Cradle Of Filth‘s Dani Filth has condemned Spotify, and says he “owes it” to his fellow musicians to not have an account on the streaming platform.
In a new interview on Sonic Perspectives, the frontman explores the realities of living as an artist during a time where music is so readily and cheaply accessible in digital spaces.
He says (via Blabbermouth), “I owe it to my brethren in metal and music not to have a fucking Spotify account because they don’t pay people. It’s not just them — it’s just platforms in general.
“I appreciate the fact that people could discover you from another band and whatever; I’ve heard it a million times. But I’m old school… I want my bands to be paid because if they’re not paid, they’re not bands anymore.”
Noting the impact of streaming platforms on the livelihood of musicians, he continues: “I know so many people from big bands that since the pandemic have gone, ‘You know what? I’m taking a proper job. So you’ll see me less often. We’ll still be doing albums, but probably once every five years,’ because it just seems like daylight robbery.”
Filth then goes on to compare the act of streaming music to taking food illegally from shops, explaining: “If you owned a delicatessen or a fucking supermarket even, people aren’t allowed to just come in and help themselves to free produce, which is what people think they’re entitled to do with music because it’s a periphery thing and it’s in the air.
“You can’t physically touch music. But how do you expect bands to survive without that?”
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The frontman additionally shines a light on the film industry clamping down on online piracy, noting how he feels there’s less strict attitudes to consuming music without fully paying for it. “”Obviously, they really try [to combat piracy] with movies, and there’s more money involved in movies — obviously,” he says.
“But in England, we used to have these, not up to very recently, this whole advert they had before the movie starts where ‘video piracy is killing the movie industry’, and they even go to the point where they’d have this slamming prison doors, in IMAX quality sound, THX. ‘You’re going to prison if you watch a bootleg movie.’ But not the same for… I know back in the day [they had a message on the back of albums saying that] ‘home taping is killing music,’ but nowadays it’s like a fucking free for all.”
While in conversation with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece, he explained: “It’s been deteriorating ever since… I think 2006 was the year that everything swapped from being comfortable for musicians — well, not necessarily comfortable; it was never comfortable.
“But [it went to] just being a lot harder with the onset of the digital age, the onset of music streaming platforms that don’t pay anybody. Like Spotify are the biggest criminals in the world. I think we had 25, 26 million plays last year, and I think personally I got about 20 pounds, which is less than an hourly work rate.”
Watch the full interview with Sonic Perspectives below:
DANI FILTH Talks Songwriting, Creative Process & Inspiration For CRADLE OF FILTH New Album – YouTube
If you’re attending Black Sabbath’s star-studded Back To The Beginning show this summer, you may face dramatically increased prices for nearby hotel rooms.
According to local newspaper Birmingham Live, hotels near to where the pioneering metal band will play their swan song at Villa Park on July 5 are upping their rates by up to 725 percent.
The publication singles out the three-star Apollo Hotel on Hagley Road, a 15-minute drive from Villa Park, as an example. It reports that a ‘superior’ double room without breakfast on the night of the show will set you back £619 on Hotels.com. By comparison, the same hotel room – when booked via the same site for Saturday, June 28 – costs just £75.
Birmingham Live also points to a Travelodge on Broadway Plaza, 14 minutes from the gig, reporting that a room there which costs just £53.99 on June 28 will be £319.99 on July 5. Similarly, in Yardley, a 22-minute drive from Villa Park, a Travelodge room will cost £303.99 on July 5, compared to £47.99 if you were to stay the week before Back To The Beginning.
Jacked hotel prices are the latest in the series of difficulties fans eager to attend Back To The Beginning have faced. The BBC reports that, after tickets to the show went on general sale on February 14, the online queue to buy passes exceeded 60,000 people. (Villa Park has a seating capacity of just 42,000 people.) If they got through the queue, fans then faced ticket prices that ranged from £200 up into the thousands.
Back To The Beginning will mark the first time Black Sabbath’s founding lineup – singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward – have played together since 2005. It is also set to be the band’s final show, as well as the last time Osbourne performs onstage. The Prince Of Darkness retired from touring in 2023, due to the physical effects of numerous surgeries and Parkinson’s disease.
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It’s been six years since Killswitch Engage released Atonement, marking their longest gap between albums by far. The pandemic during that period appears to have been on vocalist Jesse Leach’s mind during the crafting of the band’s ninth album. He’s spoken about his consequent mental struggles, his initial rage and frustration turning to sadness and despair at the fractured state of the world. That journey can be heard throughout This Consequence. Jesse expresses feelings of loneliness and abandonment with furious anger, before calls for humanity to unite and heal come soaring in. His lyrics can often be cloaked in metaphor, but his passionate delivery always connects deeply, and here he’s sparked the strongest KSE album in well over a decade.
The opening Abandon Us is classic Killswitch – all metallic hardcore riffs, rhythms that will get you spin-kicking around your bedroom and some brilliantly bold, chest-beating vocals. But Jesse’s enraged, impassioned referencing of all he had being ‘turned to dust’ and being ‘left to bleed’ elevates the song and steals the show.
Jesse has rarely sounded as seething and fucked off as he does here. Even in the melodic sections, he sounds like his brain is about to combust, each syllable spat out with a ruthlessness you can’t help but be swept up by. The death metal vocals on Collusion make David Vincent sound like Sabrina Carpenter. Jesse Leach is on one, and it slaps.
Of course, this would mean little if the rest of the band didn’t match their vocalist. When KSE step up their trademark metalcore a notch, as on the grinding, thrashing opening of The Fall Of Us, it’s as heavy as they’ve ever sounded. If you were told Discordant Nation was Cannibal Corpse with Jesse guesting, you wouldn’t have blinked. There’s even a NOLA sludge and Alice in Chains mash- up, Broken Glass, which is suffocatingly heavy and achingly melodic.
