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Multi-effects units and pedals used to be like those buffet restaurants that serve dozens of global cuisines. Overdrive, delay, reverb, chorus, phaser, flanger – they did it all, but with all the succulence of badly rolled sushi.

Times and technologies change, and the best compact multi-effects are now offering genuinely ear-pleasing effects, often with granular options to adjust the effect level and other parameters. They’re almost always digital, and some models known as ‘effects processors’ are essentially a pedalboard computer, with a screen and controls allowing you to combine effects, amp models, and additional elements such as a backing track.

‘Multi’ is a spectrum, and you might prefer your compact multi-effects unit to be on the simpler side. There are plenty of options that excel with a curated selection of sounds, sometimes condensing the effects into a standard stompbox format. A few examples are genuinely boutiquey, with sounds on a par with the best standalone effects.

Whichever style of multi-effects you want, this guide is made to help you unearth the best model for you. The summaries below link through to our writers’ full reviews of each unit, so you can start mapping out your own microcosm of musical possibility.

At a glance:

• Our Pick: Neural DSP Nano Cortex
• Best multi-effects for larger boards: Line 6 HX One
• Most versatile multi-effects: Boss GX-10
• Best compact multi-effects: Chaos Audio Stratus
• Best boutique multi-effects: Hologram Electronics Chroma Console
• Best beginner multi-effects: Donner Triple Threat
• Best ambient multi-effects: Crazy Tube Circuits Sidekick Jr
• Best multi-effects for lo-fi: Source Audio Artefakt
• Why you can trust Guitar.com

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Our Pick: Neural DSP Nano Cortex

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With the Nano Cortex 2.0, Neural DSP has delivered on the phenomenal hype which surrounded its original compact multi-effects unit. It’s designed to work as “a complete guitar or bass rig in an ultra-compact pedal”, allowing you modular control over a signal chain cherry-picked from over 50 effects and parameters.

We enjoyed the original Nano Cortex, but it was a little lacking in effects – especially drives. That feedback – *ahem* – has clearly been taken on board, as the 2.0 has a good range of options to sully your sound, including digital Tube Screamer, RAT and Fuzz Face clones.

Our editor was impressed with this unit’s gain-stacking capabilities, expanded bass-specific offering and chorus effects – especially the lush-sounding ‘Spacey Dream’. If you wondered how good a multi-FX unit can sound, here’s the high-water mark.

Need more? Read our Neural DSP Nano Cortex review.

Best multi-effects for larger boards: Line 6 HX One

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The Line 6 Helix will always be a classic among multi-effects units – but it’s a hulking processor that doesn’t leave much room (physically or musically) for the other effects you might want on your board.

If you want the best of the Helix, plus ample room for your pedals, the HX One is the way to go. This neat unit gives you over 250 effects to play around with – many of them superb – including distortions, reverbs, modulations, drives and a looper. All parameters are adjustable on-pedal via user-friendly controls, and there’s a black-and-white OLED display to tell you precisely what you’re tweaking.

Above all, this is a great-sounding multi-effects pedal, with a wealth of incredibly musical, alive-sounding effects. Sometimes, smaller is superior.

Need more? Read our Line 6 HX One review.

Most versatile multi-effects: Boss GX-10

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If you want a guitar effects processor that’s rich in sounds and features but doesn’t feel brain-achingly complex to use, the Boss GX-10 could be the one. Using the unit’s colour display and mix of touchscreen and physical controls makes it a playful delight to sculpt your sound out of the GX-10’s immense library of presets.

Toggling or tweaking these (generally impressive) ready-made combinations of AIRD amp model, effects and tone parameters is a fast, fun way to transform your tone – perfect for songwriters seeking inspiration, or for function musicians who need to switch things up at the drop of a bouquet.

The completeness of Boss’s presets makes the GX-10 a great, all-in-one headphone amp solution for practising at home. Pop it on your desk, plug in and do your thing.

Need more? Read our Boss GX-10 review.

Best compact multi-effects: Chaos Audio Stratus

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If you’re seeing the Stratus for the first time, you might wonder: where’s the rest of it? It’s hard to believe, but there are 14 effects presets plus capacity for many more optional additions in this tiny multi-effects stompbox. The pedal’s combination of simple layout with versatile sounds is made possible by its companion app, which is used to control the unit and manage its library of effects. And thankfully, connecting the pedal to the app is relatively painless.

You’ll love this mode of operation or you’ll hate it, but our reviewer found that his initial scepticism soon gave way to surprise at the quality of sounds the Stratus has to offer. Some of the effects – especially the reverbs – wouldn’t sound out of place in a pedal from Meris or Walrus Audio.

Need more? Read our Chaos Audio Stratus review.

Best boutique multi-effects: Hologram Electronics Chroma Console

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Multi-effects pedals cover a lot of sonic bases, which can make them great value but often means they’re a little anonymous. The Chroma Console breaks that mould by sounding just as colourful and character-packed as its enclosure suggests. Using four individual modules (each of which controls a unique choice of five effects), you can mix up a singular cocktail of off-kilter sound.

It’s incredibly easy to use – which is saying something, given it features 20 effects in total – and there are fantastic sounds to be discovered by blending effects like drive and pitch-shifting to your liking. Where other multi-FX sometimes feel like hard work, it’s nice to find one that’s built for play.

Need more? Read our Hologram Electronics Chroma Console review.

Best beginner multi-effects: Donner Triple Threat

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If you’re new to multi-effects pedals, or if you just want a focused option with a few excellent effects, the Donner Triple Threat would make a cheap yet connoisseurial choice, with minimal complexity and maximalist sounds.

Made in collaboration with Third Man Hardware, the Triple Threat has – you guessed it – three effects: a distortion, a phaser and an echo. Co-creator Jack White’s red-and-white fingerprints are all over this pedal, and you can hear it in the lashings of gain when you push the distortion past halfway, or when you tinker with the characterful phaser – a maverick but welcome addition to a mould-breaking beginner’s multi-FX.

Need more? Read our Donner Triple Threat review.

