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INSANE: Billy duffy - The Real Truth

“There were certain guidelines, and that was to stay away from long hair and guitar solos”: How Led Zeppelin, The Doors and Hendrix inspired a rule-breaking post-punk band to write one of rock’s greatest anthems

The Cult’s She Sells Sanctuary can lay claim to be the first great alternative rock anthem

Louder

“I knew the guitar was valuable, but this was before Slash blew up, so nobody really wanted Les Pauls. They all wanted Charvels”: Billy Duffy on his greatest guitar deals – and the one he regrets selling to Bob Rock

The Cult six-stringer looks back on Les Pauls loved and lost, plus the latest and greatest from his mostly back-to-basics rig

Guitar World

“He called me in ’87 and said, ‘There’s this band from America called Guns N’ Roses. They’re really good. We should take them on tour with us’”: Billy Duffy recalls the shenanigans and stupidity of The Cult’s tour with Axl & Co as their opening act

“Nothing evil – just a lot of high jinks”

MusicRadar

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“The violin bow was laying on the floor of the studio. Just to be class clown, I picked it up and tried to emulate Jimmy Page from The Song Remains The Same”: How The Cult created their classic signature song

“The words give hope, which marries well with the uplifting nature of the music”

MusicRadar

“I sold the guitar to Bob Rock like an idiot for $10,000. Then Slash blew up, and I immediately missed out on about $150,000": Billy Duffy on the one guitar he wish he never sold

Duffy’s timing could hardly have been worse

Guitar World

“Rick put me on the spot. He said, ‘So, this is a Les Paul.’ I was like, ‘I know.’ Then he went, ‘Okay, and this is a Marshall…’”: Why The Cult scrapped an entire album and re-recorded it with Rick Rubin

“It was the record we needed to make”

MusicRadar

“Bob Rock said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m gonna help you become a guitar hero.’ And he did!” Billy Duffy on how The Cult made their most challenging hit single

The guitar icon explains how tours with Billy Idol and Guns N' Roses shaped their 1989 hit, Fire Woman

Guitar World

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“One of the most historically significant guitars in rock and roll”: Ace Frehley’s iconic 1975 Gibson Les Paul expected to sell for more than half a million dollars at auction

The Les Paul will be sold alongside stage-played guitars from Stevie Ray Vaughan, Kirk Hammett and Billy Duffy at an upcoming auction

Guitar World

“I sold it to Bob Rock for the same amount I paid for it. Just after that, the ‘Slasheffect’ happened… he sold it for 15times what he paid”: Billy Duffy on the Les Paul ’Burst he sold on the cheap – and why player-grade beats all-original every time

Think of Billy Duffy and it’s Gretsch White Falcons, Les Paul Customs or maybe an LP Junior. Here he explains why these three iconic six-strings have been the tools of his trade for over 40 years

Guitar World

“Idon’t even think he had a pick. He just heard the tracks once and was ready to go”: Ricky Warwick on welcoming Lita Ford, Charlie Starr and Billy Diffy to vintage guitar nirvana for his new solo album – and the magic of seventh chords

The Thin Lizzy and former Almighty man's Blood Ties is packed with signature chord voicings and guest spots from his friends – and even though Ford only sings on it, she brought her Hamer to the party

Guitar World

Black Sabbath! The final interview with Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – all yours in the new Guitar World

Plus interviews with Jake E. Lee, Adam Jones, Creed Bratton from The Office, the guys from Goose, former Jethro Tull man Martin Barre, K.K. Downing, Zakk Wylde, Jerry Cantrell, Tom Morello, Lzzy Hale, Billy Duffy, Robben Ford and more

Guitar World

“Any fan of Geordie Walker or Billy Duffy will be won over in seconds by this imperious, gothic riff”: May 2025 Guitar World Editors' Picks

It's been another incredible month for new guitar-driven music – our favorites include a 12-minute funk/soul/country blowout from U.S. Girls, twisty greatness from Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, and Tony Iommi's collaboration with... Robbie Williams?