While this is unquestionably the hardest, often darkest and most frenzied Killswitch album in some time, their belief in affirmation and self-betterment remains. Jesse continues to be a force for good in the metal scene, and has always preached strength through unity. His stirring call of ‘I believe, there is hope for better days’ on I Believe shows that a positive core and desire for solidarity remains a key part of his identity. After a couple of decent albums and a huge break before this one, you’d be forgiven for worrying that Killswitch Engage might enter into a period of diminishing returns. But This Consequence sees them roaring back to classic form, possibly even heavier, just as emotionally raw, and still the leaders of the metalcore pack. It’s a pleasure to have them back.
This Consequence is out this Friday, February 21 . Order our exclusive Killswitch Engage bundle featuring a limited edition t-shirt design via the official Metal Hammer store.
(Image credit: Future)
Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.
Feature Photo: Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Olivia Rodrigo’s rapid rise to superstardom has made her one of the defining voices of her generation. Born on February 20, 2003, in Murrieta, California, she was raised in Temecula, where she developed a passion for performing at a young age. Rodrigo first gained national recognition as an actress, starring in Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark from 2016 to 2019 before landing the lead role in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. While acting, she showcased her songwriting abilities, particularly with “All I Want,” a song from the show’s soundtrack that gained viral success and foreshadowed her transition into a full-fledged music career.
In 2021, Rodrigo made a stunning debut as a solo artist with SOUR, an album that redefined contemporary pop with its mix of heartbreak, angst, and raw emotion. Led by the record-breaking single “drivers license,” the album catapulted her to global fame, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 and producing multiple hit singles, including “deja vu” and “good 4 u.” The album earned widespread critical acclaim and established Rodrigo as both a powerful vocalist and a songwriter capable of capturing the complexities of young adulthood.
Rodrigo continued her success with her second album, GUTS, released in 2023. Featuring hit singles such as “vampire” and “bad idea right?,” the album showcased her growth as an artist, blending pop-punk influences with introspective lyrics. Like its predecessor, GUTS debuted at number one, cementing her position as one of the most influential young artists in music. Her ability to seamlessly mix vulnerability with biting wit has resonated deeply with fans and critics alike.
Throughout her short but impactful career, Rodrigo has already accumulated an impressive number of awards. She won three Grammy Awards in 2022, including Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album for SOUR. She has also received multiple MTV Video Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and American Music Awards. Her ability to achieve both commercial success and critical recognition at such an early stage in her career has placed her among the most promising talents of her generation.
Rodrigo’s appeal extends beyond her music; she has become a cultural icon for young audiences. Her willingness to be open about emotions, relationships, and the struggles of fame has made her relatable to millions of fans. Her music often draws comparisons to artists like Taylor Swift and Alanis Morissette, both of whom she cites as major influences. However, her unique voice and perspective have allowed her to carve out her own space in the industry.
Outside of music, Rodrigo has used her platform for activism and philanthropy. In 2021, she visited the White House to promote COVID-19 vaccinations among young people, demonstrating her commitment to social issues. She has also been vocal about mental health awareness and has encouraged discussions about self-expression and emotional well-being through her lyrics and public appearances.
(#-D)
1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back – Sour (2021) All-American Bitch – Guts (2023) All I Want – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Bad Idea Right? – Guts (2023) Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl – Guts (2023) The Best Part – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 2 (2021) Bizaardvark Theme Song – Bizaardvark (Music from the TV Series) (2016) Blobfish – Bizaardvark (Music from the TV Series) (2016) Bop to the Top – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Breaking Free (cover) – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Brutal – Sour (2021) Can’t Catch Me Now – The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Soundtrack (2023) The Comeback Song – Bizaardvark (Music from the TV Series) (2016) Deja Vu – Sour (2021) Drivers License – Sour (2021)
(E-H)
Enough for You – Sour (2021) Even When/The Best Part – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 2 (2021) Favorite Crime – Sour (2021) Get Him Back! – Guts (2023) Girl I’ve Always Been – Guts (Spilled) (2023) Good 4 U – Sour (2021) Granted – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 2 (2021) The Grudge – Guts (2023) Happier – Sour (2021) Hope Ur Ok – Sour (2021)
(I-L)
I Think I Kinda, You Know – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Jealousy, Jealousy – Sour (2021) Just for a Moment – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Lacy – Guts (2023) Logical – Guts (2023) Love Is Embarrassing – Guts (2023) Love the Haters – Bizaardvark (Music from the TV Series) (2016)
(M-Z)
Making the Bed – Guts (2023) Obsessed – Guts (Spilled) (2023) Out of the Old – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Pretty Isn’t Pretty – Guts (2023) River (cover) – High School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special: The Soundtrack (2020) The Rose Song – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 2 (2021) Scared of My Guitar – Guts (Spilled) (2023) So American – Guts (Spilled) (2024) Start of Something New – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Stranger – Guts (Spilled) (2023) Teenage Dream – Guts (2023) Traitor – Sour (2021) Vampire – Guts (2023) What I’ve Been Looking For – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Wondering – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) YAC Alma Mater – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 2 (2021) You Never Know – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 3 (2022)
Check out our fantastic and entertaining Olivia Rodrigo articles, detailing in-depth the band’s albums, songs, band members, and more…all on ClassicRockHistory.com
Brian Kachejian was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx. He is the founder and Editor in Chief of ClassicRockHistory.com. He has spent thirty years in the music business often working with many of the people who have appeared on this site. Brian Kachejian also holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Stony Brook University along with New York State Public School Education Certifications in Music and Social Studies. Brian Kachejian is also an active member of the New York Press.
“We jumped offstage and took our masks off and started swinging at people at the end of one song”: The wild story of Slipknot vs Mushroomhead, the masked band feud that lit up nu metal
(Image credit: Dean Karr/Press/Hayley Madden/Redferns)
It’s September 11, 1999, and Slipknot are on top of the world. Hot off a game-changing self-titled debut album, the masked nine-piece are in Cleveland, Ohio, taking part in the enormous Livin’ La Vida Loco tour. They’re there as part of a stacked bill headlined by Coal Chamber and also featuring Machine Head and Amen. It should have been another magnificent night of what had been a hugely successful trek.
Except it wasn’t. At a gig in Cleveland, Slipknot found themselves facing an unexpectedly aggressive audience.
“People came down and threw everything but rocks at us,” Slipknot singer Corey Taylor remembered of the set his band played that evening, discussing it years later at one of his solo concerts. “They hit Paul [Gray, bassist] in the face with a fucking padlock the size of my fist, while we were onstage!