Best ambient multi-effects: Crazy Tube Circuits Sidekick Jr

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A tiny boxful of diverse and expansive sounds, the Sidekick Jr is our boutique pick for creating ambient music. Within its unassuming enclosure are three excellent effects – delay, reverb and chorus – which you can use individually or combine to create a headier soundscape. Dig into each of these and you’ll find a wealth of sounds, with six reverbs, two delays, two choruses and a flanger (bonus!) to explore.

Even though it does so much, this is a simple pedal to use. The controls are intuitive, with roughly one third of the pedal devoted to each effect.

One downside to consider is that you’ll need to purchase an additional CTC footswitch to activate the chorus/flanger independently of the other effects.

Need more? Read our Crazy Tube Circuits Sidekick Jr review.

Best multi-effects for lo-fi: Source Audio Artifakt

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Multi-effects pedals are rarely made for leftfield tastes, so it’s extra special to discover the Artifakt’s wealth of auditory oddities. This pedal aims to deliver all the wonkiest effects found on the weirdest boards, including vinyl and radio replication, tape modulation, bit crushing and glitch.

Rather than buying lots of individual boutique pedals just for their exotic-sounding extremities, you can use the Artifakt as a sort of lo-fi greatest hits compilation. It strikes a superb balance between giving you key sounds on-tap and providing scope to create, with seven core algorithms selectable via a central rotary knob – and tweakable via controls including ‘Destruct’, ‘Vary’, and more.

Navigating the Artifakt’s plenteous effects is made easier by its on-pedal presets and companion app, which provide options to save presets with your favourite settings or pinch other guitarists’ configurations.

Need more? Read our Source Audio Artifakt review.

Why You Can Trust Us

Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.

That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide, you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you. What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.

The post Buyer’s guide to the best compact multi-effects: sound-shifting units from Neural DSP, BOSS & Line 6 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As Ozzy Osbourne’s long-time right-hand guitar man, Zakk Wylde has developed a close friendship and professional relationship with the Prince of Darkness over the years. However, that doesn’t mean he’s ever let go of his fanboy-ism of Black Sabbath and his guitar hero Tony Iommi.

Of course, Wylde makes clear his adoration of Iommi’s guitar work by fronting Black Sabbath cover band, Zakk Sabbath. But he also never shies away from expressing his admiration of Iommi in the press.

• READ MORE: “Trust me, he was on 11 for everything” Tony Iommi’s longtime producer explains the secret of the Black Sabbath man’s guitar tone

In a new interview with Guitar World, Wylde likens the Sabbath guitarist to some of the finest minds in musical history. “He’s basically the Bach, Mozart and Beethoven of metal guitar,” Wylde insists. “He’s all three of them in one. And he’s the John Lennon and Paul McCartney of riff writing. He truly is.”

“His genius is just immense,” he continues. “I love every aspect of his playing. And outside of songwriting, I love his solos; I love all of it. It’s not just the riffs; Tony Iommi has amazing technique and can play fast… he’s just the complete package.”

While Iommi isn’t necessarily penning pivotal classical movements or light-hearted Beatles-esque rock, Wylde believes his work with Sabbath was equally as vital for the world of heavy metal. “[Black Sabbath are] like how Henry Ford is the creator of the car,” Wylde says. “They’re everything. All the bands that have come after… like with the car, it doesn’t matter if it’s NASCAR, a Formula One race car, a dragster or however advanced it gets, it’s all based on the original Ford Model T.”

In Wylde’s mind, Iommi and co laid the foundations for heavy metal. “It’s based on that basic design,” he explains. “It’s a testament to what was created. Sabbath are the architects of the whole thing. They’re the massive oak tree, and we’re all just branches off of that tree. I think everybody there loves them, and we wouldn’t all be doing it if it wasn’t for them.”

Wylde is set to perform at Black Sabbath’s upcoming farewell show. The one-day festival is predicted to be “the greatest heavy metal show ever” by Tom Morello, and will see Black Sabbath’s original lineup – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – reunite one final time in Birmingham on 5 July.

The show will see performances by Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, Gojira and Anthrax, as well as Alice in Chains, Lamb of God and Mastodon. A ‘supergroup’ will also help the Sabbath gang run through their set, with the likes of Wylde, Slash, Fred Durst, Billy Corgan, Wolfgang Van Halen and more set to appear.

As you might expect, tickets sold out fast – reportedly in 16 minutes – but there’ll be a pay-per-view livestream of the event, which you can buy tickets for now.

The post Zakk Wylde explains why he thinks Tony Iommi is the “Bach, Mozart and Beethoven of metal guitar” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Did watching your guitar heroes ever leave you feeling so small you wanted to give up the instrument entirely? Well you wouldn’t be the first.

Creed Bratton, former guitarist for American folk-rock outfit The Grass Roots and star of NBC sitcom The Office, reveals how seeing Eric Clapton live in 1965 nearly made him hang it up for good.

• READ MORE: “One of the most significant surviving acoustic guitars from the late 1960s” is for sale on Reverb – owned by George Harrison and Eric Clapton

Reflecting on his journey as a young guitarist in the latest issue of Guitar World, Bratton shares how his time in Europe exposed him to acoustic icons who reshaped his songwriting and playing style.

“I was living with my wife and baby daughter in Malibu Canyon. We stayed there for a good year. Then we went to Europe, and I wrote songs over there,” says Bratton. “I got to meet people like Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. Talk about an epiphany.”

“Seeing Bert Jansch play… I was strumming with a pick, but seeing him play all over the neck with his fingers, that was a paradigm shift for me. Alternate tunings? I was gobsmacked. It changed my songwriting and my approach to playing the guitar.”

But nothing quite shook him like seeing a young Eric Clapton in full flight.

“I saw Eric Clapton in ‘65. Ridiculous,” Bratton recalls. “I had no idea you could get a sound like that out of a guitar. I almost threw my guitar away, but I stayed with it.”

The guitarist, who left The Grass Roots in 1969, also reflects on the creative constraints he faced that led to his eventual exit. Asked if it bothered him that the Wrecking Crew – a group of LA studio musicians – were responsible for most of the playing on the band’s later records, Bratton admits that he has long found peace with how things unfolded.

“I didn’t get myself concerned with it that much,” he says. “I always felt as if there was this energy moving me along through life. It got me through school. Somehow this band thing came together. Things just appeared in my life. Whether it’s optimism or spiritual lunacy, I always felt like I’ve been watched over. My attitude was, ‘This is supposed to happen right now,’ so I took my settlement.”

