Author: uylrjp

It was a time of upheaval and tragedy, yet Coda, In Through The Out Door and Presence showcase some of Led Zeppelin’s most intriguing work. In late 2014, as Jimmy Page put the finishing touches to the deluxe edition editions of those albums, he spoke with Classic Rock.

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Whenever Jimmy Page is asked a question that he’s uncomfortable about answering, his body language betrays him. His shoulder twitches and his lips purse. He will answer, although not necessarily the question you asked. It’s a game. And a game that Jimmy Page is an old hand at.

Led Zeppelin’s guitarist/producer/gatekeeper has been on the campaign trail since March 2014. Since then, each Zeppelin album has been remastered and reissued under Page’s watchful eye. For seasoned Zeppelin followers, it’s been like having several Christmases in a year. For Jimmy Page, it’s meant answering – and sometimes dodging – questions about Robert Plant’s solo career, groupies, drugs and Satan. There’s been a lot of shoulder-twitching and lip-pursing these past 16 months.

Now, though, Page’s work is done. This month sees the release of the final three: 1976’s Presence, 1979’s In Through The Out Door and 1982’s out-takes collection, Coda. But for Page, will it ever really be done?

We meet on a Friday afternoon in West London in what was once Olympic Studios and is now a private members’ club. Page is wearing regulation black and a raffish scarf, and looking eerily healthy for a septuagenarian rumoured to have spent years gone by in a pharmaceutical haze.

Earlier, he hosted a playback of tracks from the new reissues. The club’s impeccable sound system pumped new life into every note and nuance. Tell Page this, and the inscrutable gaze softens and the eyes light up. The problem is, we’re here to talk about Coda, but also Zeppelin’s final album, In Through The Out Door.

Previously, Page has described it as “too polished” and “not really us”, though Zeppelin’s worst is better than some groups at their best. Perhaps it’s not helped by the fact that it came after the guitar-heavy Presence, rumoured to be Page’s personal favourite. Either way, let the twitching and lip-pursing begin.

Is Presence really your favourite Led Zeppelin album?

I certainly really like it. It’s a bit of a muso’s album, though, isn’t it? So many times, I speak to people and they say that Presence is their favourite, and it always surprises me, because you’ve got to really listen to what’s going on.

It wasn’t made under the easiest of circumstances, was it?

No. Robert had had his accident [a car crash in Rhodes in August ’75], so his leg was in plaster in the studio. So that was a set of circumstances right there that wasn’t in script. So Presence was very reflective of what was going on – a lot of darkness and intensity. There’s some extraordinary stuff on there: from my point of view, Achilles Last Stand, but also Tea For One, where Robert is singing his heart out.

When Led Zeppelin played the Presence track For Your Life at the O2 reunion, could you see that some of the audience didn’t know it.

Yes, I could. Some reviewers even wrote it was a new song [looks appalled]. Mind you, perhaps that shows how popular Presence is in the grand scheme of things! [Laughs]

On the deluxe edition there’s a piano ballad called Pod. But it feels like the beginning of In Through The Out Door rather than part of Presence.

Yes. It wasn’t going to go on Presence because Presence was a guitar album. But [bassist] John Paul Jones presented this piece, and it says something that in among all that intensity and darkness we could do something like this. It was good enough for In Through The Out Door, but by then we’d done a new set of writing.

Before Led Zeppelin started In Through The Out Door, they had to survive 1977. On July 24, they played what turned out to be their final US gig at San Francisco’s Oakland Coliseum. All the darkness and intensity of Presence reached fever pitch, when drummer John Bonham helped beat up a security guard backstage. Worse was to come. A day later, Robert Plant learned that his young son, Karac, had died from a viral infection at home in the UK. “It was a terrible time, God, yes,” sighs Page.

And one that led to Plant walking away from Led Zeppelin. When he returned, he was keen for the band to do something different in the studio, “something more conscientious and less animal”, he said later.

Plant wasn’t the only one with new ideas. When Zeppelin reconvened in May 1978 at Clearwell Castle, in the Forest Of Dean, John Paul Jones unveiled his new toy, a Yamaha GX-1 keyboard. “Stevie Wonder had one,” says Page, “We called it The Dream Machine. Immediately, John Paul started writing full numbers on it.”

Plant and Jones’s new ideas and instruments would have a major impact when Zeppelin arrived at ABBA’s Polar Studios, in Stockholm, to start work on their next album.

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How did Led Zeppelin end up recording in ABBA’s studio?

They contacted me. The studio was only known for ABBA and they wanted an internationally known rock group to record there, and would Led Zeppelin consider it. We had a chat and they said they’d be generous with studio time. We went out there in December [’78], I think. It was biting cold, snow everywhere…

Did you meet ABBA?

I met Björn [Ulvaeus] when I was setting up. I don’t think the others had got there then. He gave me a guitar, which was very sweet. A day later I met Benny [Andersson]. Björn was the blond one? Benny was the one with the beard and the keyboard, yes? [Laughs] He was very interested in John Paul’s new toy. At the time Benny was still married to Frida [Lyngstad]. So we all went out to a club together one night. They were nice people.

You didn’t meet Agnetha [Fältskog] then?

