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HISTORICAL FACTS: 5 | History Defined

“A true pioneer and bona fide legend”: Duane Eddy, 1938-2024 – the guitar world pays tribute

Joe Bonamassa, Ritchie Blackmore, Nancy Sinatra, Mick Fleetwood and more have all come out to honor the music and memory the King of Twang, who has died aged 86

Guitar World

“B.C. Rich guitars were God back then. They weren’t like a Strat or a Les Paul – they were something different. They had so much power”: Lita Ford on her trailblazing guitar journey – and that time she nearly joined Led Zeppelin

Ever since she lied about her age to save for her first electric guitar, Lita Ford has been all about lead and leading. She looks back at life-changing encounters with Tony Iommi and Ritchie Blackmore, and explains why Kemper profiling is like “putting a Rolls Royce into a Volkswagen body”

Guitar World

"One demo was of a guy playing one finger piano on Black Night": When the call went out to replace Ian Gillan in Deep Purple, only one man got an audition

In 1973, Deep Purple replaced Ian Gillan with an unknown singer. They then went on to make one of rock’s most underrated albums, Burn

Louder

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“Metallica would jam on their stuff in rehearsals, songs like Black Night and Highway Star”: Lars Ulrich on his lifelong love of Deep Purple and the genius of the Machine Head album

Lars Ulrich is a lifelong Deep Purple fan – and here’s why

Louder

“Fingers are crossed that once I start playing Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love, it'll be like, ‘I'm here, I'm in the zone’”: Joe Satriani is working with 3rd Power on the ultimate '86 era Van Halen amp

As Satriani prepares for this summer's Best of All Worlds tour with Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, the guitarist has opened up on his preparation, which includes the building of a brand new amp and a deep dive into the technicalities of EVH's playing

Guitar World

'There’s so much music to be discovered simply by retuning your guitar': Try these 9 alternate guitar tunings to inspire your playing today – including the saddest tuning of all time

Open the door to new creative possibilities with these varied tunings

MusicRadar

That mix that made Deep Purple great was never stronger than on Machine Head, and never clearer than it is now, on its 50th anniversary edition

This reissue of Deep Purple's 1972 album Machine Head adds remixes, Montreux and BBC live sets, audio fairy dust and more

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“If somebody’s got an alcohol problem or a drug problem, there’s nothing you can do”: the epic life of Don Airey, the man who has worked with Ozzy Osbourne, Ritchie Blackmore and Gary Moore and lived to tell the tale

Ozzy, Richie Blackmore, Gary Moore - keyboard maestro Don Airey has worked with them all and has the stories to prove it

Louder

"The scent of cremated steaks and exotic gateaux lingers in the air": Revisiting the secret launch of Deep Purple's Perfect Strangers

In 1984 Deep Purple's much-loved Mk II lineup reformed, and one Classic Rock writer was invited along to a secret location to hear all about it

Louder

“It was just another riff, like Into The Fire. We didn’t make a big deal out of it and it wasn’t being considered as a track for the album": Ian Gillan on the unlikely success story of writing and recording Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water

"The downdraft from the mountains caused the smoke to blow across Lake Geneva, like a film set or dry ice on a stage show. At this point, Roger wrote the words ‘smoke on the water’ on a napkin”

MusicRadar

"We should have been writing our own songs, but it was much better to listen to Abba": Ritchie Blackmore has named his favourite band of all time

Ritchie Blackmore opens up during a 40-minute online Q&A filmed at home in Long Island

Louder

"A lot of people don't like Ritchie Blackmore. But he feels he has nothing to say apart from what he says with his guitar": the mutual respect between Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore and Mountain's Leslie West was sweet and pure

Hearing Mountain for the first time in 1970 rendered Ritchie Blackmore speechless, and Leslie West was equally impressed by Deep Purple's guitar hero

Louder

"Bonzo was a dear friend of mine, and I think we might've been listening to a little Led Zeppelin": Deep Purple's track-by-track guide to Burn

