Medium Rare Interviews

"Well the biggest difference was that I was going to have to write all the songs this time," quips Ian Anderson in a bit of understatement when I asked, in this classic rock interview, about the departure of Jethro Tull co-founder Mick Abrahams between their 1968 debut, This Was , and the much more successful Stand Up  the following year.

In memoriam pt 3: Echoes In the Studio, the voices of & tributes to fallen rockers.

"The Principle of Moments",  Robert Plant's second solo album, first convinced us that Plant could sustain a viable solo career outside of the legendary Led Zeppelin, which he fronted for twelve fabled years, but for me personally it was "Shaken 'n' Stirred" in 1985, served pre-release on a Walkman at 40,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean,  that began my professional relationship with the complicated singer.

They were the changes  in musical direction and key personnel made on Jethro Tull's critical preceding third album, "Benefit",   in April 1970, that provided the oxygen in "Aqualung" 's tank a year later.

It always seemed that the Van Halen 1980 third album, "Women and Children First" , suffered from "middle child syndrome". David Lee Roth, bass player/ harmony singer Michael Anthony, drummer Alex Van Halen, and fretmeister Eddie Van Halen remind us of a time four decades ago when Van Halen was establishing itself as America's premiere hard rock band with songs "And the Cradle Will Rock" and "Everybody Wants Some!".