No, I was rather hoping we were going to meet Agnetha, but that wasn’t part of the deal!

Revisiting the album again, what was the first thing you noticed about it?

The album sounds a little bit contained. It was a state-of-the-art studio, but there was no ambience. We had to take the front bass skin off John Bonham’s drums. Then we had to use a machine to create a fake ambience.

How was the mood in the band at that time?

It was good, as far as I knew.

Robert Plant has said that his lyrics to Carouselambra (‘And powerless the fabled sat/Too smug to lift a hand…’) are about the tension in the band at the time. Did you know that?

I’m sure they were… but I didn’t know. The way we listened to music then was to make your own interpretation. We were still a few years away from videos where they told you what the song was about. In the early stages of Led Zeppelin I wrote lyrics. But if I’d concentrated on lyrics I wouldn’t have been able to give as much attention to the guitars.

John Paul Jones remembered the Polar sessions like so: “The band was splitting between people who could turn up at recording sessions on time and people who couldn’t,” he told Zeppelin biographer Barney Hoskyns in 2012.

Those who couldn’t were Bonham and Page, both of whom were supposedly using heroin. Ask Page about his drug use and he clams up, every time. He doesn’t deny it, but insists that, whatever else he was doing at the time, he was always ready to work.

“When I needed to be focused, I was really focused,” he said. “Presence and In Through The Out Door were only recorded in three weeks. That’s really going some. You’ve got to be on top of it.”

But although he produced the album, as usual, In Through The Out Door is the only Zeppelin release to include original songs not written or co‑written by Page. After seven studio albums in which his iron grip on Led Zeppelin never weakened, you can’t help wondering why it did so at the end.

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In Through The Out Door is very much the Plant/Jones album. The impression is that they were in a huddle together while you were otherwise engaged.

[Long pause]. Hmm… I do remember them being in a huddle, yes. That was good, though, wasn’t it? I had done a serious amount of writing all the way through and having done all the writing on Presence, I was relieved. Okay, Robert and John Paul are writing numbers together? Let them do it. Cool. I was very happy about it.

Really?

Yes, really, because I had just done a whole guitar album.

In Through The Out Door is quite a lightweight album. Fool In The Rain and All My Love are very poppy. What did you think of those songs?

I think they’re good. They’re alright. It was another dimension. On Presence, I wanted to do something that made a show of the guitars. That’s why Achilles Last Stand was a guitar orchestra extraordinaire. But with Fool In The Rain, even with the chorus and the acoustic guitars, when it comes to the solo, I employed a sound that made people go, “What the hell was that?” – even on a keyboard album. It made you think.

Were you aware that All My Love was about Robert’s son Karac?

Yes. I realised that it was over time.

Let’s pick a track at random: the piano number, South Bound Suarez. What do you remember about that?

I remember everything. I honestly do. What do you wanna know? Yeah, it’s a piano number, and I played a [B-] string-bender on the chorus [long pause]. Look, it was a departure…. The thing with In Through The Out Door is that there’s nothing like an Achilles… or a Kashmir on there.

In The Evening comes close, though?

In The Evening is maybe in that sort of vein. People always say that that’s the song on In Through The Out Door that feels closest to the Led Zeppelin they know. And my solo on that is another one that makes you think, “What the hell?”

When Coda came out, a lot of fans wondered why that great track Wearing And Tearing hadn’t been on In Through The Out Door?

Because the album was so much lighter, it wouldn’t have fitted. Wearing And Tearing was ‘One, two, three, four, charge.’ My goodness! It was like an assault. It wasn’t in character with something like All My Love.

Do you think In Through The Out Door was just another progression? Like the one from Led Zeppelin II to III?

A logical progression, yes. But after In Through The Out Door, we would have done an album that was entirely different.

So what would the ninth Led Zeppelin album have sounded like?

[Emphatically] Riffs, interestingly constructed riffs and hypnotic music. John Bonham and I spoke about this a lot. Let’s put it this way, on the next Led Zeppelin album, John wouldn’t have been playing with brushes. John loved the idea of anything where he could really get going.

Led Zeppelin IX never happened. When John Bonham died on September 25, 1980, Zeppelin died with him. Two years later came Coda, an album of outtakes, including Bonham’s drum extravaganza, Bonzo’s Montreux. The deluxe version of Coda brings more buried treasure to light, such as Friends and Four Sticks (retitled Four Hands), recorded by Page and Plant with Indian musicians in 1972.

Listening to Page discussing this material, you glimpse the obsessiveness that helped make Led Zeppelin such a force, but also a reluctance to reveal too much, as if this will diminish his and/or the music’s power. You realise why Robert Plant once described his old bandmate as “a man of mystery… hiding in shadows and peeping round corners”.

Yet, you also glimpse a more innocent time – if ‘innocence’ and ‘Led Zeppelin’ could ever be used in the same sentence – before the so-called “darkness and intensity” took over. Most of all, though, you realise how much John Bonham’s death impacted on him.

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Coda seemed to creep out in 1982. There was none of the fanfare that’s accompanied these latest reissues.

It was a very difficult album to approach. We’d lost John in 1980 but even when I came to do Coda, it still felt tough [long pause]. It was a contractual album. We had to do it.