“When we got done playing, we took all our shit off and went into the audience,” he continued. “There were a lot of them, but there was all nine of us, there was Machine Head and all our friends in Amen. Let’s just say, we fucking handled it right there.”
“Me and Jim [Root, guitarist] jumped offstage and took our masks off and started swinging at people at the end of one song,” Gray told Revolver. “When we were done with that set, everything came off. One of the guys in our crew got maced by the cops and arrested.”
The gig-turned-brawl was the Iowans’ first time in Cleveland: a city that happened to be the hometown of Mushroomhead, a band with whom Slipknot had more than a little in common. Both wore masks and boiler suits. Both even had a bassist that dressed up like a pig. Corey Taylor and co, however, were the newer of the two – and they were already bigger. Much bigger. And that was the problem.
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Mushroomhead released their first album in spring 1995, more than four years prior to The ‘Knot. Despite this though, the latter were an immediate breakthrough after June ‘99’s Slipknot, eclipsing the Ohio troupe in a minuscule span of time. In frustrated fans’ eyes, a very close imitation had not-so-subtly ripped off the genuine article and ridden their coattails for a quick buck, leading to the violent boiling point that was Cleveland in September 1999.
That one night was the height of the Slipknot versus Mushroomhead feud, which would go on to become one of the biggest talking points of the era. For years, loyalist fans would cling tightly to their respective favourites, while on-and-off mud-slinging consumed the rock ‘n’ roll press. Everyone else stood on the sidelines, wondering what they hell it was all about.
The stage for the rivalry was set in mid-1998, when Slipknot signed an extremely enviable seven-album deal with Roadrunner Records. A year beforehand, the label had been interested in signing Mushroomhead, but the band turned them down. “Roadrunner had a guy shopping us,” ex-frontman Jeff Hatrix said on a podcast in 2018. “And, at the time, we were making more at local shows than they were offering us in advance, and they wanted all of our merch… The money just didn’t make any sense.”
Hatrix had previously claimed outright that Slipknot were a homemade imitation of Mushroomhead. “They are Roadrunner-invented clones of us, and everybody knows it,” he said in 2007. Drummer Steve “Skinny” Felton was more aggressive towards the alleged rip-offs, when he ranted that Slipknot “traded a platinum record for dignity, honour and respect”: “Corey Taylor says, ‘You cannot kill what you did not create.’ Maybe so – but I guess you can sure as fuck sell what you stole.”
(Image credit: George De Sota (ID 5073478)/Redferns)
Local magazine Cleveland Scene reached out to Roadrunner’s A&R director to get their side of the allegations. “I honestly [couldn’t] care less about your article and I have nothing to say,” came the reply.
Although Slipknot’s 1999 Cleveland show was the only time the debacle came to physicality, the two bands would trade vicious verbal barbs through the 2000s. In the May 2002 issue of Rock Sound, Taylor accused Mushroomhead of encouraging their fans to violence on that night. He brutally added, “I’ll fucking go to fucking Cleveland and grab every fucking one of them by their stupid fucking masks and I will put a knee to their faces until they pass out from loss of blood!”
Hatrix later admitted that he was indeed involved in orchestrating the events in 1999. “I know all the people who did it and I did personally paint [their] ‘Cleveland Supports Mushroomhead’ and ‘Slipknot Go Home’ signs. But I wasn’t there and I didn’t know the complete extent of what they were going to do. But, hey, these guys are men, right? […] Welcome to Cleveland, bitches!” The singer also accused Slipknot and their touring crew of harassing his girlfriend for wearing a Mushroomhead t-shirt near the venue earlier that day.
Hatrix et al. aggravated things even further in 2005, going so far as to perform concerts in their home state that mocked Slipknot. The eight men (together with one of their touring crew) dressed as The Nine onstage, playing samples that repeated, “The whole thing, I think it’s stolen” – a parody of the words that open their debut album.
“People started chanting, ‘Fuck Slipknot!’,” one concertgoer told Blabbermouth. “Waylon [Reavis, vocalist] then screamed, ‘Come on, don’t be afraid to say it,’ which made everyone start the chant back up. The crowd was brutal and I loved it.”
By 2007, Mushroomhead were still continuing their crusade, slinging insults such as “straight-up frauds” and “the NSYNC of heavy metal”. However, they hadn’t been met with any further response from their rivals, who were becoming the mainstream face of a generation of rock music. Slipknot’s latest album, Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, had climbed to No.2 on the American charts, while Mushroomhead’s most recent release, 2006’s Savior Sorrow, had reached No.50.
By that point, Slipknot themselves were traying to take the more diplomatic route, refusing to add fuel to the fire. “I’m tired of it,” Taylor said in a 2005 radio interview. “We’ve tried everything that we could to squash this between ourselves and Mushroomhead. I’ve even come out and said I wish them nothing but luck. I don’t care. It’s not that big a deal to me.”
The decade-plus-long tensions seemed to have finally come to an end by 2010, as Mushroomhead, both publicly and privately, sent their condolences to Slipknot after the tragic death of Paul Gray. Since then, Taylor has expressed interest in performing alongside his band’s former nemeses, wanting to curate a tour that will see the duo share stages with fellow masked rockers Mudvayne and Gwar.
Speaking to Metal Hammer in 2023, Mushroomhead’s Steve ‘Skinny’ Felton could look back at with a sense of perspective. “A bit of it over time has been inflated,” he told us. “I wasn’t there personally and I’ve heard 20 different versions over the years. And let’s not forget that it was popular in that era to have beefs in bands and stack people against each other. It was huge with the West Coast and East Coast rappers. The media fuelled it and fans bought into it.”
Asked if Slipknot stole his band’s thunder by signing with Roadrunner after Mushroomhead didn’t, Skinny was equally measured. “No, because there were lots of people signing lots of bands in the day. It wasn’t like we got the exact same offer by the same guy who signed Slipknot. And I have a lot of compassion for them, because they’ve put up with a lot of bullshit just to make music and art, and they’ve lost good people. I commend them for everything they do and it just goes to show that I wasn’t that far off many years ago that this type of thing was going to be bigger than we even knew. I wasn’t wrong. It just wasn’t my band.”
