effectively James Murphy’s version of the Hizumitas. Like with Wata’s own Elk Sustainer, Murphy’s pedal has been toured to almost death and is currently held together with duct tape – and thanks to some drifting 1980s components, it’s also developed a character all of its own. The Chelsea aims to capture it in sonic amber – without the risk of it falling apart or drifting any more.
The V6 transistor Big Muff is one of the variants that featured a tone-bypass switch by default, which EQD has kept here. This allows you to take the dual-filter tone stack out of the circuit completely, meaning a much more midrange-forward sound rather than the classic Big Muff scoop.
As with many of EQD’s recent pedals, the Chelsea features a soft-touch momentary switch for relay true-bypass, and a quick peek inside reveals very little of the actual circuit, thanks to a large daughterboard for the power and audio jacks. The build quality is all correct and proper, with crisp artwork – even if the design itself isn’t too fancy. The pink limited-edition variant is pretty cool, however!
Image: Adam Gasson
The sounds
The Chelsea sounds, well, like a Big Muff – specifically, like a slightly lower-gain vintage one. It’s definitely in the territory of “fuzz” rather than “overdrive” but there’s also not the sort of extreme saturation and razor-sharp mids-scoop that you might expect from pedals like the modern NYC Muff.
The controls function as you’d expect – it is still a Big Muff variant, and so there are not going to be too many surprises. One thing that does stand out is the rather modest output level – at full whack, it only pushes things a touch beyond unity gain. This isn’t totally unheard of for Big Muffs, of course, but if you’re the kind of player that likes your fuzz pedals to completely annihilate your preamp section, you’re going to need a boost too.
Having played and built a good deal of Big Muff circuits over the years, I’ve personally found that lower-gain versions of the circuits tend to be better at letting bass through – the Sovtek Green Russian variant, for example, is a surprisingly low-gain circuit for something that has a rep as a doom monster. But it’s the lower gain that allows for some clarity with basses and down-tuned guitars.
There are other factors, of course, but the principle stays generally true here. Both in terms of the low-end and the pick attack, the Chelsea rumbles with the best of them. Obviously, LCD Soundsystem’s bass fuzz sound never really veers into extremely saturated low-end drones, and so the percussive-yet-gritty thing the Chelsea achieves makes total sense.
Bypassing the tone gives a growling, midrange-forward sound which I tend towards when playing the Chelsea on a six-string. On bass, the midrange scoop I get when leaving the tone stack engaged is great for adding clank in the high-end and thickening up the low end even further. The sweep of the tone control, as you might expect, is as subtle as a brick, ranging from entirely smoothed-off to entirely fizzy.
Unlike a lot of bass-focused fuzzes, there’s no clean blend here; however, I don’t find this to be too much of an issue. The specific circuit being recreated here is clearly more than up to the task of retaining that low-end by itself.
Image: Adam Gasson
Should I buy a Chelsea?
For some bassists, the lack of a clean blend may mean that the Chelsea will never be an always-on proposition, but if you’re the kind of player who wants to add a Big Muff to your bass sound, practicality may not be a priority. The level of clarity that will be offered will also of course depend on the rest of your rig – some bass amps take fuzz better than others!
In any case, though, the Chelsea is a cool circuit variation, and that tone-bypass switch does help it stand out from EHX reissues. However, it is still a chunk of change for a circuit which already has countless variations on the market. Would I recommend it in a vacuum? Absolutely – but it’s worth shopping around unless you really know your Big Muffs!
Chelsea alternatives
I don’t think there’s space on the entire internet to list every Big Muff variant you can buy here, but here are some interesting ones that will scratch the same itch. The Evil Eye FX Warg ($149) is another boutique recreation of a Muff variant that comes with an option for some more midrange. The EHX range of reissues, including the Green Russian, Triangle and Ram’s Head variants, will give you a similar vintage sound with a little more midrange than the modern NYC variant. EQD’s own Hoof V2 ($179/£199) is a cool variant with a lot of grit and bass. And for a final leap down this particular rabbit hole check out Wren And Cuff’s entire lineup.
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Dave Navarro and the rest of Jane’s Addiction sue singer Perry Farrell over on-stage bust-up, claiming they lost $10 million as a result
Dave Navarro and the other members of Jane’s Addiction have filed a lawsuit against Perry Farrell following an on-stage altercation that caused them to cancel their remaining tour dates. The frontman has also launched his own lawsuit against his bandmates.
The much-publicised incident that spurred this situation ocurred in September 2024, when Farrell shoved and seemingly punched guitarist Navarro during their gig at the Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston. The show then ended abruptly, and the rest of their tour was also cancelled.
