Author: Web Rock Radio News Dept

Dream Theater‘s Mike Portnoy says he’s worried about his future after seeing a spate of high-profile drummers lose their job recently.

Josh Freese was let go by the Foo Fighters this month, The Who fired Zak Starkey a few weeks ago and Guns N’ Roses parted with Frank Ferrer in March.

Last year, Jason Bonham was replaced in Sammy Hagar’s band.

Reacting to those firings, Portnoy jokes that he is looking over his shoulder.

As well as his role in Dream Theater, which he returned to in 2023, Portnoy works with a number of other groups and artists.

He tells Office Hours Live With Tim Heidecker: “I think it’s the Spinal Tap conspiracy. I think nobody is safe. Ringo’s son was fired from The Who. John Bonham’s son was fired from Sammy Hagar’s band.

“I mean, if the spawn of Ringo and Bonzo are not safe, nobody is safe.”

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On Freese’s shock departure from Foo Fighters, Portnoy says: “Frankly, it’s shocking. I thought Josh was perfect. So, yeah, it’s scary. It’s scary times for drummers.

“I’m scared for my life and career at this point. And I’m in, like, 15 bands, so I have 15 times the chance of getting fired right now. The odds are very much stacked against me right now.”

On Starkey’s firing from The Who, which came weeks after he was fired then almost immediately rehired, Portnoy adds: “The whole thing with Zak Starkey started … they did a show last month at the Royal Albert Hall.

“They were doing The Song Is Over and Roger came into the second verse early and stopped the band, turned around and blamed it on his mix, that the drums were powering out his mix.

“Now, mind you, Zak Starkey is on an electronic kit. They already downgraded it off of an acoustic kit. They have him playing an electronic kit, which is fully controllable in terms of volume through the sound guy.

“So, if anything, he should have fired the monitor guy, not Zak.”

Dream Theater released Parasomnia, their first album with Portnoy for 15 years, in February.

Nick Kroll, RM Brown, Mike Portnoy (Episode 341) – YouTube

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock’n’roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022. 

A new biography of late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury claims he had a secret daughter with whom he had a close relationship until his death in 1991.

The 48-year-old woman, who is known only as B, works in the medical field somewhere in Europe. She has shared her story with rock biographer Lesley-Ann Jones for the new book, titled Love, Freddie.

The book claims B was conceived in 1976 when Mercury had an affair with the wife of one of his close friends. It adds that Mercury regularly spent time with the child.

It also claims Mercury gave B 17 volumes of his personal journals, which she kept secret until now.

The Daily Mail reports that B says in the book: “Freddie Mercury was and is my father.

“We had a very close and loving relationship from the moment I was born and throughout the final 15 years of his life.

“He adored me and was devoted to me. The circumstances of my birth may seem, by most people’s standards, unusual and even outrageous.

“That should come as no surprise. It never detracted from his commitment to love and look after me. He cherished me like a treasured possession.”

Mercury was known to have had relationships with both men and women. He died from complications of HIV/AIDS.

B’s existence was said to be known only to Mercury’s inner circle of friends.

In the book, B explains why she has revealed her story and the journals now. She says: “After more than three decades of lies, speculation and distortion, it is time to let Freddie speak.

“Those who have been aware of my existence kept his greatest secret out of loyalty to Freddie.

“That I choose to reveal myself in my own midlife is my decision and mine alone. I have not, at any point, been coerced into doing this.

“He entrusted his collection of private notebooks to me, his only child and his next of kin, the written record of his private thoughts, memories and feelings about everything he had experienced.”

Author Jones tells the Daily Mail: “My instinct was to doubt everything, but I am absolutely sure she is not a fantasist. No one could have faked all this. Why would she have worked with me for three and a half years, never demanding anything?”

Love, Freddie is due to be released in February of this year.

Linda Ronstadt’s musical roots run deep in the Arizona desert, where she was raised in Tucson in a family steeped in tradition and cultural heritage. The Mexican-American influence of her upbringing would later resurface in some of her most personal work, but her initial foray into music began when she moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. Teaming up with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards, she formed the Stone Poneys, a folk-rock trio that found success with the 1967 single “Different Drum.” Though the group disbanded shortly after, Ronstadt’s powerful, emotive voice had already begun turning heads in the music industry.

Her solo career took flight in the late 1960s and into the early 1970s, as she toured extensively and released a series of albums that revealed her commitment to blending country, rock, and pop styles. Her 1974 breakthrough album Heart Like a Wheel reached No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and the Country Albums chart. It produced the chart-topping single “You’re No Good,” as well as “When Will I Be Loved,” which peaked at No. 2. The album’s success solidified Ronstadt’s place in the growing field of country-rock, a genre she helped to define and popularize.

The mid to late 1970s marked a period of enormous commercial success for Ronstadt. She followed Heart Like a Wheel with a string of platinum albums, including Prisoner in Disguise (1975), Hasten Down the Wind (1976), Simple Dreams (1977), and Living in the USA (1978). Hits from this period included “Blue Bayou,” “It’s So Easy,” “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” and “Back in the U.S.A.” Each release reinforced her status as one of the most bankable and respected vocalists of her generation, while her interpretations of songs by Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, and Warren Zevon introduced classic tracks to new audiences.

Throughout the 1980s, Ronstadt continued to explore new territory, taking bold artistic risks. In 1983, she starred on Broadway in The Pirates of Penzance, receiving a Tony nomination for her performance. Her collaboration with composer Nelson Riddle on a trilogy of traditional pop and jazz albums—What’s New (1983), Lush Life (1984), and For Sentimental Reasons (1986)—demonstrated a remarkable vocal range and introduced a younger audience to the Great American Songbook. These albums were commercial hits and earned critical acclaim, particularly for Ronstadt’s elegant phrasing and stylistic precision.

Her resume expanded even further with her collaborations alongside Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton. Their 1987 album Trio was a massive success, reaching No. 1 on the Country Albums chart and winning a Grammy Award. The follow-up, Trio II, released in 1999, also received critical acclaim. Ronstadt also ventured into her roots with the 1987 album Canciones de Mi Padre, a Spanish-language collection of traditional Mexican music that honored her heritage. The album became the best-selling non-English-language album in American recording history and won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance.

Over the course of her career, Linda Ronstadt released 29 studio albums, multiple live and compilation albums, and scored 38 Billboard Hot 100 charting singles. She was a 10-time Grammy Award winner, and also received two Academy of Country Music Awards, an Emmy, and an ALMA Award. In 2014, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Library of Congress honored her in 2019 with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, marking her as the first Latina recipient of the award.

Outside of her musical legacy, Ronstadt was an outspoken advocate for causes she believed in. She supported political and cultural issues related to the arts, immigration, and the environment. She was also candid about her personal struggles, including her diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease, which she revealed in 2013. The condition ultimately forced her retirement from singing, but she continued to speak and write about her life and career, including the publication of her 2013 memoir Simple Dreams, which became a New York Times bestseller.

Despite no longer performing, her influence remains deeply felt in American music. Her interpretations of songs from a vast range of genres have inspired generations of vocalists, and her pioneering efforts in country rock, traditional pop, and Latin music continue to shape the industry. Ronstadt’s ability to defy genre constraints while maintaining a deep emotional connection to the material is one of the many reasons she remains beloved by fans, critics, and fellow musicians alike.

Linda Ronstadt’s legacy is defined not only by her astonishing vocal talent but by her artistic courage. She consistently refused to be boxed in by commercial expectations, choosing instead to follow her creative instincts—even when that meant taking the less conventional path. Her work introduced new generations to older forms of music, helped break cultural barriers, and reaffirmed the power of the American female voice in a male-dominated era.