David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes and Ian Paice reveal the secrets of Burn, Deep Purple's first album with the Mark III line-up

Louder

"We were surrounded by these drums and guitars that The Beatles had used, but the engineers were too stoned to record us": How the stars repeatedly failed to align for Trapeze

Fronted by the future Voice Of Rock, Trapeze were soon on board the Express To Success. But then Deep Purple came calling and walked off with the golden-throated goose

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"I'm not too struck on Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, I never saw what was in Clapton at all". In 1975, Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore was asked for his thoughts on his peers: he did not hold back

Blackmore on Hendrix, Beck, Page, Clapton, Townshend and more

Louder

“We were the original bearded pirates. Nobody gave us a chance”: the epic story of how Whitesnake became the greatest blues rock band of the early 80s

Before MTV and hair metal, Whitesnake were the greatest blues rock band of the early 80s

Louder

"Towards the end it was not pretty. I scraped myself off the walls of insanity. I was barking like a dog": the last days of Deep Purple

On July 19, 1976, Deep Purple officially split up. The ending was horrible, marked by addiction and jealousy

Metal Hammer

"It was a very magical time. The right people came together at the right moment": Ronnie James Dio's track-by-track guide to Dio's classic Holy Diver

Many believed Ronnie James Dio was finished when he quit Black Sabbath, but he proved the doubters wrong with an all-time classic

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“I’m so fortunate not to have died. I’ve overdosed, been pistol-whipped, shot at, stabbed, run over in a car... and I’m still here”: Glenn Hughes, The Voice of Rock, has lived the lives of 10 men, and he's not finished yet

Glenn Hughes, The Voice of Rock, looks back upon a lifetime of fabulous, and sometimes terrifying, rock 'n' roll adventures

Louder

In 1979, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow began making their fourth album, Down To Earth. Cue pranks, tantrums, line-up changes, bad vibes and really bad hair days

"I didn’t look like them and I wasn't into their music" - Graham Bonnet on being offered the job of Rainbow singer

MusicRadar

“I didn’t want to have anything to do with the song. To me, it was like: ‘Are we turning into Depeche Mode?’”: Europe’s John Norum says he thought The Final Countdown was “dreadful” at first

It would go on to become the Swedish rockers’ biggest track but Norum took some persuading that all those synths would work with guitar

Guitar World

Jason Becker hailed his “stunning technique and explosive guitar tone” – now Jien Takahashi is building a unique brand of shred shaped by Ritchie Blackmore, Morbid Angel and a quest to prove “a guitar solo can be as persuasive as a singer's voice”

The rising Japanese virtuoso has an undying love for the shred heroics of Becker and Marty Friedman, but also uses his Ibanez, PRS and occasionally his $50 Legend Strat copy to traverse much wider melodic ground

Metal Hammer

"I'll be honest here – I think they blew us off stage every single night": what happened when AC/DC went on tour with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow

In 1976 Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow embarked on the Rising tour of Europe with a young band from Australia in tow: Ronnie James Dio was watching them very closely

Guitar World

“It’s one thing to listen, but when you play these songs, you go, ‘It’s no wonder Eddie had so much fun playing this’”: Tackling Van Halen, reforming G3, recording with Steve Vai – Joe Satriani is gearing up for his biggest year yet

He’s the godfather of shred, but over four decades into his career, Joe Satriani is busier than ever. He explains why he’s playing catch-up after avoiding Van Halen songs in the ‘80s, what his “intentionally excessive” collaborations with Vai have in store, and the biggest struggles he’s facing in covering…

Guitar World

“I want to honor the sound, but I don't want to lose myself”: Joe Satriani says he’s coming to terms with the fact that he doesn't sound like Eddie Van Halen

The guitar icon has been drafted in to take on EVH parts alongside Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony in the Best of All Worlds tour – and compares the challenge to taking on Ritchie Blackmore’s parts on tour with Deep Purple in the early-’90s

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