“Paul said, ‘Do you need another bass?’ He sent somebody to the music store and got me a Fender”: 5 basslines that made Paul Simon a superstar
“They started telling me about the backyard parties, fleshing out details. I thought, ‘This could be more than just a little article’”: How an unassuming college professor became one of the world’s leading authorities on Van Halen
“It was like the Wild West. We were the fastest guns in town and there was always some young punk who wanted to take you down”: The dramatic rise and tragic fall of Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy
“When I played the song for the person who it’s about, they were like, ‘Oh my God, I love it so much! But that weird choir bit in the second verse…’”: Olivia Rodrigo and Dan Nigro on the “polarising” Mellotron ‘fake choir’ that features in Honeybee
“Mick and I went out in the car after David played it for us the first time, and we were already singing it, having only heard it only once”: How one of David Bowie’s greatest songs had a life-changing impact on a new generation of musicians
“You should keep that to yourself, dude”: Thom Yorke offers an odd response to Harry Styles when he tells him that he uses GarageBand to record his song ideas
“For some years now I’ve been struggling with the onset of the evil arthritis, which is now in an advanced state in my left shoulder and right hand, my right shoulder, and both knees”: Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill retires with immediate effect
“Sampling is our art form. We’ve accepted that we’re not going to make loads of money from record sales!”: The Avalanches on why clearing samples is harder than ever, working with Jamie xx and swapping hardware samplers for Pro Tools
“One of our defining cultural moments of recent times”: How to watch Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger reunion documentary
“The best ideas hit when you’re not expecting them. Jam is built so you’re always ready”: Behringer unveils two compact MIDI controllers and sequencers, Jam and Jam Play
“Have your prayers ready for Deen Castronovo.” Journey halts Tulsa concert after drummer suffers onstage medical emergency
“Fans are losing the chance to experience music from across Europe, and critically, opportunities for us all to tell each other’s stories through music”: UK minister bemoans barriers to music industry put up by Brexit
“Tarantino wanted to get a genuine reaction out of her”: Ex-Martin employee says destruction of 145-year-old acoustic in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight was no accident
“I called Tony. He said he was into it as long as Bill was there”: Andrew Watt and Tony Iommi are at odds over why the final Black Sabbath album never happened
“He stopped me in the middle of the song and asked me what it was. I said, ‘Nothing.’ He said, ‘You have to finish that.’ So I finished the song that Saturday night in an hour”: How Vanessa Carlton created her classic hit A Thousand Miles
“I’ve never practiced anything that much in my life – I can barely play it at tempo!” Alek Darson was mixing a new prog project with Animals as Leaders’ drummer – then he found himself in the band
