Henry Yates

“We used Clark Gable’s Cadillac with two bars in it, just for the band”: Secrets of Rick Wakeman’s excess

By Henry Yates Published 27 July 26

Keyboard icon's grandiose live shows lit up the 70s, but behind the pomp and majesty lay bad reviews, heart attacks and near ruin

A guide to Howlin' Wolf's best albums

By Henry Yates Published 21 July 26

Late Chicago powerhouse Howlin' Wolf was equal parts transcendent and terrifying. These are the releases that will blow down your house

Shinedown frontman Brent Smith on the loss, addiction and rebirth that led to new album EI8HT

By Henry Yates Published 7 July 26

Shinedown’s charmed career belies a band that has rolled with the punches

Toto’s Rosanna: the huge 80s AOR hit inspired by an up-and-coming actress and John Bonham

By Henry Yates Published 5 July 26

“I mean, how hard is it to have a beautiful woman around?”

Blue October's Justin Furstenfeld reflects on runaway creativity – and personal train wrecks

By Henry Yates Published 3 July 26

This year US alt.rockers Blue October are playing their 2006 album Foiled in full on tour – and Justin Furstenfeld is just glad he can

Crown Lands talk music biz, 19-minute songs, and why they'd rather be killed by robots than zombies

By Henry Yates Published 26 June 26

Crown Lands' new album Apocalypse is a sci-fi story, but it echoes what's going on in the world today

Robben Ford's wild tales of Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Kiss, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison and more

By Henry Yates Published 15 June 26

Session guitarist extraordinaire Robben Ford got high with George Harrison, hit on by Barry Manilow, yelled at by Miles Davis, blanked by Bob Dylan and headhunted by Gene Simmons... and these are his stories

The Black Keys' Patrick Carney picks the songs that have soundtracked his life

By Henry Yates Published 12 June 26

The Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance

The inside story of Black Sabbath’s stoned masterpiece Master Of Reality

By Henry Yates Published 7 June 26

How Black Sabbath pushed metal to ever heavier levels on their immortal third album

The tragedy and triumph of Queen’s final album and Freddie Mercury’s last goodbye

By Henry Yates Published 5 June 26

How Queen made Innuendo and Made In Heaven against the odds

How thrash kingpins Anthrax and hip hop titans Public Enemy created the greatest rap-metal song of all

By Henry Yates Published 4 June 26

"There was an equal chance that both bands would lose audiences"

How Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong wrote a game-changing three-minute classic in a basement surrounded by pizza boxes

By Henry Yates Published 25 May 26

Basket Case was not an overnight success – far from it

The psychedelic masterpiece inspired by John Coltrane, Ravi Shankar and an aeroplane flight

By Henry Yates Published 19 May 26

Eight Miles High was the single that should have launched The Byrds into the stratosphere. So why did it instead mark the precise moment when it all came crashing down?

How themes of war, madness and nuclear holocaust shaped Black Sabbath's album Paranoid

By Henry Yates Published 16 May 26

Black Sabbath ditched the hippy dream and faced brutal reality on Paranoid

The story of the platinum-selling, two-minute blast of Celtic punk inspired by historic documents

By Henry Yates Published 14 May 26

Dropkick Murphys' I’m Shipping Up To Boston was a collision of legless pirates and beyond-the-grave lyrics from American folk hero Woody Guthrie

Squeeze guitarist and singer Chris Difford on the band's great 'lost' album Trixies

By Henry Yates Published 11 May 26

For half a century, the first songs Squeeze's Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook wrote together sat on a cassette tape: Now they've finally been rerecorded and released

How Mick Jones wrote the Foreigner hit that he believed came from "a higher force"

By Henry Yates Published 11 May 26

How Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones wrote a transatlantic hit that he believed came from "a higher force"

How Bo Diddley, beards and a Mexican battle song set one of the greatest blues trios of the 70s on the road to 80s superstardom

By Henry Yates Published 18 April 26

ZZ Top’s 1979 album Deguello marked the start of their most successful era

The story of the Jimi Hendrix guitarist who was written out of history

By Henry Yates Published 15 April 26

When Jimi Hendrix played Woodstock, old friend Larry Lee played guitar beside him - but his contributions were scrubbed from the movie

British bluesman Danny Bryant hit rock bottom in 2024: Now he comes clean

By Henry Yates Published 13 April 26

Walter Trout protoge Danny Bryant has survived alcoholism, divorce and liver disease, but new album Nothing Left Behind is the exorcism he needed

How Jeff Buckley turned a Canadian troubadour’s forgotten song into a one-man tour de force

By Henry Yates Published 5 April 26

Jeff Buckley‘s version of this Leonard Cohen classic is one of rock’s most transcendent songs

How an A-list director and a time-travelling teenager turned Huey Lewis & The News into unlikely 80s superstars

By Henry Yates Published 4 April 26

Huey Lewis & The News scored a massive hit with The Power Of Love thanks to Back To The Future

Hotel bombings, car crashes, conspiracy theories and towering infernos: The A to Z of B.B. King

By Henry Yates Published 25 March 26

Introduction written by Joe Bonamassa

Leo Lyons: turned down by Jimi Hendrix, saved by Pete Townshend, butted heads with Lemmy

By Henry Yates Published 20 March 26

As Ten Years After release an expanded version of their Ssssh album, founding bassist Leo Lyons recalls a live packed with rock'n'roll flashpoints