Rob Halford has opened up about offering guidance to fellow LGBTQ+ musicians.
Over the last couple of decades, the Judas Priest frontman has become a role model to the queer community, after announcing his homosexuality back in 1998 during an appearance on MTV News, cementing himself as the first openly gay metal frontman.
In a new interview with Fugues, Halford is questioned on whether he shares advice to musicians who are also wanting to “come out” and be open about their sexuality.
In response, he answers: “Yes, that has happened, but I won’t name names because everyone comes out when it’s their time. As we all know, set yourself free. It’s such a difficult thing for us to do, even now in 2024 because we still have this ongoing challenge of hate and bigotry and intolerance and divisiveness.
“You think it would be a lot easier, but it’s not. The struggle is still very real for young people, and that’s where I hope any conversations I have with others do some good.”
He continues, “You know, I read a story not long ago about a guy in his 90s who came out just before he took his dying breath. Glory hallelujah! It’s never too late to set yourself free because, as we know, once you’re out, the attacks float away. I’m fucking here. I’m queer. Get fucking used to it.”
Elsewhere, Halford recalls the story of meeting his partner, Thomas. He says: “Let me just say that in my autobiography, Confess, I talk about how a man in uniform still makes my little gay-old-man heart flutter. So that was part of the connection.
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“I didn’t find out until later that Thomas is a highly decorated veteran. He never talked about that side of his life, things that he’s done and seen in certain parts of the world. You wait for it to come to the table, you know. But it was a beautiful way that we met, before the Internet and before texting and dating sites and all this kind of stuff. We’re the old gays. We’ve been together since 1995. For our 30th anniversary, I’ll buy him a Twinkie.”
In an interview with Metal Hammer in the early 2000s, Halford reflected on the experience of coming out, as well as the pressure that came with it.
“I think that kind of experience is something that every gay guy goes through – feeling isolated and feeling that you’re the only person in the world who has those kind of feelings”, he said.
“In those days, you didn’t talk about those kind of things. It wasn’t talked about in the media, in soaps or on TV. And, I mean, for me it wasn’t until my late 20s that I felt I was actually part of something bigger y’know?”.
In 2022, the musician delivered an inspirational speech at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, declaring how the metal community’s acceptance of his own sexuality is evidence to the genre’s all-welcoming attitude to different kinds of people.
“I’m the gay guy in the band,” he began. “You see, that is what heavy metal is all about. We call ourselves the heavy metal community which is all-inclusive, no matter what your sexual identity is, what you look like, the colour of your skin, the faith that you believe or don’t believe in. Everybody’s welcome.”
Canadian instrumental post-rockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor have released a typically cryptic statement announcing their new album, No Title As Of 13 February 2024, 340 Dead, which they will release through Constellation Records on October 4.
In the statement, the band say:
“THE PLAIN TRUTH== we drifted through it, arguing. every day a new war crime, every day a flower bloom. we sat down together and wrote it in one room, and then sat down in a different room, recording. NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody? and then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile. the sun setting above beds of ash while we sat together, arguing. the old world order barely pretended to care. this new century will be crueler still. war is coming. don’t give up. pick a side. hang on. love. GY!BE”
The band have also shared a brand new song, Grey Rubble, Green Shoots, which is embedded below. No Title As Of 13 February 2024, 340 Dead will be available on vinyl, CD and digital. You can see the artwork and tracklisting below.