Complete List Of Linda Ronstadt Songs From A to Z

1. 1917 – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
2. Across the Border – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
3. Adieu False Heart – Adieu False Heart – 2006
4. Adios – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
5. Adonde Voy – Winter Light – 1993
6. After the Gold Rush – Feels Like Home – 1995
7. After the Gold Rush – Trio II – 1999
8. Alison – Living in the USA – 1978
9. All I Left Behind – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
10. All My Life – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
11. All That You Dream – Living in the USA – 1978
12. Alma Adentro – Frenesí – 1992
13. Am I Blue? – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986
14. Angel Baby – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
15. A Number and a Name – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
16. Anyone Who Had a Heart – Winter Light – 1993
17. Are My Thoughts with You? – Silk Purse – 1970
18. A River for Him – Winter Light – 1993
19. Aren’t You the One – Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – 1968
20. Away in a Manger – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
21. Baby, I Love You – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
22. Baby, You’ve Been on My Mind – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
23. Back in the U.S.A. – Living in the USA – 1978
24. Be My Baby – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
25. Bet No One Ever Hurt This Bad – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
26. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986
27. Birds – Linda Ronstadt – 1972
28. The Blue Train – Feels Like Home – 1995
29. The Blue Train – Trio II – 1999
30. Blue Prelude – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
31. Blowing Away – Living in the USA – 1978
32. Blue Bayou – Simple Dreams – 1977
33. Brahms’ Lullaby – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
34. Break My Mind – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
35. Burns’ Supper – Adieu False Heart – 2006
36. But Not for Me – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986
37. By the Fruits of their Labors – Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – 1968
38. Can’t We Be Friends? – Lush Life – 1984
39. Carmelita – Simple Dreams – 1977
40. The Christmas Song – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
41. Closing – Adieu False Heart – 2006
42. Colorado – Don’t Cry Now – 1973
43. Corrido De Cananea – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
44. Cost of Love – Mad Love – 1980
45. Crazy – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
46. Crazy Arms – Linda Ronstadt – 1972
47. Crazy He Calls Me – What’s New – 1983
48. Cry Like a Rainstorm – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
49. Cry Me a River – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
50. Cry ‘Til My Tears Run Dry – We Ran – 1998
51. Cuando Me Querías Tú – Frenesí – 1992
52. Damage – We Ran – 1998
53. The Dark End of the Street – Heart Like a Wheel – 1974
54. Day Dream – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
55. Dedicated to the One I Love – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
56. Desperado – Don’t Cry Now – 1973
57. Despojos – Frenesí – 1992
58. Devoted to You – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
59. Devoted to You (instrumental) – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
60. The Dolphins – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
61. Do I Ever Cross Your Mind – Trio II – 1999
62. Don’t Cry Now – Don’t Cry Now – 1973
63. Don’t Know Much – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
64. Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder) – Winter Light – 1993
65. Do What You Gotta Do – Winter Light – 1993
66. Dos Arbolitos – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
67. Down So Low – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
68. Dreams of the San Joaquin – We Ran – 1998
69. Easy for You to Say – Get Closer – 1982
70. El Camino – Mas Canciones – 1991
71. El Crucifijo de Piedra – Mas Canciones – 1991
72. El Gustito – Mas Canciones – 1991
73. El Sol Que Tú Eres – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
74. El Sueño – Mas Canciones – 1991
75. El Toro Relajo – Mas Canciones – 1991
76. En Mi Soledad – Frenesí – 1992
77. Entre Abismos – Frenesí – 1992
78. Everybody Loves a Winner – Don’t Cry Now – 1973
79. Faithless Love – Heart Like a Wheel – 1974
80. Falling Down – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
81. Falling in Love Again – Lush Life – 1984
82. Farther Along – Trio – 1987
83. The Fast One – Don’t Cry Now – 1973
84. Feels Like Home – Feels Like Home – 1995
85. Feels Like Home – Trio II – 1999
86. For a Dancer – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
87. Fragments: Golden Song / Merry-Go-Round / Love Is a Child – Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – 1968
88. Frenesí – Frenesí – 1992
89. Get Closer – Get Closer – 1982
90. Get Out of Town – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
91. Girls Talk – Mad Love – 1980
92. Give Me a Reason – We Ran – 1998
93. Give One Heart – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
94. Go Away From My Window – Adieu False Heart – 2006
95. Good Night – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
96. Goodbye – What’s New – 1983
97. Goodbye My Friend – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
98. Grítenme Piedras del Campo – Mas Canciones – 1991
99. Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry – What’s New – 1983
100. Hasten Down the Wind – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
101. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
102. Hay Unos Ojos – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
103. Heart Like a Wheel – Heart Like a Wheel – 1974
104. Heartbeats Accelerating – Winter Light – 1993
105. Heartbreak Kind – We Ran – 1998
106. Heat Wave – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
107. He Darked the Sun – Silk Purse – 1970
108. He Rode All the Way to Texas – Trio II – 1999
109. He Was Mine – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
110. Hey Mister, That’s Me Up on the Jukebox – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
111. High Sierra – Feels Like Home – 1995
112. High Sierra – Trio II – 1999
113. Hobo – Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – 1968
114. Hobo’s Meditation – Trio – 1987
115. How Do I Make You – Mad Love – 1980
116. Hummin’ to Myself – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
117. Hurt So Bad – Mad Love – 1980
118. I Ain’t Always Been Faithful – Linda Ronstadt – 1972
119. I Believe in You – Don’t Cry Now – 1973
120. I Can Almost See It – Don’t Cry Now – 1973
121. I Can’t Get Over You – Adieu False Heart – 2006
122. I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You) – Heart Like a Wheel – 1974
123. I Can’t Let Go – Mad Love – 1980
124. I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You – What’s New – 1983
125. I Fall in Love Too Easily – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
126. I Fall to Pieces – Linda Ronstadt – 1972
127. I Feel the Blues Movin’ In – Trio II – 1999
128. If He’s Ever Near – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
129. If I Should Fall Behind – We Ran – 1998
130. I Get Along Without You Very Well – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986
131. I Go to Pieces – We Ran – 1998
132. I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself – Winter Light – 1993
133. I Keep it Hid – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
134. I’ll Be Home for Christmas – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
135. I’ll Be Seeing You – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
136. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
137. I’m a Fool to Want You – Lush Life – 1984
138. I’m Leaving It All Up to You – Silk Purse – 1970
139. In My Room – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
140. I Knew You When – Get Closer – 1982
141. I Need You – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
142. I Never Will Marry – Simple Dreams – 1977
143. Interlude – Adieu False Heart – 2006
144. Interlude – Adieu False Heart – 2006
145. I Still Miss Someone – Linda Ronstadt – 1972
146. I Think It’s Gonna Work Out Fine – Get Closer – 1982
147. It Never Entered My Mind – Lush Life – 1984
148. It’s So Easy – Simple Dreams – 1977
149. It’s Too Soon to Know – Winter Light – 1993
150. I’ve Had Enough – Trio – 1987
151. I’ve Got a Crush on You – What’s New – 1983
152. I’ve Never Been in Love Before – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
153. I Will Always Love You – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
154. I Won’t Be Hangin’ Round – Linda Ronstadt – 1972
155. I Wonder as I Wander – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
156. Icy Blue Heart – We Ran – 1998
157. In My Reply – Linda Ronstadt – 1972
158. It Doesn’t Matter Anymore – Heart Like a Wheel – 1974
159. It’s About Time – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
160. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – We Ran – 1998
161. Just One Look – Living in the USA – 1978
162. Justine – Mad Love – 1980
163. Keep Me from Blowing Away – Heart Like a Wheel – 1974
164. King of Bohemia – Adieu False Heart – 2006
165. La Barca De Guaymas – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
166. La Calandria – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
167. La Charreada – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
168. La Cigarra – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
169. La Mariquita – Mas Canciones – 1991
170. Let’s Get Together – Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – 1968
171. Lies – Get Closer – 1982
172. Life Is Like a Mountain Railway – Silk Purse – 1970
173. Little Girl Blue – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986
174. Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
175. The Long Way Around – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
176. Long Long Time – Silk Purse – 1970
177. Look Out for My Love – Mad Love – 1980
178. Los Laureles – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
179. Lo Siento Mi Vida – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
180. Lose Again – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
181. Louise – Silk Purse – 1970
182. Love Has No Pride – Don’t Cry Now – 1973
183. Love Is a Rose – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
184. Love Me Tender – Living in the USA – 1978
185. Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?) – What’s New – 1983
186. Lover’s Return – Feels Like Home – 1995
187. Lover’s Return – Trio II – 1999
188. Lovesick Blues – Silk Purse – 1970
189. Loving the Highway Man – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
190. Lush Life – Lush Life – 1984
191. Mad Love – Mad Love – 1980
192. Making Plans – Trio – 1987
193. Many Rivers to Cross – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
194. Marie Mouri – Adieu False Heart – 2006
195. Maybe I’m Right – Simple Dreams – 1977
196. Mean to Me – Lush Life – 1984
197. Mentira Salomé – Frenesí – 1992
198. Mental Revenge – Silk Purse – 1970
199. Mi Ranchito – Mas Canciones – 1991
200. Miss Otis Regrets – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
201. Mohammed’s Radio – Living in the USA – 1978
202. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress – Get Closer – 1982
203. Morning Blues – Feels Like Home – 1995
204. Mr. Radio – Get Closer – 1982
205. My Blue Tears – Get Closer – 1982
206. My Dear Companion – Trio – 1987
207. My Funny Valentine – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986
208. My Old Flame – Lush Life – 1984
209. Never Will I Marry – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
210. Nobody’s – Silk Purse – 1970
211. O come, O come, Emmanuel – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
212. Oh No Not My Baby – Winter Light – 1993
213. Old Paint – Simple Dreams – 1977
214. O magnum mysterium – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
215. The One I Love Is Gone – Adieu False Heart – 2006
216. Only Mama That’ll Walk the Line – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
217. Ooh Baby Baby – Living in the USA – 1978
218. Opening – Adieu False Heart – 2006
219. The Pain of Loving You – Trio – 1987
220. Palomita de Ojos Negros – Mas Canciones – 1991
221. Parlez-Moi D’Amour – Adieu False Heart – 2006
222. Party Girl – Mad Love – 1980
223. Past Three O’Clock – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
224. Pena de los Amores – Mas Canciones – 1991
225. People Gonna Talk – Get Closer – 1982
226. Perfidia – Frenesí – 1992
227. Piel Canela – Frenesí – 1992
228. Piensa en Mí – Frenesí – 1992
229. Plus Tu Tournes – Adieu False Heart – 2006
230. Poor Poor Pitiful Me – Simple Dreams – 1977
231. Por Un Amor – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
232. Prisoner in Disguise – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
233. Quiéreme Mucho – Frenesí – 1992
234. Raise the Dead – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
235. Ramblin’ ‘Round – Linda Ronstadt – 1972
236. Rattle My Cage – Adieu False Heart – 2006
237. Rescue Me – Linda Ronstadt – 1972
238. River – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
239. Rivers of Babylon – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
240. Rock Me On the Water – Linda Ronstadt – 1972
241. Rogaciano El Huapanguero – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
242. Roll Um Easy – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
243. Rosewood Casket – Trio – 1987
244. ‘Round Midnight – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986
245. Ruler of My Heart – We Ran – 1998
246. Sail Away – Don’t Cry Now – 1973
247. Shattered – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
248. Siempre Hace Frío – Mas Canciones – 1991
249. Silent Night – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
250. Silver Blue – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
251. Silver Threads and Golden Needles – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
252. Silver Threads and Golden Needles – Don’t Cry Now – 1973
253. Simple Man, Simple Dream – Simple Dreams – 1977
254. Sisters of Mercy – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
255. Skylark – Lush Life – 1984
256. Some of Shelly’s Blues – Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – 1968
257. Someone to Lay Down Beside Me – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
258. Someone to Watch Over Me – What’s New – 1983
259. Sometimes You Just Can’t Win – Get Closer – 1982
260. Sophisticated Lady – Lush Life – 1984
261. So Right, So Wrong – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
262. Sorrow Lives Here – Simple Dreams – 1977
263. Star and a Stone – Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – 1968
264. Still Within the Sound of My Voice – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
265. Stoney End – Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – 1968
266. Straighten Up and Fly Right – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986
267. Sweet Spot – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
268. The Sweetest Gift – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
269. Talk to Me of Mendocino – Get Closer – 1982
270. Talking in the Dark – Mad Love – 1980
271. Tata Dios – Mas Canciones – 1991
272. The Tattler – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
273. Teardrops Will Fall – Feels Like Home – 1995
274. Tell Him I Said Hello – Hummin’ to Myself – 2004
275. Te Quiero Dijiste – Frenesí – 1992
276. Tell Him – Get Closer – 1982
277. Telling Me Lies – Trio – 1987
278. That’ll Be the Day – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
279. This Is to Mother You – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
280. Those Memories of You – Trio – 1987
281. To Know Him Is to Love Him – Trio – 1987
282. Too Old To Die Young – Adieu False Heart – 2006
283. Tracks of My Tears – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
284. Trouble Again – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
285. Try Me Again – Hasten Down the Wind – 1976
286. Tú Sólo Tú – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
287. Tumbling Dice – Simple Dreams – 1977
288. Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water – Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – 1968
289. Valerie – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
290. Verdad Amarga – Frenesí – 1992
291. The Waiting – Feels Like Home – 1995
292. Walk Away Renée – Adieu False Heart – 2006
293. Walk On – Feels Like Home – 1995
294. We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus (And a Lot Less Rock & Roll) – Hand Sown … Home Grown – 1969
295. We Will Rock You – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
296. Welsh Carol – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
297. Western Wall – Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions – 1999
298. What’ll I Do – What’s New – 1983
299. What’s New? – What’s New – 1983
300. When I Fall in Love – Lush Life – 1984
301. When I Grow Too Old to Dream – Living in the USA – 1978
302. When Something Is Wrong with My Baby – Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind – 1989
303. When We Ran – We Ran – 1998
304. When We’re Gone, Long Gone – Trio II – 1999
305. When Will I Be Loved – Heart Like a Wheel – 1974
306. When You Wish Upon a Star – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986
307. When Your Lover Has Gone – Lush Life – 1984
308. White Christmas – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
309. White Rhythm & Blues – Living in the USA – 1978
310. Wildflowers – Trio – 1987
311. Will You Love Me Tomorrow – Silk Purse – 1970
312. Willin’ – Heart Like a Wheel – 1974
313. Wings – Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – 1968
314. Winter Light – Dedicated to the One I Love – 1996
315. Winter Light – Winter Light – 1993
316. Women ‘Cross the River – Feels Like Home – 1995
317. Xicochi, Xicochi – A Merry Little Christmas – 2000
318. Y Ándale – Canciones de Mi Padre – 1987
319. You Can Close Your Eyes – Heart Like a Wheel – 1974
320. You Can’t Treat the Wrong Man Right – Winter Light – 1993
321. You Go to My Head – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986
322. You’ll Never Be the Sun – Trio II – 1999
323. You Tell Me That I’m Falling Down – Prisoner in Disguise – 1975
324. You Took Advantage of Me – Lush Life – 1984
325. You’re No Good – Heart Like a Wheel – 1974
326. (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons – For Sentimental Reasons – 1986

Albums

Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III (1968)

Hand Sown … Home Grown (1969)

Silk Purse (1970)

Linda Ronstadt (1972)

Don’t Cry Now (1973)

Heart Like a Wheel (1974)

Prisoner in Disguise (1975)

Hasten Down the Wind (1976)

Simple Dreams (1977)

Living in the USA (1978)

Mad Love (1980)

Get Closer (1982)

What’s New (1983)

Lush Life (1984)

For Sentimental Reasons (1986)

Trio (1987) (with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton)

Canciones de Mi Padre (1987)

Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989)

Mas Canciones (1991)

Frenesí (1992)

Winter Light (1993)

Feels Like Home (1995)

Dedicated to the One I Love (1996)

We Ran (1998)

Trio II (1999) (Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton)

Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (1999) (with Emmylou Harris)

A Merry Little Christmas (2000)

Hummin’ to Myself (2004)

Adieu False Heart (2006) (with Ann Savoy)

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Throughout his legendary four-decade career, Prince assembled and dissolved numerous musical configurations that became the sonic backbone of his ever-evolving artistry. From his earliest Minneapolis days forming Grand Central in high school to his final performances with 3rdeyegirl, Prince’s musical journey encompassed multiple distinct eras, each characterized by different band lineups that reflected his artistic growth and changing musical vision. His career spanned from 1978 to 2016, during which he released 39 studio albums and worked with dozens of musicians across various band configurations. The most notable lineups included his early touring bands, The Revolution during his commercial peak, The New Power Generation throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and 3rdeyegirl in his final years.

Prince’s band history can be divided into several major periods: his early unnamed touring bands (1979-1986), The Revolution (officially from 1984-1986), various transitional lineups (1987-1990), The New Power Generation (1990-2013), and 3rdeyegirl (2013-2016). Each configuration brought unique musical elements to Prince’s sound, from The Revolution’s new wave-influenced pop-rock stylings that dominated the Purple Rain era to The New Power Generation’s funk-heavy approach that defined his 1990s output. The Revolution is famous for its “Purple Rain”-era all-stars: Wendy & Lisa, Dr. Fink, Brown Mark, and Bobby Z, while NPG fans point to the lineup featuring Rosie Gaines, Tommy Barbarella, Sonny T, and Michael Bland as Prince’s tightest, funkiest outfit.

Prince’s approach to band leadership was notoriously demanding yet rewarding, with many former members describing the experience as both challenging and career-defining. Prince gave a lot of spotlight to his bandmates, launching careers such as Sheila E, The Time, New Power Generation, Vanity, Carmen Electra, and Apollonia. His bands served not only as backing musicians but as creative collaborators who contributed significantly to his artistic output. The musicians who worked with Prince often went on to have successful solo careers, with many continuing to perform his music in tribute bands and reunion tours following his death in 2016.

André Cymone

André Cymone, born Andre Simon Anderson on June 27, 1958, was a bass guitarist for Prince’s touring band before The Revolution period. Cymone’s relationship with Prince stretched back to childhood, as they lived together during Prince’s troubled teenage years. The Anderson home had an additional member – a young Prince who left his own home due to conflicts with his father. Their musical partnership began in earnest when in 1979, Prince created a band with André Cymone on bass, Dez Dickerson on guitar, Gayle Chapman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, and Bobby Z. on drums.

Cymone performed with Prince from 1979 to 1981, appearing on the albums Prince (1979), Dirty Mind (1980), and Controversy (1981). Cymone left over a number of grievances with Prince—little input in the studio, he was not getting credit for his contributions to Prince’s music, and in general his desire to start his own career—and would have bitter feelings toward Prince as he later claimed that Prince stole many of his ideas that were used for the Time and that he created the bassline for Controversy’s “Do Me, Baby”. His departure led to him being replaced by Mark Brown, who was renamed “Brownmark” by Prince.

After leaving Prince’s band, Cymone embarked on a successful solo career, signing with Columbia Records. He released three solo albums – Livin’ In The New Wave (1982), Survivin’ in the 80s (1983), and AC (1985). His only successful single – a song written by Prince – was “The Dance Electric” from AC, which reached #10 on the R&B charts in 1985. Cymone transitioned into production work and became better known for producing his then-wife Jody Watley, co-writing and producing her hits “Looking for a New Love” and “Real Love.” He has also produced tracks for Evelyn “Champagne” King, Pebbles, Jermaine Stewart, and Adam Ant. In 2014, Cymone released his fourth studio album The Stone, ending a 27-year singing hiatus, followed by his sixth album 1969 in 2017.

Dez Dickerson

Desmond D’andrea Dickerson, born August 7, 1955, was a guitarist who joined Prince’s band after answering an advertisement in the Twin Cities Reader in 1979. After a 15-minute audition in the back of Del’s Tire Mart, Dickerson was picked as guitarist, joining what would eventually become The Revolution. His tenure with Prince lasted from 1979 to 1983, during which he contributed to several key albums and helped establish the band’s early sound.