The post “I almost threw my guitar away”: Seeing Eric Clapton live in 1965 nearly made The Office star Creed Bratton quit playing guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Tom Morello has been trusted with overseeing one of the most important events in metal history: Black Sabbath’s upcoming Back to the Beginning show – a final bow for both the band and Ozzy Osbourne himself.

It’s a fitting role for the Rage Against the Machine guitarist, whose long-standing friendship with the Prince of Darkness has weathered just about everything… including a close brush with literal flames.

• READ MORE: “I’m very self-critical about people’s adoration”: Ozzy Osbourne still struggles to accept how influential he’s been on other musicians, even as he prepares for blockbuster farewell Black Sabbath gig

In the new issue of Guitar World, Morello looks back on a particularly explosive memory from 2015, when he and Slash joined Osbourne onstage at the Voodoo Fest in New Orleans.

“There was one time where Ozzy nearly blew up me and Slash,” Morello recalls.

“We joined him and his band as guests at the Voodoo Fest in New Orleans [in 2015], and during a part of the show where we weren’t playing, the two of us were sitting behind the stage chatting.”

The set already delivered the goods – Ozzy kicked off with I Don’t Know, invited Morello on stage for Mr. Crowley and Bark at the Moon, then returned later with Slash in tow for thunderous takes of Sabbath classics N.I.B and Iron Man alongside guitarist Gus G.

But mid-show, a crew member suddenly noticed something was very wrong.

“There’s this crew guy at the side of the stage who’s apoplectic,” says Morello. “He’s gesturing wildly to us, and finally he gets the courage to come over. And he says, ‘You guys are sitting on the pyro!’ So yeah, Ozzy nearly blew us up. Anyway, we survived that.”

And luckily for everyone, they did. Because nearly a decade later, Morello finds himself at the helm of Back to the Beginning, serving as musical director for what’s shaping up to be one of the biggest nights in heavy metal history.

Taking place on 7 July, the event will reunite the original Sabbath lineup one last time for a historic hometown show at Birmingham’s Villa Park. The one-day celebration also boasts a stacked bill featuring genre heavyweights like Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Gojira, and more.

For those who didn’t manage to secure a ticket, the concert will also be available as a pay-per-view livestream due to “overwhelming demand”.

The post “Ozzy nearly blew us up!” Tom Morello reveals he and Slash were once nearly killed by sitting on Ozzy Osbourne’s pyro appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Three years after parting ways with Evanescence, guitarist Jen Majura has announced her decision to “step away” from the music industry entirely.

In a candid Instagram post, Majura cites a disconnect with “today’s attitude and values” and the “overwhelming amount of ridiculousness” in the music business as reasons for her departure.

“After careful consideration, observing what’s going on in the music industry, AI-related developments and change in society I’ve come to the conclusion to step away,” she says.

• READ MORE: Mateus Asato on why he quit Instagram, why he came back, and why he’s “changing his internet diet”

“Some of you have heard me talk about this quite a while ago. Instead of wasting another year of my life constantly hoping for new energy, drive and creativity, I’ve reached a point in my life where I can confidentially lean back in peace.”

She adds, “While time allowed me, I was able to collect an amazing amount of beautiful experiences, tours, shows, travels and moments! I am grateful for every bit of that, but the world has changed. I can [now] confidently make up my mind to stop”.

Though Majura isn’t ruling out the possibility of making new music again, she makes it clear the current state of the industry no longer resonates with her.

“I am not saying that I will never create any music again, whether recorded or live,” the guitarist explains, “but for now I feel there are healthier and better things to fill my life with good vibes and not deal with the overwhelming amount of ridiculousness that comes with the music industry nowadays. I just can’t identify with today’s attitude and values anymore.”

“I wholeheartedly want to wish all the ambitious and remaining ‘creators’, young and old, all the best,” Majura continues. “With time, the meaning will become clearer.”

Before signing off, Majura also takes a moment to thank her fans and offer a parting gift: four previously unreleased demo tracks written over a decade ago with guitarist Dennis Hormes.

“I found these old demo recordings while cleaning out stuff from my computer and thought they are too good to not be shared. So if you made it this far and read the whole post, I assume you actually are someone that truly cares and these four singles are for you!”

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The post “I just can’t identify with today’s attitude and values anymore”: Ex-Evanescence guitarist Jen Majura is quitting the music industry appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Judy Schaefer describes her first role at PRS, in 2005, as “backup receptionist” – a temporary job she took while she figured out what to do with her English major. Twenty years later, she’s climbed from her entry-level position to become director of marketing. She’s overseen countless product launches as well as huge growth for PRS – all while navigating a rapidly shifting guitar industry, thanks to the explosion of the internet.

In-person experiences are the gold-standard

“I remember there was one year that, when Summer NAMM wasn’t quite doing what we wanted it to do, we started Experience PRS to actually get our business partners to come here to the factory. If you walk through our factory and watch our team building guitars, you will walk out having drunk the Kool Aid – you just get how much everybody on and off the production line cares.

“One of the things I really wished I would have done earlier is go into the factory and do one of our guitar-making courses. I’ve learned a lot from them. What I want to do is take those things that get us excited, and get them in front of other people.”

It’s easier than ever for a manufacturer to connect with the public

“Social media means people feel entitled to more instantaneous information about their guitars, and I love that. We want you to see us. The year I joined is the year YouTube started, and we got in there early – we first started doing video around 2007. It’s funny to go back and watch videos from then. It was often a case of giving the art director a camera and seeing what Paul [Reed Smith] said if we put him in front of it.

“And now, from the influencer side of things, we’ve built some really great relationships in that regard. It’s a huge part of what we do these days. Because you need to ask – where are people getting this information from? YouTube is where the search is for guitars.”

“Social media means people feel entitled to more instantaneous information about their guitars, and I love that”

Information over hype

“Paul always says that PRS is not a ‘brand’, we’re guitar makers. He hates the word ‘brand’ because you can lose yourself in being just a hype-driven online presence. Making a ‘viral’ video isn’t a goal. Making a really good video? That’s a goal.