Godspeed, who had previously announced tour dates for UK and Europe for September and October and North America for November have also announced further North American dates for April and May 2025. You can see all the dates below.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: No Title As Of 13 February 2024, 340 Dead 1. Sun Is A Hole, Sun Is Vapors 2. Baby’s In A Thundercloud 3. Raindrops Cast In Lead 4. Broken Spires At Dead Capital 5. Pale Spectator Takes Photograps 6. Grey Rubble, Green Shoots
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Godspeed You! Black Emperor UK, Europe and US tour dates 2024/2025
UK/EUROPE
Sep 27: IRE DublinNational Stadium Sep 29: UK London Troxy Sep 30: UK Glasgow Barrowlands Oct 1: UK Manchester Ritz Oct 2: UK Bristol Marble Factory Oct 3: UK Manchester The Empire Oct 4: FRA Tourcoing Le Grand Mix Oct 5: LUX Esch-Alzette Kufa Oct 6: FRA Paris Le Trianon Oct 8: FRA Nantes Stereolux Oct 9: FRA Nancy L’Autre Canal (Jazz Pulsation Festival) Oct 10: SWI Zurich Volkshaus Oct 11: SWI Lauserne Les Docks Oct 12: GER Frankfurt Zoom Oct 14: GER Berlin Huxleys Oct 15: NED Amsterdam Paradiso Oct 16: BEL Brussells AB Oct 18: GRE Athens Floyd
NORTH AMERICA
Nov 4 ON Hamilton Bridgeworks Nov 5: ON Toronto History Nov 6: ON London Music Hall Nov 7: MI Grand Rapids Elevation Nov 8: IL Chicago The Salt Shed Nov 9: MN St Paul Palace Theater Nov 11: KS Lawrence Liberty Hall Nov 12: AR Fayetteville George’s Majestic Lounge Nov 13: TN Nashville The Basement East Nov 14: TN Knoxville Bijou Theater Nov 15: GA Atlanta The Masquerade Nov 16: SC Charleston The Music Farm Nov 17: NC Saxapahaw Haw River Ballroom Nov 19: Washington 9:30 Club Nov 21: NY Brooklyn Pioneerworks Nov 22: CT Norwalk District Music Hall Nov 23: MA Boston Roadrunner Nov 24: PA Philadelphia Union Transfer Nov 25: QC Montréal MTELUS
Apr25: TX Austin TBA Apr 26: TX Dallas Granada Theater Apr 28: CO Denver Ogden Theater Apr 30: CA Los Angeles The Bellweather May 1: CA Santa Ana The Observatory OC May 2: MEX Tijuana, B.C. Cine Bujazán May 3: CA Ventura Ventura Music Hall May 4: CA San Francisco Curran Theater May 6: OR Portland Wonder Ballroom May 7: OR Portland Wonder Ballroom May 8: WA Seattle The Neptune May 9: WA Seattle The Neptune May 10: BC Vancouver Vogue Theatre May 12: BC Kelowna Revelry May 13: AB Calgary Palace Theatre May 14: AB Edmonton Midway
“Shane had dropped an enormous amount of acid. Mark E. Smith was out of his mind on amphetamines. I was literally one day out of rehab.” Nick Cave recalls his “disastrous” first meeting with his dear friend and “angel” Shane MacGowan
(Image credit: Ian Dickson/Redferns)
In 1989, NME writers James Brown and Sean O’Hagan took Nick Cave, The Fall’s Mark E Smith, and The Pogues‘ Shane MacGowan to the Montague Arms in New Cross, south London, for a ‘pop summit’: the journalists were given £10 each by the magazine’s editors to entertain the three musicians, which seemed terribly miserly, given that the three had well-deserved reputations as ‘bon viveurs’.
What followed was a predictably lively and feisty conversation between three men who were far from shy about airing their opinions. “I have discussions like this all the time in pubs,” said Mark Smith at one point. “I end up beaten half to death on the floor.” In a new [paywalled] interview with The Irish Times, Nick Cave remembers the day being “an absolute fucking disaster” – “It was pure mayhem from the outset,” he once told The Guardian – but it did initiate lifelong friendships between the three iconic musicians.
“Shane had dropped an enormous amount of acid,” Cave recalls. “Mark E Smith was being very nasty and out of his mind on amphetamines. I was literally one day out of rehab, so it was a horrible situation, but I got to meet two of my heroes. To my mind, they were two of the greatest songwriters of our generation and I remained friends with both Shane and Mark.”
“Shane and I would collaborate very occasionally, but we were essentially friends,” Cave says. “We’d just go out and drink and take drugs and go to parties like friends do. We had a very real kind of relationship. In many ways, I don’t have those sorts of relationships because most of how I communicate with other people is through working with them. The very last thing me and Shane would do together is work.”
The two artists did in fact collaborate on a cover of What A Wonderful World in 1992, and shared a stage on more than one occasion. Cave was one of the artists who performed at MacGowan’s funeral in Nenagh, County Tipperary after the singer’s death on November 30 last year. His performance of The Pogues classic A Rainy Night In Soho subsequently went viral, and the singer remembers it as “an extremely moving experience.”