Dickerson’s most notable studio contributions include co-lead vocals on the 1999 album and backing vocals plus a memorable guitar solo on “Little Red Corvette.” His guitar solo on “Little Red Corvette” was ranked number 64 in Guitar World’s 100 Greatest Solos of All Time. However, his relationship with Prince became complicated when in 1980, during a Christmas break, Dickerson had a profound conversion experience and became a born-again Christian. Afterwards, performing songs with sexual themes began to trouble his conscience.

Dickerson left the band for religious reasons, with Prince telling him that he needed three years from him, and Dickerson was not willing to commit. Prince honored his contract and kept him on payroll. After leaving Prince, Dickerson contributed songs for Prince’s side projects, writing “He’s So Dull” for Vanity 6 and co-writing several tracks for The Time. He moved into the Christian music industry, eventually becoming vice president of A&R with CCM label Starsong Communications in 1990. In 1994, he founded his own label, Absolute Records, a Christian rock record company, and later managed record label and branding companies Pavilion Entertainment and Pavilion Synergies in Nashville.

Bobby Z

Bobby Z. (Robert Rivkin) served as drummer and percussionist from 1979–1986, and later reunited with The Revolution for concerts in 2012 and from 2016–present. As one of the longest-serving early members, Bobby Z was instrumental in establishing the rhythmic foundation of Prince’s sound during his commercial breakthrough period. His drumming can be heard on crucial albums including Prince (1979), Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), 1999 (1982), Purple Rain (1984), Around the World in a Day (1985), and Parade (1986).

Bobby Z’s drumming style perfectly complemented Prince’s vision, providing the steady backbeat that anchored hits like “1999,” “Little Red Corvette,” “Purple Rain,” and “When Doves Cry.” He was credited as a “heaven-sent helper” alongside André Cymone on the Prince album, reflecting his early importance to Prince’s recording process. His work during The Revolution era helped define the sound that would make Prince a global superstar.

After The Revolution disbanded in 1986, Prince called Bobby Z. to tell him that he was being replaced by Sheila E, although he was kept on payroll for quite a few years after the fact, honoring Z’s contract. Following his departure from Prince’s touring band, Bobby Z released a solo album in 1989. He later became involved in Revolution reunion activities, organizing benefit concerts and continuing to perform Prince’s music. In 2012, Bobby Z organized a full-scale Revolution reunion which was set up to raise money and awareness for heart disease; Prince attended the performances but did not participate.

Matt “Dr.” Fink

Matt Fink served as keyboardist, synthesizer player, and vocalist from 1979–1986, and continued to work with Prince until the Nude Tour. He later reunited with The Revolution in 2012 and from 2016–present. Known for his distinctive stage persona, Fink originally wore a black- and white-striped prison jumpsuit. However, a member of Rick James’ band was doing the same thing and not wanting to copy that, Prince asked Fink, “Do you have any other ideas?” Fink said, “What about a doctor’s outfit?” Prince loved the idea, and thus was born Doctor Fink.

Dr. Fink was one of Prince’s most consistent early collaborators, contributing keyboards and synthesizers to all the major albums during Prince’s rise to stardom. Fink went the furthest back, having co-written the title track from 1980’s Dirty Mind. His synthesizer work was crucial in creating the electronic textures that characterized Prince’s sound during the 1980s, particularly on albums like 1999 and Purple Rain. His distinctive keyboard sounds helped bridge Prince’s funk roots with the new wave and synth-pop influences that made his music so commercially appealing.

After The Revolution disbanded, Dr. Fink continued working with Prince for several more years, demonstrating the respect Prince had for his musical contributions. When the Revolution ended, some of the musicians remained, including Leeds, Bliss, Fink and Weaver. These men would stay with Prince through the ensuing years, eventually departing prior to the creation of the New Power Generation. Following his time with Prince, Dr. Fink has remained active in the music industry and participates in Revolution reunion performances, keeping the legacy of Prince’s most famous band alive.

Gayle Chapman

Gayle Chapman was one of Prince’s earliest keyboard players, joining the initial touring band formation in 1979. She was part of the original band that included André Cymone on bass, Dez Dickerson on guitar, Matt “Dr.” Fink on keyboards, and Bobby Z. on drums, making their debut at the Capri Theater in Minneapolis on January 5 and 6, 1979. Chapman contributed to the early development of Prince’s live sound during his transition from solo recording artist to bandleader.

Keyboard player Gayle Chapman left the band before the Dirty Mind Tour in late 1980, making her tenure relatively brief but significant as she was part of the foundational lineup that helped establish Prince’s touring presence. Her departure occurred during a period when Prince was rapidly evolving his sound and image, particularly with the more sexually explicit material on the Dirty Mind album. Chapman was subsequently replaced by Lisa Coleman, who would become a much more prominent figure in Prince’s musical development.

After leaving Prince’s band, Chapman maintained a lower profile in the music industry compared to many of her former bandmates. Her contributions to Prince’s early development as a live performer, however, were crucial during a formative period when he was learning to balance his role as both a solo artist and a bandleader. The experience she gained with Prince’s early band helped establish many of the performance dynamics that would later be refined during The Revolution era.

Lisa Coleman

Lisa Coleman served as keyboardist, synthesizer player, and vocalist from 1980–1986, and later reunited with The Revolution in 2012 and from 2016–present. Coleman replaced Gayle Chapman, joining when she was just 19 years old. Her addition to the band marked a significant evolution in Prince’s musical development, as she brought both technical skills and creative input that would influence his songwriting during some of his most successful years.

Coleman’s keyboard work can be heard on 1999 (1982), Purple Rain (1984), Around the World in a Day (1985), and Parade (1986). Coleman was usually only identified by her first name during her time with Prince. She formed a particularly important creative partnership with Wendy Melvoin, and together they provided significant musical input during The Revolution era. Wendy and Lisa shortly thereafter formed a special bond with Prince and greatly influenced his output during the rest of their tenure in the band.

Shortly after the Parade Tour in October 1986, after all the tension between Prince, Wendy Melvoin, and Coleman due to his relationship with Susannah Melvoin, Prince invited Wendy Melvoin and Coleman to dinner at his rented Beverly Hills home and fired them both. Following their departure, Coleman and Wendy Melvoin formed the successful duo Wendy & Lisa, releasing several critically acclaimed albums and eventually moving into television scoring. Their work has included composing music for series like “Heroes,” “Crossing Jordan,” and “Nurse Jackie.” The duo has maintained a successful partnership for over three decades, demonstrating the creative chemistry that originally caught Prince’s attention.

Brownmark (Mark Brown)

Mark Brown, renamed Brownmark by Prince, replaced André Cymone as bassist in September 1981 and served until 1986. His tenure with Prince covered some of the most commercially successful years of Prince’s career, including the albums that would establish him as a global superstar. Brownmark’s bass playing provided the rhythmic foundation for hits during the 1999, Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day, and Parade eras.

Brownmark’s bass work was crucial during the period when Prince was perfecting his blend of funk, rock, and pop that would define his commercial peak. His playing style complemented Bobby Z’s drumming and the keyboard work of Dr. Fink and Lisa Coleman, creating the tight rhythm section that made The Revolution such an effective unit. The Revolution knew they had a problem when Prince began making changes to his stage setup, specifically putting the dancers in front of his band, and tensions grew over financial and creative issues.

Brownmark was asked to stay but quit after The Revolution disbanded, partly out of loyalty to the others and also because he was unhappy with the direction of Prince’s music at the time. During the later tour periods, Prince promised Brownmark a lot of money, but Brownmark settled for $3000 a week, a paltry sum based on other touring bands. He turned down a much more lucrative gig as bassist for Stevie Nicks, who was going on tour at that time. Brown has said that Prince never followed through on “all that money”. After leaving Prince, Brownmark pursued other musical projects and remained connected to the Minneapolis music scene that had nurtured his early career.

Wendy Melvoin

Wendy Melvoin replaced Dez Dickerson as guitarist following the 1999 Tour and served from 1983-1986. Her arrival – like Coleman, Melvoin joined when she was just 19 – completed Prince’s vision of a multi-gender Fleetwood Mac-style band. Wendy was Lisa Coleman’s childhood friend, and their musical partnership would become one of the most important creative relationships in Prince’s career during the mid-1980s.

Melvoin’s guitar work appears on Purple Rain (1984), Around the World in a Day (1985), and Parade (1986). Wendy and Lisa formed a special bond with Prince and greatly influenced his output during the rest of their tenure in the band. Her guitar style brought a different texture to Prince’s music compared to Dez Dickerson’s approach, contributing to the more polished and mainstream sound that characterized Prince’s commercial peak. The creative input from both Wendy and Lisa helped push Prince’s music in new directions during this period.

The musicians got a sense that Prince was yearning for change, and his relationship with the Revolution over the next few months would only exacerbate the matter. The raise request added tension between Prince and his group. Prince invited Wendy Melvoin and Coleman to dinner at his rented Beverly Hills home and fired them both in October 1986. After leaving Prince, Wendy & Lisa became a successful recording duo, releasing multiple albums and eventually transitioning into television and film scoring. Their work has included Emmy-winning compositions for television series, establishing them as respected composers in their own right.

Sheila E

Sheila Cecilia Escovedo, known as Sheila E., is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist born December 12, 1957, who worked extensively with Prince from 1984 onwards. While primarily a solo artist, Sheila E. served multiple roles with Prince’s various bands and projects. She began recording her first solo album with Prince, whom she met at a concert when she was performing with her father in 1977. Her relationship with Prince encompassed both professional collaboration and personal involvement.

In June 1987, Sheila served as the musical director for Prince’s Sign o’ the Times Tour. She also served as musical director during his Lovesexy Tour in 1988 and 1989. Her percussion and drumming skills made her an invaluable addition to Prince’s musical arsenal. Prince called Bobby Z. to tell him that he was being replaced by Sheila E during the transition period after The Revolution disbanded. Her dynamic stage presence and musical versatility made her a perfect fit for Prince’s evolving artistic vision.

Sheila E.’s solo career flourished alongside her work with Prince. She released The Glamorous Life (1984), which peaked at number 28 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and sold over 500,000 copies, becoming certified gold. The album’s lead single “The Glamorous Life” peaked in the top-ten on the US Hot 100. She continued collaborating with Prince throughout the decades, appearing at various reunion performances and special events. In 2001, she began as a member of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band and toured with the band in 2001, 2003, and 2006, establishing herself as one of the most respected percussionists in popular music.

Eric Leeds

Eric Leeds was a saxophonist who joined Prince’s band during the expanded Revolution period in 1986. In early 1986, the lineup was augmented with the additions of guitarist Miko Weaver, and the horn section of Eric Leeds and Matt “Atlanta Bliss” Blistan. Leeds brought a jazz sensibility to Prince’s music that would influence his sound throughout the late 1980s and beyond. His saxophone work added sophisticated harmonic textures that complemented Prince’s expanding musical palette.

Leeds’ contributions can be heard on the Parade album and subsequent tours. Eric Leeds is a former member of The Family; brother Alan served as Prince’s then-tour manager, which demonstrates the interconnected nature of Prince’s musical family. The addition of a horn section marked a significant evolution in Prince’s live sound, moving beyond the basic rock band format toward a more complex musical arrangement that could accommodate his increasing interest in jazz and R&B.

When the Revolution ended, some of the musicians remained, including Leeds, Bliss, Fink and Weaver. These men would stay with Prince through the ensuing years, eventually departing prior to the creation of the New Power Generation. Leeds’ continued presence in Prince’s band during the transitional period between The Revolution and the NPG demonstrates the value Prince placed on his musical contributions. His saxophone work during this period helped bridge the gap between Prince’s rock-oriented Revolution era and the more funk-focused New Power Generation period.

Matt “Atlanta Bliss” Blistan

Matt Blistan, known as “Atlanta Bliss,” was a trumpet player who joined Prince’s expanded Revolution lineup in 1986. In early 1986, the lineup was augmented with the additions of guitarist Miko Weaver, and the horn section of Eric Leeds and Matt “Atlanta Bliss” Blistan. His trumpet work, combined with Eric Leeds’ saxophone, created the horn section that gave Prince’s mid-1980s music a more sophisticated jazz-funk sound.

Bliss contributed to the Parade album and the subsequent Hit n Run – Parade Tour. For their part, the newcomers understood their place. “When Eric and I joined, we called ourselves the Counter Revolution,” Bliss revealed. “We couldn’t say we were the Revolution because the Revolution is that quintessential band”. This statement reflects the respect that later additions had for the core Revolution members while acknowledging their own important contributions to Prince’s expanding sound.

These men would stay with Prince through the ensuing years, eventually departing prior to the creation of the New Power Generation. Bliss’s trumpet work during this transitional period helped establish the horn arrangements that would become a recurring element in Prince’s later music. His contributions during the late Revolution era and the subsequent unnamed band period helped bridge Prince’s evolution from rock-oriented music toward the more R&B and funk-focused approach he would take with the New Power Generation.

Miko Weaver

Miko Weaver was a guitarist who joined Prince’s band during the expanded Revolution period in 1986. In early 1986, the lineup was augmented with the additions of guitarist Miko Weaver, and the horn section of Eric Leeds and Matt “Atlanta Bliss” Blistan. Weaver’s addition provided Prince with additional guitar textures and allowed for more complex musical arrangements during live performances.

Miko Weaver joined via association with Sheila E. and as session guitarist for The Family, demonstrating the interconnected nature of Prince’s musical associates. His guitar work complemented Wendy Melvoin’s playing and added depth to the band’s sound during the Parade era. Weaver’s style brought different influences that helped expand the sonic palette available to Prince during this creative period.

When the Revolution ended, some of the musicians remained, including Leeds, Bliss, Fink and Weaver. These men would stay with Prince through the ensuing years, eventually departing prior to the creation of the New Power Generation. Weaver’s continued presence during the transitional period between bands shows that Prince valued his contributions enough to retain him through the major personnel changes. His guitar work during the late 1980s helped maintain continuity in Prince’s sound while allowing for the evolution that would eventually lead to the New Power Generation era.