“It may seem we’re sometimes brash or controversial, but that often comes from us doing the boring thing, just conveying information! If you’re launching a guitar, you have to have a straight-ahead demo video. It’s a guitar, you need to hear it – then you can do something fun. But we focus on the information – the product copy on our website isn’t, ‘get onto the stage in your snakeskin suit and wail on this hot guitar!’ That’s not guitar-making, that’s being a ‘brand’.”

Marketing is storytelling

“I still do a lot of our writing. But it goes beyond putting down sentences and paragraphs – it’s storytelling. If you’re launching one guitar and you know there’s another one coming in six months, you need to lay groundwork to build off of later. The human brain can latch on to stories in that way.

“It’s similar with signatures – you have this mythos pre-built into the instrument. You know lots without me having to say anything. The Silver Sky is different, as it’s not called the ‘John Mayer’ – so it’s not inherently associated with him. But, would it have done as well if the exact same guitar had come to market not being a John Mayer signature? Absolutely not.”

“You can lose yourself in being just a hype-driven online presence”

Good people do good work

“When we had an intern last summer who asked for advice, I just went straight back to the idea that everything you need to know, you learned in kindergarten. Be nice, share your toys, etc. We’re just all people, and we’re going to work together for a really long time. And the guitar industry is small! But no matter what industry you’re in – good people do good work.

“There’s nothing about music that isn’t community building, even if you’re a solo singer-songwriter. So if we do better, everybody else does better, and there’s better guitars in the world. But if we just run everybody else out of business or bash other people, that’s not community building.”

This interview with Judy Schaefer was published in the Guitar.com Magazine May/June 2025 issue

The post Judy Schaefer of PRS: “Music is all about community building. If we do better, everybody else does better” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre has reflected on the pressure of recording solos before the digital age, noting that he only had “a couple of goes” at doing so during the making one of the band’s most successful albums.

During the recording of the title track of Aqualung, the band’s fourth album released in 1971, band founder Ian Anderson was apparently willing to replace the guitar solo with a flute solo instead, if Barre didn’t get it right within a couple of takes.

• READ MORE: “It’s good to be a little bit of a street gutter rat”: Lita Ford advises young players to do this instead of “Google guitar chords”

Asked if this is true in an interview for the print edition of Guitar World, Barre answers, “Yeah. [Laughs] It was never spoken of, but essentially, you had a couple of goes. You didn’t get 10 shots at a solo because the rest of the band had walked out; that’s what you got. If that’s the way it was for other bands, I don’t know, but we just didn’t do that.

“I remember reading about Brian May and how long he would take constructing his solos, like, days. It might not be true, but I was amazed. I could never have been there, and even today, it’s got to have that sort of inspiration. It’s got to have that fluidity, an instant improvisation,” he explains.

“I still do solos in one or two takes, and they’re going to be the best ones. If you overthink it, it starts to go downhill. That’s just me on my own. I mean… I could spend a month doing a solo if I wanted to, but I never, ever will.”

You can catch Martin Barre’s An Evening With Martin Barre & Friends tour throughout the UK this year – to get tickets, head over to his website. 

The post “You didn’t get 10 shots at a solo because the rest of the band had walked out”: Jethro Tull legend Martin Barre on the pressure of recording guitar solos before digital recording appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Two Old Hippies Guitars, the parent company of Breedlove and Bedell Guitars, has announced the completed sale of the company to two Nashville-based artists and music industry advocates.

Pete Mroz and Shannon Pollard will now be looking after the acoustic guitar brands. In a press release from Breedlove, they are described as “two individuals who have each spent a lifetime immersed in music – as players, performers, and dedicated stewards of the musical community”.

• READ MORE: A pink acoustic signed by Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus has sold for $104,000 at auction

Pete Mroz is a singer-songwriter, formerly featured on NBC’s The Voice, who has long been part of the Breedlove and Bedell brands as an artist. Mroz brings “advanced business acumen” to the role, shaped by high-performing roles at brands like Ping Golf, Travis Mathew, and FootJoy.

Shannon Pollard, grandson of country music icon Eddy Arnold and founder of Plowboy Records, is a longstanding entrepreneur. Throughout his career, he has worked across music, design, and craftsmanship, including the award-winning Você community in Nashville, “where his passion for high-end woodworking and reverence for the natural landscape are deeply reflected”.

The duo will carry forward the legacy built by Tom Bedell, his team, and the generations before him. Bedell set up the Two Old Hippies brand alongside his wife, Molly. They purchased Breedlove in 2010, and subsequently relaunched Bedell guitars. Bedell is described as “a true believer – in peace, in music and in the relationship between the natural world and acoustic music making”.

“We’re incredibly grateful to Tom Bedell and the entire team for creating this foundation and vision for us to build on,” comments Mroz. “We can’t wait to get to know our partners, artists, community of players, and everyone who loves these instruments. This is a legacy we intend to honour and elevate.”

Pollard adds, “We feel a deep sense of responsibility and are honoured to help shape the future of these brands. This isn’t just a business venture – it’s a personal and passionate commitment to ensuring Breedlove and Bedell continue to inspire and serve players around the world.”

Operations continue uninterrupted. You can shop the current product ranges for Breedlove and Bedell Guitars via their respective websites.

The post Breedlove and Bedell Guitars sold to “two individuals who have spent a lifetime immersed in music” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The move from brick-and-mortar stores to widespread online shopping has meant that brands can sell their products directly to consumers, without the need for middle men in the form of retail partners.

And while the shift certainly presents a threat to established music retailers like Guitar Center – with reputable brands like Fender and Gibson able to sell their instruments directly to musicians – CEO Gabe Dalporto isn’t worried, and instead sees it as an opportunity for his organisation to adapt.

• READ MORE: “Dude, come on!”: Tetrarch’s Diamond Rowe claims Slipknot’s Jim Root once asked her for guitar lessons

It’s worth noting, too, that retailers like Guitar Center face a threat not only from online direct sales, but from some of the biggest guitar brands opening up their own flagship stores, including Fender, Gibson, Yamaha and others.

Now, in a new interview with Guitar World, Dalporto suggests he isn’t phased by the modern-day challenges which may potentially affect his business.