How did you approach it?

It had to have credibility, because it could have been quite unpalatable otherwise. It helped that we had Darlene, Ozone Baby and Wearing And Tearing from the Polar Sessions. And only John and I knew about Bonzo’s Montreux.

Why didn’t the others know about it?

Because it was something we did together – just him and me. John was alone in Montreux at the time [Bonham was taking a tax year out of the UK in 1976], so I went there to cheer him up. John liked all those old Sandy Nelson records, because of the drums. So we wanted to make something that sounded like a drum orchestra. It was fun, but it wouldn’t have fitted on any of the albums.

So what were you aiming for with the new Coda?

To make the mother of all Codas! [Laughs] Before I started this whole campaign, I had to know what I was saving for this one – all the little treasures.

Let’s talk about Friends and Four Hands, then. We’ve read about the trip you and Robert took to India in ’72, but never heard the music you made there.

We were on the plane from Australia and had to break up the journey for refuelling. I had worked out a situation where we could go into a studio [EMI Studios in Bombay] with some Indian classically trained musicians. I wanted to see if it was possible to go in with a guitar and an interpreter and make something happen.

Had these musicians heard any of Led Zeppelin’s music before?

No. It was 1972 and they were immersed in their own world. But Friends was written around the idea of Indian music. I just about managed to explain it to them. On Four Sticks, they did things in odd times and multiple beats. As far as I was concerned, I was in paradise. I’d gone in to do something that seemed impossible and I’d done it.

You were an early fan of Indian music. You owned a sitar when you were a teenager, didn’t you?

Yes [long pause]. This story has leaked out… Now I suppose it will leak out even more. I managed to acquire a sitar, when I was a teenager, early on in my session musician days. I’m not saying I was the only person interested in Indian music, and I’m not detracting from George Harrison’s sitar work but I was in there earlier… Although I had to get Ravi Shankar to show me how to tune it.

How did that happen?

I had a connection with a lady that knew Ravi Shankar and said she’d get me an introduction. I went to see him when he played in London. There were members of the Indian high commission and Indian actors there, but no other young people. I was granted an audience with the master and he showed me how do it.

Will we ever hear Jimmy Page playing sitar?

I still have the sitar and I still play, but you don’t mess with two thousand years of culture. To hear Ravi playing, now that’s amazing. It’s a spiritual discipline.

Ten years ago you talked to me about making a solo album. What is happening with that?

Look at the reality. Ever since the release of [the Zeppelin reunion live DVD and CD] Celebration Day [in 2012] I’ve been working on this material, selecting and rejecting, to get to where we are today. This is Led Zeppelin’s reputation. But I’m happy that it’s all accomplished. Now I can concentrate on all things guitar.

Have you actually recorded some new music?

Yes, I’ve got new music. But I haven’t worked with other musicians on any of it. But never mind what I have or where it is – is it acoustic, electric or experimental. I’d rather be seen going out there and playing publicly rather than doing it at home.

This reissues campaign had been your life for the past couple of years – but only yours. Why aren’t Robert Plant and John Paul Jones sitting here as well?

I’ve not heard from them about this new stuff, but they know how things have shaped up. But we all know I formed the band and I was the producer, and consequently I have all the points of reference, more than anyone else. [Long pause] Some people might have forgotten all the things we did, but I didn’t forget. I’m the one who knew.

With the recording device switched off, the other Jimmy Page reappears, all easy grins and friendly chit-chat. “When we talk again about my new solo album, let’s see how confident I am then,” he jokes.

But can any new music Jimmy Page makes possibly measure up to Led Zeppelin, and also to his own exacting standards? And as the now 71-year-old leader of one of the biggest rock bands of all time, who’d blame him if he never played a another note? But Page is both Led Zeppelin’s number one authority and their biggest fan. He can’t let it go. Maybe that’s why he’s so defensive when discussing In Through The Out Door. The truth is – whisper it – it wasn’t as good as the other albums, and he knows it.

As a parting shot, I tell him that there are a lot of Zeppelin fans of a certain age for whom Zeppelin’s last album was their first; who vividly remember the LP coming out, hearing In The Evening being played on the radio, and as such have a soft spot for it. “Okay,” he says, looking slightly surprised. “I can understand that. Yeah, that does makes sense.”

As he leaves the room, you notice that his shoulders are finally down, the lips are un-pursed and once again Jimmy Page is smiling.

This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 213 (January 2015)

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Since the turn of the millennium, Sweden’s Grand Magus have been flag-waving champions of trad metal. But unlike their tank-loving countrymen in Sabaton or even fellow leatherwear enthusiasts Hammerfall, nobody’s ever dared call them power metal.

Spawned very much in the vision of Priest and Sabbath, theirs is a doomy take on heavy metal’s blueprint that brings it all back to the source. Now 10 albums in, Hammer caught up with frontman Janne Christofferson – or JB, as he’s better known – to talk gangs, giggle grass the disappearance of two years.