Levi Seacer Jr.

Levi Seacer Jr. was a guitarist who became part of the New Power Generation, serving from 1990 through the mid-1990s. Seacer had been working with Prince since the late 1980s transitional period and became a founding member of the NPG. Seacer knew who Prince was before he saw him at the Circle Star Theater in San Francisco in 1980, with word being that Prince played all the instruments – something only Stevie Wonder could do, as far as Seacer knew. They were introduced a few years later by mutual friend Sheila E. After the Revolution disbanded, Seacer was tapped for the new project. The call came on Friday; rehearsal was Monday.

Seacer’s guitar work appears on crucial NPG albums including Diamonds and Pearls (1991) and various projects during the symbol period. A reduced NPG returned to the Prince fold when he began performing under the symbolic moniker in early 1994, backing him on The Gold Experience. The rappers and dancers were let go, and Levi Seacer left the band as well. His departure marked the end of the first major era of the New Power Generation and the beginning of Prince’s next musical evolution.

Following Prince’s death, Seacer has been involved in NPG reunion activities, participating in tribute concerts and tours celebrating Prince’s legacy. His guitar work during the early NPG era helped establish the funkier, more R&B-oriented sound that defined Prince’s 1990s output. “He’s no notice, it’s either yes or no – and you don’t say no,” said Seacer, who played bass and sang backup, describing the demanding but rewarding nature of working with Prince.

Michael Bland

Michael Bland was the drummer for the New Power Generation from 1990 to 1996, serving as one of the core members during the band’s most successful period. His drumming provided the rhythmic foundation for some of Prince’s biggest 1990s hits. The band consisted of holdovers from the Nude Tour: Michael Bland (drums), Levi Seacer, Jr. (guitar), Rosie Gaines (keyboards and backing vocals), Tony M. (lead raps and dancing), Kirk Johnson (percussion and dancing), and Damon Dickson (dancing), along with two new members Tommy Barbarella (keyboards) and Sonny T. (bass).

Bland’s drumming can be heard on Diamonds and Pearls (1991), Love Symbol Album (1992), and various other NPG projects during the early-to-mid 1990s. His style perfectly complemented the funk-heavy direction Prince was taking with the New Power Generation, providing the solid backbeat necessary for the band’s dance-oriented material. In 1996, longstanding members Michael Bland, Tommy Barbarella, and Sonny T. were fired and a new band was formed for touring.

After leaving Prince’s band, Bland continued his music career and eventually reunited with former NPG members for various projects. In 2010, three former members of the original New Power Generation, drummer Michael Bland, keyboardist Tommy Barbarella and bass player Sonny T., became members of Nick Jonas and the Administration (a side project of Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers). This collaboration demonstrated the continued demand for the musical talents that had been honed during their time with Prince, as they brought their professional experience to support another major artist’s creative endeavors.

Rosie Gaines

Rosie Gaines served as keyboardist and backing vocalist for the New Power Generation from 1990 until she left after the Diamonds and Pearls Tour. Her powerful voice and keyboard skills made her one of the most prominent members of the early NPG lineup. Rosie Gaines’ incomparable voice was a particular standout in NPG, and as she said: “We were his first black band, and our thing was to help him get his audience back”.

Gaines’ contributions to Diamonds and Pearls (1991) were substantial, with her vocals featured prominently on several tracks. Her gospel-influenced singing style brought a different dynamic to Prince’s music, complementing his own vocal approach and adding depth to the NPG’s sound. Her keyboard work also provided important textural elements that enhanced the band’s overall musical arrangements during live performances and recording sessions.

Rosie Gaines left the band after the Diamonds and Pearls Tour and was replaced by keyboardist Morris Hayes. After leaving the NPG, Gaines pursued a solo career and continued to work as a session musician and performer. Her time with Prince helped establish her as a respected vocalist and keyboardist, and she has continued to perform and record music that draws on the experience and skills she developed during her tenure with one of music’s most demanding and perfectionist artists.

Tommy Barbarella

Tommy Barbarella was a keyboardist who joined the New Power Generation as one of two new members along with Sonny T. when the band was formed in 1990. His keyboard work became an integral part of the NPG sound during their most commercially successful period. The band consisted of holdovers from the Nude Tour plus two new members Tommy Barbarella (keyboards) and Sonny T. (bass). His addition provided Prince with expanded keyboard capabilities, working alongside other keyboardists to create the layered electronic textures that characterized the NPG sound.

Barbarella’s keyboard work appears on Diamonds and Pearls (1991), Love Symbol Album (1992), and other NPG projects during the early 1990s. After the tour, Prince asked Morris to officially join the NPG as another keyboard player alongside Tommy Barbarella, showing that Prince valued having multiple keyboardists to handle the complex arrangements he was creating during this period. Barbarella’s contributions helped establish the sophisticated musical arrangements that made the NPG such an effective backing band.

In 1996, longstanding members Michael Bland, Tommy Barbarella, and Sonny T. were fired and a new band was formed for touring. After leaving Prince’s band, Barbarella continued his music career and eventually reunited with former NPG members. In 2010, three former members of the original New Power Generation, drummer Michael Bland, keyboardist Tommy Barbarella and bass player Sonny T., became members of Nick Jonas and the Administration. Following Prince’s death, Barbarella has participated in NPG reunion concerts and tribute tours, helping to preserve and celebrate the musical legacy of Prince’s 1990s era.

Sonny T

Sonny T. served as bassist for the New Power Generation from 1990 to 1996, joining as one of two new members when the band was officially formed. His bass playing provided the rhythmic foundation for the NPG’s funk-heavy sound during Prince’s commercially successful 1990s period. The band consisted of holdovers from the Nude Tour plus two new members Tommy Barbarella (keyboards) and Sonny T. (bass).

Sonny T.’s bass work can be heard on Diamonds and Pearls (1991), Love Symbol Album (1992), and other NPG projects throughout the early-to-mid 1990s. His funk-influenced bass style perfectly complemented Michael Bland’s drumming and helped establish the groove-oriented sound that defined the New Power Generation. His playing was crucial in creating the danceable rhythms that made songs like “Gett Off” and “Cream” so effective on dance floors worldwide.

In 1996, longstanding members Michael Bland, Tommy Barbarella, and Sonny T. were fired and a new band was formed for touring. This marked the end of the original NPG lineup that had been so successful during Prince’s early 1990s commercial resurgence. After leaving Prince’s band, Sonny T. continued his music career and maintained connections with his former bandmates.

In 2010, three former members of the original New Power Generation, drummer Michael Bland, keyboardist Tommy Barbarella and bass player Sonny T., became members of Nick Jonas and the Administration (a side project of Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers). Following Prince’s death in 2016, Sonny T. has been actively involved in NPG reunion tours and tribute concerts, helping to keep the music and memory of Prince’s 1990s era alive for fans worldwide.

Tony M

Tony M. served as lead rapper and dancer for the New Power Generation from 1990 through the mid-1990s, bringing a hip-hop element to Prince’s music during a period when rap was becoming increasingly mainstream. The band consisted of holdovers from the Nude Tour including Tony M. (lead raps and dancing), Kirk Johnson (percussion and dancing), and Damon Dickson (dancing), along with the core musicians. His addition reflected Prince’s awareness of changing musical trends and his desire to incorporate contemporary urban music styles into his sound.

Tony M.’s rap contributions can be heard prominently on Diamonds and Pearls (1991) and Love Symbol Album (1992), where his vocals provided a contrast to Prince’s singing style and helped bridge the gap between rock, funk, and hip-hop. When Prince began his formal dispute with Warner Bros. and changed his stage name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993, the NPG became a side-project for Prince, allowing him to release music outside of his contract. The NPG’s debut album, Goldnigga, featured Tony M. as lead vocalist/rapper.

A reduced NPG returned to the Prince fold when he began performing under the symbolic moniker in early 1994, backing him on The Gold Experience. The rappers and dancers were let go, and Levi Seacer left the band as well. Tony M.’s departure marked the end of Prince’s most direct engagement with hip-hop elements in his music. Following Prince’s death, Tony M. has participated in NPG reunion activities and tribute concerts, representing the important role that rap and hip-hop played in Prince’s musical evolution during the 1990s.

Morris Hayes

Morris Hayes became one of Prince’s longest-serving and most important musical collaborators, joining the New Power Generation in the early 1990s and continuing to work with Prince for nearly 20 years. Hayes got his big break in 1991 when Jerome Benton asked him to play keyboards with the Time, replacing Jimmy Jam. After the tour, Prince asked Morris to officially join the NPG as another keyboard player alongside Tommy Barbarella. During the time that Morris was in the NPG, Prince dubbed him “Mr. Hayes” and that is how he is known to many.

Hayes’ keyboard work appears on numerous Prince albums from the 1990s onward, and he served as Prince’s Musical Director for many years. Morris left the NPG for a few years to tour with Maceo Parker – the renowned saxophonist who achieved prominence with James Brown – and who embarked on a solo career in the 1990s. He returned to the NPG in 2005, performing with Prince during his memorable Super Bowl halftime performance in Miami in 2007. Hayes was involved in some of Prince’s most high-profile performances, including tours across multiple decades.

Following Prince’s death, Hayes was the Musical Director for the official Prince Tribute Concert in St. Paul, Minnesota, in October 2016. The longest-running member of the NPG, Hayes brought the original band members back together to serve as the house band for the epic musical celebration. He has since led NPG reunion tours worldwide, including headlining performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival, British Summer Time, Bluesfest in Australia, and North Sea Jazz Festival. Hayes has also worked with artists including Stevie Wonder, George Clinton, Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, and many others, establishing himself as one of the most respected keyboardists and musical directors in popular music.

Kirk Johnson

Kirk Johnson served as percussionist and dancer for the New Power Generation from 1990 through various lineup changes, representing the visual and rhythmic elements that made the NPG such a dynamic live act. The band consisted of holdovers from the Nude Tour including Kirk Johnson (percussion and dancing), Tony M. (lead raps and dancing), and Damon Dickson (dancing). His dual role as both musician and performer reflected Prince’s vision of creating a complete entertainment experience that combined musical excellence with visual spectacle.

Johnson’s percussion work and stage presence contributed to the energetic live performances that made the NPG concerts memorable experiences. When membership changes occurred in 1996, guitarists Kat Dyson and Mike Scott, along with bassist Rhonda Smith joined Morris Hayes and Kirk Johnson, who re-joined the band to play drums. This transition showed that Prince valued Johnson’s contributions enough to bring him back in an expanded role.

Johnson’s versatility as both a percussionist and drummer allowed him to adapt to Prince’s changing musical needs throughout different eras of the NPG. His continued presence through various lineup changes demonstrates the consistency and reliability that Prince demanded from his core musicians. Following Prince’s death, Johnson has participated in NPG reunion activities and tribute tours, helping to maintain the performance energy and musical precision that characterized Prince’s live shows during the New Power Generation era.

Rhonda Smith

Rhonda Smith joined the New Power Generation as bassist in 1996 when the band underwent a major personnel change. Guitarists Kat Dyson and Mike Scott, along with bassist Rhonda Smith joined Morris Hayes and Kirk Johnson, who re-joined the band to play drums. Smith’s addition marked the beginning of a new era for the NPG, as Prince continued to evolve his sound and explore different musical directions with fresh personnel.

Smith’s bass playing brought a different energy to the NPG sound compared to previous bassists. Her technical skills and musical versatility allowed her to handle the complex arrangements that Prince was creating during the mid-to-late 1990s. Her addition to the band also represented Prince’s continued commitment to working with highly skilled musicians who could match his demanding performance standards and creative vision.

Smith’s tenure with Prince extended beyond the NPG period, as she continued to work with him on various projects and tours throughout the later 1990s and into the 2000s. Her bass work can be heard on various Prince recordings from this period, contributing to the evolution of his sound as he moved through different musical phases. Following her time with Prince, Smith has continued to work as a session musician and performer, building on the experience and skills she developed as part of one of the most demanding and creative musical environments in popular music.

Kat Dyson

Kat Dyson joined the New Power Generation as guitarist in 1996 during a major lineup change. In 1996, longstanding members Michael Bland, Tommy Barbarella, and Sonny T. were fired and a new band was formed for touring. Guitarists Kat Dyson and Mike Scott, along with bassist Rhonda Smith joined Morris Hayes and Kirk Johnson, who re-joined the band to play drums. Her addition brought fresh guitar perspectives to Prince’s music during a period of significant transition.

Dyson’s guitar work contributed to Prince’s evolving sound during the mid-to-late 1990s, a period when he was exploring different musical directions and dealing with his ongoing disputes with Warner Bros. Records. Her playing style added new textures to the NPG sound while maintaining the high musical standards that Prince demanded from all his collaborators. Working with Prince required extraordinary versatility and the ability to adapt quickly to his changing musical ideas and performance requirements.

Her tenure with the NPG demonstrated Prince’s continued search for musicians who could contribute to his artistic vision while bringing their own unique musical perspectives to the collaboration. Following her time with Prince, Dyson has continued her music career, drawing on the intensive experience of working with one of the most creative and demanding artists in popular music. Her contributions to the NPG during this transitional period helped bridge Prince’s musical evolution from the 1990s into the new millennium.

Mike Scott

Mike Scott joined the New Power Generation as guitarist in 1996 alongside Kat Dyson during the major personnel change that reshaped the band. Guitarists Kat Dyson and Mike Scott, along with bassist Rhonda Smith joined Morris Hayes and Kirk Johnson, who re-joined the band to play drums. This new lineup represented Prince’s continued evolution and his desire to work with fresh musical perspectives while maintaining the core elements that made the NPG effective.