- READ MORE: Jane’s Addiction reunion? “No chance,” says Dave Navarro, following onstage fight last year
The band filed their lawsuit on Wednesday (16 July), with Farrell filing a separate legal complaint (not a countersuit) against them just a matter of hours later. As reported by Variety, Navarro, Eric Avery, and Stephen Perkins’s lawsuit alleges that they lost $10 million due to the tour cancellation and suspension of all other band activities following the on stage scrap.
There are also claims of a backstage altercation between the two, with both giving a different version of events. Due to this alleged incident, and their highly publicised on-stage fight, Navarro is also suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract.
Farrell, however, alleges that the trio orchestrated a year-long campaign of bullying and harassment against him, and claims he had no say in the cancellation of their tour and the break up of the band.
A statement from Farrell’s team shared exclusively by Variety reads, “As a founding member and creative force behind Jane’s Addiction, Perry Farrell has always prioritised the band’s legacy and its supporters, which is why the events of September 13th, 2024 in Boston and the resulting fallout was so devastating.
“Without warning or consultation and using Perry as a scapegoat, Dave Navarro and the other band members took it upon themselves to abruptly cancel the remaining tour dates – violating contracts and disregarding all professional obligations…”
It continues, “Dave Navarro then intentionally and publicly blamed Perry for the cancelled tour dates, effectively destroying Perry’s reputation and causing him irreparable harm. Despite this continued bullying perpetuated by Navarro, Perry’s dedication to Jane’s Addiction and the preservation of its positive impact on the music industry remains unshaken.”
Christopher Frost, attorney for the three JA bandmates, comments, “Persuaded by Perry Farrell to revive the legendary configuration of the band, Dave Navarro, Eric Avery, and Stephen Perkins had high hopes that they could capture the pure spirit of the band’s early days and build on it. Initially they did, in the studio and onstage. But, as our lawsuit explains, they did so with a fourth bandmate who was by turns unwilling or unable to perform to a reasonable standard and who repeatedly threatened to derail the tour.
“Ultimately, with the attack on Dave Navarro seen around the world, Perry Farrell abruptly and unilaterally ended all the plans for a Jane’s Addiction revival. He also left his bandmates holding the bag for an unfulfilled tour and record deal, as our lawsuit explains in detail. Dave, Eric, and Stephen never wanted it to come to this.”
In regards to the claims of violence between the two away from the public eye, Navarro alleges he was punched by Farrell backstage, whereas Farrell denies this and claims it was Navarro who “aggressively assaulted” both himself and his wife Etty Lau.
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Fernandes guitars files for bankruptcy again – but there may be hope for the future of the brand
Fernandes Guitars has entered bankruptcy proceedings once again, but this time there is some hope that the legendary Japanese guitar brand might continue in some form.
This news arrives after the company previously filed for bankruptcy back in July 2024. Shortly after, Fernandes withdrew its petition, but the company hasn’t made any announcements since.
- READ MORE: Mesa/Boogie officially releases Mark IIC++ modified amplifier to the public for the first time
Now, however, Tokyo-based news outlet, Nikkei Asia, has confirmed that the company has re-filed bankruptcy, with filings claiming the brand has amassed a total debt of around 730 million yen ($4.9 million). The Tokyo District Court granted permission for proceedings to begin on 9 July.
An interesting wrinkle to the new filing, however, is the confirmation that part of the Fernandes trademark has been transferred to another company in advance of these proceedings. While no details have been revealed at this stage, it could potentially mean that Fernandes will continue in some part.
Fernandes’ history begins in 1969, and it grew to become a go-to provider for budget import guitars. In addition to making guitars, Fernandes was also widely known for its Sustainer pickup – which is widely used by other brands and as an after-market add-on.
It ceased trading when it originally filed for bankruptcy last year, and its website remains closed. At the time, Fernandes released a statement in which it said, “Fernandes Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ‘Fernandes’) is currently owed a considerable amount of debt to multiple creditors, and unfortunately, it has become impossible to continue business.”
It later added, “Creditors and business partners who have claims or debts against Fernandes will be contacted in writing by the attorney representing them in the bankruptcy proceedings… We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patronage over the years.”
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has used a Fernandes S-type model (affectionally known as Blue) across their live shows for years, having owned it since the age of 11, and even Metallica’s Kirk Hammett has owned one too – his FST-13, named Edna, appears on the cover of Metallica’s The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited. Other notable Fernandes players include Ed O’Brien of Radiohead, and Robert Fripp of King Crimson.
Guitar.com will report on any further information regarding the future of the Fernandes Guitars brand.
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Vintage and Fret-King owner John Hornby Skewes & Co is shutting down despite being “profitable” and “entirely solvent”
John Hornby Skewes & Co, also known as JHS but unrelated to the US pedal brand, has announced that it is closing down after over sixty years in business.
