Dave Everley

Dave Everley

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.

Articles by: Dave Everley

Metallica live 1980s

"You had guys who would jump into the crowd and then walk across people’s heads." Inside the year that turned thrash metal into a global phenomenon

By Dave Everley published

From Anthrax's Fistfull Of Metal to Exodus's Bonded By Blood and Metallica's Ride The Lightning, 1984 was the year thrash broke big

Deep Purple studio portrait

"I hear this screaming from behind me: Simon! Simon! Start the bloody song!" How Deep Purple entered their Mk IX era, inspired by the tedious complications of modern life

By Dave Everley published

Deep Purple might never have been fashionable, but with a new guitarist on board and a brand new album, they look likely to be around for some time yet

Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson posing for a photograph in 1984

“You could be a Luddite and ignore these new instruments, or you could say, ‘Let’s give it a spin.’ And I chose the latter”: How Jethro Tull embraced synths, drum machines and the 1980s – and split their fans

By Dave Everley published

The tangled story of Jethro Tull’s controversial 80s albums A, The Broadsword And The Beast and Under Wraps

Big Special with a dog

"We're taught to be ashamed of our accent and where we're from": Meet Big Special, the Black Country duo blending the blues, hip-hop and rock with beautiful fury

By Dave Everley published

With Free "a huge influence" and pithy lyrics, Big Special might soon live up to their name

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

Nathaniel Rateliff on hanging around with Robert Plant, getting high with Willie Nelson, and the struggles behind the new Night Sweats album

By Dave Everley published

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats might not be party animals any more, but there's no shortage of energy when it comes to their music

Conny Plank

“He wasn’t like a mad scientist with all these live wires hanging around in the studio – the wires were all in his mind”: The prog credentials of pioneering producer Conny Plank

By Dave Everley published

He helped create krautrock before his influence stretched round the progressive world via his belief that “craziness is something holy”

The Exorcist/Saw 3D/Queen of The Damned/Mad Max: Fury Road/School Of Rock/Thor: Ragnarok/Trick Or Treat/Midsommar

The 50 most metal movie moments ever

By Metal Hammer published

From the sinister appearance of Count Orlok to Iron Man rocking out to AC/DC, these are the 50 most metal movie moments ever

Katon W De Pena of thrash metal band Hirax

“A lot of us didn’t like each other back in the day. Slayer were hard-ass. They didn’t even get along with Metallica”: Why Hirax’s Katon W De Pena is one of thrash metal’s great unsung heroes

By Dave Everley published

Hirax frontman Katon W De Pena was there at the birth of thrash – and he’s still passionately flying the flag today

Dream Theater posing for a photograph in front of a graffitti’d wall

“Give me a break. Of course we’ve got frickin’ soul”: Dream Theater vs the haters

By Dave Everley published

In 2013, Dream Theater released their eponymous 12th album – but not everyone was onboard with their “soulless” prog metal

Ian Anderson and Elvis Presley

“I felt so embarrassed for him and I didn’t want to make things even worse”: Ian Anderson, the man who refused to meet Elvis Presley

By Dave Everley published

The King had just staged his comeback and Jethro Tull were touring breakthrough album Stand Up – but when the ‘invitation’ came to greet Presley, Anderson resisted

Bill Fisher

“It’s the irony of ironies – paying Zuckerberg to show people songs that are denouncing him”: Church Of The Cosmic Skull’s Bill Fisher puts politics in prog as he explores How To Think Like A Billionaire

By Dave Everley published

He took inspiration from Steely Dan, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel to take a shot at space-race moguls via what he calls “yacht doom” music

AC/DC onstage in Gelsenkirchen

"Angus Young may be a silver-topped 69-year-old, but he's still the blueprint of what a rock'n'roll guitarist should be": Back on the road with AC/DC

By Dave Everley published

Given events surrounding AC/DC in recent years, anyone could be excused for thinking it was all over for one of rock’s greatest bands. But as long as there's a school uniform...