Scott’s guitar work contributed to the NPG sound during the mid-to-late 1990s, a period marked by Prince’s artistic experimentation and his complex relationship with the music industry. His playing complemented Kat Dyson’s guitar work, providing Prince with expanded sonic possibilities and allowing for more complex arrangements during both recording sessions and live performances. The dual-guitar approach gave Prince additional flexibility in creating the layered musical textures he was exploring during this period.

Working with Prince during this era required exceptional musical skills and the ability to adapt to his demanding creative process. Scott’s contributions to the NPG helped maintain the band’s reputation for musical excellence while supporting Prince’s ongoing artistic development. Following his tenure with Prince, Scott has continued his music career, carrying forward the experience and professional standards he developed while working with one of popular music’s most innovative and demanding artists.

Mayte Garcia

Mayte Garcia joined Prince’s musical entourage as a dancer and later expanded her role to include backing and Spanish vocals during the mid-1990s. A reduced NPG returned to the Prince fold when he began performing under the symbolic moniker in early 1994, backing him on The Gold Experience. The rappers and dancers were let go, and Levi Seacer left the band as well. Given an expanded role in the band was dancer Mayte Garcia who provided backing and Spanish vocals.

Garcia’s involvement with Prince extended beyond music into personal relationship, as she became his wife in 1996. Her Spanish vocals added an international flavor to Prince’s music during the mid-1990s, reflecting his continued interest in expanding his musical palette and reaching diverse audiences. Her dancing background also contributed to the visual elements of Prince’s live performances during this period.

This incarnation released Exodus in 1995. Prince again took a role behind the scenes, adopting the guise of the masked “Tora Tora” and performing lead vocals on several tracks, sometimes with an altered voice. Garcia’s presence during this creative period provided both professional and personal support as Prince navigated his disputes with Warner Bros. and explored new artistic directions. Following their personal and professional relationship, Garcia has continued her career in entertainment and has written about her experiences with Prince, providing insights into both his artistic process and personal life during a crucial period of his career.

John Blackwell

John Blackwell was a drummer who worked with Prince during various periods in the 2000s and 2010s, bringing exceptional technical skills and dynamic stage presence to Prince’s later career performances. The second half of the tour had a new band, John Blackwell, Ida Kristine Nielsen, and Sheila E. His drumming style perfectly complemented Prince’s evolving musical vision during the later stages of his career.

Blackwell’s powerful and precise drumming can be heard on various Prince recordings and performances from the 2000s onward. His technical proficiency and energetic performance style made him an ideal fit for Prince’s demanding musical standards and high-energy live shows. Walking into Paisley Park and seeing all of Prince’s bandmates …New Power Generation….John Blackwell, Morris Hayes, Mike Scott, it was amazing, according to later band members who were impressed by the caliber of musicians Prince assembled.

Blackwell’s work with Prince represented the continuation of a long tradition of exceptional drummers who contributed to Prince’s music throughout his career. His contributions helped maintain the rhythmic excellence that was a hallmark of Prince’s bands across all eras. Following Prince’s death, Blackwell’s work with Prince is remembered as part of the later period legacy, demonstrating Prince’s continued ability to attract and work with world-class musicians throughout his career.

Donna Grantis

Donna Grantis is a Canadian guitarist who became a member of Prince’s final band, 3rdeyegirl, from 2012 to 2016. In November 2012, Grantis received an invitation to Prince’s Minnesota recording complex, Paisley Park. Alongside Prince, drummer Hannah Welton, and bassist Ida Nielsen, Grantis jammed a short list of songs as an audition for what would evolve into the funk-rock recording and performing trio, 3rdeyegirl. Her addition marked the beginning of Prince’s final major band configuration.

Grantis contributed significantly to 3rdeyegirl’s only album, Plectrumelectrum, released on September 30, 2014. The album reached #1 on the Billboard Rock Chart in the USA. The title track, “Plectrumelectrum”, was originally written by Grantis and later arranged by Prince, demonstrating the collaborative nature of the band’s creative process. Her guitar work brought a contemporary rock edge to Prince’s music during his final years, complementing his own guitar playing and contributing to the band’s dynamic sound.

Following Prince’s death in 2016, Grantis moved to Minneapolis and formed a new jazz-fusion band, continuing to build on the experience she gained working with Prince. She released her solo album Diamonds & Dynamite in 2019, which reached #1 on iTunes Canada for top jazz album and top jazz song. Her work with 3rdeyegirl represented the culmination of Prince’s long history of working with exceptional guitarists, and she has continued to honor his legacy while pursuing her own artistic vision. Grantis has also become an advocate for music education and environmental causes, using her platform to promote positive change.

Hannah Welton

Hannah Welton was the drummer for 3rdeyegirl, Prince’s final band, serving from 2012 to 2016. Born June 29, 1990, Welton was recruited by Prince in September 2012 as a guest drummer for the Welcome 2 Chicago three-show residency after seeing videos of her performing online. Soon after, she appeared as lead drummer of the New Power Generation for Prince’s performance of his song, Rock And Roll Love Affair on Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s show on October 23, 2012.

Welton’s drumming provided the rhythmic foundation for 3rdeyegirl’s energetic funk-rock sound. Her jazz fusion background prepared her for the spontaneous and demanding nature of working with Prince. “A big part of playing with Prince is to know all his material,” according to her bandmate Donna Grantis. “He likes to switch it up. He might go apart from the set list we have. We have to pay attention.” Welton’s technical skills and adaptability made her an ideal fit for Prince’s unpredictable performance style.

She was offered a spot in Prince’s backing band 3rdeyegirl with guitarist Donna Grantis and bassist Ida Kristine Nielsen in 2013. She is married to Joshua Welton, who co-produced three Prince albums and guested with 3rdeyegirl performances on keyboard and cowbell. 3rdeyegirl were formed in December 2012 and went on to tour with Prince on his Live Out Loud Tour in 2013, and his Hit and Run Tour from 2014 to 2015. Following Prince’s death, Welton has continued her music career while preserving the legacy of her work with one of music’s greatest artists.

Ida Kristine Nielsen

Ida Kristine Nielsen, also known as Bass Ida, Bassida, and Ida Funkhouser, is a Danish bass player, composer and vocalist born in 1975. In 2010 Nielsen started working with Prince, and became a member of The New Power Generation as singer and bassist. She later became a part of Prince’s musical trio, 3rdeyegirl, alongside guitarist Donna Grantis and drummer Hannah Welton. They toured the UK, Europe and North America, and in 2014 released their only album, Plectrumelectrum.

Nielsen was the only member of the 3rdeyegirl trio to have previous experience playing for Prince, having been performing with The NPG since October 2010. Her bass playing and vocals contributed significantly to both the New Power Generation’s later period and 3rdeyegirl’s distinctive sound. In 2014 Nielsen released her second album, Sometimes a Girl Needs Some Sugar Too. Her first single, “SHOWMEWHATUGOT” (from her “TurnItUp” album) was hand-picked by Prince to be “Purple pick of the week” on TIDAL when it was released.

Nielsen and Prince continued to work together until Prince’s death in April 2016. Later that year, she released her third album, TurnItUp in his memory. In an interview with Danish National DR-TV in 2017 she underlined Prince’s influence – to her music as well as her life: “The most important thing Prince taught me was to play with my heart.” Her work with Prince represented the international reach of his musical influence, and she has continued to honor his legacy through her solo work and continued performances with 3rdeyegirl alumni.

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Complete List Of Prince Band Members presents a comprehensive rundown of all the lineup changes and musicians who were a part of Prince’s various bands throughout his legendary career. From his early Minneapolis days to his final performances, these musicians contributed to one of the most innovative and influential bodies of work in popular music history.

Check out more Prince articles on ClassicRockHistory.com Just click on any of the links below……

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Complete List Of Prince Band Members article published on ClassicRockHistory.com© 2025

Some years ago, after the Eagles had broken up, Glenn Frey remembered: “We were on stage, and Don Felder looks at me and says: ‘Only three more songs until I kick your ass, pal’. And I’m saying: ‘Great, I can’t wait’. We were singing Best Of My Love, but inside both of us were thinking: ‘As soon as this is over, I’m going to kill him’.”

In the light of such circumstances, it’s not surprising that Don Henley once admitted: “I had an ulcer before I was thirty because of the Eagles”. And the music of the Eagles sounded so cool, so effortless. They wrote songs that defined the woozy, Southern California idyll: Peaceful Easy Feeling, Desperado, Tequila Sunrise and scores of others.

Rarely, though, has the internal life of a band been so at odds with the sounds that it made. “Led Zeppelin could argue with us, but I think we might have thrown the greatest travelling party of the 70s,” Glenn Frey remembered. He was talking about the Eagles’ infamous ‘third encore’, the debauched gathering that would follow every gig, featuring the band, their entourage, hangers-on, bizheads “and as many beautiful girls as we’d meet from the airport to the hotel”.

The Eagles took Learjets like other people take cabs. Don Henley would send one to pick up his girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, after she’d finished a gig with Fleetwood Mac. They’d hire them, Elvis-style, to fly in food and cases of Chateau Lafite Rothschild when Henley celebrated his birthday.

For half a decade during the 1970s, the Eagles seemed unstoppable, rising upwards on great thermals of fame and success. But the whole thing fell apart when they tried to record a follow-up to their creative and commercial highpoint that was Hotel California.

During the three years of intensity and insanity that were the making of The Long Run, Don Henley is said to have composed a long memo to the recording studio manager informing him of his displeasure that the lavatory paper in the toilets came off the bottom of the dispenser and not the top. ‘If it was meant to come from the bottom,’ the memo allegedly ran, ‘then the little flowers would be printed on the underside of the paper’.

“The Long Run was not as good as Hotel California, and it was an excruciatingly painful album to make,” Henley said. “We were having fights all the time about the songs – enormous fights about one word – for days on end. That record took three years and cost $800,000, and we burned out.”

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Don Henley had always been tense. Even when the band were making millions of dollars and he’d shared a house in the Hollywood Hills (that used to belong to film star Dorothy Lamour) with Glenn Frey, and they’d sit and look at the whole of Los Angeles spread out before them and think: ‘It really doesn’t get much better than this’, he would be worrying about something or other.

His oldest friend, a musician called Richard Bowden, who was better known as Balloon Dick, remembered: “Joe Walsh came up to me just after he’d joined the Eagles and said: ‘You’ve known him the longest. Just tell him to relax’. I told him: ‘Just let Don be tense. He’s always been that way. When he solves one problem, he just moves on to something else to worry about’.”

Henley and Bowden had grown up together in a town in Texas called Linden, which had a population of just over 2,000. “Mrs Henley was a real fine lady, but she never had any control over Don,” Bowden told Rolling Stone magazine when they profiled the band in 1976. “Not that he didn’t respect her, he just always did what he wanted. And his father would have to come down on him. They couldn’t get along for years. Don always felt he had to prove something to him.”

His father was a worrier, too. He was a hard-working man who saved 25 cents a week for Henley’s college fund, and ultimately Henley did not complete his education. C J Henley’s death was pivotal to Don’s world view.

“I figured out a long time ago, when my father got sick and died, that life wasn’t fair,” he said, “but I got mad about it. I used to go around and cuss God all the time, because my father died too early and he suffered. He only lived to see Take It Easy and a couple of weeks of Witchy Woman.

“He literally worked and worried himself to death, and he had a cardiac and he died on July 7, 1972, after four or five other heart attacks. You don’t know what’s real until you see your father in the emergency room heaving and gasping for breath and saying: ‘Oh God! Oh God!’ Everything else gets real trite after that. There’s been a lot of death in my family.”

Don Henley played drums in Bowden’s first band, The Four Speeds, which became Shiloh. More death came when Jerry Dale Surratt, one of that band, was killed while messing about on his motorcycle right in front of the band and his family outside their rehearsal rooms in Linden. Things were never the same again for Shiloh, and first Bowden and then Henley went to Los Angeles.

There Henley encountered singer/guitarist Glenn Frey in 1970. Frey had drifted from Detroit to California at the age of 19, and had met guitarist J D Souther on his first day in town.

“I grew up running in Detroit,” Frey remembered. “I went to school with the sons and daughters of automobile factory workers – fathers who beat their wives and beat their kids. The kids would then go to school and beat on me. My father was a machinist in a shop that built the machines that built car parts.

“I had a pretty normal childhood. My parents weren’t drinkers. I always had clothes. I always went to camp for a week in the summer. My parents didn’t have enough money to buy me a car when I turned sixteen, but I had a great childhood.”

Congregating at the Troubadour club where The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield and other SoCal scenesters hung out, everyone was dreaming the same dream.

“We all watched the sun set in the west every night of adolescence and thought someday about coming out here,” Frey told the LA Times. “It all seemed so romantic… The Life magazine articles about Golden Gate Park and the Sunset Strip… And the music: The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield. It was definitely the archetype of the most beautiful place in the world.”

“Glenn asked if I’d like to go on the road with Linda Ronstadt’s band, and I said: ‘You bet I do,’” Henley said of their first, fateful connection. “I was broke, and here was a chance for two hundred dollars a week. We went out for a month or two, and Glenn and I struck up this great friendship. That’s when we started plotting to put a band together.”

The relationship between Henley and Frey – both their friendship and the writing partnership – became the key one in the Eagles right from the start. They met bassist Randy Meisner first – he was standing about six feet away, also backing Linda Ronstadt. Then, legend has it, they came across singer/guitarist Bernie Leadon on a drunken day out at Disneyland.

After the third rehearsal, Frey turned to Henley and said conspiratorially: “We’re going to have to run things…”

David Geffen, who was busy building an empire of his own, had signed up Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, J D Souther and other artists. He gave the Eagles some money, and Jackson Browne co-wrote Take It Easy with them.

It came out as a single on May Day 1972, and became, almost instantaneously, the soft-rock radio classic that it remains today. And for the Eagles the repercussions began. It was, as Rolling Stone reported, ‘Hell from the very start’. Leadon and Meisner resented Henley and Frey but couldn’t do much about it. Henley and Frey began living together, and, as Jackson Browne said: “Glenn always went around messing things up, and Don always followed him around cleaning things up”.

