Redbeard’s Blog

Joe Satriani- Crystal Planet 20th Anniversary

Ten years after redefining what the guitar composer/ performer could be with 1987's Surfing with the Alien,  Joe Satriani had come to a crossroads in his career and knew that he needed a second act. He delivered in a big way in 1998 with Crystal…

Lynyrd Skynyrd feat. Ed King- Sweet Home Alabama- Dallas 1993

L-R Ed King, Gary Rossington, Johnny Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd performing "Sweet Home Alabama" acoustically in front of a small invited audience- Q102 Dallas , Spring 1993 -Redbeard
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Lynyrd Skynyrd Guitarist Ed King Dies at 68

We are very sad to report that original Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Ed King, the only original member who did not grow up in Jacksonville Florida but was a Southern Californian they met when he was in the Strawberry Alarm Clock, died at his home…

Hard+Heavy Box- Deep Purple, Whitesnake, KISS, Bad Company, Heart, Judas Priest, Boston

“Hard+Heavy” box set of classic hard rock interviews In the Studio with Paul Rodgers of Bad Company, Tom Schulz of Boston, Deep Purple’s Ian Gillian and Roger Glover, Heart throbs Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson, Rob Hanford from Judas Priest, Kiss mainstays Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, Ted Nugent, Whitesnake’s David Coverdale.

Billy Joel- Captain Jack- Long Island 7-81

People that have not been in Billy Joel's corner since the days of The Hassles and Cold Spring Harbor  and Piano Man,  the latter album released November 1973, truly cannot appreciate the depth of affection millions feel for this guy. But…

Aretha Franklin: a Fond Memoir

The tributes and testaments started even before official word was issued that Aretha Franklin had passed away. Knowing that I have interviewed so many of the greatest musicians of the last half century, more than one news outlet  contacted…

Billy Joel- Billy the Kid- UConn 12-76

“From a town known as Oyster Bay Long Island, Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand...” As Billy Joel prepares to blow out the candles on seventy this week, it felt right to dust off something more akin to seventeen. There are moments…

Matthew Sweet- Girlfriend- Altered Beast- 100% Fun

The news that Intervention Records was staging one to rehab  past Matthew Sweet releases was cause for considerable buzz of a healthy kind in 2018. After all, we are talking about Girlfriend,  his 1991 third album which The Village Voice …

Boston- Hyperspace Pedal Blues- Tom Scholz

Irrefutable proof of why Tom Scholz of the band Boston had to move from his apartment house in Watertown , MA .Turn it up as loud as your gear can go . -Redbeard

Tommy Shaw- Girls With Guns- Dallas Ft. Worth 11-84

When Tommy Shaw, just recently estranged then from arena-fillers Styx, brought his Girls With Guns  solo band to a Ft. Worth nightclub in an otherwise empty strip mall on a chilly Sunday November night in 1984, what I expected to see and hear,…