“Shane became more withdrawn from things in his final days,” Cave recalls. “It was very sad to see him go. I think Sinéad O’Connor described him as an angel. If angels exist, then Shane is one.”
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will release their new album Wild God on August 30 via Bad Seed/PIAS.
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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
“Africa is the future of metal.” These are the words of Rock Ahavi, the singer, founder and chief songwriter with Arka’n Asrafokor, the electrifying metal band putting their home country of Togo on the map. Cocky? Maybe. But also a barometer for which way the wind is blowing. While all eyes have traditionally focused on Europe and America, Africa has become a hotbed of boundary-pushing bands and artists, from Kenya’s Lord Spikeheart, Morocco’s Taqbir and Zambia-born, Canada-based Backxwash to Botswana’s vibrant DIY scene, with its striking heavy metal cowboys.
Arka’n Asrafokor are in the vanguard of this New African Metal movement. Their second album, Dzikkuh, slams together groove, thrash and rap-metal with Togolese folk music. Their supercharged-tribal beats and chants give each song its own vibrant rhythm and thrilling, unique voice. “All the bands in Africa have something to say, and have their own power and message,” Rock says. “We’re just one part of the battle.”
He’s speaking to Hammer via Zoom from his home in Togo’s capital city, Lomé. He’s joined by his younger brother, Arka’n keyboardist/co-vocalist Elom ‘Enrico’ Ahavi, and their manager, Bea M-A. Rock jokes frequently but speaks with the deliberation of someone who doesn’t want his message to be misconstrued. English isn’t his first language, or even second – French is Togo’s ‘official’ language while the Ewe language is his own mother tongue. The Ewe people are Togo’s most populous ethnic group, and Rock and Enrico were raised in the culture’s traditions. “I don’t think I was even a day old when I heard my first [traditional Ewe] song!” says Rock. “It’s been with me my whole life.”
Rock’s passion for music is clear, his face lighting up even as he describes gruelling 24-hour bus trips to play gigs. The brothers grew up in a musical household, their parents playing everything from Dolly Parton to traditional Togolese folk.
“Our father would play classical music every morning at 5am!” Enrico says. “But music is everywhere in Togo. It’s rare to go somewhere you won’t hear a radio playing, people singing or drumming. It can be puzzling, going to Europe where places can be really calm and have no sound at all.”
Rock’s first instrument was keyboard, which he learned from his dad. As a child, he disliked playing the guitar – “I remember the pain I felt when I tried to play a chord” – but he had a lightbulb moment when he heard his first proper riff. “I was nine years old, washing up in the kitchen,” he recalls. “Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love came on the radio. I was just like, ‘Yes, this is my music! It did something to me physically.”
Metal wasn’t particularly popular in Togo, where the music scene was more dominated by pop, reggae and rap acts. Still, Rock got an education at the local market, listening to tapes of bands such as AC/DC and the Scorpions. When he moved to Lomé for university he graduated to nu metal and heavier music, eventually forming the first line-up of Arka’n Asrafokor in 2012. Then simply called Arka’n (a Ewe word to describe “things you see and feel outside your regular senses”, as Rock puts it), early shows would see them cover Enter Sandman and Killing In The Name, occasionally even a bit of Bob Marley.
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“It was the best way to get my musician friends into rock and metal,” Rock admits. “Rock music fans were happy to listen to classic songs they knew and I was just happy to share their excitement and energy.”
At the same time, Enrico formed rap metal group H Weapons with their other brother, Tony. The latter even recruited Rock to play guitars on some of their songs. “It took years to do anything,” Enrico admits. “We didn’t have access to studios – our studio was in our bedroom, recording under the covers with the mattress pressed against a wall and the microphone secured underneath.”
The two bands fused in 2015 after the original line-up of Arka’n disbanded. Renaming themselves Arka’n Asrafokor – ‘Asrafo’ is Ewe for ‘warrior’, while ‘kor’ can mean ‘fist’ – Rock and Enrico expanded upon some of the traditional Ewe elements that had been part of their early sound, recruiting Yao Justin ‘Mass’ Aholou, a percussionist with a background in traditional Ewe folk music.