It was as if they had a portrait of Dorian Gray in the attic: the more beautiful the sounds they made (the Eagles album came out in 1972; Desperado in ’73; On The Border in ’74; One Of These Nights in ’75), the uglier things became within the band.

Leadon quit for the first time in 1975, saying: “I kept asking: ‘Are we going to rest next month?’ I wanted to get in shape before the age of thirty so I would have a chance at the rest of my life. I was afraid something inside of me was dying. Leaving was an act of survival.”

Desperado was the album that defined Eagles, in terms of their image as much as their sound. They styled themselves after a bunch of real-life outlaws, the Doolin-Dalton Gang. Henley and Frey used the cowboy mythology to explore their own tortured feelings about the sexual and financial and social politics of the US. It was another of their contradictions: these beautiful songs that could just pass you by in a haze of melody, and yet carried such spite and bite.

“In retrospect, I admit that the whole cowboy-outlaw-rocker myth was a bit bogus,” Henley said after the band had split for the first time, in 1980. “I don’t think we really believed it, we were just trying to make an analogy. Suddenly we were getting famous and making all this money, and it just turned our little heads around. We were living outside the laws of normality, we were out here in LA, things were kind of Western, and we just decided to write something about it to try to justify it to ourselves.”

“When the band first started,” Henley recalled, “I never thought we’d last more than a couple of years. I thought we’d make a couple of albums and that would be it. At first we loved what we were doing, and then, once we got a modicum of success, we said, well, this is nice.

“Then we realised that staying there was harder than getting there, which is always the case. So then we put all our energies into staying up there, realising that you have your hour in the sun and then you live the rest of your life in the shade.

“In any event, those first three or four records were just as much us trying to grow up as anything. We were trying to explain things to ourselves, and a lot of the time we didn’t know what we were talking about. There’s something on all those albums that makes me cringe. I mean, our whole quest as we went along was to try to make each album better than the previous one. And that’s difficult to do when you’re trying to run a group as a democracy. Keeping that group together was a full-time job.”

The other members of the Eagles started calling Don Henley Grandpa. He’d taken drugs with the best of them – he’d needed to, to keep up with the band’s relentless schedule – but he hated the fact that they fucked things up.

“I guess there was a brief period of time where I tried to put some kind of creative stock into drugs,” he said, “but I realised pretty soon that you could get more work, and better work, done if you were straight. We did a lot of work on drugs in the Eagles.

“Our schedule was just so gruelling; we didn’t have the stamina otherwise. We’d do things like go out on tour, play a few gigs, then get on a Lear jet and fly to Miami and start recording at four o’ clock in the morning, then get back on the Lear jet at three or four in the afternoon and go back to Cleveland and do a concert. And we’d do it all just to meet deadlines. So we took drugs.

“But from the beginning in the Eagles I would get in fights with the other guys about smoking joints or doing coke before going on stage. Using drugs would screw up their voices, and they’d sing out of tune. So I got the nickname of Grandpa. I mean, drugs had their place, but I was never one of those guys to get up and roll a breakfast joint.”

The Eagles released a greatest hits album – the famous one with the blue cover with a bird’s skull on – and it sold 22 million copies. Until Michael Jackson’s Thriller surpassed it many years later it was the biggest album of all time. And then they made Hotel California.

The implosion of the Eagles, the years of rancour and regret, all began with a little guitar noodle that Don Felder came up with one idle afternoon. “I had just leased this house out on the beach at Malibu. I guess it was around ’74 or ’75,” Felder told Guitar magazine many years on. “I remember sitting in the living room, with the doors all wide open, on a spectacular July day. I had a bathing suit on and I was sitting on this couch, soaking wet, thinking the world is a wonderful place to be.

“I had this acoustic twelve-string and I started tinkling around with it, and those Hotel California chords just kind of oozed out. Every once in a while it seems like the cosmos parts and something great plops into your lap. I had a four-track set up in one of the back bedrooms, and I ran back there to put this idea down before I forgot it.

“When I gave Henley the cassette it had eight or ten different song ideas on it. He came back and said: ‘I really love this one track on your tape, the one that sounds like a matador or something… like you’re in Mexico’. We worked it all up and went into the studio and recorded it.”

Henley and Frey took Felder’s Mexican melody somewhere else entirely with the lyric. It was another of their bittersweet epics, all superficial shimmer and sad-eyed social comment.

“I think he and Glenn had this idea, kind of the fantasy of California. It’s supposed to be kind of a microcosm of the world,” Felder said. “But I wouldn’t want to speak for them. The ‘You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave’ line was based on Jackson Browne’s first wife, who committed suicide. In other words, you can check out, die, but you’re still in the cosmos somewhere. You’re not going to get out of that karmic phase of it.

“The way Glenn and Don worked it was, Glenn was great at conceptualising. He’ll say: ‘I can see this guy driving in the desert at night, and you can see the lights of LA, way off on the horizon…’ Henley gets the picture and goes from there. He was an English literature major. He writes really great prose. He can take those snapshots and put them into just two or three lines.”

Henley viewed his gift for a telling phrase as a double-edged sword. “Life In The Fast Lane – by God if they didn’t turn that into a celebration of exactly what we were trying to warn them about,” he said of the cautionary third track on Hotel California. “Everybody’s got cocaine now, no matter how shitty it is. I could hardly listen to that song when we were recording it, because I was getting high a lot at the time and the song made me ill.

“We were trying to paint a picture that cocaine wasn’t that great. It turns on you. It messed up my back muscles, it messed up my nerves, it messed up my stomach, and it makes you paranoid. I’m not saying I’m an angel or a saint now, because I’m not, but I’ve slowed down quite a bit.”

Eagles – Hotel California (Live 1977) (Official Video) [HD] – YouTube

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The Hotel California album came out in 1976, year that punk rock began. Henley struggled with the guilt of it all: “You know that you don’t deserve it. You get too much money and too much of everything when you’re too young, and it comes really quickly. And it messed me up for a while. I grew up in a town of 2,400 people. My dad didn’t believe in credit cards, he paid cash for everything. And suddenly I had a gold American Express card which I was embarrassed to take out of my wallet because I’d never done that before.”

By now, Henley, Frey and the band (including new guitarist Joe Walsh) were confronting the enormity of the Eagles and the ubiquity of Hotel California. “If you were to ask a struggling, twenty-five-year-old musician: ‘How would you like to sell eighteen million albums?’ he’d say: ‘Yeah! Damn right I would’,” Glenn Frey explained.

“The next question is: ‘But how would you like to try to make one as good as the one that sold millions and millions of records?’ Somebody asked my friend Bob Seger: ‘Why do you think the Eagles broke up?’ He said: Hotel California.”

They began making the follow-up album, and it was difficult from the start. “Don and I did not have any fun working on The Long Run together,” Frey told Interview magazine. “Henley and I would sit across from each other for hours not saying a word. We would sit trying to write, but we were both afraid to suggest a lyric or a chord in case it wasn’t perfect, in case it wasn’t great.”

They cut the first track, I Can’t Tell You Why, a lush ballad from the new bass player Timothy B Schmit, on March 9, 1978. Fifteen months later they weren’t much further on.

To demonstrate exactly how big the Eagles had become, and how intense the pressure on them was, the band’s manager, the acerbic Irving Azoff, told Rolling Stone: “We only hear from the record company about ten times a week. When they project a $116-million-year because Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles are going to release albums, and then they come up $40 million short from not having an Eagles album, they hurt.”

Elektra/Asylum concurred. The company chairman, Joe Smith, said: “We all need that record now, but there’s no guarantee how it will do. A lot of new bands have come out since the Eagles last released an album.”

On the door of Bay Shore recording studio in Miami, the band had pasted cut-outs from hundreds of magazines and newspapers, and had written captions and private jokes about their sexual habits, favourite drugs, football bets and more for all of them. It was to the studio manager here that Henley wrote the famous toilet paper memo…

So they were in it together, trying to grind out a hit album that the record company were desperate for in a new and uncertain artistic landscape. Bored with the recording process, assaulted by their individual concerns, the Eagles responded in time-honoured fashion: they got out of it. They called it getting ‘monstered’: you could be ‘half monstered’, ‘three-quarters monstered’, or usually, ‘totally monstered’. Frey’s nickname was Roach, after his love of a joint.

“We haven’t always practised everything in moderation,” he admitted. “But we were figuring out the slow burn, the long run. If you use cocaine like the Indians use it – when you have to, but not all the time – you don’t get toxic. I thank God I have enough close friends who would tell me if I were messing up my life. Thank God for the love and support I’ve received from them. But if there’s a night to party, you go right a-fucking-head…”

Don Henley’s enthusiasm for such extracurricular activities made him something of a Hollywood legend. One particular incident at his California home, which featured five prostitutes, a sex aid and prodigious amounts of cocaine, was excessive enough to feature in the famous exposé of La-La Land You’ll Never Make Love In This Town Again.

When The Long Run finally came out in 1979, it had been three years since Hotel California, an eternity in the music business of the 1970s, and the world had indeed changed. It sold several million copies quite quickly, but where the society of the 70s had chimed with the Eagles’ sensibility, the 80s would prove very different. They were called misanthropes and cynics. Their attitudes to women were called into question.

“I suppose a lot of good art down through the ages has come out of turmoil and stress, but this was just too much,” Henley explained. “This misanthrope business has always been a complete mystery to me. We were critical, but for fair reasons. We cared about our fellow man; we cared about the ecology; we cared about the Indians; we cared about nuclear energy. And so we would point out what was wrong. I don’t consider that to be misanthropic.

“We were arrogant. Sure. You have to be arrogant if you’re going to be in a rock’n’roll band. But, you know, I thought we were pretty nice people all in all.”

“I’m though my Playmate period,” Frey said as The Long Run emerged. “I constantly ask myself what I think of women. Lately I’ve been feeling much less physical, you know, where you meet a real pretty girl and immediately attach all these great qualities to her. But women are objects for men, whether or not sex objects. They’re a goal. That’s the way we’re bought up.”

Eagles – In The City (Official Video) [HD] – YouTube

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Don Henley threw another party at his Hollywood home to celebrate the end of the tour to support The Long Run. Police arrived in the early hours and discovered that a 16-year-old girl had overdosed. Henley was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana, cocaine and Quaaludes, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was fined, put on two years’ probation and ordered to attend drug counselling.

“I had no idea how old she was and I had no idea she was doing that many drugs,” Henley explained afterwards. “I didn’t have sex with her. Yes, she was a hooker. Yes, there were roadies and guys at my house. We were having a farewell to the Eagles.”

In its own way it was a fitting finale. When time gave Henley some distance from that final year, he realised how awful 1979 and 1980 had been, how close to ruin he had come.

“It was a terrible year,” he said. “The band broke up. I broke up with my girlfriend and got into trouble with the law. Then I met my new girlfriend and we almost got killed in a private plane crash in Colorado. John Lennon got killed, and that devastated me for a while. And my girlfriend contracted a virus and she has been practically an invalid for a year and five months.”

He and Glenn Frey didn’t really announce the end of the band. Instead they went to Irving Azoff separately and played him the solo albums they had recorded. It was 1982 by the time an announcement was made.

“I have no regrets,” Henley said. “A lot of people in the media attach more importance to bands that came out of the 60s than bands that came out of the 70s, so I don’t know how the Eagles will be remembered. Some day, though, I think people may look back and say: ‘Some of that stuff was pretty good after all’.”

He was right. The band had written scores of beautiful and brilliant songs. But more than that, they had come to embody a particular life and a particular time. By 1986 they were being asked to reunite.

“I don’t think so,” Frey said. “We were offered two million dollars to play the US Festival and two and a half million to play the second one. One of my managers at the time said: ‘Come on, you rehearse for a couple of weeks, you play the gig, that’s it’. He had just gotten a divorce from his wife, and I said: ‘I’ll go rehearse with the Eagles if you’ll go back for a couple of weeks with your wife’. I can’t see myself at age forty-one, up on stage, with a beer belly, singing Take it Easy. Without a reunion, the Eagles are forever young, like James Dean.”

It was with wry humour, then, that the eventual reunion, in 1994, was called Hell Freezes Over.

“Well,” Henley said, “we worked long and hard. We earned it. It is payday. We prided ourselves on the fact that were one of the only bands of our generation left where all the members are still living.”

He paused. “Actually, I really think that’s an achievement.”

This feature was originally published in Classic Rock 63, (January 2004).

Jon Hotten is an English author and journalist. He is best known for the books Muscle: A Writer’s Trip Through a Sport with No Boundaries and The Years of the Locust. In June 2015 he published a novel, My Life And The Beautiful Music (Cape), based on his time in LA in the late 80s reporting on the heavy metal scene. He was a contributor to Kerrang! magazine from 1987–92 and currently contributes to Classic Rock. Hotten is the author of the popular cricket blog, The Old Batsman, and since February 2013 is a frequent contributor to The Cordon cricket blog at Cricinfo. His most recent book, Bat, Ball & Field, was published in 2022. 

Jizzy Pearl has a fairly simple rule about getting old. “You can go one of two ways,” says the Love/Hate singer. “You can be Billy Idol or Billy Joel. I’m going the Billy Idol route.”

The 67-year-old made his name at the dawn of the 90s with inelegantly wasted Sunset Strip livewires Love/Hate, whose brilliance was never matched by their record sales. He’s resurrected the band several times over the years, sometimes billed as Jizzy Pearl’s Love/Hate, but for 2022’s Hell, CA and blazing new album Punk Rock Fiesta!, regular, undiluted Love/Hate.

What’s the difference between Jizzy Pearl’s Love/Hate and plain old Love/Hate?

