Classic Rock Interviews

Over the fifty+ years the perception seems to have become that Lynyrd Skynyrd had a date with destiny, an almost Shakespearean drama of dreams, aspirations, triumph, and tragedy to which all of us were immediately and keenly aware from the moment of "Pronounced" 's release. The late Gary Rossington dismissed that assumption as no more true than imagining Will Shakespeare did not toil, struggle, and starve in relative obscurity in his time.

I have interviewed literally hundreds of the greatest rock musicians , but George Thorogood is the only one who told me that he was planning to be a professional comedian, not a musician. The best-selling album by bare-knuckle electric bluesrocker George Thorogood with July 1982's Bad to the Bone. George marks the occasion here In the Studio  with his unlikely journey featuring all of his biggest hits including "One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer","Move It On Over", Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love", "I Drink Alone", Chuck Berry's "It Wasn't Me", and of course "Bad to the Bone".

Widely viewed along with Bob Dylan, The Byrds, and Gram Parsons as  fathers of  the Americana musical movement, The Band also may have  been one of rock's first alternative groups. In part one of this classic rock interview, main songwriter Robbie Robertson ("The Weight","The Night They Drove Ol'Dixie Down","Up on Cripple Creek","The Shape I'm In") helps me make that case.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's first,"Texas Flood", turns forty. Included here in these classic rock interviews is my second interview with Stevie in late Spring 1984; legendary bluesman Buddy Guy; Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, singer/songwriter Doyls Bramhall, and biographer Joe Nick Patoski; and the songs "Pride and Joy","Cold Shot", the spectacular Hendrix cover"Voodoo Child", "Look at Little Sister","Life Without You", and two "Big" Doyle Bramhall songs, "Change It" and "Life By the Drop".