“This is a competitive market. It always has been,” he says. “We welcome it. I think if we give an amazing experience, we win.”

Dalporto says that while Fender and Gibson may be pivoting to a direct-to-consumer approach, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll scoop up a significant share of the market. He cites sports brands who have tried the same thing to back up his point.

“Nike tried to go direct and tried to pull back from retailers,” he continues, “and Nike got crushed. It’s important, if you are a brand, to have those relationships with your vendors, but bring the competition on. I just think we have a much larger, more integrated experience. You can experience all the products, not just one.”

In light of the ever-changing market conditions, Gabe Dalporto has explained numerous times in recent months how Guitar Center plans to offer a unique experience to its customers. And one way it plans to do so is by featuring more high-end guitars on its shelves.

“We’ve unlocked all of our guitars, and I can walk in and grab a really nice guitar off the wall, plug it in to these brand new massive pedal tables,” Dalporto said in a conversation with YouTuber Phillip McKnight back in March. “Actual time spent in our stores is up 25% because of that.”

McKnight added his opinion that “Amazon is ineffective in every way at selling high-end guitars”.

“Fender used to try and sell high-end guitars on Amazon but they don’t even do that anymore, because no-one’s buying a $1,800 guitar on Amazon.”

The post “Bring the competition on”: Guitar Center CEO says he’s not afraid of big brands like Gibson and Fender selling products direct appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

One name to grace the monstrous lineup of Black Sabbath’s final concert, Back to the Beginning, is Mastodon, who alongside Metallica, Slayer, Pantera and more, will support the original Sabbath lineup as they bow out for one final time.

And as all the bands on the bill gear up for the show – which is now less than a month away – Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher has reminisced on the first time he and his bandmates played with Black Sabbath on tour.

• READ MORE: Didn’t get tickets to Black Sabbath’s final show? You can livestream it – here’s how

Mastodon toured with Black Sabbath back in 2005 as part of Ozzfest, but as Kelliher recalls, the moments he had to interact with the band were few and far between.

“Those guys are pretty well-padded,” he says in the new issue of Guitar World. “They’re kinda like fine china at this point. They’re not rubbing elbows with the common folk too much [laughs]. But I remember sitting down with [drummer] Bill Ward a couple of times, and he had nice things to say about us.”

Asked whether he had the opportunity to talk to Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi or Geezer Butler, Kelliher says he met Ozzy “for a second”, but “both of us had a few substances in us”.

“The only time I spoke to Mr. Iommi was when we were accepting an award in London, 10 or 12 years ago; he was accepting an award, too,” he says.

“We were all standing there and were going to perform a couple of songs. He was about to accept his award, and it was dark behind the stage; as he was getting ready to walk out, instead of being like, ‘Hey man, you’re my favourite guitar player, let’s get a picture,’ I was like, ‘Watch out for that cable running across the floor!’

“He was like, ‘Oh yeah, thanks, dude.’ That was my interaction.”

But despite his limited interaction, Kelliher is quick to note how much he’s inspired by Iommi.

“They’re the quintessential heavy metal band,” he says. “They’re like the original fucking metal band, really, in my eyes. His playing influenced just about every metal riff you’ve heard. Whether you want to admit it or not, he created a lot of those iconic harmonies.”

Black Sabbath’s farewell show, Back to the Beginning, takes place 5 July. For more info, head to blacksabbath.com.

The post “They’re not rubbing elbows with the common folk too much”: Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher reveals he didn’t even meet Tony Iommi when the band supported Black Sabbath on tour appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Billy Duffy isn’t one to keep his vintage guitars locked up in a box, and would rather them be functional “work tools”.

For this reason, The Cult guitarist feels the tuners fitted on a vintage model make a huge difference, and will swap them out with upgrades if needed – and he did just that on his original TV Yellow 1950s Gibson Les Paul Junior.

• READ MORE: “Please help us find it!”: Gibson and Michael J. Fox are searching for the missing ES-345 from Back To The Future – and they need your help

Speaking to Guitar World in its new print edition, Duffy says, “I remember the first time I saw the New York Dolls on television, in 1973, on [the British TV series] The Old Grey Whistle Test. [Johnny] Thunders wasn’t playing a Junior – I think it was a Vox Teardrop – but the TV Yellow Junior became synonymous with him after that.

“Sylvain Sylvain, interestingly, was playing a single-cutaway White Falcon [the Gretsch model synonymous with Duffy],” he recalls, “so there’s a big part of my guitar journey right there on that clip.”

Further speaking on the Junior, he adds, “I actually don’t remember how I got the Junior. I was always trading up to get better guitars – around that late ’70s/early ’80s I only really ever had one guitar at a time… It was an original ’50s model. The Junior would’ve been totally stock, except the original tuners, which were rubbish. I only ever buy guitars that are players; I don’t need something to be totally authentic if it’s not functional.”

Duffy continues, “I do have a little of the approach where I treat them as work tools rather than sacred objects, though I understand the value of authenticity in the vintage market. But if the tuners are no good, the guitar is no good, so it had Grovers, which were an upgrade. This was the guitar I used to audition for Theatre of Hate.”

Billy Duffy is touring with The Cult across Europe this June. You can view the full list of scheduled shows via his website.

The post “If the tuners are no good, the guitar is no good”: Billy Duffy on what’s really important for a vintage guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As one of the most promising nu metal bands in the scene right now, Atlanta four-piece Tetrarch have deservedly caught the attention of some of the genre’s biggest names.

Seriously, listen to the likes of I’m Not Right and Freak and you’ll see why…

• READ MORE: Didn’t get tickets to Black Sabbath’s final show? You can livestream it – here’s how

To date, the band have released three studio albums – the latest being The Ugly Side of Me, which landed in May this year – and supported such heavyweights as Avenged Sevenfold, Seether and Alter Bridge.

But for guitarist Diamond Rowe, her most treasured endorsement will no doubt be the time Slipknot’s Jim Root asked her for guitar lessons.

In a new interview with Stereoboard, Rowe recalls the time she received a DM from the Iowa outfit’s #4.

“I got messaged by Jim Root and he was like, ‘Dude, you need to give me guitar lessons!’ I was like, ‘OK, dude, come on!’ I was like, ‘How about we exchange guitar lessons?’”

