A beginner's guide to the thrilling, topsy-turvy world of the concept album By Hugh Fielder, Jon Hotten, Sian Llewellyn Rock is often about more than just the music: it's about The Big Idea, and ambition manifesting itself as The Concept Album
The 10 best Power Pop albums By Jon Hotten Power pop is the cheeky little cousin of pop-rock. It’s one of rock’s most accessible genres, and it’s not so easy to define, but these are its best albums
The triumph of the gentleman rockers: How Led Zeppelin IV was made By Jon Hotten In 1971, Led Zeppelin released their untitled fourth album and changed the face of rock forever. This is the story of the album known variously as Led Zeppelin IV, Runes, Four Symbols or simply Untitled
Crazy, overblown and dumb: How Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman made Bat Out Of Hell By Jon Hotten It launched Meat Loaf onto an unsuspecting world. It stayed in the UK charts for eight years and became the biggest selling debut album of all time. It also nearly finished off the singer for good. This is the story of Bat Out Of Hell
How Led Zeppelin plundered music's past to create a blueprint for its future By Jon Hotten From the ashes of 60s blues rock, Led Zeppelin took off and wrote the template for all hard rock that followed. But it was all just an extension of the blues tradition itself
10 great bands whose debut albums weren't actually great By Fraser Lewry, Dom Lawson, Malcolm Dome, Jon Hotten, Sleazegrinder, Stephen Hill, Rob Hughes, Dave Ling, Alec Chillingworth Everybody's got to start somewhere, and some of our very best bands started slowly. Here's 10 great bands whose debut albums weren't actually great
The 10 worst albums by 10 brilliant classic rock bands By Geoff Barton, Paul Elliot, Sleazegrinder, Ian Fortnam, Fraser Lewry, Malcolm Dome, Jon Hotten, Hugh Fielder Even the best can get it wrong sometimes: here's the worst albums by 10 of rock's greatest bands
Life in the fast lane: the turbulent tale of The Eagles By Jon Hotten Fistfights, ulcers and run-ins with the law were all part of the Eagles’ everyday life: A look behind the rise, fall and unexpected rise again of the ultimate Californian band
Nikki Sixx interview: The Dirt, the Heroin Diaries, and the wreck of Motley Crue By Jon Hotten In 2003 Classic Rock spoke to Nikki Sixx about Motley Crue's upcoming movie The Dirt. It wouldn't see the light of day for another sixteen years
Magnum: a guide to their best albums By Jon Hotten, Johnny Sharp Magnum have never joined rock’s big league, but these Brummies have nevertheless produced some of pomp rock’s best albums
Journey: The Great Escape By Jon Hotten It’s not just the greatest AOR album ever made, Journey’s Escape also flies high outside the genre as one of the greatest albums in rock
The 50 Greatest AOR Albums Of All Time By Paul Elliot, Dave Ling, Jon Hotten, Sian Llewellyn From big hitters like Journey, Boston and Foreigner to the lesser known lights of AOR, these are the 50 albums that truly sparkle
Why August 2 1986 was the greatest day in the history of music By Jon Hotten One day. Three albums released. Music changed forever
Never mind the spandex: How metal got its mojo back By Jon Hotten Big hair and bad spandex almost killed any credibility metal had in the 1980s. But metal not only survived, it also came back bigger than ever. Here’s how…
Interview: Duff McKagan on sobriety, Velvet Revolver and Chinese Democracy By Jon Hotten In 2009, the sobered-up Guns N' Roses veteran spoke to Classic Rock from a position of domestic bliss and reduced drama, while promoting a new Loaded album
Last of the Giants: The True Story of Guns N' Roses - book review By Jon Hotten Legendary rock journalist Mick Wall was famously called out by Axl Rose on Guns N' Roses' furious Get In The Ring. Is his new book about the band the chance to settle old scores?
Sebastian Bach: "It's the music that people remember, not all the other stuff” By Jon Hotten Former Skid Row singer, Broadway star and reality TV stalwart Sebastian Bach on the best and worst drugs, Axl Rose, and working until the day you die...
The chaotic, crazed story of Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion By Jon Hotten Drugs, rifts, hirings, firings, and the sound of a band falling apart. Slash, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler and more tell the story of GN’R’s Use Your Illusion
The strange and terrible true story of Great White By Jon Hotten Great White toured with Guns N' Roses, hit the charts, and dissolved in a blur of betrayal and substance abuse. And, just when it couldn’t get worse, they played Rhode Island
Freddie Mercury: the life and times of rock’s most outrageous star By Jon Hotten A shy kid from Zanzibar helped propel Queen to superstardom. Classic Rock chronicles the extraordinary story of the Queen singer
The Bizarre Life & Sad Death Of Nikki Sixx’s Doppelganger By Jon Hotten In the late 80s, unknown musician Matthew Trippe claimed to have replaced Nikki Sixx in Motley Crue. Now the true story of Trippe’s strange life can finally be told
Metallica: the epic story behind the Black album By Jon Hotten 30 million people can’t be wrong: how the Black Album transformed Metallica into metal’s biggest band
Every Jethro Tull album ranked from worst to best By Jon Hotten Jethro Tull's 21 albums have taken in English folk and baroque instrumentation, plus enough thunderous riffs to keep hard rock fans happy. Here are 10 of their best moments
Def Leppard's Hysteria: Every Song Ranked From Worst To Best By Jon Hotten We rank every song on Def Leppard's multi-platinum classic Hysteria – in order of greatness
The 10 Essential Glam Metal Albums By Jon Hotten Equal parts hooks, hairspray and how-the hell-did-they-get-away-with-that: introducing the glam metallers