“After this part of Africa was colonised, the West decided to separate the region into all these countries like Togo, Ghana and Benin,” Rock explains. “They created artificial borders. The Ewe people can be found in all these places and what they have in common isn’t just music or culture, but a language. That’s why in almost all of Arka’n’s songs, we sing in the Ewe language.”
Ewe culture also manifests in the band’s lyrics and images. Songs like Angry God Of Earth and Walk With Us are centred around environmental concerns, spiritualism and triumphing over those who would hold us down. “It’s music for the battle!” Rock says with a grin. “It’s intense music, an expression of what you are and what you feel.”
ARKA’N ASRAFOKOR – Final Tournament (Official Music Video) – YouTube
With bassist Koffi Ametefe ‘Francis’ Amevo and drummer Komla Siko ‘Richard’ Tamakloe-Azamesu rounding out the line-up, Arka’n Asrafokor released their debut album, Zã Keli, in 2019 and celebrated with a huge release party in Lomé. “The venue was so full and we were on fire,” Rock recalls. “It felt like the audience were going to start a revolution.”
Arka’n Asrafokor’s new album, Dzikkuh, is more fired up and pissed off than its predecessor. While the skittering drum beats are still exciting, the guitars take on a much heavier and more aggressive tone while the music feels altogether tighter and more claustrophobic.
“The first album was almost a collection of all the things we were into,” Rock explains. “This one is a lot more defiant and about us being ourselves. There’s a lot more anger – ‘Dzikkuh’ means ‘anger’, but as in bringing back the people’s anger and rallying them around causes.”
“Our goal is to make people understand life,” Enrico adds. “Life isn’t only physical but spiritual, and people have to come to terms with that. What you do to others will come back to you. What you do to Mother Earth will come back to you. We want people to see the world not with their eyes, but with their hearts.”
While Arka’n Asrafokor are currently the only metal band in Togo, they remain optimistic about the wider scene. Frequently playing packed-out gigs at home in Lomé, they’ve also ventured outside of their homeland. In 2019, they travelled to Ghana to play the Africa Conference for Collaborations, Exchange and Showcases (ACCES) music event organised by non-profit initiative Music In Africa.
“We were last on and people had started leaving the venue because they’d seen the other bands,” Rock recalls. “Arka’n started and people ran back into the venue, packing it out. They came up to us afterwards like, ‘What was that?’ Because they’d never heard anything like it before. You’d see people headbanging next to others doing traditional African dances.”
It’s not just crowds in Africa responding that way. In the summer of 2022, the band played their first shows in Europe, touring in France. At one gig, Rock recalls, the crowd refused to leave at the end of their set. “The audience demanded an encore,” he says. “We came back on and played our last song again, and people left singing it without even needing to understand the lyrics. It was beautiful.”
A week before Arka’n started that French tour, Rock also achieved a lifelong goal when he saw Korn at Hellfest, more than 3,000 miles from home. He recalls the sheer elation as Jonathan Davis and co took to the stage. “It was my dream,” he says, beaming at the memory. “I’d listened to this music since I was a child, so finally getting to see those bands felt incredible. It was intense – I felt such a strong connection – it gave me more power because I want to be like them.”
As global metal continues to thrive, Arka’n hope it shines a light on more of the African metal scene. It’s a message they’ve been helping spread themselves. When US author Edward Banchs travelled to Togo to research his book, Scream For Me, Africa!, the band arranged for Ghanian group Dark Suburb to come to Lomé for a showcase. They’ve also taken part in an online festival organised by Botswana’s Overthrust, and have connections to other bands including Skinflint (also of Botswana) and even Brazil’s Black Pantera, putting the global metal idea into action. But Arka’n aren’t interested in positioning themselves as figureheads for African metal.
“We’d like to think if you’re listening to Arka’n in Germany, Massachusetts, Osaka or Buenos Aires, you’ll still think, ‘I can relate to this’,” Enrico says. “West Africa is really making itself heard right now. There are 1.6 billion people living on this continent. Arka’n is just one of those voices.”
DZIKKUH IS OUT NOW VIA REIGNING PHOENIX
Staff writer for Metal Hammer, Rich has never met a feature he didn’t fancy, which is just as well when it comes to covering everything rock, punk and metal for both print and online, be it legendary events like Rock In Rio or Clash Of The Titans or seeking out exciting new bands like Nine Treasures, Jinjer and Sleep Token.