Even for a guitarist as decorated as Jim Root, Diamond Rowe’s signature glitchy DigiTech Whammy-flavoured leads clearly proved too alluring not to try and add to his toolbelt.

Elsewhere in the interview, Rowe speaks about her and her bandmates’ ambition for the future, despite their success so far.

“When we were just 11, we were like, ‘We want to be one of the biggest bands in our genre,’” she says. “I don’t want to sit around and celebrate our new album for too long, because there’s still a lot to do. We want to play bigger shows and bigger tours and become a household name, and do this until we can’t do this anymore.”

Listen to the lead single, Never Again (Parasite), from their new album below:

Both Tetrarch and Slipknot are touring Europe in June. Visit tetrarchmusic.com and slipknot1.com for more details.

The post “Dude, come on!”: Tetrarch’s Diamond Rowe claims Slipknot’s Jim Root once asked her for guitar lessons appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Johnny Marr has spoken of his adoration of late guitar legend Rory Gallagher, particularly of the “purity” and “integrity” of his playing.

In a new interview with the Irish Mirror, the Smiths guitarist reveals he’s just added a new decorative item to his studio: a poster of Gallagher performing at the Rainbow Theatre in March 1973.

• READ MORE: “We have a young man, a local young man from Liverpool, who’s going to play with us tonight”: Watch Bruce Springsteen bring out Paul McCartney at Liverpool show
  

“It’s a sweet picture,” Marr says of the poster, as he commemorates the month of Gallagher’s death 30 years ago, when he passed away at just 47.

Marr notes how the Irish guitarist has long been a big inspiration of his, noting his “integrity” and “purity” as a player. “It’s all very well doing that with lasers and banks of keyboards, but when you’re doing it with a really beat-up old guitar and beat-up amps in jeans and sneakers, without all the bells and whistles, it’s pretty powerful,” he says.

Marr says “as an idealistic young musician that was really alluring” and that this fed his desire to become a professional musician at an early age, well before he founded The Smiths. “I was such a big fan of him as a teenager. Not only did I enjoy his music and loved his shows, but I kinda clocked him in a way of carrying yourself as a musician.”

“There was more to him than just show business”, Marr goes on, “It was almost something religious. You knew there was a vocation there.” It was a “live by the guitar die by the guitar sort of philosophy, which turned out to be quite prophetic.”

It was Gallagher’s vocation that would later become Marr’s own when he founded The Smiths with Morrissey, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce in 1982.

In other news, earlier this year, a statue commemorating Rory Gallagher was unveiled in Belfast, but many fans weren’t exactly happy with how it looked.

One user on Instagram compared the statue’s appearance to comedic actor “Weird Al” Yankovic, while others criticised the appearance of the Tele, suggesting it looks as though it has six low E strings. Another comment on X read, “nice tribute, poorly executed”. One Facebook commenter wrote: “Great talent. Brilliant performer. Bloody awful statue!”

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The post “Live by the guitar die by the guitar”: Johnny Marr explains why he still loves the “purity” and “integrity” of Rory Gallagher’s guitar playing appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Michael Anthony says his one regret is how things ended between him and Van Halen, and that he wishes they’d have gone out with a bang.

Anthony – who played bass in Van Halen and was replaced by Eddie Van Halen’s son, Wolfgang – left the outfit in 2006. Though Anthony joined fellow ex-Van Halen member Sammy Hagar on his recent Best Of All Worlds tour and Las Vegas residency, he didn’t actually get a chance to make amends with Eddie before his passing in 2020.

• READ MORE: “Oh man, I’ve really been playing a lot of cello!”: Sammy Hagar claims Eddie Van Halen was spending a lot of time playing an instrument that wasn’t guitar before he died

During an episode of Get On The Bus, Anthony says (via Ultimate Classic Rock): “The only regret that I have is how things, unfortunately, turned out for Van Halen. It should have gone out with a fricking bang that shook the world, and it was more like a whimper, the way everything ended.”

He continues, “Unfortunately Eddie and I never [made amends]. We had some issues, and I’m sure that if he had not passed when he did that we would’ve reconciled or we would’ve really calmed all that stuff down, because I did hear, and I’ve talked to Wolfgang about it, that they were planning on coming to all of us and putting together a big reunion tour with all of us.

“And at that point in Ed’s life, I think he was a little bit more, like, ‘Hey, the past is the past. Let’s all… ‘Fricking water under the bridge,’ that whole bit,” he says. “But, unfortunately, it was not to be.”

Last year, Anthony spoke of his bond with Wolfgang in an interview with Sally Steele, and said that building a friendship with him offered him some “closure” on his disagreements with Eddie. He also clarified that he held no grudges against Wolfgang for taking his position within the band.

“We’ve always been friends,” he said. “Eddie, he wanted to play with his son. The way I kind of feel is that Wolfgang probably wasn’t excited, really, about being in Van Halen.”

He added, “That’s why in his band, he doesn’t play any Van Halen, ’cause he wants to carve out his own niche. But just to be able to get up and play with his father, I can totally understand that.”

The post “It was more like a whimper, the way everything ended”: Michael Anthony claims that before his death, Eddie Van Halen was planning a huge Van Halen reunion tour appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As far as surprise guests go, few would top an appearance from an actual Beatle. And that’s exactly what happened during Bruce Springsteen’s recent Liverpool show on 7 June, when he brought out none other than Paul McCartney to help him play two tracks.

“You’re lucky tonight,” the Boss told the Anfield crowd. “We have a young man, a local young man from Liverpool, who’s going to play with us tonight. I think he has a lot of talent, and I believe he’s gonna be going places…”

• READ MORE: A pink acoustic signed by Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus has sold for $104,000 at auction
  

Backed by Springsteen’s E Street Band, the pair performed covers of The Beatles’ Can’t Buy Me Love and Little Willie Littlefield’s Kansas City. The appearance marked the first time Paul McCartney has played live in Liverpool since 2018. Watch the moment below:

There had been some speculation from fans the day before, after the two were spotted at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, founded by McCartney in 1990. Springsteen was presenting a guest lecture here, according to mxdwn, and was introduced by The Beatles songwriter. For Springsteen, “Being in Liverpool and playing with a Beatle” was a “dream come true, right there”.