JHS owns the Vintage, Encore and Fret-King brands, as well as being one of the UK’s largest distributors – currently supplying the UK market with brands such as Danelectro, Godin, Donner, Lava Music, Shubb, Wilkinson and many others.
In a statement released this morning, JHS is at pains to point out that the closure has nothing to do with financial troubles that have dogged the UK music retail sector in recent months, but due to a rather unique set of circumstances spurred by the death of the company founder, John Hornby Skewes, in September of last year.
In a statement from JHS shared with Guitar.com, these unique circumstances. “The JHS business comprises of a property company and a trading company, both majority owned by family trusts set up by the late John H. Skewes,” it reads. “The settlor of those trusts stated that after his death, the Companies should be sold.
“Steps have been taken over the last few months to try and secure a buyer to take John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. forward under new proprietorship. This has thus far not been possible.”
It goes on to explain, “The trustees, shareholders, and board of John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. have concluded that to achieve the settlor’s mandate, a process of conducting an orderly winding down of John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. will commence with immediate effect.”
The company stresses that this is not a liquidation or administration process, and that JHS is “entirely solvent”. It anticipates that its closure process may take up to 12 months as it continues to trade, downsizing along the way, “gradually disposing of its stock and assets, including its valuable trademarks and other intellectual property”, which will be sold to the highest bidder.
JHS has created a variety of in-house brands over the last few decades, including Encore, Vintage and Fret-King – the latter two working in close tandem with after-market guitar hardware and electronics pioneer, Trevor Wilkinson.
The future of these brands will no doubt be determined in the coming months, but for the time being it seems to be business as usual as JHS begins the process of winding down its operations.
JHS concludes, “The trustees, shareholders, and directors of JHS would like to pay tribute to those who have engaged with us over the decades, in whatever capacity or manner of contribution.”
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“First it was booze, then it was bottles, then tables and chairs”: Blur’s Damon Albarn recalls how an acoustic folk song turned a gig into a riot
Damon Albarn is primarily known for his work in Blur and Gorillaz, he’s had plenty of musical projects in his time. But one of his most interesting musical ventures – Africa Express – also led to an unexpectedly intense reaction to an acoustic Welsh folk song.
In a new interview with Mojo, Albarn looks back at two decades of Africa Express – a non-profit organisation that facilitates cross-cultural collaborations between musicians in African, Middle Eastern, and Western countries. Not all of these collaborations have been well-received by the audience however.
Albarn recalls the most memorable of these took place in Lagos, Nigeria in 2008, where things really turned sour. Why? “Gruff Rhys decided to do a ballad in Welsh,” Albarn explains.
The Super Furry Animals frontman’s performance was just an acoustic folk tune, with Rhys taking to the stage with just his acoustic guitar. “I accompanied him and held up Welsh-language placards,” Albarn says. “It went over the head of the audience, and they started throwing things. First it was booze, then it was bottles, then tables and chairs, until [Nigerian saxophonist and activist] Femi Kuti calmed things down.”
At least the experience didn’t sour Albarn’s affection for the Welsh language – even if the Nigerian crowd probably won’t be putting Fuzzy Logic on their Spotify playlists. Albarn even recorded some of The Good, The Bad & The Queen’s – his art-rock supergroup – sophomore record, 2018’s Merrie Land, in North Wales.
Speaking to Mojo about his motives for starting Africa Express, which was spurred by the lack of artists from the African continent appearing on the Live 8 benefit concerts.
“I didn’t want to put on a white linen suit and be helicoptered into a disaster zone,” he explains. “Which was the route of the celebrity in Africa up until that point. Maybe that’s an unfair assessment but that’s how I felt then. I thought I would love to go to Mali but do what I actually do, make it something real to me.”
“We went to Salif Keita’s home in Bamako and he sang three songs then handed his guitar to Martha Wainwright, and she played three,” reflects cofounder Ian Birrell of that first Africa Express show. “[Malian duo] Amadou & Mariam were there, Jamie T… We spent time with Toumani Diabaté, went to an amazing show at Bassekou Kouyaté’s house. As we left, Norman Cook said it was like the best Later… With Jools Holland he’d ever seen.”
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The Who album that Eddie Van Halen loved so much that Michael Anthony claims he could play it “note for note, probably better than Townshend!”
We all know Eddie Van Halen was a great appreciator of classic British rock bands – Van Halen’s cover of You Really Got Me on their debut showed that. But according to Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, teenage Eddie was so obsessed with The Who, he could replicate Pete Townshend note for note – even as a teen.