Beowulf, the Germanic Old English epic poem, is a theme throughout your new album, Sunraven. It’s perfect fit for Grand Magus; metalheads who read the tale often come away thinking ‘Some band should do an album about this…’

“I got in touch with Beowulf when I was a tiny boy, I was fascinated immediately, and it’s something I’ve carried with me all my life. Over the years we’ve picked stuff from this poem for other songs, maybe not overtly but at least subliminally. But when we started to write Sunraven, somehow it seemed the right time and the right music to fit with this concept.”

You, drummer Ludwig ‘Ludde’ Witt and bassist Mats ‘Fox’ Skinner have been together for 12 years. Presumably you’d move Heaven and Earth to keep this line-up now?

“It’s weird the way this ‘guns for hire’ thing suddenly became the norm, like everybody’s replaceable as long as one original member is still in the band. I’ve always felt that the most important thing with a band is the humans involved, the personalities. It was very important with the bands that I got into growing up. So when Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple, they did some great stuff after that, but for me it wasn’t DP. It’s an old example, but a good one! I met another of those bands a few weeks ago: Clutch. Same guys, still amazing live. It’s heartening to see they’re still the same gang.”

Have Grand Magus ever come close to splitting up?

“When Covid struck, it was like, ‘Maybe that’s it.’ It was so extreme and unprecedented. Everything stopped, and we didn’t know if live music would ever return. If we couldn’t do it the way we used to do it, I couldn’t see any point. Why replace the memories of all the great things we’ve experienced with just standing around our rehearsal room with a video camera on? So two years pretty much disappeared, and it wasn’t until things came back properly that I felt any inclination to do anything with the band. Interaction is everything. You can write music without it, but you can’t perform.”

What’s the most you have ever laughed together?

“Me, Fox and one of our first drummers [Sebastian Sippola] were at one of the earliest festivals we ever played, and I had my first whiff of grass. It was the ‘giggle grass’, so everything struck me as hysterically funny for about three hours. It shuts off your logic! It was hysterical, but I never experienced that again. I didn’t keep that up, it was never my type of thing. I prefer alcohol.”

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

“My earliest memories are of wanting to be a zoologist or a marine biologist. Didn’t turn out that way! But nature was my earliest interest that I can recall, and when I get interested in something I’m pretty thorough. Birds of prey were a big interest, I delved into that, learned the Latin names and all that. But now it’s just a hobby – no pun intended.”

You’re touring with Opeth – an exciting Stockholm double bill. Do you go back a long way?

“When we started they were a well established band, and although they were death metal, they were always out in their own little niche. The death metal bands we hung out with in the early days were more like Dismember, Entombed and Unleashed, we met Opeth a little later on. But we know each other really well. I’m close friends with Mikael [Åkerfeldt] and Fredrik [Åkesson]; they’re all brilliant people.”

Do you keep up with the younger heavy metal bands? Any hot tips to check out?

“There are definitely some newer bands that I’ve really enjoyed, if I stumble on something when I’m looking for Uriah Heep gigs on YouTube! I like to mention Eternal Champion, Visigoth and Night Demon… although they’ve been going for many years. They’re veterans of the scene now!”

Sunraven is out now via Nuclear Blast. Grand Magus support Opeth on their UK tour from February 25.

Metal Hammer has teamed with Lacuna Coil to offer an exclusive magazine cover and signed art print.

To celebrate the release of new album Sleepless Empire on Friday (February 14), the Italian goth metal maestros have been put on the cover of Metal Hammer’s new issue, for a bumper edition that can only be found now in the Louder store. On top of that, the bundle comes with an art card signed by vocalists Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro.

Get yours now exclusively through the Louder store!

Cristina is interviewed inside the magazine, talking about not just Sleepless Empire, but also Lacuna Coil’s whirlwind rise from the Italian underground to metal’s mainstream. It was a journey fraught with hard work, overzealous fans and even the involvement of the FBI!

“I did have actual stalkers that were potentially dangerous and would follow me around,” she tells Hammer journalist Paul Travers. “I remember them sending me weird pictures of me covered in blood or sending me pictures of a foetus.

“I reported it, and for one complete tour I had an FBI agent in every town checking on me. It was not only disturbing, it was also boring for me because I had to be confined on a tour bus every day.”

As if that weren’t enough, the new Hammer also features an extensive interview with Canadian metal’s modern greats, Spiritbox. Fresh off a nomination for Grammy Award For Best Metal Performance, singer Courtney LaPlante and guitarist Mike Stringer discuss everything to do with their long-awaited second album, Tsunami Sea.

Other features include a deep dive into Limp Bizkit’s shocking 2020s comeback – or the “Durstnaissance” – as well as the story of Parkway Drive’s transformative metalcore anthem Vice Grip, a day in the life of Fit For An Autopsy, and gardening in a London graveyard with Wardruna.

There’s also a stacked reviews section, featuring a critique of Sleepless Empire. Lacuna Coil’s 10th album gets a glowing eight-out-of-10 from writer Holly Wright. “With Sleepless Empire, Lacuna Coil dive headfirst into their heavier side – and it works,” she declares. “This is a band that’s unafraid to evolve, to experiment and to hit hard. Gothic metal’s crown isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

Pick up your copy now!