More than 20 years after it all kicked off in Cleveland, the sustained Slipknot/Mushroomhead rivalry remains one of the 90’s most talked-about discords. It was the Metallica versus Megadeth of the nu metal era, escalated by fistfights, arrests and the internet. Today, both bands try to dismiss their past skirmishes as fan- and media-driven, each trying to downplay their own involvement in what was the most over-the-top feud in nu metal.
Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.
David Gilmour will never escape questions about whether Pink Floyd would ever reunite, despite a mass of evidence to the contrary. When Classic Rock met up with him at his home 2002, eight years after Floyd’s then-final studio album The Division Bell and three before the band’s brief reunion at Live 8 , he was focussed on going it alone and finally laying his old band to rest.
The image of David Gilmour as calm, focused and unflappable goes back over a quarter of a century. Whether standing amid the cacophonous sensory overload of a Pink Floyd spectacular or alone in the lush acoustic intimacy of the Royal Festival Hall, he has always maintained the same dedicated, unhurried, workmanlike demeanor.
Like the recommended plumber who comes round to unblock your U-bend (oo-er, missus), he will take as long as it takes but you will be satisfied with the result. As opposed to the bloke you found in the Yellow Pages who turns up in a flash shirt and pressed jeans, ear glued to his mobile, acting like he’s doing you a big favour, leaving the job half done and you to clean up the wet patch.
At 2001’s solo concerts at London’s Meltdown Festival, he seems like the most unruffled person in the Royal Festival Hall. He’s certainly calmer than the audience, many of whom are unable to suppress squeals of excitement at the merest hint of a recognisable riff.
But beneath that placid exterior there were other forces at work. “I can show you places where the nerves are there,” says David. “At the beginning of Shine On You Crazy Diamond there’s a close-up of me doing a vibrato on the acoustic guitar which is more than I’d ever intended. That was due to trembling. It wasn’t as under control as one would like it to be.”
We’re sitting in David’s studio upstairs in the barn overlooking his house, deep in the rockbroker belt that lies between London and the South coast. It’s a sunny September afternoon and small children occasionally dash between the house and some tents on the back lawn. His wife Polly pushes a pram around the garden, lulling their week-old daughter to sleep.
There’s no sign of celebrity life-style to titillate the tabloids. Even the studio denotes “musician at work” rather than “rock star in residence”. At one end there’s a mixing console with associated screens, computers and keyboards. Bits of masking tape mark out exactly where David is supposed to sit while he’s remixing Pink Floyd’s Pulse live DVD for 5.1 surround sound.
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The rest of the room is a comfortable clutter of sofas, tables and bits of equipment with a sink in the corner and two piles of vinyl albums awaiting sorting. Next to one of the sofas is a stand with eight or nine guitars, many of which would be instantly familiar to anyone who has followed David’s career. Among them is his first guitar, a Spanish acoustic from the early 60s.
David Gilmour (second left) with Pink Floyd in 1973 (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
On one of the tables is a long black instrument case containing a bass harmonica, purchased after seeing Brian Wilson in concert at this year’s Meltdown Festival. The noise it makes comes straight off a backing track for God Only Knows. “I’ll put that on something one of these days,” muses David. “It needs a special role, though.”
This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock issue 48 (December 2002) (Image credit: Future)
It was in this studio that David came to “panic” after he’d accepted an invitation to perform at the June 2001 Meltdown during a phone call from Robert Wyatt who was putting it together. “I came in here and I tried out a lot of songs from the Pink Floyd catalogue first,” he explains. “Really, it was to give myself a safety net. I had a string sampler and I tried them out with the kind of instrumentation I’d already decided I wanted to use, just to see if they worked.”
He’d decided on a band of cello, double bass, brass section and “gospelly” choir even before he’d put the phone down to Wyatt. An unusual choice but one that immediately distanced him from Pink Floyd. “I love orchestras and I particularly love the cello. And the sound of a gospelly choir is something that’s always appealed to me. I chickened out of getting a real gospel choir. Having a number of singers like Sam Brown, who I knew well and have used many times before, made me feel better. Because I was quite nervous about the whole thing.”
It wasn’t that David hadn’t played solo before – there have been notable appearances with Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Tom Jones, Dream Academy and even Spinal Tap as well as solo spots at various benefit shows. Not to mention a solo tour back in ’84.
“That was pretty much done with the same sort of rock band, just on a smaller scale,” he says. “This was looking forward, trying to find a way of exploring something different. Not necessarily forever. When I do it again it will undoubtedly change, though I’ve no idea what to. But it’s nice to be freed from any strictures, which admittedly are self-imposed.”
He tackled those strictures head on, starting the Meltdown shows – just like Pink Floyd invariably did on their last tour – with Shine On You Crazy Diamond. “There was a moment of thinking, ‘Shall I attempt an acoustic guitar version of the long, synthesised opening?’ It came to me one day how I could do it and it worked out not too badly.” The solution, involving delay units, pedals and “plenty of regeneration”, made for a novel variation on the epic introduction.
For Comfortably Numb he says he went back to the original demo to remind himself of the acoustic original. That’ll be demo he once played on a Capital Radio show then – a couple of minutes of strumming around the wordless melody that, tantalisingly, never reaches the final chord.
“I never get to the ‘I have become comfortably numb’ bit because Roger Waters said he wanted to put that line in as a lyric and I had to write the extra bit there and then.” He reaches over and takes an acoustic guitar from the stand and starts picking at the same chord structure. “This is the guitar I wrote it on. It’s still strung the same way.”
He also enjoyed revisiting Fat Old Sun which hadn’t been aired since the Atom Heart Mother tour over 30 years ago. Several friends requested it and David was happy to oblige. “I really like it. Even I forget that I ever wrote lyrics! I wasn’t allowed to put it on Echoes (last year’s Pink Floyd compilation), I was out-voted.”