Kate Bush was a big fan of David Bowie, so much so that in 2007, she penned the foreword for MOJO Magazine’s special on the musician.
Noting her experience of discovering Bowie – who would go on to greatly inspire her within her own music – Bush wrote: “I was sitting in my bath, submerged in bubbles, listening to Radio Luxembourg when I heard David Bowie for the first time.
“‘There’s a starman waiting in the sky…’. I thought it was such an interesting song [Starman] and that he had a really unusual voice. Soon I was to hear that track everywhere, and Bowie’s music became a part of my life.”
She continued, “Was it Bo-Wie, Bowie or B’wee? Everything about him was intriguing. When I saw him on Top Of The Pops he was almost insect-like, his clothing was theatrical and bizarre; was that a dress? No one was sure, but my conclusion was that he was quite beautiful”.
Adding how the legendary vocalist soon became a favourite, rivalling her other heroes at the time, Bush added: “His picture found itself on my bedroom wall next to the sacred space reserved solely for my greatest love – Elton John“.
“A fantastic songwriter with a voice to match, Bowie had everything. He was just the right amount of weird, obviously intelligent and, of course, very sexy.”
Luckily for the Wuthering Heights singer, she managed to attend Bowie’s final show as Ziggy Stardust, which took place on July 3, 1973, at London’s Hammersmith Odeon.
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Bush recalled: “Ziggy played guitar. And I was there to see his last show as Ziggy Stardust with The Spiders From Mars. The atmosphere was just so charged that at the end, when he cried, we all cried with him.”
Speaking of the moment she got to meet him properly for the first time in real life, she wrote: “Working at Abbey Road studios some years later, I popped in to see a friend on another session….I was stopped in my tracks.”
“Standing elegantly poised behind the console was David Bowie. He was lit from above and smoking a cigarette. He said, ‘Hello Kate. “I froze on the spot and said, ‘Er…Hello,’ and then left the room, caught my breath outside the door and didn’t dare to go back in again.”
“We’ve met many times since then and I don’t have to leave the room any more….or do I?”.
Following his death in 2016, Bush wrote a tribute in The Guardian, which read: “David Bowie had everything. He was intelligent, imaginative, brave, charismatic, cool, sexy and truly inspirational both visually and musically. He created such staggeringly brilliant work, yes, but so much of it and it was so good. There are great people who make great work but who else has left a mark like his? No one like him.
“I’m struck by how the whole country has been flung into mourning and shock. Shock, because someone who had already transcended into immortality could actually die. He was ours. Wonderfully eccentric in a way that only an Englishman could be.”
She continued, “Whatever journey his beautiful soul is now on, I hope he can somehow feel how much we all miss him.”
A press release notes that “Star” “began as a sketch by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails, developed by Bryan Ferry and Amelia Barratt into an anxious, darkly gleaming slab of pounding post-techno. The song sees Ferry continuing to explore uncharted creative territory, with Barratt and Ferry creating a duet that blurs the lines between art, music and poetry.”
You can watch the video for “Star,” which was directed by Ferry, below.
Ferry says that “Star” “is a collaboration with the painter and writer Amelia Barratt. A couple of years ago I helped her record an audiobook here in my studio. I was very impressed by her writing, and this is the first song we did together. I’m very excited about this new work – there’s a lot more to come.”
“Star” is one of 81 songs that will feature on Retrospective, which comes out on Oct. 25. The five discs cover his entire solo career, spanning 16 solo albums over a 50-year time frame.
What Is on Bryan Ferry’s Five-CD ‘Retrospective’?
Retrospective is divided into five parts: “The Best of Bryan Ferry,” “Compositions,” “Interpretations,” “The Bryan Ferry Orchestra” and “Rare and Unreleased.” It includes tracks such as Ferry’s covers of Bob Dylan songs, R&B favorites, instrumental versions of Roxy Music classics and newer material.
You can see the track listing below.
Roxy Music was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2022 they launched a 50th-anniversary tour, which guitarist Phil Manzanera recently said would be the last time the band would perform live together.