This life doesn’t come with many guarantees. Death and taxes are foremost among them, but you can also count on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame‘s annual list of nominees — and with it, the inevitable outcry from music fans who feel their favorites got snubbed.

The 2025 slate of nominees includes several rock veterans who are getting their due for the first time, including Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker and Billy Idol. They sit alongside some next-generation rock acts such as the Black Crowes, Oasis, Soundgarden, Phish and the White Stripes. The list is rounded out by pop stars Cyndi Lauper and Mariah Carey, post-punk legends Joy Division/New Order, Mexican pop-rock legends Mana and blockbuster hip-hop duo Outkast.

The UCR staff takes stock of these nominees, discussing this year’s surprises, snubs and our personal top choices for induction. Read on to see our responses.

1. Who is this year’s most surprising nominee?

Bryan Rolli: I didn’t expect to see Mana on this year’s list, but they’re certainly worthy. They’re the bestselling Latin American band of all time with over 25 million records sold, and they’ve got four Grammys and eight Latin Grammys under their belts — not to mention more than 16 million monthly Spotify listeners at the time of this writing. It’s a subtle but welcome nod to rock’s global cultural impact, since many rock fans are often guilty of viewing the genre through a Eurocentric lens.

Nick DeRiso: Chubby Checker. Organizers already introduced a new category specifically tailored for one-hit wonders, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Singles. “The Twist,” Checker’s once-ubiquitous 1960 chart-topper, was a shoo-in. But now he’s become a general nominee, despite boasting a hit resume that basically only includes variants on the same song (“Let’s Twist Again,” “Slow Twistin’,” “Twist It Up,” etc.) It’s certainly a Hall of Fame twist.

Allison Rapp: There’s a part of me that’s surprised to see Phish on this list, but I’m pretty sure that’s because the name Phish just does not enter my conscious brain on any sort of regular basis — I respect them, but I simply don’t understand their language. Speaking of that, I can’t say I was expecting Mana to be on the list. I’m glad though – Latin American music and its wider influence on rock and pop culture shouldn’t be overlooked.

Michael Gallucci: With the popularity of Latin music growing significantly every year, I can understand why the Rock Hall would want to extend its boundaries and nominate Mana. The Grammys gave Latin music its own awards ceremony years ago. But as big as this band is among Latin rock fans, their influence hasn’t reached beyond their genre. This is a reach for the Hall of Fame.

Matthew Wilkening: I fully support the Rock Hall branching out into other genres, but every nominee should still have some degree of the rebellious rock ‘n’ roll spirit in them. Public Enemy, Madonna and Willie Nelson all have it. Mariah Carey most certainly does not.

2. Who is the biggest snub?

Rolli: Fine, twist my arm and get me to rant about Iron Maiden again. It’s an embarrassment and a travesty that the Rock Hall has continued to snub one of the most enduringly popular and influential heavy metal acts in history. It would have been especially nice for them to get another nomination, and induction, while drummer Nicko McBrain is still healthy enough to play a few songs with the band. In the wake of his retirement from touring, there’s no telling how much longer he’ll be fit to do so. Hopefully a while, and hopefully the Rock Hall will right this wrong sooner than later.

DeRiso: After a two-year run of country inductees (2022’s Dolly Parton and 2023’s Willie Nelson), the Rock Hall has now gone two more years without one.

Rapp: I don’t know that this is necessarily a snub so much as a disappointment, but I wish Sinead O’Connor had been given a second chance. (I’m also not loving that only two of this year’s 14 nominees are women.) She was nominated in 2024, the year after her death at 56 years old, and I thought that might boost her odds. To be clear: I don’t think you need to die in order to get into the Rock Hall, quite the opposite in fact, but I was hoping we’d come to a point where her influence and spirit, one of equity and freedom, would be recognized.

Gallucci: They just forgot about Warren Zevon again, right? Sigh.

Wilkening: Iron Maiden, Iron Maiden, Iron Maiden. You cannot tell the story of heavy metal without mentioning Iron Maiden. So they need to be in, even if they won’t show up and even though they’ve openly mocked your organization. The Zevon thing is even more perplexing because he seems like the kind of artist the voters love. Lastly, it’s weird that they seem to have given up on nominating country legends.

3. Who are you happiest to see get nominated?

Rolli: It’s great to see Billy Idol on the list. From his voice to his showmanship to his catalog of hits, he’s the consummate rock star in every sense of the word. And as one of the first artists to blend punk, rock and pop to astonishing success, he inadvertently set the stage for future generations of pop-punk stars like Green Day and Blink-182.

DeRiso: Joy Division/New Order. Eligible since 2004, this merged lineup has only been nominated once – appearing on the ballot in 2023, then disappearing last year. I figured they were gone for good after an unimpressive fan vote where Joy Division/New Order ended up in ninth place. Probably because Joy Division was always more popular in the U.K. Still, theirs is a very worthy candidacy.

Rapp: The Gallagher brothers can disagree with me all they want, but I’m happy to see Oasis in the mix again. I spent a pretty penny on tickets to their reunion tour later this year, so this is the opinion of a biased fan — and more specifically, of an American woman who was not even alive when they started making music — but it’s painfully clear to me that this band still has a great amount of power in the world of rock music.