In a new interview with Professor of Rock, Anthony recalls Eddie’s impressive skills when he first auditioned to join for Van Halen. “When I jammed with Eddie and Alex that first time, they played some of their original stuff,” the bassist explains. “They were going through these time changes and I’m [thinking], ‘Whoa! What a trip!’”
“They were great players,” he continues. “They really impressed me… [Eddie] could play the whole Live at Leeds [The Who] album, playing it note for note. It was just as good, if not better than [Pete] Townshend!”
Rather than being intimidated by Eddie and Alex’s talent, Anthony rose to the challenge. “They were putting me through time changes, and I was really digging it because it was something new to me,” he admits.
Anthony would learn over 300 songs, both covers and original tracks, to keep up with the band. “Every day at rehearsal, I’d be learning,” he recalls. “Just cramming songs in because we’d be auditioning for little clubs around the area.”
As Van Halen grew in popularity, their dedication and talent would impress fans and peers alike. In fact, David Lee Roth soon alerted Eddie to the fact that peers were listening in on rehearsals in the hopes of stealing ideas.
“Friends of his that play guitar would sit outside our little rehearsal garage and listen to us,” Anthony says. “They’d be out there listening to what Eddie was doing because they knew that he had something going on that they weren’t doing.”
To avoid artists poaching ideas off of Van Halen, Roth came up with a ploy to disguise Eddie’s talents. “Dave used to tell him, ‘hey, when you play solos… turn your back to the audience because you don’t want these guys to see what you’re doing!’” Anthony explains. “So a lot of times Ed would do that!”
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“I’m just going to throw that thing in the fire”: Shinedown guitarist admits his relic’d PRS Silver Sky inspired so much “drama” that he wanted to get rid of it
When Shinedown’s Zach Myers gave his John Mayer PRS Silver Sky signature a hot pink paint job and a relic’d finish, it was treated like an act of sacrilege. While Myers loved the final product, inspired by Mayer’s beaten-up BLK1 Strat, the backlash initially made him resent his custom project.
In a new interview with MusicRadar, Myers admits that he once considered destroying the guitar by throwing it into a blaze of onstage pyro. “I was like, ‘One night I’m just going to throw that thing in the fire and let it burn to death because I’ve had [so much] drama around this guitar,’” he reveals
Though Myers isn’t too sure who got wound up over his custom Silver Sky, Myers notes that Paul Reed Smith himself didn’t seem mad about it. “He didn’t say anything!” he explains. “He notoriously doesn’t like relics – it’s well documented, his hatred of relics. Yet it’s fine. Hey, I would never relic a flame-top guitar – I just felt the Silver Sky lent itself to that kind of cool thing.”
In the past, Myers has hinted that some of the backlash seemed to come from other members of the PRS team. This could potentially be because the company was gearing up to release Mayer’s signature in Roxy Pink in 2021, after Myers had already debuted his pink John Mayer Silver Sky onstage.
Speaking to Premier Guitar in 2022, Myers explained that he received “an upset phone call” after the company heard of the guitar. “I don’t know if it was [Mayer] that was upset – I’ll just say someone was upset that I had my own white guitar painted pink,” the guitarist explained.
“They were like, ‘Well, what if other artists want a pink guitar and you have one?’” he recalled. “If John wants to get mad, I basically just copied the BLK1. That’s really all I did! It’s exactly the same… If you’re a Mayer fan, you can probably tell.”
Myer’s tech, Drew Foppe, has publicly supported Myer’s custom Silver Sky in the past. “For people who don’t quite understand what a tribute relic job looks like, and just want to talk trash about what kind of wear and tear a guitar should or shouldn’t have… you’re missing the entire point in the first place,” he wrote.
His post shows Mayer’s BLK1 Fender Strat alongside the ‘infamous’ relic’d PRS Silver Sky. “I get some people don’t like relic guitars,” he wrote. “But to talk trash on a really, really good relic job is just ridiculous!”
“This is a TRIBUTE to the original, not just a random heavy relic job,” he continued “Some of you people have lost your dang minds to speak on something you know nothing about!”
Nowadays, Myers can look beyond the hate, explaining that his custom Silver Sky is one of his favourite axes. “It’s still one of my coolest looking guitars,” he tells MusicRadar.
The Shinedown guitarist is set to release a new signature guitar of his own very soon. He’s even played a prototype onstage at recent shows – but it’s not too dissimilar to his last signature. Rather ironically, the new release is just a paint job.
“Really, it’s pretty much the same thing as the last one – but it’s a different colour,” he says. “I believe we might have done something different with the pickups. It’s basically a different colour variation of the Myers Blue, of the last version of the Myers. It’s a cool colour, matching headstock. It’s very pretty.”
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