Bryan Ferry, ‘Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023’ Track Listing Disc One: The Best Of Bryan Ferry 1. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall 2. These Foolish Things 3. The ‘In’ Crowd 4. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes 5. Casanova 6. Let’s Stick Together 7. Sign of the Times 8. Slave To Love 9. Don’t Stop The Dance 10. Windswept 11. Kiss and Tell 12. As Time Goes By 13. Your Painted Smile 14. I Put A Spell On You 15. Which Way To Turn 16. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door 17. Make You Feel My Love 18. You Can Dance 19. Love Letters 20. Johnny and Mary
Disc Two: Compositions 1. Can’t Let Go 2. Tokyo Joe 3. This Island Earth 4. Love Me Madly Again 5. Limbo 6. When She Walks In The Room 7. Boys and Girls 8. Zamba 9. Chain Reaction 10. Bête Noire 11. I Thought 12. The Only Face 13. Valentine 14. Loop De Li 15. Reason or Rhyme
Disc Three: Interpretations 1. The Price of Love 2. Shame Shame Shame 3. Hold On (I’m Coming) 4. Just One Look 5. Girl of My Best Friend 6. What Goes On 7. That’s How Strong My Love Is 8. You Go To My Head 9. Where or When 10. The Way You Look Tonight 11. One Night 12. Simple Twist of Fate 13. Positively 4th Street 14. Song to the Siren 15. Fooled Around and Fell In Love
Disc Four: The Bryan Ferry Orchestra 1. Virginia Plain 2. Do The Strand 3. While My Heart Is Still Beating 4. This Island Earth 5. Bitter-Sweet 6. Dance Away 7. Zamba 8. Reason or Rhyme 9. Avalon 10. Back To Black 11. Limbo 12. Young and Beautiful 13. Love Is The Drug 14. Sign of the Times 15. Chance Meeting
Disc Five: Rare and Unreleased 1. Feel The Need 2. Mother of Pearl (Horoscope Version) 3. Don’t Be Cruel 4. I Don’t Want To Go On Without You 5. I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know 6. Crazy Love 7. Whatever Gets You Through The Night 8. Bob Dylan’s Dream 9. He’ll Have To Go 10. A Fool For Love 11. Lowlands Low 12. Is Your Love Strong Enough 13. Sonnet 18 14. She Belongs To Me 15. Oh Lonesome Me 16. Star (with Amelia Barratt)
Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry Albums Ranked
In a way, the band and its singer are inseparable, even though they’ve taken slightly different career paths.
To define folk rock is a paradoxical task, given that the genre’s purpose is to take elements from various sources — traditional folk, blues, rock ‘n’ roll, pop — and fuse them into a new sound.
Maybe a more helpful way to consider the genre is by looking at the bands of the ’60s, specifically the way the decade began with early rock pioneers like Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, which gave way to Beatlemania and in turn gave way to psychedelia. Mixed into that transition were folk rock artists who combined the kind of story-telling, acoustic guitar-plucking style of people like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs, with electric instruments, lyricism as inventive as a fictional novel and new recording studio techniques.
In 1965, Bob Dylan illustrated this on stage in one fell swoop by plugging in his guitar at the Newport Folk Festival. An artist can be both steeped in the past and invested in the future, the move seemed to say. Some fans appreciated this new trajectory, others not so much.
Dozens upon dozens of musicians fell into this folk rock “category,” among them some of the most influential songwriters of their times — James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel, Joan Baez and more. Below, we’ve narrowed it down to what we believe to be the ‘Big 4’ of Folk Rock.
Bob Dylan
Express Newspapers, Hulton Archive, Getty Images
Express Newspapers, Hulton Archive, Getty Images
Placing Bob Dylan in a box of any kind is risky considering the breadth of his six-decade career. But if there was one person who perhaps best embodied the spirit of folk rock, it was him. Dylan was 19 years old and arguably Woody Guthrie’s biggest fan when he arrived in New York City by way of Minnesota, swiftly becoming a staple figure of the Greenwich Village folk scene. It was in those years that acoustic songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A’ Changin'” were born, but it would only be a matter of time before Dylan’s metamorphosis began. In 1964 came Bringing It All Back Home, his first album to incorporate electric instrumentation. That was followed by Highway 61 Revisited(1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), records that contained, as Dylan himself described it, “that thin, wild mercury sound.” Not everyone supported or understood this journey of Dylan’s at the time — it’s with the benefit of hindsight that we’ve been able to see how historical his path was.