Gallucci: Hopefully, with their repeat appearance, Joy Division/New Order will finally get the nod this year.

Wilkening: Billy Idol, whose image and star power seem to make some people forget that he’s a really great songwriter. Cyndi Lauper is a very close second.

4. Bad Company, the Black Crowes, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Billy Idol, Mana, Outkast and Phish are all first-time nominees. Who among them would you like to see get inducted first?

Rolli: Unsurprisingly, I’m going with Idol again. At 69, he’s still out there pounding the pavement and keeping the rock ‘n’ roll flame burning. The establishment can be painfully slow to come around to certain artists, but Idol absolutely deserves the honor, and it would be nice for him to receive it while he’s still got enough vitality (Vital Idol, you might say) to make the most of the opportunity.

DeRiso: Bad Company would continue a line of mainstream rock band inductees that the Hall has touched on lately, including Steve Miller Band (2016), Journey (2017), the Doobie Brothers (2020), Pat Benatar (2022) and Foreigner (2024), among others. These aren’t necessarily critical darlings, but they nevertheless represent a bulwark against those who complain about the Rock Hall not honoring enough “rock” stars.

Rapp: Billy Idol is deserving, I think. But I’d also be pleased to see Joe Cocker get in. Talk about iconic voices in rock ’n’ roll.

Gallucci: The Black Crowes, but honestly there are repeat nominees I’d like to see get inducted first.

Wilkening: A Black Crowes induction would be the cherry on top of what has been a fantastic reunion, but if we only get one vote mine goes to Idol.

5. Of the previously nominated artists, who do you think is the most overdue?

Rolli: Soundgarden, no doubt. After a decade-plus of eligibility and two previous nominations, it’s baffling to me that they still haven’t made it into the Hall. Their album sales and cultural relevance are indisputable, not to mention Chris Cornell‘s unparalleled vocal talent and star power. Nirvana was inducted in 2014, and Pearl Jam in 2017. What’s the holdup here?

DeRiso: Soundgarden. Pearl Jam’s induction in 2017 flung the door wide open for grunge acts. In fact, Soundgarden probably should have been gone in first.

Rapp: It would be overkill for me to continue waxing poetic about Oasis here in this answer, so instead I will champion Cyndi Lauper. I’m thinking specifically about Chappell Roan’s recent performance of “Pink Pony Club” at the Grammys, an elaborate display full of glitter, costumes and color, supporting a song whose essential message is about being yourself. Who does that remind you of? Girls have always just wanted to have fun. Lauper paved the way for much of that to be possible today and I think she deserves a Rock Hall spot.

Gallucci: Joy Division/New Order. It’s rare for a band to be one of the best in their field, lose a member, remake themselves as a different band and become even more influential.

Wilkening: Soundgarden. Partly because it gets us closer to inducting Melvins.

6. Overall thoughts on this year’s nominees?

Rolli: I hope Oasis and the Black Crowes both make the cut and Ray and Dave Davies split the induction duties.

DeRiso: The surprising resurrection of the Black Crowes would be made complete by induction, while the White Stripes help push the Rock Hall into its long-awaited next era.

Rapp: The Buffalo Bills were choked out of this year’s Super Bowl. The least the Rock Hall could do for me is get Oasis in.

Gallucci: 2025 looks much like the past several years of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees: a big pop star or two, a hip-hop artist, someone from way back in the day, a handful of “newer” artists to prove rock music didn’t die in the ’80s, one oddball choice and a couple of vintage artists to quiet fans who complain about the Rock Hall’s expanded direction. Yawn.

Wilkening: There’s clearly a formula to these nominations, with a certain number of slots set aside for each genre. I don’t understand why they cut country music out of that equation. It seems like some very worthy artists will be inducted this year, but it’s certainly not the most exciting or daring class.

7. Who do you predict will make it into the Rock Hall this year?

Rolli: Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Mariah Carey, Oasis, Soundgarden and the White Stripes.

DeRiso: Induction classes tend to have a fan-service approach these days, with an eye toward checking certain boxes for the audiences viewing at home. In keeping, I’d expect the class to include a rock act (Black Crowes), a pop act (Cyndi Lauper), an R&B act (Mariah Carey), a hip-hop act (Outkast) and a buzzy twist (Oasis). There might be room for Joe Cocker too, as a nod to legacy artists.

Rapp: Billy Idol, Phish, Soundgarden, Cyndi Lauper, Oasis and Mana.

Gallucci: Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, Oasis, Outkast and the White Stripes.

Wilkening: Wish list: Billy Idol, Cyndi Lauper, the Black Crowes, Joy Division/New Order, Outkast and Soundgarden. Actual prediction: Idol, Lauper, Outkast, Bad Company, Mana and Mariah Carey.

Tommy Shaw says his opinion changed as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame continues to snub Styx.

“At one time, it used to get under my skin,” Shaw told Sirius XM’s Eddie Trunk. “I at one time was saying, ‘Please don’t give it to me now. Wait until I’m dead. Because I don’t want to have to go to one of those [induction] things that charge me $5,000 to get in the door and go up and play with guys who probably don’t want to play with each other.”