Having strung up his “safety net”, which also included songs from the recent, Roger-less Pink Floyd, he could get more adventurous when it came to picking covers. Undoubtedly the bravest was Je Crois Entendre Encore from Bizet’s opera The Pearl Fishers which must have required a considerable leap of faith to carry off. “It certainly did. I remember my wife Polly’s face going red when I tried singing it and my face literally going into a cold sweat – ‘Do I dare try this?’ But once the choir came up here and ran through it with me, that gave me a huge amount of confidence.” Nevertheless, he remembers feeling “very, very exposed” when it came to singing it in public.
The trick, apparently, is to get inside the song. “You need to inhabit the song to do it justice”. And the same applies to the two Syd Barrett songs he covered. “I think I did Terrapin pretty much as the record, as much as I reasonably could. Dominoes I did change around a little. I gave it a slightly jazzier feel.”
Was he also trying to make them more accessible, maybe, for those who find Syd’s deranged delivery a little hard to take? “Like an easy listening version, you mean?” Well, not exactly, but… “No, that’s fine. That’s fine. Many of his songs are just… too personal to Syd. Or too… incomprehensible in some ways. With some of them it’s hard to feel confident about inhabiting the song. I’m pretty sure I know where Terrapin is coming from. It’s that underwater vibe. Although it is slightly off the wall lyrically.”
As Syd’s fans are well aware, there are two songs he recorded with Pink Floyd for an aborted single in 1967 that have never been issued. And while anyone who’s interested can find Vegetable Man and Scream Thy Last Scream on bootlegs, it remains something of an anomaly that they’ve never been released, particularly as they are infinitely better than any of the extraneous bits and bobs that showed up on the ‘Barratt’ box set a few years back.
David Gilmour onstage at London’s Wembley Arena in 2004 (Image credit: Jo Hale/Getty Images)
“Vegetable Man is good,” confirms David, “and Scream Thy Last Scream has lead vocals by Nick Mason. We did actually perform that one a few times in my very early years with Pink Floyd. I don’t know if they were ever finally mixed or anything to be honest. And that whole era is before I joined so I don’t really know the history of what happened with those songs. I think it has been mooted that they be put out but I think some people are a little unwilling to put them out,” he adds with a hint of evasion. “I’d be perfectly happy for them to be dug out and preferably remixed and put out.”
I suggest that the spirit of Syd still seems to haunt them all. There are references to him in every show that Pink Floyd, David or Roger perform. “Yes, that’s true. It’s hard to get away from. One could get away from it if one wanted to but… it doesn’t obsess me either way. I’m happy. I mean, Syd was the reason for the band’s existence. They wouldn’t have started without Syd. And his descent into his own private hell is very well documented on WishYou Were Here with some music that I’m very proud to have been a part of.”
While WishYou Were Here is probably most Pink Floyd fans’ favourite album, in terms of sales and record-breaking statistics it remains eclipsed by its predecessor, Dark Side Of The Moon. But David is with the fans on this one.
“I had some criticisms of Dark Side Of The Moon. It’s kind of ludicrous in a way to have criticisms of an album that was so successful but I did voice them at the time. I thought that one or two of the vehicles carrying the ideas were not as strong as the ideas that they carried. I thought we should try and work harder on marrying the idea and the vehicle that carried it, so that they both had an equal magic, or whatever, to them. So it’s something I was personally pushing when we made Wish You Were Here. It’s underrated by some, but not by me. I think it’s our most complete album.”
Roger said recently that Wish You Were Here was mourning the loss of the group as a band of brothers as much as it was mourning the loss of Syd. Does David go along with that? “Maybe in mourning the band, not as a band of brothers I don’t think, but more in terms of a band of seekers if you like. We were people dedicated to hunting down and playing something with some meaning and soul.
“The period after Dark Side Of the Moon when we made Wish You Were Here was a strange time. We had achieved everything really that one could hope to achieve. There was a bit of a distance between us all at that point, and Roger wasn’t the only one who noticed this sense of absence.
“But that sense of absence is part of the album’s magic. It helped create it. I don’t know quite how it did. I can’t regret that period at all. I don’t think it’s necessary for that absence, that feeling of post-euphoria… I don’t see it as something permanent. You maybe suffer a little dip in some ways. But little dips in life can inspire great things. It is odd to try and work out how something as good as that album came out of this rather blank feeling that we had.”
David Gilmour – Fat Old Sun (In Concert) – YouTube
Almost as odd as trying to work out why Syd, who none of the band had seen in over four years, should suddenly show up in the control room one day while they were mixing the album. It overwhelmed them at the time and, to judge from their comments in a TV documentary on Syd earlier this year, it overwhelms them still. David said he didn’t recognise the man with the “shaved, bald head, very plump”.
“It was a strange thing. It was a strange thing to happen,” he says. Did you acknowledge him? Did he acknowledge you? “Eventually. Eventually we said hello. When we realised. It did take a little time before we cottoned on to what was going on.”
Did he ask about the album, you were working on? “I don’t think so.” Do you know why he was there? “No. He obviously knew the studio well. He’d done most of his recording there, including his solo albums. I mean, I’ve no idea why. We’d spent months in there so maybe it was pure coincidence.”
Have you seen him since? “No.” But he’s OK. “So they tell me, yes. He’s got relatives around him and I don’t think he wants for anything in particular. I’d like to go and see him one of these days.” Isn’t there a risk that he might become disturbed if he’s confronted by his past? “I don’t know whether that’s still the case. That was something I discussed with his sister 20 years ago. I think he’s more settled and happy in his skin these days.”
As is David. So much so he’s planning a solo album. “I’m hoping to make an album next year. I haven’t got very far with it as yet. Time seems to be flying by.” Well, you’ve got one song for it – Smile – the only new song that was played at the Meltdown shows.
“Yes, indeed. It’s a start,” he chuckles while walking across to the studio and tapping at the keyboard. Seconds later the demo of Smile is playing. It has the same simplicity as the live version but it has a clearer direction about it and sounds more realised. Just about ready in fact. David nods in agreement. “It didn’t quite come out the way I wanted it to in concert.”