Joni Mitchell
Jack Robinson // Getty Images
Jack Robinson // Getty Images
Joni Mitchell‘s catalog contains multitudes. Like Dylan, her career grew from a folk-based approach to something more robust. “I like simplicity,” she told the The Globe and Mail (via jonimitchell.com) in 1968, the year her debut album, Song to a Seagull, was released. “I never believed in hard sell even when I was working in stores. I always believed if you had a good product people would buy it. My music is really sock-it-to-me-softly music. I did the album alone with a guitar and I’m glad.” But within just a few years came songs like “Big Yellow Taxi,” “California” and “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio,” which offered the best of both Mitchell’s intricate folk sensibilities and her talent to piece together a well-assembled pop rock song. Though she initially bristled at being labeled a “folk singer” in her early years, Mitchell came around to the idea that folk, rock, blues and jazz could be blended in a way that was artistically authentic, and the evidence can be found on albums like Blue (1971), For the Roses (1972), Court and Spark (1974) and Hejira (1976). “It’s in my stars to invent; I was born on Madame Curie’s birthday,” she told New York Magazine in 2005. “I have this need for originals, for innovation.”
The Byrds
Hulton Archive, Getty Images
Hulton Archive, Getty Images
For a certain cohort of rock musicians, the Byrds were a touchstone. Tom Petty wanted a 12-string Rickenbacker guitar because it was what Roger McGuinn used, while George Harrison‘s “If I Needed Someone” from Rubber Soul (1965) was directly inspired by the Byrds’ jangly tone. “Roger really invented folk-rock,” Bruce Springsteen would say. The Byrds served as the model for how best to integrate then-contemporary British Invasion pop with traditional folk music. Songs like “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “Eight Miles High” exemplified the kind of socially-conscious and semi-psychedelic lyricism that became the norm as the ’60s wore on. The twang of a 12-string and the beat of a tambourine ended up nearly synonymous with folk rock music thanks to the Byrds — a precursor to bands like Fleetwood Mac, the Heartbreakers, R.E.M. and the Smiths.
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Gijsbert Hanekroot, Getty Images
Gijsbert Hanekroot, Getty Images
Ironically, this final entry nods back to the two before it. David Crosby was first a member of the Byrds before joining forces with Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and, a little later on, Neil Young. Together, they made up one of rock’s first supergroups — Nash came from the Hollies, while Stills and Young had both been in Buffalo Springfield. The result was arguably the most folk rockiest of all the folk rock bands, pioneers of vocal harmony and each of them an adept songwriter that, when combined with both acoustic and electric instrumentation, yielded hits like “Teach Your Children,” “Ohio” and “Our House.” There was also “Woodstock,” penned by another of our “Big 4,” Joni Mitchell, one of the best-known folk-rock numbers to have come out of the most famous music festival of all time.
Top ’60s Bands
Rock may not have been invented in the ‘60s, but it’s certainly when the genre came into its own.
Kenny Aronoff played the hero at Sammy Hagar‘s Best of All Worlds show in Cincinnati Tuesday night by taking over on drums for Jason Bonham, who had to leave the tour for an unspecified family issue.
“Tonight I’m going to dedicate this to the Bonham family in England, hope everything works out OK over there, and to our brother Jason,” Hagar said during the intro to “Eagles Fly.” The band played a full 21-song set with Aronoff, beginning with 5150‘s “Good Enough.”
At the conclusion of the show-closing cover of Van Halen‘s “When It’s Love,” Hagar gave a special shout-out to “the man who saved the day, Kenny fucking Aronoff.” The lineup of Hagar, bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani and Aronoff amounted to a Chickenfoot reunion of sorts, as Aronoff replaced Chad Smith in the group’s touring lineup from 2011 to 2012. (Hagar’s current band also features keyboardist Ray Thistlethwayte.)
Aronoff replaced Smith in Chickenfoot because the original drummer’s commitments with the Red Hot Chili Peppers made him unavailable. Smith returned later and took part in their final tour to date in 2016.