To all intents and purposes, I’m Love/ Hate now. All the other old guys have retired. The bass player, Skid, lives in the Philippines, he doesn’t do music any more. The drummer, Joey, has a really amazing job and doesn’t do music any more either. But there’s been a pantheon of Love/Hate music coming out, whether it’s solo Jizzy, Jizzy’s Love/Hate or Love/Hate. They really are interchangeable.

What does a punk rock fiesta involve?

I would say sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, but at my age one out of three ain’t bad.

How is making a record in 2025 different to making a record in 1990?

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I think we spent two hundred and fifty thousand dollars on [1990 debut album] Blackout In The Red Room, back when studios were a thousand dollars a day. Who has that kind of money now? There’s so many fucked up things going on in music now, but one of the good things is that you can do it yourself with a good mic and some knowledge.

Love/Hate – You’re Gonna Burn (Official Video) – YouTube

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As well as Love/Hate, you’ve sung for Ratt, L.A. Guns and, currently, Quiet Riot. Do you do that for the love of the music or for the money?

Well, I could tell you it’s for the love of the music, but it’s for the same fundamental reason that everyone works a job. Not to say I don’t enjoy being in those bands, because I do. There was a time in the nineties when everybody got married and started having kids and suddenly the gypsy lifestyle wasn’t happening. But the rock gods gave me gifts: why don’t you join L.A. Guns and make records with them? Or go join Ratt and play arenas again. I think the only band I haven’t sung in yet is Warrant, but hey, there’s still time.

Love/Hate are a classic example of a band who should have been huge but weren’t. What went wrong?

Nothing went wrong. That’s a glass-half-empty way of looking at it. Most bands never get anything – no record deal, no money, no Hammer Of The Gods awesomeness. They don’t know what it’s like to be Fonzie and snap your fingers and jump on the magic carpet ride. That’s what we got.

Have promoters dangled big cheques in front of you to try to persuade you to reunite the original line-up?

You’d have to find Skid. He’s in the jungle! We broke up [in 1997] and briefly got back together [in 2007], but as time goes by you have to accept that when someone says they’ve retired a hundred times, they’ve retired. It’s just not meant to be.

If you were twenty years old now, would you still join a rock’n’roll band?

Oh yeah. Rock’n’roll still matters. Writing about partying and chicks and getting fucked up – it never goes away

Punk Rock Fiesta! is available from the Love/Hate website.

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.

Electric Callboy have launched their reinventive new single, Revery.

Eschewing the vibrant and energetic sound they employed for 2022 album Tekkno, the German synth-metal crew have adopted a far darker, more horror-inspired approach.

Listen to their heavy new song and watch its video below.

The band comment: “We’re beyond excited to finally share Revery with you! This song dives into a darker, more serious side of our sound and means a lot to us personally because it’s so different from what we usually do.

“The whole process, from writing to shooting a very special kind of video, pushed us in new ways and made us even more excited for you to finally check it out!”

Revery is the second new Electric Callboy song of 2025, following January’s Elevator Operator. Despite the recent singles, the band haven’t announced a new album at time of publication.

The release of Revery precedes the start of the band’s European festival summer. They will headline the UK festivals Slam Dunk North and Slam Dunk South in Hatfield and Leeds, UK, on May 24 and 25, respectively.

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After that, they will play further festivals on the continental mainland from June to August. The band have confirmed that, for these dates, their drummer will be Frank Zummo from Sum 41. The Canadian pop-punk stars wrapped up their farewell tour with two dates at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on January 28 and 30, 2025.

Zummo is the temporary replacement for David-Karl Friedrich, who left Electric Callboy last month after 13 years of service. In a statement, Friederick said he hoped to “do something new and… follow his own path from now on”.

After the festival season, Electric Callboy will play two legs of a European headline tour. The first will take place in November 2025, and includes their biggest-ever London show at Alexandra Palace, and the second is set for January 2026. Bury Tomorrow and Wargasm will support.

See details of the headline run below.

Electric Callboy were one of the cover stars on Metal Hammer issue 398 earlier this year. The issue is still available exclusively via the Louder webstore and comes with a long-sleeve shirt you won’t find in the shops. Order it now and get it delivered directly to your door.

Electric Callboy – REVERY (OFFICIAL VIDEO) – YouTube

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Electric Callboy European headline tour 2025/2026:

Nov 01: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark
Nov 05: Stockholm Hovet, Sweden
Nov 11: London Alexandra Palace, UK
Nov 12: Antwerp Lotto Arena, Belgium
Nov 14: Prague Forum Karlin, Czech Republic
Nov 15: Leipzig Quarterback Immobilien Arena, Germany
Nov 16: Dusseldrof PSD Bank Dome, Germany
Nov 17: Esch-sur-Alzette Rockhal, Luxembourg
Nov 19: Zurich Hallenstadion, Switzerland
Nov 20: Stuttgart Schleyer-Halle, Germany
Nov 23: Krakow Tauron Arena, Poland
Nov 24: Budapest MVM Dome, Hungary
Nov 26: Munich Olympiahalle, Germany
Nov 27: Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany
Nov 28: Berlin Uber Arena, Germany
Nov 29: Hamburg Barclays Arena, Germany

Jan 17: Rotterdam Ahoy RTM, Netherlands
Jan 18: Paris Zenith, France
Jan 20: Lyon Radiant, France
Jan 22: Barcelona Sant Jordi Club, Spain
Jan 23: Madrid Wizink Center, Spain
Jan 25: Lisbon Sala Tejo/MEO Arena, Portugal

Founded in 1983, Metal Hammer is the global home of all things heavy. We have breaking news, exclusive interviews with the biggest bands and names in metal, rock, hardcore, grunge and beyond, expert reviews of the lastest releases and unrivalled insider access to metal’s most exciting new scenes and movements. No matter what you’re into – be it heavy metal, punk, hardcore, grunge, alternative, goth, industrial, djent or the stuff so bizarre it defies classification – you’ll find it all here, backed by the best writers in our game.

It’s Prog‘s brand new Tracks Of The Week! Six brand new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.

Congratulations to UK keyboard player Dave Jones, whose Trepidation/74 Heist won last week’s Tracks Of The Week, with cellist Rapchael Weinroth-Browne in secind place and Norwegian proggers AVKRVST in third.

The premise for Tracks Of The Week is simple – we’ve collated a batch of new releases by bands falling under the progressive umbrella, and collated them together in one post for you – makes it so much easier than having to dip in and out of various individual posts, doesn’t it?

The idea is to watch the videos (or listen if it’s a stream), enjoy (or not) and also to vote for your favourite in the voting form at the bottom of this post. Couldn’t be easier could it?

We’ll be bringing you Tracks Of The Week, as the title implies, each week. Next week we’ll update you with this week’s winner, and present a host of new prog music for you to enjoy.

If you’re a band and you want to be featured in Prog‘s Tracks Of The Week, send your video (as a YouTube link) or track embed, band photo and biog to us here.

JAKKO M. JAKSZYK – SON OF GLEN

King Crimson guitarist and vocalist Jakko M. Jakszyk needs little introduction to prog fans. He releases his latest solo album, Son Of Glen, through InsideOut Music on June 27, a companion piece of sorts to his acclaimed memoir Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair, that was released in October 2024, and explores many of the themes and the subjects that the book touches upon.

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“I finally discovered who my father was after decades of fruitless searching,” Jakko explains. “This was only 3 years ago. Turns out he was a US airman stationed in England in the 50’s who went back to the States and that he died when I would have been 14. Son Of Glen is a fantasy based around the idea that my father, a man I never knew, was somehow guiding me from a far. The video attempts to tell the tale, and bring my father back to life.”

JAKKO M. JAKSZYK – Son of Glen (OFFICIAL VIDEO) – YouTube

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BARRENS – CORPSE LIGHTS

Swedish trio Barrens describe themselves as dark post-rock, so it’s little surprise to find them signed to Pelagic Records, for whom they will release forthcoming new album, Corpse Lights, on September 12. Sorrowed is the second single to be taken from the upcoming album. The band have appeared at the UK’s ArcTanGent Festival and have also supported the likes of Mogwai and God Is An Astronaut.

“Amongst other things, Sorrowed is about dealing with grief, failure and personal demons,” the band say. “The inner and outer chaos of interacting with both yourself and others, and about fighting the impulse to take the easy way out. To not run away and hide but instead deal with it, and to channel these things into something creative and positive.”

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PHASE TRANSITION – THE OTHER SIDE

Portuguese prog metallers Phase Transition are no strangers to Tracks Of The Week and here offer up the epic nine-minute plus The Other Side, also from the trio’s upcoming debut album, In Search Of Being, which is released on June 6, and which features a guest appearance from Ricardo Pereira from the melodic death metal bands Moonshade and Firemage. The band is comprised of violinist/vocalist Sofia Beco, guitarist Luís Dias, and drummer Fernando Maia and Anathema drummer Daniel Cordoso handled the final production, mixing, and mastering for the new album.

“A song about the mysteries of death and the perception of mortality,” the trio state of The Other Side.

Phase Transition – The Other Side (feat. Ricardo Pereira) – YouTube

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SHANNON PEARL – ECHO

Blackheart Orchestra fans will probably be aware of Shannon Pearl as she’s just completed a tour with the prog pop duo,. Shannon has also received praise from artists such as Heather Findlay as well as receiving comparisons to Dikajee. Her video for new single Echo has already won her an award at Sunderland’s annual Shorts Film Festival, a suitably dreamy take on her etheral sound, which she describes as Witch Folk!

“This is the first award I’ve won for anything to do with music, and I never would have expected it! The competition was fierce,” she enthuses. “For years, my woo woo approach to life has kept me on the periphery of the arts, but this win feels like a step towards acceptance and a small victory for all the creative witches and weirdos out there. Years ago, we would have been persecuted for our ideas and magic, but now! Wow. I can’t believe it.”

Shannon Pearl – Wolves (Official Video) – YouTube

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KILL THE ROBOT – WESTERN SHORES

It’s not often we get to mention the Bee Gees here on Prog, but US quartet Kill The Robot feature Barry Gibb’s son Stephen, probably the only man on the planet who can have played shows with Slayer, Anthrax and a Bee Gee within a 24-hour period! Anyway, Kill The Robot claim to mix stadium-friendly prog sounds of Pink Floyd, Muse and Steven Wilson, a dash of Killing Joke darkness and 80s prog pop a la Tears For Fears and Thomas Dolby. They release their self-titled debut album through Dark Lab Recordings on July 11 and their new single, Western Shores, is a tribute to their late friend, Taylor Hawkins.

“It was written the day after we learned that Taylor Hawkins had passed,” explains Gibb. “We were all heartbroken. He was a dear friend who truly loved music more than anyone I’ve ever known. He and I had talked about creating some new music together. So, this song was born with the intention to create a song that hopefully he would’ve dug… and in a way, it even felt like he was being channelled in the room when we wrote it. It happened fast and organically, and we didn’t have to overthink it. It was just a great vibe immediately. I think of him often. This one’s for him.”

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FRANT1C – SWEET CONFUSION

Frant1c is the new solo venture from Nine Skies keyboard player Anne-Claire Rallo, who released their debut album, A Brand New World, last year. Alongside Rallo are some of her Nine Skies colleagues, Alexandre Lamia, Alexis Bietti and Johnny Marter, as well as Martin Wilson (The Room, Grey Lady Down) and Helen Tiron (Sun Q). A Brand New World is a concept album about Charlie and Hope, who have always spent their lives together. One day, Charlie wakes up alone in the middle of a completely different and devastated world.

“Sweet Confusion captures that fragile space between connection and miscommunication — when everything familiar is suddenly distant, and the only thing left is the search for meaning,” Rallo explains. “Through Charlie and Hope’s dialogue, I wanted to explore how we navigate love, loss, and uncertainty when even our emotions feel out of place.”

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Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.

Celebrated music agent Dave Shapiro and former The Devil Wears Prada drummer Daniel Williams are among those who’ve died in a San Diego plane crash.

The two, alongside four others, were flying in a small plane that crashed in Southern California in the early hours of this morning (May 23). Eight people on the ground were injured, with nearby cars and homes in the neighbourhood of Murphy Canyon being “ignited”, per The Independent.

Though Shapiro, 42, and Williams, 39, are the only named fatalities so far, no survivors from onboard the plane have been found. It is currently unclear what caused the crash.

Shapiro was the co-founder of Sound Talent Group, two employees of which were also on the Cessna 550 flight. The company have represented Canadian pop-punks Sum 41, US pop group Hanson and a litany of metal artists, including Killswitch Engage, Zakk Wylde, In This Moment, Tesseract, Loathe, Malevolence, Lamb Of God, Amorphis, Leprous, Animals As Leaders and Beartooth.

Shapiro also founded independent label Velocity Records and was recognised as a rising figure in the music business in Billboard’s “30 Under 30” list in 2012. A spokesperson confirmed the agent’s death in a statement to Billboard.

“We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends,” said Sound Talent Group’s representative. “Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by today’s tragedy. Thank you so much for respecting their privacy at this time.”

Williams co-founded The Devil Wears Prada in 2005 and parted ways with the metalcore band in 2016. Following his departure, he stepped away from the music industry, taking jobs at GoPro and, as he announced via X (formerly Twitter) earlier this month, Apple.

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Williams’ death is yet to be confirmed by authorities, but he was identified as a victim in the crash by his father in a statement to TMZ. The ex-drummer posted images from the flight to his Instagram story.

The Devil Wears Prada have paid tribute to Williams on social media.

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

Velvet Revolver was an American hard rock supergroup consisting of Guns N’ Roses members Slash (lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass, backing vocals) and Matt Sorum (drums, backing vocals), alongside Dave Kushner (rhythm guitar) formerly of punk band Wasted Youth, and Scott Weiland (lead vocalist) of Stone Temple Pilots. The band achieved remarkable commercial success with their 2004 debut album Contraband, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum, spawning hit singles like “Slither” (which won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance), “Fall to Pieces,” and “Dirty Little Thing.” Their follow-up album Libertad (2007) continued their success, though internal tensions and Weiland’s ongoing struggles with substance abuse would ultimately lead to the band’s dissolution.