Springsteen fans were also given a generous encore by the American songwriter, which included Born in the U.S.A., Glory Days, Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out. Springsteen is currently on his European Land of Hope and Dreams tour, with this gig being his second in Liverpool.

This is not the first time that the pair have duetted together. Springsteen joined McCartney in 2022, where they played tracks by The Boss like Born in the U.S.A. Glory Days and early Beatles hit I Wanna Be Your Man. Macca also joined Springsteen for his headline slot at Hard Rock Calling back in 2012, making this a rare – but not totally unexpected – treat.

The post “We have a young man, a local young man from Liverpool, who’s going to play with us tonight”: Watch Bruce Springsteen bring out Paul McCartney at Liverpool show appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The easiest thing to do when you’ve built the kind of massive online audience that Chris Buck has is to make it your job. The 34-year-old Welsh guitarist has over 400,000 followers across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and plenty of worse guitar players with smaller followings are doing very well for themselves by leaning into the influencer life… but Buck is built differently in that regard.

• READ MORE: “It’s weird because none of us are joyous… at all” Inhaler are making brighter music in darker times

Instead of tacking into the wind of the Instagram guitarist, Buck has committed fully to making a success of his band, Cardinal Black – a refreshingly old-school approach to ‘making it’ and one that seems to be bearing real fruit on the band’s second album, Midnight At The Valencia.

“To us this record has come to represent the idea of putting 10,000 long hard hours honing your craft as a musician,” states Chris Buck. “All the years being in function bands, hard toil in rough clubs and weddings, playing as a band growing up together musically and personally. These are definite themes both lyrically and musically that really tie the album together along the theme of ‘the journey’ and how we got to this point.”

It’s been quite a journey for Buck and the band – they first formed over a decade ago, then broke up after one EP to pursue other projects, before deciding to come back together during the first lockdown and make a proper go of it. In the years since they’ve built a strong following across the globe, toured with Myles Kennedy, and even played the Royal Albert Hall in support of Peter Frampton.

All the while Buck’s reputation as one of the finest players around has grown and grown – but when it comes to Cardinal Black, he’s more determined than ever to ensure that his guitar work doesn’t overshadow his bandmates.

“I wanted to focus on writing parts to compliment the song” he notes, “Rather than just blazing away on solos – although there’s still plenty of that live! It’s a much more obviously personal record compared to the first one, it’s representative of our lives, becoming parents, losing family members, good and bad times,” notes Chris. “In a band you spend so much time together and have so many shared experiences. It is such a long journey. Adam (drums), Tom (lead vocals) and I have been doing this for 15 years, I know those boys as well as I know my own wife!”

Tone Hound

As anyone who has watched Chris’s popular Friday Fretworks videos on YouTube will be well aware of Chris’s passion for quality vintage guitars, and recording the album at the well-stocked Powerplay Studios in Switzerland allowed him to sample their dizzying array on in-house gear including a ’63 Jazzmaster, ’62 Strat and a ’62 SG Junior, all running into a pair of 60s Fender amps. It was quite a contrast from Cardinal Black’s first album in 2021.

“The first record we recorded on a bit of a shoestring budget with friends loaning us guitars, amps, and decent mics,” Buck recalls. “So it was nice to go into this record and have anything we could ever dream of at our disposal. Vintage drum kits, Moog synths, Mellotrons, Hammond Organs, all recorded through Stevie Nicks’ old Neve desk – dream territory, such an inspiring environment to be in, just so conducive to being creative!”

There was one guitar – with one very famous owner – however, that really stood out in the process.

“On the solo for the track Morning Light and the entirety of the track Your Spark (Blows Me to Pieces) I used a 1956 Les Paul Junior that Powerplay owner and album producer Cyrill Camenzind told me used to belong to Keith Richards,” he reveals. “Apparently, it spent some time up with Sonic Youth before ending up at the Powerplay. It’s a great sounding guitar, a bit idiosyncratic, a couple of setup issues you had to play around, but awesome sounding guitar that sent me on a bit of a Junior hunt for a while!”

Chris won’t have much time for guitar hunting in the coming months, as Cardinal Black are hitting the road across the UK, Europe and USA in support of the album – and he feels vindicated in his decision to embrace band life in the way their audience has grown in barely four years.

“Undoubtedly when we launched you could see the audiences consisted mainly of guitar heads that maybe knew me from YouTube,” Chris states knowingly. “Over time the crowd of people in front of my amps who want to see what guitar pedal I’m pressing at what moments of the set. That’s diluted now, we see a more varied audience demographic, people bringing their wives along or families. Artistically people seem to connect with the songs and the things we say and do.”

“That’s cool because you realise your music is speaking to people not just the technical proficiency of the guitar player which is nice! It never ceases to amaze me to see how much people get invested in bands, and with Cardinal Black we really try to treat everyone like part of our family.”

Chris Buck’s Five Tips For Better Guitar Solos

Chris is one of the most expressive and melodic guitar players around – while also being able to shred it with the best of them. But how does he manage to keep things tasteful while melting his fair share of faces? Well, these lessons hold him in good stead – and they’re things you can easily incorporate into your own playing, too.

Follow The Vocals

“‘Take cues from the vocal melody’ would be the biggest tip. It gives the listener something to hook onto, especially if it’s the song’s hook. Tom and I end up quoting each other a lot and it’s always a fantastic starting point for a solo.

“It reminds me of a Marcus King quote I once heard, where he said something along the lines of, ‘Your vocal melody ain’t worth a damn if you don’t want to reference it in your guitar solo’.” [Marcus actually said that to Guitar.com! – Ed]

Keep It Simple

“There is no need to overcomplicate things, it doesn’t have to be a display of technical prowess. Especially if the band is primarily about the songs. They just need to be a transition to move the song from this point to the next point.”

Build The Intensity

“To create a good journey for the listener, building in intensity is a big part of trying to be narrative driven in your solo. You can construct it like you would in a story or sentence. Punctuate it and give it emphasis where needed.”

“You wouldn’t speak with the same intensity throughout an entire sentence, you emphasise the parts that have the most impact, that’s the same with soloing.”

