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FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Tom petty - The Untold Story

“I got a hold of a little psychedelic substance and tripped out all night. By morning, I said, ‘I’m a bass player!’” How a psychedelic-fueled studio session set Ron Blair on the path to becoming a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Ron Blair played bass on the band’s first four albums before quitting and rejoining 20 years later

Guitar World

“I played that lick and went home. An hour later, the phone rang. Tom said, ‘You’ve got to come back. We want to put that lick you played at the front of the song’”: How Mike Campbell's throwaway lick shaped a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers classic

Campbell's guitar noodling and Petty's ear for a good hook resulted in their first Top 40 hit

Guitar World

“I miss my brother… But I’d always had it in the back of my mind that if the Heartbreakers ever retired, I would make this my purpose”: Mike Campbell on finding a new life in The Dirty Knobs, and why we should listen to what our guitars are telling us

With a title track inspired by Brian Wilson, Mission of Mercy is the sound of Campbell piecing his heart – and ours – back together again

Guitar World

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“Jeff said, ‘That’s a really good riff but there’s one chord too many.’ So I cut it back a chord and then – just to amuse Jeff, honestly – I sang that first verse”: How Tom Petty created his most famous song – with a little help from Jeff Lynne

MusicRadar

“I didn’t like it, but Tom said, ‘No, it’s great. Now you’ve got to double it’”: Mike Campbell on the riff he wanted to ditch – but Tom Petty made him double down

Campbell was forced to get creative to make a Heartbreakers classic

Guitar World

“Tom got really angry with me. He said, ‘You’re one of the best songwriters I know. You don’t need my help. You don’t need anybody’s help!’”: How Tom Petty inspired Stevie Nicks to make a comeback – and why she felt misunderstood by Prince

A pep talk from Petty led to her solo album Trouble In Shangri-La

MusicRadar

“It was just in my closet, and one day I pulled it out, turned it on, and thought, ‘Wow… this is a sound that I’ve been missing’”: How Mike Campbell ended up reconnecting with a classic piece of Heartbreakers gear

Turns out, the missing piece of his ideal tone was closer than he thought...

Guitar World

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“Think The Pretenders, Tom Petty or Sam Fender”: 5 easy open-position alternate chord voicings that will give you extra jangle

James Honeyman-Scott of The Pretenders was a master at creating interesting parts from simple alternate chords. We look at five you can use in your playing

Guitar World

“I never wanted to be a solo artist. That album was all the songs that were turned down by Fleetwood Mac between 1975 and 1980”: Why Stevie Nicks decided to fly solo in 1981 – and how her pre-Fleetwood Mac songs were reborn with Sheryl Crow

Her journey from Bella Donna to Trouble In Shangri-La

MusicRadar

Nancy Sinatra hits out at Donald Trump over Frank Sinatra tribute

Nancy Sinatra has blasted US president Donald Trump after he shared a video of her late father, Frank Sinatra, singing My Way over the weekend.

BANG Premier

“John 5 was probably the only other dude who was playing a Tele in metal. By nature, it was designed for country and chicken pickin’”: Why Jim Root eschewed traditional metal guitars and made the Telecaster his main Slipknot instrument

The player reveals who first drew him to the now 75-year-old instrument – and it might surprise you

Guitar World

“I said, 'tomorrow I’m going to go into the studio, find some place, make up a tune and make this record'. So I said to Jeff ‘do you want to help?’": The story of the Travelling Wilburys, the star-studded supergroup that made it all look fun

Their first single was recorded in Bob Dylan’s garage

MusicRadar

"He meant so much to me." The verses on Peter Frampton's new single Buried Treasure are crafted entirely from Tom Petty song titles

Peter Frampton's first album of all-new rock material in 16 years stars Sheryl Crow, Bill Evans, H.E.R., Tom Morello, Graham Nash and Benmont Tench

Louder

"She steps in the room with us, a rock'n'roll band that's fronted by a guy she adores": How a song from Tom Petty's reject pile unwittingly became the massive hit single that launched a Fleetwood Mac icon's solo career

Unhappy with Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album, Stevie Nicks gravitated towards a band whose music she preferred

Louder

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The Guardian - UK

The Uncool by Cameron Crowe audiobook review – memoir of an awestruck insider

The film-maker and author narrates this vivid account of his wide-eyed adventures as a young music journalist in 70s America, hanging out with heroes from David Bowie to Led Zeppelin

Bored Panda

“Make It Stop”: Lara Trump Mercilessly Mocked After New Music Video Exposes Her Dance Moves

Lara Trump, who called it “such an honor” to call Donald Trump her father-in-law, was brutally roasted for her dance moves with an Arab singer.

The Fashion Central

Lara Trump faces backlash over embarrassing dancing in her latest music video filmed at Trump’s golf resort

Louder

"Wildflowers scared him, because he's not really sure why it's as good as it is": As Tom Petty’s world fell apart, he took refuge in the studio and made his most deeply personal album

The story of Tom Petty's classic Wildflowers, an album full of sadness, humour and hope

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Louder

“Morrison was very clever. He was a regular guy but he really played that image of his well. He was an actor”: The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn on John Lennon’s dangerous side, the myth of Jim Morrison and the forgotten guitar player who was as good as Hendrix

Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, The Beatles –Roger McGuinn has crossed paths with the them all

Louder

“We all blamed each other, but we never doubted the song”: It took Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers more than 100 takes to nail one of their greatest songs – and it still ended up being “an albatross” around their necks

When Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers teamed up with a hotshot new producer for a 1979 classic, it nearly broke the band

Guitar World

“That’s all I had for weeks… People started banging on the wall – ‘Don’t play that anymore!’” Tom Petty wanted to turn a catchy riff into a much-needed hit. He didn't stop playing it until he did

Under pressure to follow up his multi-platinum breakthrough, Damn the Torpedoes, with another best-selling album, Petty wanted a lead single “that had a little lick from the beginning”. That lick proved to be a stubborn one

Louder

A Night At The Opera: 50 years on, Brian May and Roger Taylor on Queen's operatic masterpiece - only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in this issue: Heart, Scorpions, Eric Gales, Creeper, Tom Petty, UFO, David Bowie, Zakk Wylde, Devon Allman, Counting Crows and more

The Guardian - AU

Lucinda Williams: ‘My singing is better now than it was before my stroke’

The US singer-songwriter on whether she will pull her music from Spotify, her worst first date and why ‘being unique and original doesn’t always work in the record business’

Louder

"The last thing I remember, Iwas playing at atopless bar and had aVolkswagen bus and a hundred bucks": What former Heartbreaker Stan Lynch did next

Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers’ drummer is back behind the kit for an album from his new Americana collective, The Speaker Wars

The Guardian - UK

I’m no Ed Sheeran fan, but he’s right: when it comes to musical plagiarism, guilt is in the ear of the listener

Musical history is littered with cases like the failed $100m suit against the singer, and they risk stifling pop music, says music journalist Simon Price

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