The story of Velvet Revolver is ultimately one of both triumph and tragedy, representing what might have been one of rock’s greatest second acts cut short by personal demons and creative differences. Following their departures the trio focused on separate projects, with Slash reforming Slash’s Snakepit and McKagan reforming 10 Minute Warning as well as recording his second solo album, while Sorum rejoined the Cult. Although Velvet Revolver worked on new material and auditioned new singers following Scott Weiland’s departure, the band has not released any new material and only performed publicly once since 2008, when they reunited with Weiland for a one-off reunion show on January 12, 2012, at a benefit concert. This proved to be their last performance together before Weiland’s death on December 3, 2015, effectively ending any possibility of a permanent reunion.

Scott Weiland

Scott Weiland served as Velvet Revolver’s lead vocalist from 2003 to 2008, bringing his distinctive voice and charismatic stage presence from Stone Temple Pilots to create one of the most successful supergroups of the 2000s. Scott Richard Weiland (/ˈwaɪlənd/, WY-lənd; né Kline; October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American singer and songwriter. He was best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Stone Temple Pilots from 1989 to 2003 and again from 2008 to 2013, recording six albums with them. His journey to Velvet Revolver came at a crucial time when both he and the former Guns N’ Roses members were seeking new creative outlets.

Weiland’s path to joining Velvet Revolver was somewhat serendipitous, as he had previously encountered all the future band members through various circumstances. Throughout his career, Weiland had become acquainted with the four musicians; he became friends with McKagan after attending the same gym, was in rehab at the same time as Sorum and once played on the same bill as Kushner. When the band initially sent him material, Weiland was not immediately impressed, feeling that the first disc “sounded like Bad Company gone wrong.” However, he was more receptive to their second attempt, comparing it to Core-era Stone Temple Pilots, though he initially turned them down because Stone Temple Pilots had not yet separated.

His tenure with Velvet Revolver marked both the peak of the band’s success and the source of their greatest challenges. Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland completed the line-up. In 2004, they released their debut album Contraband, which debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. chart and sold two million copies. In 2005, the band was nominated for three Grammys, Rock Album of the Year, Rock Song, and Hard Rock Performance for their Contraband single Slither which won their first and only Grammy. Weiland’s vocal performance on tracks like “Slither” and “Fall to Pieces” demonstrated his ability to adapt his distinctive style to the band’s hard rock approach while maintaining his own artistic identity.

However, Weiland’s ongoing struggles with substance abuse created persistent challenges for the band. Velvet Revolver was confronted from the start with Weiland’s drug and legal problems as it juggled performance schedules, recording sessions and promotional work to accommodate his court dates and rehab. The tensions that had plagued his previous bands eventually surfaced in Velvet Revolver as well. “This band is all about its fans and its music and Scott Weiland isn’t 100% committed to either,” guitarist Slash said in a news release. “Among other things, his increasingly erratic onstage behavior and personal problems have forced us to move on.” His departure in April 2008 effectively ended the band’s most successful period, and despite occasional reunion discussions, the relationship never fully healed before his tragic death from an accidental drug overdose on December 3, 2015.

Slash

Slash served as Velvet Revolver’s lead guitarist and primary musical architect from the band’s formation in 2002 until their hiatus following Weiland’s departure, bringing his legendary guitar skills and songwriting abilities from Guns N’ Roses to create the band’s signature sound. However, disagreements with singer Axl Rose resulted in Slash leaving the band in 1996 and McKagan departing in 1997 shortly before Sorum was fired. His departure from Guns N’ Roses had been acrimonious, leaving him with both musical ambitions and personal grievances that would fuel his involvement in Velvet Revolver.

The formation of Velvet Revolver provided Slash with an opportunity to reconnect with his former bandmates and create something new while proving their collective worth. “The chemistry that I have with Duff is not something you can emulate,” he says. “I didn’t have any intention of getting this whole thing rolling, but the day after the gig, Duff and I talked on the phone and were like, ‘Maybe we should do this!’” The initial chemistry between the former Guns N’ Roses members was immediately apparent when they performed together at a benefit concert for the late Randy Castillo, leading to the decision to form a permanent band.

Slash’s guitar work became the defining element of Velvet Revolver’s sound, blending his classic rock sensibilities with a more modern approach suited to the 2000s rock landscape. Slash – lead guitar, talkbox, backing vocals (2002–2008, 2010, 2012) demonstrates his central role in the band’s creative process. His riffs and solos on songs like “Slither” and “Fall to Pieces” showcased his ability to create memorable, radio-friendly material while maintaining the technical proficiency and emotional depth that had made him famous. The New York Post commented that “Slash’s guitar riffs throughout this new record are as aggressive as a caged cat” when reviewing their work.

Following Weiland’s departure and the band’s subsequent hiatus, Slash continued to express hope for Velvet Revolver’s future while pursuing other projects. On May 12, 2014, in an interview at the MusiCares benefit concert, Slash told journalist Lucas H. Gordon that he “think[s] [they’re] gonna audition a singer” in the future. However, he also stated that he would be touring with his solo band “for the next year and a half.” Despite occasional reunions and continued expressions of interest in reviving the band, Slash’s eventual return to Guns N’ Roses in 2016 effectively closed the door on any serious Velvet Revolver continuation, though his contributions to the band remain among his most celebrated post-Guns N’ Roses work.

Duff McKagan

Duff McKagan served as Velvet Revolver’s bassist and backing vocalist from 2002 to 2008, providing the rhythmic foundation that anchored the band’s sound while also contributing significantly to their songwriting and overall musical direction. McKagan was the last member of the Appetite for Destruction lineup to leave Guns N’ Roses, resigning as bassist in August 1997. McKagan had recently become a father and wrote about his decision to leave in his autobiography, stating “Guns had been paying rent on studios for three years now—from 1994 to 1997—and still did not have a single song. The whole operation was so erratic that it didn’t seem to fit with my hopes for parenthood, for stability.”

When the opportunity arose to reunite with his former bandmates, McKagan initially showed reluctance, having built a stable life away from the rock and roll lifestyle. Of Velvet Revolver’s members, Duff McKagan seems to have had the least interest in returning to the rock and roll wars. Newly remarried and happily resettled in his hometown of Seattle, McKagan was in his third year at Seattle University when Slash and Sorum asked him to join their new project. His academic pursuits reflected his desire for intellectual growth and stability, making his decision to rejoin his former bandmates all the more significant.

McKagan’s role in Velvet Revolver extended beyond just playing bass, as he brought a level of maturity and professionalism that helped balance the band’s more volatile elements. Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals (2002–2008, 2010, 2012) indicates his consistent presence throughout the band’s active period. His songwriting contributions and backing vocals were essential to tracks like “Fall to Pieces” and “Slither,” while his solid bass playing provided the foundation that allowed Slash’s guitar work to soar and Weiland’s vocals to shine.

Following the band’s hiatus, McKagan reflected philosophically on the Velvet Revolver experience and its challenges. “A bunch of years with Velvet Revolver were logistically challenging. I’d be somewhere like Des Moines, Iowa and it’d be like, ‘I miss my family and that gig we just did was… OK, but not worth me being gone,’” McKagan noted in retrospective interviews. We formed that band and once Scott [Weiland] joined it really became a fire-breathing, ‘fuck you’ kind of band. We put that first record out and went on the road with a chip on our shoulders.” Despite the band’s challenges, McKagan acknowledged the positive aspects of their collaboration while recognizing the practical difficulties that ultimately contributed to their dissolution.

Matt Sorum

Matt Sorum served as Velvet Revolver’s drummer and backing vocalist throughout the band’s entire active period, providing the powerful rhythmic foundation and contributing to the songwriting that made the band’s sound distinctive from both Guns N’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilots. Matthew William Sorum (born November 19, 1960) is an American drummer. He is best known as both a former member of the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses, with whom he recorded three studio albums, and as a member of the supergroup Velvet Revolver. His departure from Guns N’ Roses had been particularly bitter, as he was fired from the band rather than choosing to leave like his former bandmates.

Sorum viewed Velvet Revolver as an opportunity for creative redemption and to prove his worth as a founding member rather than just a replacement musician. “That was the biggest success for me because we were able to create something, and I was a founder,” shares Sorum. “We wanted to have huge success with that band. When you come back from having been kicked out of one of the biggest bands in the world, it’s a real feather in your cap.” His perspective on the band was shaped by his experience as what he called a “replacement drummer” in Guns N’ Roses, making Velvet Revolver’s success particularly meaningful to him personally.

Sorum’s drumming style adapted perfectly to Velvet Revolver’s sound, which blended elements of classic rock, grunge, and modern hard rock. Matt Sorum – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2002–2008, 2010, 2012) demonstrates his central role in the band’s rhythm section and creative process. His powerful, precise drumming on tracks like “Slither” and “Fall to Pieces” provided the driving force that propelled the band’s songs, while his backing vocals added depth to their harmonic arrangements. His ability to play both with restraint and explosive power helped define the band’s dynamic range.

Throughout Velvet Revolver’s career, Sorum often found himself mediating between the various personalities in the band while dealing with his own perspectives on the music industry and fame. Being taken seriously is important to Sorum, a friendly chap who has never been entirely able to shake his “replacement drummer” tag, which made his role as a founding member of Velvet Revolver particularly significant to him. After the band’s dissolution, Sorum continued to work on various projects including his memoir “Double Talkin’ Jive” and the touring project Kings of Chaos, occasionally reuniting with his former Velvet Revolver bandmates for special performances while maintaining that the band represented one of his greatest professional achievements.

Dave Kushner

Dave Kushner served as Velvet Revolver’s rhythm guitarist throughout the band’s active period, providing the harmonic foundation and punk-influenced edge that distinguished their sound from typical hard rock supergroup efforts. Dave Kushner – rhythm guitar (2002–2008, 2010, 2012) demonstrates his consistent presence throughout all of Velvet Revolver’s incarnations. His background in the punk band Wasted Youth brought a different musical perspective to the group, complementing the classic rock sensibilities of the former Guns N’ Roses members and the grunge influences of Scott Weiland.

Kushner’s addition to the band came through his reconnection with Duff McKagan, with whom he had a prior relationship through the Los Angeles music scene. During a Loaded show at West Hollywood’s Viper Room, McKagan re-introduced Dave Kushner to Slash, who were previously friends in junior high and high school. Kushner was invited to jam with the group and was soon invited to join with Slash, stating that “Dave brought a cool vibe to what [they] were doing. There was no deliberation; that was it, it was a perfect fit.” His integration into the band was seamless, suggesting that his musical chemistry with the other members was natural and immediate.

Despite being the only member of Velvet Revolver without a high-profile musical background, Kushner’s contributions were essential to the band’s overall sound and dynamic. In one of the band’s first opening performances under the name Mighty Joe Young, they opened for Electric Love Hogs, whose guitarist Dave Kushner would one day co-found Weiland’s later band Velvet Revolver, indicating that Kushner and Weiland had a musical connection that predated the formation of Velvet Revolver by many years. His rhythm guitar work provided the textural foundation that allowed Slash’s lead guitar to shine while maintaining the punk sensibility that kept the band’s sound from becoming overly polished.

Kushner maintained a lower public profile than his bandmates, focusing primarily on the musical aspects of the band rather than the media attention. Dave Kushner is the secret weapon of that band, as McKagan noted in retrospective interviews, acknowledging the often-overlooked but crucial role that Kushner played in Velvet Revolver’s success. His steady presence and musical reliability provided stability during the more turbulent periods of the band’s career, and his willingness to participate in reunion shows demonstrated his continued commitment to the band’s legacy even after their official hiatus.

Musical Legacy and Impact

Velvet Revolver’s brief but impactful career demonstrated that supergroups could still achieve both commercial success and artistic credibility in the modern music landscape, despite the inherent challenges of bringing together established musicians with strong individual identities. Critics initially described Velvet Revolver as a mere combination of Stone Temple Pilots and Guns N’ Roses, and criticized the band for a “disconnection” between Scott Weiland and the rest of the band. However, the band ultimately transcended these initial criticisms through their musical chemistry and commercial achievements, proving that their collaboration was more than just the sum of its parts.

Their debut album Contraband represented a high-water mark for hard rock in the mid-2000s, demonstrating that there was still an audience for guitar-driven rock music in an era increasingly dominated by alternative and nu-metal sounds. Songs such as “Let it Roll” and “She Mine” have seen some comparisons to the Doors, the Rolling Stones and the Stooges, as noted by San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Jaan Uhelszki, indicating that the band successfully drew from classic rock influences while creating something contemporary and relevant. Their ability to craft radio-friendly singles that maintained artistic integrity helped bridge the gap between the classic rock era and modern hard rock.

The band’s dissolution highlighted both the creative potential and inherent limitations of supergroup collaborations, particularly when dealing with members who have significant personal and professional baggage. Erlewine also stated that “too often, there are concessions between Weiland and the others during the course of a song,” pointing to the creative tensions that ultimately proved unsustainable. Despite these challenges, Velvet Revolver’s music continues to influence hard rock bands and serves as a template for how established musicians can collaborate to create something new while honoring their individual legacies.

The tragic end to any possibility of reunion following Scott Weiland’s death in 2015 gave Velvet Revolver’s story a poignant finality that underscores both the creative heights they achieved and the personal demons that ultimately prevented them from reaching their full potential. “We are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of our old friend and bandmate,” members of Velvet Revolver wrote at the time. “We experienced a good chunk of life with Scott, and even in his darkest times, we all had hope and love for him. His artistry will live on – of that, there is no doubt.” Their brief but intense collaboration remains a testament to the power of musical chemistry and the tragic consequences of addiction, serving as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale for future supergroup endeavors.