That stance has softened a bit over time. In 2024, Shaw expressed hope that he and his bandmates will “live long enough” to get inducted. He didn’t directly address Styx’s Hall credentials during the interview with Trunk, but Shaw admitted he loves it “when a band truly deserves” the recognition.

READ MORE: 145 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Styx has been eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame since 1998. With more than 54 million albums sold and a catalog of classic hits, they seemingly have a resume worthy of induction. Despite that, the band has never even received a nomination.

Styx Sees ‘Irony’ When Hall of Fame Bands Open for Them

During the conversation with Trunk, Styx singer and keyboardist Lawrence Gowan championed the band’s case for induction.

“To me, I would like to see [induction] for the guys that were in the band long before I was in the band,” said Gowan, who joined in 1999. “I’d like to see it for them, because they built the whole foundation that we’ve been able to extend the life of, you know, since the era that I’ve been involved in.”

READ MORE: Styx Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

“Bands that get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we always celebrate that,” Gowan continued, “and when I’ve seen them open for Styx, we always make a big deal of the fact that that band or this artist is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It’s not beyond noticing the irony of the fact that some bands that are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will be opening the show for Styx. In my mind, that says something.”

Styx Albums Ranked

Come sail away as we rank Styx’s albums, from worst to best.

Gallery Credit: UCR Staff

Real-Life ‘Spinal Tap’ Stories: Styx

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

If you were to make a list of all the rock bands that influenced Oasis, musically or otherwise, it would get long.

Among them would undoubtedly be the Beatles, the Sex Pistols, the Kinks, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, etc. And as far as Noel Gallagher is concerned, there is nothing wrong with wearing your influences on your sleeve.

“When I’m making a record,” he explained to MusicRadar in 2024. “I’ve always been of the notion that if a song sounds like T. Rex, well, fuck it, let’s make it sound more like T. Rex! Do you know what I mean? I know there’s bands that might write something that sounds like the Smiths, and they’ll go, ‘Oh, it sounds like the Smiths, we’ve got to make it sound not like the Smiths.’ And I just go, ‘Fuck it — let’s make it sound like the Beatles. [Laughs] If I’m writing a song and I say to myself, ‘Oh, hey, it sounds like the Kinks,’ then I’m going to turn it into a Kinks track.”

This would also explain why Oasis sometimes paid flat out tribute to some of the aforementioned artists with covers. Below, we’re taking a look at 10 of the best, with two entries each dedicated to Noel and Liam Gallagher‘s solo catalogs.

1. “Heroes”
Artist: David Bowie

“Heroes” was the first song of David Bowie’s that Noel ever heard — he saw the music video for it on television in 1981, as he remembers it. “It totally fucking blew me away. I went down to my local second-hand record shop a couple of days later and got Best of Bowie and never looked back,” Noel said to Rolling Stone in 2016. “It must have been awful to have been one of his contemporaries in the late ’70s going into the ’80s, thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve done something really great here,’ and then every single Bowie put out would be f****** better than the last one.”

2. “To Be Someone (Didn’t We Have a Nice Time)”
Artist: The Jam

For a period in the late ’90s, Oasis would dedicate a portion of their set list for Noel to have his own solo acoustic section. Multiple times, he included a cover of the Jam’s “To Be Someone (Didn’t We Have a Nice Time)” from 1978’s All Mod Cons. Paul Weller was undoubtedly an influence on Oasis, but as years went on, Weller turned his own ear to them, as well as Noel’s solo work. “I’ve liked everything he’s done solo,” Weller told NME in 2018. “I don’t really need to talk about what a great songwriter he is, because everyone knows that. But, for me, he’s got better.”

3. “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
Artist: Neil Young

This may be surprising to some readers — it was to this writer, at least — but Oasis and Neil Young once shared a bill together back on Aug. 31, 1996 at a festival in Ontario, Canada. “He’s always been very respectful to Oasis,” Noel said to Mojo in 2011, “and to me when I’ve met him. I’ve seen him with Crazy Horse, with acoustic gigs, and he always comes from a place of truth. He’s invented a car that runs on f****** grass or something. The world can be split into two camps: people that like Neil Young and people that don’t. And the people that don’t are fucking idiots.”

Liam, for his part, sees common ground between his solo work and that of Young’s. “I stick to my formula and it works,” he told Billboard in 2019. “If people think that’s playing it safe, so be it. Neil Young’s been doing the same thing for f****** 40 years and no one seems to give him shit. I’m not comparing myself to Neil Young, but [to] people who don’t change the formula.”

4. “My Generation”
Artist: The Who

Liam and his band have supported the Who live on a few occasions over the years, and he’s a proper fan. According to a social media post of his from 2019, his favorite Who songs are “My Generation,” “Disguises” and “Armenia City in the Sky.” Pete Townshend, however, might be the only person on the planet who is “disappointed” that Oasis will reunite in 2025, but only “because I really like their solo albums” he said to The Standard in 2024. (Side Note: If you’re not following Liam on X yet, we highly recommend it. He’s a riot.)