Do you have any other songs for the album? “I’ve got plenty of bits of music that I need to do a lot of work on,” he replies. For lyrics he need look no further than Polly, who contributed several to The Division Bell as well as Smile. “Strangely enough, as valuable as she is in the lyrical sense which, as a writer is her forte, she’s very strong with musical production ideas too. She had a lot of little ideas on The Division Bell which were not properly credited.”
David Gilmour with his wife Polly Samson in 2002 (Image credit: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Are you hearing much new music that interests you these days? “Well, radio is my ear for what’s going on in the outside world. Of course down here we can barely get Virgin Radio, let alone any of the other good stations that you can get in London, like Xfm which I rather enjoy.
“I found the Streets’ Let’s Push Things Forward grew on me when I was in town recently. It’s forward looking and anarchic. It has its own anti-big company ethos which I like. And it has strange little quirks of timing that I find very hard to use. Perhaps it will influence me in the future, I don’t know. But it’s nice to hear something that works which is outside your usual frame of reference.”
Which leaves us with the diminishing prospects of seeing Pink Floyd in concert again. David has already stated that he has no desire “to hit the stadiums again” although he hasn’t yet closed the stable (or stadium) door.
“Well, I don’t like to say that I’ll never do something again, but I suspect that I’ve done that. One never knows if one’s tired old ego might creep up on you and persuade you to give it another go. I mean, I’m at liberty to play with Rick and Nick any time. But the weight of the whole Pink Floyd thing is something I don’t feel like lifting these days.”
“And I wouldn’t feel happy doing it without a new record. Going out and cashing in, playing all the old songs again, isn’t really what I’m into, or ever have been. Touring would have to be on the back of another Pink Floyd record and I don’t feel in the mood to compromise in that way right now. I think I’ll stick to my own label for the time being. I just think I’ve grown out of it. Finally. Probably…”
Riding back to the station in David’s classic car – I forgot to ask, but 50s or 60s to judge by the amount of chrome and the leather seats – I ask whether Nick Mason had told him he was going to be making an appearance at Roger Waters’s recent London shows. He says not and, like the whole Syd thing, he’s not obsessed either way.
As we pull up at the station there are some glances, mainly at the car which is one gleam ahead of the rest, and a couple at the driver. I suggest that he gets more recognition now than he did at the height of Pink Floyd’s fame when they were famously anonymous. “That’s true.” And you don’t mind? “I don’t care very much. The sort of recognition I get these days wandering around London or around here… they don’t really care very much. There’s no pestering.” He couldn’t have planned it better.
Originally published in Classic Rock issue 48. December 2002
(Image credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for RFF/Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)
If you are a game-changing artist, then you have to accept that there will be a wave of acts who follow in your wake that, to put it one way, will be influenced by you or, to put it another, completely rip you off. That is the way it goes, a tale as old as time.
Take a band like Radiohead, who reinvented rock in emotive new hues in the mid-90s and then had to watch as a load of bands watched what they did and copied it. Their combo of moving, poignant falsetto vocals, acoustic guitars and gently soaring ballads was only a part of the sound that made up their masterpiece second record The Bends, but it became a very appealing one.
Asked in the early 00s what he thought about inspiring such a number of bands, with the interviewer namechecking Coldplay and Travis, frontman Thom Yorke was quite sanguine. “They haven’t got to OK Computer yet, poor chaps,” he began. “They’re still stuck with The Bends, aren’t they? If The Bends had sold as many copies as a Travis record I’d be alright about it. But I don’t get too stressed about it because when we were touring with R.E.M., I watched Michael Stipe all the time and he was such a massive influence on me, I couldn’t help trying to imitate him, which is maybe a mind-boggling concept so everybody imitates everybody and everybody steals. It’s simply a question of how blatant you are about it and how comfortable you feel with it.”
But then Yorke remembered Muse and he became, um, not so sanguine. “There’s one band called Muse,” he said. “I draw the line at Muse because they openly slag us off as well as openly ripping us off. That’s like, How fucking dare you.”
It should be pointed out that Muse sound nothing like Radiohead anymore. Radiohead have never titled a song We Are Fucking Fucked, for example, although maybe they considered it when they realised they were pretty much responsible for Athlete. But there was a very strong taste of Radiohead in Muse’s early output, particularly in Matt Bellamy’s anguished vocal delivery. And Thom was not happy about it.
“There’s one thing to imitate and then to slag off the person you’re imitating, well, go down in a ball of flames, you deserve it,” he raged. “That’s just not cool, that’s incredibly bad karma.”
He brought up the Teignmouth rockers again almost two decades later. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Yorke used the band as an example as to why he doesn’t trust the algorithms on streaming platforms. “No,” he said flatly. ‘If you like this, you’ll like this’, and then it gives me… Muse.”
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Thom isn’t the only member of Radiohead who was a little miffed at the copycats, either. Mild-mannered bassist Colin Greenwood let ‘em have it. “I’m not interested at all in a band like Muse,” he said. “We are trying to get away from that sound and do another thing… In England the situation is despairing. When a band like Travis are considered refreshing, what can I say? There friends of mine, I like them, but I’d never play their album. And Nigel Godrich has produced it! They use Fake Plastic Trees as a blueprint for their own music. It’s all so conservative.”
Sorry Colin, did you say they are friends of yours? Imagine what he says about his enemies! In the years since, Yorke has widened the net. Comically, in an interview with Rolling Stone a few years ago producer Godrich said that the Radiohead frontman considered anyone singing softly with an acoustic guitar to be Radiohead imitators. “Something would come on the radio and he’d look at me funny and I’d be like, ‘What are you so upset about?’,” he recalled. “He’d be huffing and puffing like someone copied him. I’d say, ‘It’s a guitar with some drums behind it, you didn’t invent that, you were copying someone else, relax!’. I think it’s a by-product of being so focused on what he wanted to do that he figures he’s the only person that’s ever that idea.”
It’s an insight, perhaps, into how Yorke works, a restless creative who never repeats himself, who always forges forward and who really, really doesn’t like Muse. For their part in this long-running and unexpected beef between pasty alt-rock titans, Muse explained that they met Thom Yorke once and he was mean to them.
“I respect them musically,” said drummer Dom Howard, “but the last time I met him we almost started a fight. He treated me badly, looking down on me.”
