Scott Sparks
Before Black Sabbath, hard rock was mostly blues riffs, flashy guitars, and party music. Then four working-class guys from Birmingham, England came along and made music that sounded like the end of the world. The band formed in the late 1960s in a grim industrial city filled with factories, smoke, and endless gray skies. Guitarist […]
The Eagles' rise to fame was marred by behind-the-scenes turmoil, leading to a bitter breakup and eventual reunion.
At first, The Doobie Brothers looked like easygoing California bikers making laid-back rock music for good times and highway drives. But by the mid-1970s, they had become absolute superstars. Songs like “China Grove,” “Black Water,” and “Listen to the Music” blasted from radios everywhere. The band was suddenly swimming in fame and fortune. Behind the […]
Before the fame, the guys in Grand Funk Railroad were grinding through tiny clubs in the Midwest, hauling their own gear and praying for gas money. Critics laughed at them. Music magazines called them too loud, too simple, and too rough around the edges. Then the 1970s arrived and suddenly the joke was on everybody […]
By the late 1970s, Aerosmith looked unstoppable. They were America’s answer to the Rolling Stones. Dirty. Dangerous. Loud. Every arena they entered turned into a giant cloud of beer, smoke and screaming fans. Steven Tyler strutted across stages like a possessed rock preacher while guitarist Joe Perry unleashed riffs that sounded like speeding motorcycles crashing […]
In the late 1970s and early ’80s, Van Halen wasn’t just a rock band. They were the soundtrack to every keg party, parking lot tailgate, and beer-soaked Saturday night in America. Loud guitars. Screaming fans. Hot rods. Whiskey. And absolute mayhem wherever they went. At the center of the madness stood David Lee Roth. Shirtless, […]
By the mid-1970s, Led Zeppelin wasn’t just a rock band, they were practically a traveling kingdom of excess. Private jets, sold-out arenas, hotel destruction, mountains of cash and enough backstage madness to make modern rock stars look like choir boys. Robert Plant strutted like a golden god, Jimmy Page looked like a dark wizard with […]
Most bands break up after one bad romance. Fleetwood Mac turned relationship disasters into one of the biggest albums ever made. By 1976, the band looked doomed. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were at war after their romance exploded. Christine and John McVie were divorcing. Mick Fleetwood’s marriage was collapsing too. Cocaine was everywhere. Recording […]
Exile on Main St. (1972) — The dirty cathedral of rock ’n’ roll. Blues, gospel, country, soul, drugs, sweat, and genius leaking out of every speaker. Sticky Fingers (1971) — Sleaze with perfect tailoring. “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses,” “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” — not a weak punch thrown. Let It Bleed (1969) — End-of-the-world […]
Long before every rock band looked like they walked out of a makeup trailer, AXE came blasting out of Gainesville, Florida, in 1979 with pure American hard rock attitude. Fronted by Bobby Barth, the band rose from the ashes of a Southern rock outfit called Babyface and quickly built a reputation as road warriors who […]
Rock ’n’ roll’s most unstoppable grandfathers are back and the music world is already losing its mind. The Rolling Stones have officially set July 10, 2026 as the release date for their explosive new album, Foreign Tongues, the long-rumored follow-up to 2023’s smash comeback record Hackney Diamonds. And if the early whispers are true, Mick, […]
Back in the early 1990s, Seattle’s music scene was a pressure cooker of distorted guitars and restless ambition. From the remnants of Mother Love Bone, bassist Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were searching for something new. A demo tape eventually reached San Diego surfer and vocalist Eddie Vedder, whose “Momma-Son” recordings would change everything. His […]