Guitar World

“I liked Bad Company and Free. Those bands, like David Bowie and Roxy Music, were all pop. But their albums had deeper cuts. That’s what I hoped we could pull off”: Billy Duffy on the making of The Cult’s 1985 breakout album – and why Rain made him sweat

Led by the stunning She Sells Sanctuary, Love was the sound of a band experimenting at scale, finding the great enabler in producer Steve Brown, and it just so happens to be Duffy's favorite

Guitar World

“Every bad decision I’ve made, I’ve made when I’d been drinking. Waking up with a hangover, wasting a day, the bulls**t you talk”: How Ricky Warwick got sober and reconnected with his Northern Irish roots on new album Blood Ties

Black Star Riders and The Almighty frontman Ricky Warwick is sharper than ever on his new solo album Blood Ties

Louder

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MusicRadar

“Rick's not musical... at all”: Billy Duffy on how Rick Rubin ‘deconstructed’ The Cult

Guitarist reveals working on Electric was “traumatic”

The Independent UK

Morrissey hits out at Wikipedia for failing to ‘set the record straight’

Singer shared a brief statement from his personal website about the apparent errors

MusicRadar

“The Gretsch allowed me to create, what I think is the most important thing for any guitar player, and that is to find your own sound and your style”: Gretsch and Billy Duffy’s collaboration takes flight with a signature Falcon for the Cult guitarist

Finished in Vintage White, with gold hardware, Bigsby vibrato and Black Top Filter'Tron humbuckers, Duffy's Falcon is a limited edition beauty to celebrate 40 years of the Cult

Guitar World

“He said, ‘If you got in the band, what would you do?’ I said, ‘I always wanted a White Falcon.’ Everything I owned, I put into that”: Billy Duffy spent his life savings on his first Gretsch – now he’s got a signature model to mark 40 years of The Cult

The Falcon has played a key part in helping Duffy form his signature blend of psychedelic gothic hard rock over the past four decades

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Guitar World

With Bob Rock and Rick Rubin at the helm, he recorded some of rock’s most iconic riffs, and launched side-projects with Jerry Cantrell, John Corabi and The Alarm’s Mike Peters – how Billy Duffy’s guitar playing built a Cult following

Duffy’s unique playing style has made the Cult one of rock’s most enigmatic artists, and this video lesson goes deep inside the Sonic Temple to spill the secrets to his rhythm and lead approaches

MusicRadar

"Like all great rock tracks, the song has a staggeringly simple structure": The story of The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary

Almost 40 years since its release, The Cult’s She Sells Sanctuary stands the test of time as a soaring and majestic pop-rock anthem – including some happy accidents

Louder

“We’re basically like two guys running in a three-legged race, we’re tied together and that’s just how it is”: The Cult’s Billy Duffy on his relationship with frontman Ian Astbury

Rock's odd couple embark on a UK tour later this year...

Louder

"He looked like Daniel Day Lewis in The Last Of The Mohicans, except he jangled when he walked. I thought: 'That's a bit interesting'": Billy Duffy on Ian Astbury and the early days of Death Cult

When Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy announced the 2023 resurrection of Death Cult, goths went batshit and gig tickets sold like blackened coals. Here’s how the seminal band came into being

Louder

"A rush of almost spiritual ecstasy": Death Cult find joy in dragging skeletons from the closet on 40th anniversary tour

The Cult's Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy resurrect Death Cult, summoning old ghosts to powerful effect

MusicRadar

Billy Duffy and Ian Astbury resurrect Death Cult for 40th anniversary tour

The pre-Cult band will return to some of the UK venues they played in 1983

The Orange County Register

How The Cult’s new music was inspired by a pre-pandemic festival

English rockers The Cult tapped into a simpler, pre-pandemic time to find inspiration for its latest album, “Under the Midnight Sun,” which will be released on Oct. 7.

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