Maybe they could do a charity boxing match? It could be called KO Computer. More news as we get it.
Niall Doherty is a writer and editor whose work can be found in Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Week, FourFourTwo, on Apple Music and more. Formerly the Deputy Editor of Q magazine, he co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former Q colleagues Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. He is also Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Over the years, he’s interviewed some of the world’s biggest stars, including Elton John, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant and more. Radiohead was only for eight minutes but he still counts it.
Happy Valentine’s! Granted, cuddly teddy bears and love hearts don’t seem metal on the surface of it, but if you know that Saint Valentine was actually martyred and had his head lopped off, and given metal’s penchant for doomed romance (Type O Negative, Black Sabbath, HIM… take your pick!) we’d say there’s still plenty of reasons to celebrate today. Not least of which is a fresh batch of new songs for your listening pleasure.
But first, the results of last week’s vote! There were some heavy hitters and oddities out in force, but it was established bands all round who took podium places in the end. Rivers Of Nihil’s sax-laden House Of Light took an admirable third place, while Arch Enemy gleefuly dived into 80s grandstanding with Paper Tiger. The overall champions however were Spiritbox, that band’s ascent looking unstoppable as they rack up Grammy nominations and pack out arenas like Alexandra Palace.
We’ve got another stacked line-up for you this week with new singles from Lacuna Coil, Lordi and Sicksense, as well as a re-recorded Ozzy Osbourne feature that adds an extra layer of poignance to the Prince Of Darkness’s impending retirement. As ever, don’t forget to cast your vote in the poll below – and have a fantastic weekend!
Billy Morrison ft. Ozzy Osbourne, Steve Stevens – Gods Of Rock N Roll
It’s no surprise that Ozzy’s dominated the headlines again this week as tickets went on sale for his Back To The Beginning farewell performance. But if there’s a bittersweetness to the thought of the Prince Of Darkness hanging up his spurs for the final time, it’s tempered by a reminder of the excellent music he’s given us over the past 50+ years as best mate Billy Morrison released a re-recording of his 2015 Ozzy team-up Gods Of Rock N Roll. With an added symphonic swells, it’s an extra poignant reminder that there’s more to Ozzy than just Sabbath or even Crazy Train, his ballads among the best in heavy metal history.
Billy Morrison, Ozzy Osbourne – Gods of Rock N Roll (Official) ft. Steve Stevens – YouTube
How’s that for a Valentine’s sentiment? Lacuna Coil might’ve started out in the realms of goth metal, but they’ve steadily expanded their sound over the past 20+ years to incorporate other subgenres and styles. While they’ve generally gotten heavier over the past couple of albums – and the freshly released Sleepless Empirecertainly doesn’t break that trend – latest single I Wish You Were Dead is instead a straight-ahead club metal banger, the song’s massive hook delivered with gusto by a band who’re no strangers to singalongs.
Lacuna Coil – I WISH YOU WERE D3AD (Official Music Video) – YouTube
Almost 20 years since they won Eurovision and inspired countless oteher metal bands to participate in the competition, Lordi remain largely unchanged. They might dress like GWAR’s more moderate cousins, but their sound is rooted in pure 80s heavy metal/hard rock cheese, like a collision between King Diamond and Toto. Hellizabeth delivers on that promise with an oh-so-brilliant chorus and some glorious guitar solos that’ll have you pining for the days hairspray and latex.
LORDI – Hellizabeth (Official Music Video) – YouTube
Oakland’s Dawn Of Ouroboros have always struck a balance between explosive black metal and serene melody, but with producer Lewis Johns (Rolo Tomassi, Conjurer, Svalbard) twiddling the dials for their upcoming third album Bioluminescence – out March 7 – those elements seem more vivid and stark than ever before. Previous single Bioluminescence perfectly illustrated the dynamics at play, but with new song Slipping Burgandy add more of a grandiose sense of intrigue, only to bring everything crashing back down with a colossal breakout in the song’s latter half. It’s a thrilling spectacle, and has us excited for the album.
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Sicksense – In This Carousel
Sicksense might be the nu metal flex for former Agonist vocalist Vicky Psarakis, but on latest single there’s an air of Jinjer-like cosmic prog metal. From the shimmering opening guitars to Vicky’s vocals which swing from smooth, lilting melodies to harsh, guttural screams, Sicksense capture the mood perfectly whilst infusing their own nu metal inspirations into the mix to create something completely immersive and brilliant. Keep your eyes out for their debut Cross Me Twice on March 28.
Sicksense – In This Carousel (Official Video) – YouTube
The pseudonym used by Haken guitarist Charlie Griffiths’ solo output, Tiktaalika’s latest single bridges epic, old school metal with a sense of extremity and prog weirdness for a delicious, super weird gumbo. Titled Lost Continent, the track features fellow modern prog metal champion Tommy Rogers of Between The Buried And Me, the pair joining forces to create a sumptuous buffet of riffs. Think Voivod by way of Urne and you’ve got a good sense of the expansive scope the song has.
Tiktaalika ‘Lost Continent’ (feat Thomas Giles Rogers) – YouTube
Metalcore has long been treated as the new kid on the block so far as metal subgenres goes (despite being popular for over 20 years by this point), but its reputation for bringing fresh-faced new talent to the metal scene still stands. It doesn’t come much more fresh-faced than Storm, however; the 16-year old Norwegian artist has been making waves online and latest single Walking Dead offers a decidedly contemporary spin on the style with modern pop elements mixed in amidst the snarls, howls and breakdowns inherent to the genre.
Battlesnake – The Fathers Of Iron Flesh
Like riffs? Miss when metal bands were madder than a box of frogs? Battlesnake have you covered if so, the colourful Aussies making their return this week with The Fathers Of Iron Flesh, a strutting retro-rock sounding track that soon gives way to jolting breakouts (think Blood And Thunder by Mastodon). With the band returning to the UK this summer – for headline shows as well as festival appearances – it’s a good time to familiarise yourselves with their quirky brand of old school rock’n’roll.