Aerosmith backstage in 1976

"Rock'n'roll's a dirty job, and no one did it dirtier": The Aerosmith albums you should definitely listen to

By Dave Everley published

Aerosmith might have come to the end of the road, but their best albums are swaggering, charismatic evidence of a unique rock'n'roll legacy

Fish – Vigil / Internal Exile

“Where the joy and the pain started – and fittingly, where they end too”: Fish’s circle-closing reissues of Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors and Internal Exile

By Dave Everley published

Extended editions of his first two post-Marillion albums mark his final releases before he bows out

Ian Hunter portrait

"Joe Elliott knows more about Mott than I do. You just have to sit back and listen to him": Ian Hunter's stories of Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and more

By Dave Everley published

He’s Ian Hunter, solo artist and former Mott The Hoople frontman, and these are some of his stories

“I wanted to bring the R40 show to everyone, but circumstances have made that impossible… I didn’t have a lump in my throat until the very last show”: Geddy Lee’s feelings when there was still an even chance of a new Rush album

By Dave Everley published

Soon after the trio’s final tour had ended, the ever-optimistic frontman insisted his band should still be discussed in the present tense

A Perfect Circle posing for a photograph wearing suits

“Maynard had this fifty-yard stare and I was in the target zone. I thought he was ready to jump off stage and have a ruckus”: how A Perfect Circle made the funniest and most provocative rock album of the 2010s with Eat The Elephant

By Dave Everley published

Death stares, Axl Rose and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy are all part of the story of Maynard James Keenan and Billy Howerdel’s A Perfect Circle

LA Guns standing in front of a graffiti-covered wall

“If Pavarotti had come along and offered to sing Sex Action, I’d have probably said, ‘Yeah, you’re in’”: the wild tale of LA Guns, Hollywood’s most chaotic band

By Dave Everley published

LA Guns laid the groundwork for the Sunset Strip glam metal scene, but they were too combustible to become superstars

Nightwish in 2024

"There’s no bad blood." An update on new Nightwish album Yesterwynde, why they still won't tour and what comes next

By Dave Everley published

Nightwish mainman Tuomas Holopainen lifts the lid on album number 10

Collage showing icons of metal

The 100 Songs That Changed Metal

By Metal Hammer published

From founding fathers like Black Sabbath, Rainbow and Judas Priest to metal's modern leaders such as Ghost, Sleep Token and Spiritbox, these are the songs that have defined a genre

Jon Lord and Rick Wakeman

“We’d arranged to do an album of new material together. He called me… ‘I’ve got cancer; do you mind if we put things on hold?’ Sadly it never happened”: Rick Wakeman’s tribute to Jon Lord

By Dave Everley published

Deep Purple icon, who inspired Yes counterpart to remake Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, had a wicked sense of humour and was a true progger at heart

Chris Goss headshot

"My organs began to shut down. I was travelling in the astral world. It was magic": Masters Of Reality's Chris Goss on the dark side of Rick Rubin, the bright side of Ginger Baker, and surviving the music industry

By Dave Everley published

Chris Goss lit the fuse on the 90s stoner revolution, but his band Masters Of Reality remain a cult act despite their enormous influence

A portrait of Brian May and Jimi Hendrix playing onstage

"I have never heard a sound like that, before or since": In 1967, Queen’s Brian May was an unknown student. Then he booked Jimi Hendrix to play his college for £1000 and his life changed forever

By Dave Everley last updated

A pre-fame Brian May got to watch Jimi Hendrix play a student ball from 10 feet away

Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott and AC/DC’s Brian Johnson and Angus Young

“We used to cover Problem Child in the early days. We did it two or three times in front of an audience”: we got Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott to pick his ultimate AC/DC setlist

By Dave Everley published

From big hitters to deep cuts, this the perfect AC/DC setlist according to Def Leppard singer and AC/DC megafan Joe Elliott

Metallica in 1984

"Lars smiled: 'What do you think?' 'You need more guitar solos, that’s for sure.'" How Metallica kickstarted thrash metal and changed the game forever with a "sloppy" little demo track called Hit The Lights

By Dave Everley published

With Hit The Lights, Metallica found their first signature song and a track that'd have a profound effect on heavy metal's evolution