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The Latest Breaking News from Classic Rock

“The two Johns very began to hate doing TV shows that wanted us to mime. For a band that worshipped Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy and UFO, it became a really big problem”: The huge 80s hard rock hit that drove a wedge between the band that made it

The Final Countdown pushed Europe into the pop charts – and not everyone was happy about it

Louder

“I haven’t written anything on the new album. I started to write ‘very heavy metal’ things, but I ended up writing for bagpipes, folk things like Jethro Tull. Oh well – bang go my royalties!”: When Bruce Dickinson was Iron Maiden’s odd man out

“There was none of me on that record – I was just AWOL mentally”

MusicRadar

“Every song we came up with was like the greatest thing. Every time we’d write another it was like, ‘Oh my god’”: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and more remember how thrash metal took over the world 40 years ago

1986 was the year where thrash metal broke through. We got the genre’s leading bands to look back on those whirlwind 12 months.

Metal Hammer

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"Some other very well-known people were at that first jam": Adrian Smith on how Smith/Kotzen got started, bonding over British rock and Iron Maiden's big homecoming

Guitarists Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen are preparing to take their side project on the road with shows in the UK and Europe

Metal Hammer

"We were a gang. I'd get into fights in bars defending them. But I had my dream taken away": With Guns N' Roses, Steven Adler went close to the edge more than anyone - but then it all came crashing down

Of all those involved with Guns N' Roses, drummer Steven Adler was the one who most lived up to their Most Dangerous Band In The World reputation

Metal Hammer

“The studio bill came to £148.50. So with the £1.50 in change we all bought a celebratory bag of fish and chips”: Before superstardom and multi-million-selling albums, the young Def Leppard made their very first record on the cheap

“It was difficult doing the scream in The Overture on a Sunday morning”

MusicRadar

“It gave us loads of publicity. The kids who did want to buy our records were like, ‘Oh cool! The religious right are burning their records! I better buy half a dozen!’”: The controversial Iron Maiden classic featured in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

“Six six six, the one for you and me!”

MusicRadar

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"I used to sleep with my guitar next to the bed": Born in a dream, the guitar solos in one of classic rock's greatest songs were out of key, but band superstition kept them in

Lynyrd Skynyrd's down-home anthem was a retort to Neil Young's Southern Man, but decades on it's soundtracked everything from KFC to video games

Louder

“I took inspiration from Iron Maiden’sRun To The Hills. And for the lyric, the story of the last days on Earth, I went back to David Bowie’sSpace Oddity”: A rock band’s global No.1 hit – before grunge turned their world upside down

“We were thrown into this weird pop world – it was madness”

MusicRadar

Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: January 12, 2026

Eight songs you need to hear right now, from The Black Crowes, Alter Bridge, Starbenders and more

Louder

"Wildest night out? I'd have to say Lemmy. I don't think we got much sleep": Danko Jones on meeting AC/DC, playing with Marty Friedman and a wild night out in London

You know what to expect with a new Danko Jones album, but 2025's Leo Rising met with positive responses across the board and things are looking good

Metal Hammer

Phil Lynott, 40 years gone: A celebration by his bandmates and friends - only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in our first issue of 2026: Sammy Hagar, Alter Bridge, Steve Cropper, Black Stone Cherry, Jim Steinman, Francis Rossi, Karnivool, Marcus King, Elles Bailey, Airbourne, Heavy Pettin and more

Louder

"We'd stay up all night drinking, chasing girls, partying – and our pilot was with us. The next morning, he was flying the plane!" The rise, fall and rehabilitation of REO Speedwagon

The rollercoaster story of REO Speedwagon, the AOR band with a rock’n’roll spirit

Louder

“When Ronnie sang about Neil Young in that song, that was kind of a joke lyric about him. We loved Neil Young!”: The true story of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama

"Neil wanted to play the song with us!"

MusicRadar

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Louder

He hung out with Hendrix, got shock treatment with Ronnie Wood, shared girlfriends with Keith Moon, and was friends and rivals with Clapton and Page: Jeff Beck’s wild times

Sharing the stage with Page, giving Hendrix a slide, being mistaken for Jagger – these were some of Jeff Beck’s most memorable friendships

MusicRadar

“In the ’80s,MTVbuttered our bread. But after Kurt Cobain wore his grandfather’s sweater in the video forSmells Like Teen Spirit, there was no place on MTV for bands like us and Mötley Crüe”: The life and death of the thinking person’s hair metal band

Two top 10 hits and two million album sales couldn't save them

MusicRadar

“When we went to record it, the record company said, ‘Man, they won’t play that, it’s too long.’ But we said, ‘We don’t care!’”: How the young Lynyrd Skynyrd turned a simple love song into a southern rock epic

"Ronnie said, 'Just go till I tell you to quit!'"

Louder

"He was given 24 hours to live. It all came crumbling down in one day": The astonishing story of Slade: glamour, tragedy and beyond

Noddy Holder looks back at Slade's noizy, hit-infested career

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Louder

"One bloke was on Antiques Roadshow saying he was our first drummer. Absolute rubbish!" Steve Harris sets the record straight about Christmas Day, Paul Di'Anno and Iron Maiden's early years

As Iron Maiden’s driving force, Steve Harris has steered the band from pub gigs and demos to the stadiums and multi-million-selling albums

MusicRadar

“There’s something to that song that touches people. I don’t know what it is but I’m really glad it happened”: The classic Fleetwood Mac hit that Stevie Nicks wrote in just 10 minutes!

Nicks’ performance of the song on stage every night “was like an exorcism”

Louder

Bob Dylan introduced him to The Beatles, he married the girlfriend of a Rolling Stone, and he played with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page and meditated with David Lynch. Donovan looks back...

Folk-rock pioneer Donovan on jamming with Macca and Dylan, butting heads with John Paul Jones and meditating with David Lynch

Louder

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Chris Rea dead at 74

Chris Rea has passed away after a series of health battles

Louder

“We made a concerted effort to move away from the long thematic songs into something shorter”: Rush were one of the proggiest bands of the 70s. Then they discovered The Police and reggae and wrote the hit that reinvented them

Goodbye sci-fi epics, hello surprise hit singles

Louder

"The Prime Ministers of Canada and France were there in the front row. It was pretty stressful": The Trews on their most significant gig, kitchen parties and Prince William

In 2007 The Trews were nominated as Best New Band at the Classic Rock Awards - 18 years on, they still have their eyes on the prize

Louder

"I'm genuinely amazed and blown away": Steven Wilson's The Overview voted Best Album of 2025 by Classic Rock magazine

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