Imperial Triumphant – Pleasuredome (ft. Dave Lombardo & Tomas Haake)
Trust New York’s avant-garde extreme metal masters Imperial Triumphant to come up with something utterly mind boggling. Latest single Pleasuredome starts out with lurking meance, only to burst out into what can only be described as a jazz take on the blastbeat that again transforms later into a tribal samba breakout. Thankfully they’ve got some serious talent behind the kit to help land the utter mania in the form of thrash legend Dave Lombardo, while Meshuggah’s own sticksman Tomas Haake pops up… to do a spoken word bit. Yeah, fucking mad.
IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT – Pleasuredome (feat. Dave Lombardo & Tomas Haake) (OFFICIAL VIDEO) – YouTube
Tetrarch got the jump on almost everyone in the nu metal revival by becoming the movement’s first rising stars, so seeing them gearing up for a third album is exciting stuff. The Ugly Side Of Me is set for a May 9 release and latest single Never Again (Parasite) hones in on the band’s ear for hooky earworms, a song which bridges the likes of Korn and Linkin Park whilst offering its own sonic imprint. This feels like a future metal club banger.
TETRARCH – Never Again (Parasite) (Official Video) | Napalm Records – YouTube
Bouncy, infectious and buzzing with elecro punk intensity, BEX is a rising star of the nu gen. Latest single Crybaby captures the scene’s genre-hopping tendencies with a wild-eyed magpie sensibility that sees the British artist mix pounding alt. rock riffs, pop choruses and lurching low-end that wouldn’t feel amiss in 90s nu metal. The fact the track features songwriting credits by Sam Matlock of Wargasm only adds to the sense that BEX is clearly tapped in to this vibrant new wave.
Iron Form – Becoming The Blade
Metalcore newcomers Iron Form announce themselves with the emotive, thumping Becoming The Blade. Drawing heavily on post-hardcore, there’s more than a hint of Svalbard’s own ultra-emotional blasts of bracing noise to the single, which is hardly surprising given bandmemeber Alex Heffernan played with the group from 2019 to 2020. Taken from the band’s debut EP Cut From Cold Blood, due March 21, it’s another sign that British metal is in fine health.
Iron Form – Become The Blade [Official visualiser] – YouTube
Hayley Williams joined Finneas last night (February 13) for a performance of the Paramore classic crushcrushcrush.
The collab took place at the Billie Eilish songwriter’s show in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium in support of his 2024 album For Cryin’ Out Loud!.
Towards the end of the set, the Paramore frontwoman appears on stage to perform the song, and sings alongside Finneas’ guitar playing, marking her first play through of the track in seven years.
“Thank you so much for really changing my life with your music,” Finneas says to Williams prior to the performance. “Your band is so f***ing sick … I’m so lucky to know you as a person and luckier to just be in the presence of your talent.”
In response, Williams says: “Thank you, thanks. Wow, what an honour. You guys are such a cool crowd, too.”
While introducing the track – which was lifted from Paramore’s 2007 album Riot! – Finneas declares, “I thought it’d be fun if we did crushcrushcrush. That sound okay to you?”.
The surprise collab follows Williams and Finneas’ recent performances at the G*ve a F*ck LA benefit concert on February 5 at the Hollywood Palladium, which was held to benefit victims of the Californian wildfires.
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At the event, the Paramore singer performed an acoustic set alongside Failure frontman Ken Andrews, and played covers of Failure’s Daylight and Björk‘s All Is Full of Love.
Finneas performed two originals, his album title track For Cryin’ Out Loud! and Only A Lifetime.
Watch the performance below:
NO WHAT DO YOU MEAN FINNEAS BROUGHT OUT HAYLEY WILLIAMS AND THEY PERFORMED CRUSHCRUSHCRUSH. pic.twitter.com/gWqltXjl3IFebruary 14, 2025
“Ozzy called me a rock-and-roll icon, and I was like, Whoa!” Having helped honour Ozzy Osbourne at last year’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony, Billy Idol admits he’s “knocked out” to be among the nominees for induction this year
(Image credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
Earlier this week it was announced that Billy Idol, alongside Oasis, Soundgarden, The White Stripes and more, is on the longlist of nominees for induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame this year. And it’s fair to say that the British punk veteran is pretty chuffed by the news.
In a new interview with Vulture, Idol (born William Broad) admits that he’s “knocked out” to be among the nominees, and all the more excited because he got to witness the pomp and circumstance of the occasion for himself last year, when he was one of the musicians paying tribute to Ozzy Osbourne following the Prince of Darkness’ induction into the Rock Hall as a solo artist.
“My eyes were opened,” he admits. “It’s a bigger deal than I thought”
At the 2024 ceremony, Idol sang Ozzy’s 1991 single No More Tears, the title track of the sixth solo album from the Black Sabbath frontman. Idol was backed on the night by an all-star band which included Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, Ozzy’s producer Andrew Watt, Adam Wakeman, and guitarists Wolfgang Van Halen, Steve Stevens and Zakk Wylde.
“Ozzy called me a rock-and-roll icon, and I was like, Whoa!”, Idol tells Vulture‘s Devon Ivie, reminiscing about the evening. “That’s exciting coming from him. One of the first gigs I saw was Black Sabbath. It was one month before their first album came out, and I was 12 or 13. Ozzy’s tassels were touching me at the front of the stage. So it was fantastic getting to honor him and induct him in with that performance. I enjoyed that big time.”
As to the possibility of being inducted in his own right this year, Idol tells Ivie that he would consider it “incredible”.
“A lot of people I really like or have been influenced by – John Lennon, David Bowie, Link Wray – are in there,” he notes. When I realized the extent of who’s in there whom I love, the idea that I could end up alongside them is an incredible honor.”
Artists become eligible for nomination into the Cleveland, Ohio-based Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame 25 years after the release of their first commercial recording.
Also on the 2025 longlist are Bad Company, The Black Crowes, Joy Division/New Order, Joe Cocker, Mariah Carey, OutKast, Cindy Lauper, Chubby Checker, Mexican pop-rock band Maná and Phish.
Fans are now invited to cast their votes for the acts they deem most worthy of inclusion, with the shortlist of nominees to be revealed in April.
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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.
![Iron Form - Become The Blade [Official visualiser] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-rmhw1dsNSI/maxresdefault.jpg)
