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The Latest Breaking News from Classic Rock

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Chris Rea dead at 74

Chris Rea has passed away after a series of health battles

Louder

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

Goodbye sci-fi epics, hello surprise hit singles

Louder

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

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

Louder

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

The full Top 50 is now online

Louder

The ultimate review of 2025: The best albums, the biggest events, and the megastars who rocked our world - only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in our unmissable end-of-year issue: The Darkness, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Cheap Trick, Jethro Tull, Alice Cooper,Ozzy Osbourne & Black Sabbath, Guns N’ Roses and more

Louder

Soul guitar legend and Blues Brother Steve Cropper dead at 84

Cropper was co-founder of Stax's legendary house band Booker T. & the M.G.'s

Louder

"It sounded as though someone was being murdered. The police were called out for the first time in five years": Chaos in the Caribbean and the story of UFO's No Place To Run

Just as UFO seemed poised to take the next step up, their ace-card guitarist Michael Schenker quit. Sotook off to the Caribbean and recorded No Place To Run without him

Louder

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Watch extremely rare video of Black Sabbath performing with former Fleetwood Mac singer Dave Walker in 1978, during the time Ozzy Osbourne left the band for just a few months

Ozzy stepped away from Sabbath in late ’77, only to rejoin the following year. This recording of War Pigs and Junior’s Eyes is the only video of the band playing with their temporary replacement.

Metal Hammer

“I hit the drum maybe five times. That was it. Concorde flights, 14 days in a 5-star hotel. The most expensive bit of drumming in history”: When stars of Duran Duran and Chic formed a decadent ’80s supergroup to rock out like Led Zeppelin

“I had to be, like, strapped to the desk if I was gonna get a bass line finished," John Taylor said

MusicRadar

“It was about the second coming of Jesus, except he’s in a spaceship”: Sammy Hagar on aliens, Jesus and the 70s sci-fi prog album he started then abandoned

The unlikely story of Sammy Wilde And Dustcloud

Louder

"When I left the band, I should have stayed left": Francis Rossi has some regrets about Status Quo's 1985 reunion

Francis Rossi's new album The Accidental finds him in complete creative control, and he likes it

Louder

“I said, ‘Before we start, you know that if I audition I’ll get the gig. But be warned – I’m gonna be a pain in the arse!’”: Bruce Dickinson recalls his audition for Iron Maiden – and his crazy times with his previous band

MusicRadar

“Journey wanted to make a musical change. Next thing I know I’m in Denver, Colorado with Neal Schon and we wrote our first song together that night”: How Steve Perry became the voice of Journey and took the band to its peak – before he had to bow out

At the moment Perry joined, the band was in danger of being dropped by Columbia Records

MusicRadar

"Then disaster struck. I parked up and when I came back out I could see that someone had thrown a brick through the rear window of my car...": John Fogerty on the making and meaning of rock’s jauntiest ode to the apocalypse

He’s recently re-recorded Bad Moon Rising for Legacy

MusicRadar

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Louder

“Morrison was very clever. He was a regular guy but he really played that image of his well. He was an actor”: The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn on John Lennon’s dangerous side, the myth of Jim Morrison and the forgotten guitar player who was as good as Hendrix

Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, The Beatles –Roger McGuinn has crossed paths with the them all

MusicRadar

“I love John McLaughlin’s stuff, all those great Mahavishnu Orchestra records. There’s so much there musically. I just admire real musicians”: Journey guitarist Neal Schon on the band’s wild early days and the players who inspire him

"I had my jazz guys, I had my blues guys, my fusion guys"

Louder

Building the Beast: Iron Maiden's Steve Harris and Bruce Dickinson on battles, breakthroughs and the birth of a legend – only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in this issue: Ace Frehley, Ian Gillan, Judas Priest, Wolfgang Van Halen, Whiskey Myers, The Cramps, Stephen Dale Petit, Massive Wagons, Solstice, Steve Morse and more

Metal Hammer

“Dave and I were in a position where there was no Plan B. There was no escape hatch”: Megadeth were broke, homeless and way behind Metallica. But this thrash classic inspired by Patti Smith and written on a borrowed bass would change everything

How Megadeth wrote a landmark thrash metal classic in the midst of personal and financial chaos

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Metal Hammer

"I think what we have here is failure to appreciate": Former Guns N' Roses manager Alan Niven files lawsuit against the band

Alan Niven, who managed Guns N' Roses from 1986 to 1991, says the band are blocking the publication of his memoir

MusicRadar

“Eddie definitely wasn’t functioning very well during the Van Halen reunion tour in 2004. It was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had in my life”: Sammy Hagar’s regrets about his final tour with the band – and his true feelings about David Lee Roth

“Not keeping Van Halen together – that was a failure to me"

Louder

"I was in the hotel with Joni Mitchell, but then the helicopter pilots decided they wanted more money": The last interview with Terry Reid

Touring with Marvin Gaye when he was 16, being pals with Aretha Franklin, turning down Led Zeppelin, making wonderful solo albums… Late British singer/guitarist Terry Reid had quite the life

Louder

"Even though he's dead, I believe that in a hundred years' time from now people will still be listening to him": Steve Vai on the wild genius of Frank Zappa – and the two words that made him want to join his band

They say never meet your heroes – Steve Vai would disagree

Louder

“I once had a flirtation with heavy metal, and I regretted it very much. It didn’t seem to have any sense”: The British hellraisers who put legendary Beatles producer George Martin off working with hard rock bands

This is what happened when two worlds collided in the Caribbean

Louder

“People have a hard time understanding how unsurprising Bohemian Rhapsody was to us”: These are the two early Queen songs that Brian May says paved the way for Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody didn’t appear out of nowhere

Metal Hammer

Kiss legend Ace Frehley dead at 74

"Ace’s memory will continue to live on forever!" The former Kiss guitarist's family have confirmed his passing in a statement

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