“[T]he cool thing about this band is that the level of musicianship is so high,” Aronoff told UCR during the first Chickenfoot tour, which came just after he’d worked with John Fogerty then Brandi Carlile, and was rehearsing to play on the soundtrack for the 2013 Jimi Hendrix movie All Is By My Side.
“[E]verybody’s been in so many bands that we’re starting at such a high experienced level… there’s a lot of stuff that you don’t have to discuss. It’s like if you took a bunch of NFL players and put them together, they’re already starting with a lot of experience, so it’s just a matter of making it gel… it gels so well, personality wise and musically.
“And I think maybe that’s what Chad was thinking when he picked me. He picked me personally – he kept telling them, ‘This is the guy you should get to replace me while I’m out with the Chili Peppers.’ And it’s worked – he’s right. It was just the right combination of people.”
The U.S. leg of Hagar’s Best of All Worlds tour continues tonight in Nashville, and is scheduled to conclude in St. Louis on Saturday. There has been no official announcement about Bonham’s absence from the tour.
Watch Sammy Hagar Dedicate ‘Eagles Fly’ To Jason Bonham and His Family
Watch Sammy Hagar Thank Kenny Aronoff, ‘The Man Who Saved the Day’
Watch Kenny Aronoff Perform with Sammy Hagar
Loverboy and Sammy Hagar Perform in Inglewood
Michael Anthony and Joe Satriani join the Red Rocker to celebrate Van Halen in Eddie’s hometown.
The Smile has officially announcedCutouts, after dropping a series of clues on social media. The LP, their third, is set for release on Oct. 4.
“We lovingly submit our latest 45-minute (?) record Cutouts,” the Smile said in an new statement, “to be swallowed up by the fast running stream, down into the giant ever-growing river and on to the sea.” Cutouts is available for pre-order now on compact disc, black or white vinyl, cassette and digital formats.
New videos for “Zero Sum” and “Foreign Spies” were also released. See both clips, a complete track listing and album artwork below.
Internet sleuths have been working feverishly to sort and solve clues from the supergroup featuring Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. One Instagram post, for instance, was said to spell out the words “three zero sum” when using a Polybius cipher. The best guess was that these clues hinted at song titles.
In the meantime, the Smile quietly released a new single in early August featuring a studio version of the 2024 concert staple “Don’t Get Me Started,” backed by “The Slip.” (Clues from a band tweet led another fan decoder to believe the song would be sixth on the track listing – and that turned out to be true.)
The single was produced and mixed by Sam Petts-Davies, who also helmed the Smile’s widely acclaimed Wall of Eyes from earlier this year. An accompanying video for “Don’t Get Me Started Again” was then released a week later.
Cutouts is also produced by Petts-Davies, with string accompaniment from the London Contemporary Orchestra. The album art was painted during the recording process by Stanley Donwood and Yorke.
Following last week’s news that Primal Fear have parted ways with guitarists Alex Beyrodt and Tom Naumann, drummer Michael Ehré and bassist Alex Jansen, founding members Ralf Scheepers (vocals) and Mat Sinner (bass) have announced that Italian / Cuban guitar sensation Thalia Bellazecca of Angus McSix / ex-Frozen Crown will join Primal Fear as a full member and guitar partner of Magnus Karlsson.
Comments Thalia: “I’m stoked and excited to have the opportunity to play with these giants of the heavy and power metal scene. I feel so honored to share the stage with these amazing musicians and to start a new journey also with this incredible and historical band! Can’t wait to start working with all of you!”
Ralf Scheepers: “After my last show in Italy, I got to know Thalia personally and I realized what a wonderful person she is. Anyone who knows me knows that personal contact and sympathy is very important to me. So I read up on her musical projects and skills and was blown away by her incredible talent! I can’t wait to work with her in the studio and of course live soon!”
Primal Fear recently announced that guitarist Magnus Karlsson – who has been a studio member of the band – will rejoin them for all upcoming live activity.
A message from Primal Fear states: “To answer some of your questions – Magnus Karlsson is still in the band! The only difference to a week ago is that he will join Primal Fear permanently on albums (like always) and from now on @ all live shows and tours again!”
Says Magnus: “Can’t wait to hit the stage with Primal Fear again! It’s going to be an incredible ride! We’re going to create something truly special together, both live and in the studio, and I’m so grateful to share this journey with all you metalheads! Metal is forever!”