5. “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”
Artist: Bob Dylan

“The Oasis Brothers, I like them both,” Bob Dylan said to The Wall Street Journal in 2022. That’s about as profound of a compliment you’ll likely get out of a man who rarely gives interviews or, frankly, compliments. Here we pause to focus on a few songs recorded by Noel and Liam post-Oasis split, starting with Noel and his High Flying Birds’ version of “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.” This is the 1971 version from Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume II, not the Basement Tapes version, which has different lyrics.

6. “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”
Artist: The Smiths

Noel is actually good friends with Johnny Marr, formerly of the Smiths — you’ll often spot the two of them sitting together at Manchester City soccer games — which must be something of a full circle moment for Noel, who soaked up the Smiths music as he was coming into his own as a musician. “I never invented anything like the Smiths, who were the most unique band ever to come out of England,” he said in a 2018 episode of Once in a Lifetime Sessions (via Far Out). “So I had an idea of what it should be like, but then when the songs came it was just unbelievable.”

7. “Natural Mystic”
Artist: Bob Marley and the Wailers

You might not think a reggae song by Bob Marley and the Wailers would sound all that good sung by a Britpop artist. And yet, Liam’s cover of “Natural Mystic” works. In 1998, both Gallagher brothers were asked by NME what song they would like to be played at their respective funerals. Noel chose “Going Underground” by the Jam,” Liam chose “Natural Mystic.”

8. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
Artist: The Rolling Stones

Liam appears to admire the Rolling Stones and also be grateful he is not them. In August of 2017, he brought up Mick Jagger specifically in an interview with GQ: “Fair play to ol’ dinosaur hips, but I’m not that man. I’m anti-entertainment. Poor sod, he’s got to dance until he’s 108.” Just a few months later, he had kinder words to share with NME: “The Stones, as much as the Beatles were great, the Stones were the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll band as far as I’m concerned. the Beatles were like wizards, where the Stones were the boys, man.”

9. “I Am the Walrus”
Artist: The Beatles

This simply wouldn’t be a list about Oasis without a few Beatles covers. It also would be fair to say that without the Beatles, there’s a real possibility Oasis might not have existed at all — their influence on the band was so strong that they sometimes are jokingly referred to as the world’s biggest Beatles cover band. As Liam once eloquently put it on social media, “the Beatles could shit in my hand bag I’d still hide my polo mints in there.”

10. “Help!”
Artist: The Beatles

According to Noel, he literally entered the world to the soundtrack of the Beatles. “Sgt. Pepper is special for me because I was born on May 29, and it came out on the 1 June,” he said to BBC News in 2007. “So when I was being born in Saint Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, it was being played on hospital radio.”

Feature Photo: Bruce Baker from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leach has opened up about leaving the band back in 2002.

Leach sang on the Massachusetts metalcore favourites’ first two albums before departing. He was replaced by Howard Jones, but returned to the band in 2012.

In the new issue of Metal Hammer, Leach describes the mental health crisis he went through while touring for the band’s 2002 breakthrough album Alive Or Just Breathing. He says feelings of social anxiety and depression began building up after the album’s release, eventually leading to suicidal thoughts.

The singer remembers, “The moment we got signed [to Roadrunner Records] and things started to happen, that’s when people wanted my autograph. People wanted to grab a picture with me and it was like, ‘What? That’s wild.’ It started to build social anxiety within me. I started to dread it.”

He continues, “Back then, I was a very insecure, social anxiety-ridden kid, who didn’t have a total handle on my art. I started to get depressed. My anxiety was crippling me. I would hide out before the show, play the set, hide out after, not be sociable, not have fun, and that just started wearing thin on me. I felt very alone, I was having a rough time with my voice and my mental health. I became pretty much suicidal. I had the wherewithal at least to bail and get out of there.”

Leach adds that the discourse around mental health in the metal scene was in a much different place in 2002 than it is today. He remembers posting about his wellbeing on Myspace and receiving several hate comments, but says he also started some discussion and support among fans.

“You kind of weave through all that [the hate comments], then you see the gems,” he continues, “the comments of someone who’s like, ‘I’m a firefighter… a big, tough guy… I’ve got issues. Thank you so much for speaking out.’ This empowers me to want to talk more about it and that narrative.”

Leach finishes by saying that he’s learned to live with his depression and anxiety, calling it his “muse”. “You learn how to live with it,” he explains. “You exercise certain techniques and thought patterns, and there’s so many things you can do to sort of live with mental disorders. If I’m going through a bout of depression, I can write some pretty intense stuff.”

Killswitch Engage will release This Consequence, their fourth album with Leach since his return, next month. The singer told Hammer last year that the follow-up to 2019’s Atonement contains lots of “righteous anger”.

“It sounds insane,” he said. “It sounds maybe different to how we’ve sounded before. The songs are really full of piss and vinegar. There’s a good handful of thrashy songs, there’s a lot of anger, but it’s righteous anger – it’s not down in the dumps and negative. There’s a lot of ferocity and frustration.”

The band will tour North America from March through to July to promote their newest release. See dates and details via the Killswitch Engage website.

Read the full interview with Leach in the new issue of Hammer. The magazine also features an interview with cover stars Spiritbox, getting the insider info on new album Tsunami Sea, as well as the story of Limp Bizkit’s surprise 2020s renaissance. Order your copy now and get it delivered directly to your door.