Don’t Start At The Top

“Start low, aim high. Even on a very basic level that gives you a framework. Often my favourite parts in a solo are the transition bits before the cool bit, don’t overlook those parts as they set up the cool bit that everyone remembers, but without the setup it wouldn’t be as cool.”

Look For Inspiration Outside Guitar

“I listen to and take a lot of inspiration from singers. I love Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, even Adele. If you listen to the way they approach a note, their phrasing and their unique vibrato, it all adds up to create their distinctive style.”

The post Chris Buck’s five top tips to improve your guitar solos appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in 2009, a teenaged Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus signed a pink guitar for charity – and this month it sold for $104,000 at auction.

The Daisy Rock 6270 guitar was signed by the popstars on 7th February 2009, a day before they performed together at the 51st Grammy Awards. 22 bidders tried their luck for the guitar, despite Swift not even performing it onstage at the Grammys.

• READ MORE: The Taylor Swift guitar bought and smashed at a recent auction has sold again – for a higher price than before

On the night, Swift played on a Taylor K65ce Koa 12-String for a performance of Fifteen, taken off of 2008’s Fearless, with Cyrus in tow.

Regardless of the fact the pink acoustic was never played by Swift, it still raked in more than Julien’s Auctions estimated sale price of $96,000. Fans were keen to snap up this piece of music history.

The pink guitar bears the pair’s signatures in black marker, with Cyrus adding a “god bless!” for good measure.

Both artists are well known for their impact on the pop industry, embracing country and rock tones throughout their tracks, and 2009 marked a crucial moment in the artists’ careers.

Swift was 19 at the time, and Fearless would see her earning her very first Grammy for Album of the Year at the 52nd Grammy Awards the following year. In terms of Miley Cyrus, she was just 17 and reaping the success of 2008’s Breakout, offering hits such as 7 Things.

While Cyrus had been a Disney star since a young age, the photo of the pair posing with the pink acoustic was captured before their careers truly sky-rocketed. Little did they know what lay ahead for them – Swift in particular broke touring revenue records with her Eras Tour, earning more than $2 billion across a 149-date tour.

The guitar comes in at Julien’s Auctions second most expensive sale in their current Music Icons collection. Steven Tyler’s Dream On grand piano has proven to be the biggest earner of the bunch so far, selling for a total of $130,000.

The collection has also seen a number of Eddie Van Halen pieces up for grabs, such as a Charvel Art Series electric played onstage by the Van Halen riffer going for $78,000. His Fender custom Frankenstein Stratocaster also sold for $45,500.

For more details, head to Julien’s Auctions.

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Heart guitarist and vocalist Nancy Wilson has confirmed that a man who allegedly stole “two one-of-a-kind” instruments from the band has been arrested.

The alleged perpetrator, 57-year-old Garfield Bennett [per Guitar World], was taken into custody last week, but was not in possession of the two stolen instruments: Wilson’s custom baritone Telecaster with a hand-painted headstock, and a vintage 1966 Gibson EM-50 mandolin played by band member Paul Moak “for over 25 years”.

• READ MORE: “I go, ‘Hey, Steve, how you doing?’ He goes, ‘My f**king lips are killing me!’”: Pat Travers on the hilarious first time he met Steven Tyler
  

Heart discovered these instruments had been stolen on the evening of 30 May, after they had set up at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City. Wilson tells Fox 29 News that “somehow, somebody with a hoodie that they caught on CCTV just kinda went and did a drive-by and just nabbed ’em.”

According to Atlantic City police, Bennett was seen on CCTV cameras around town attempting to sell the instruments on the streets, before being arrested on the Kentucky Avenue beach block, just off the boardwalk.

Police say Bennett was able to sell one of the instruments to an unknown buyer, while it’s not yet known what happened to the other. “I don’t know if both were sold off or not,” Wilson says.

In a post on Instagram, Wilson explains: “These instruments are more than just tools of our trade – they’re extensions of our musical souls. The baritone Tele was made uniquely for me, and Paul’s mandolin has been with him for decades.”

Heart are offering a no-questions-asked reward for any information leading to the safe return of both instruments. “Their value to us is immeasurable,” Nancy writes.

In the caption of the post, Wilson adds: “The outpouring of love and concern has been overwhelming, and we are truly touched by the strength and compassion of this community.” Photos of the instruments are included in the post below for anyone who may know of their whereabouts.

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Elsewhere, Atlantic City police have issued a warning for anyone knowingly in possession of the stolen instruments: “Any individual in possession of these stolen items is urged to contact the Atlantic City Police Department and voluntarily surrender the instrument.

“If not surrendered, and the individual is located in possession of the stolen items, they will be arrested and criminally charged with receiving stolen property.”

Anyone with information about Heart’s missing guitar and mandolin can contact their tour manager, Tony Moon, via email at tonymoon@me.com.

The post Man arrested for stealing two “one-of-a-kind” instruments from Heart – but they still haven’t been found appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Pat Travers has recalled meeting Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler when he played at Day on the Green, a gig he describes as the “best show I ever did”.

Day on the Green was a recurring concert in Oakland, California which ran from 1973 to 1999. 1978 saw five separate Day on the Green events, with the third taking place on 23 July, and featuring a stacked lineup of the Pat Travers Band, Aerosmith, Foreigner, Van Halen and AC/DC.

• READ MORE: Didn’t get tickets to Black Sabbath’s final show? You can livestream it – here’s how
  

The event, hosted by promoter Bill Graham, regularly drew crowds of around 65,000, according to Guitar World.

And it was backstage during the event that Travers met the Aerosmith singer for the first time, and the interaction sounded humorous, to say the least.

“That was the first time I met Steven Tyler, and that’s so funny,” he recalls in a new interview with Rick Beato. “Somebody from my record company says, ‘Pat, you got to meet Steven Tyler.’ And I went, ‘Yeah, I’ve just got to meet Steven Tyler.’

“So [the record label] walk me over. He’s sitting in a chair underneath an umbrella with a frozen daiquiri, and he’s got big mirrored aviators and the biggest dive watch I ever saw, and he’s just sitting there, and someone goes, ‘Hey, Steven, this is Pat – Pat, this is Steve.’ And I go, ‘Hey, Steve, how you doing?’”

Tyler responded: “My fucking lips are killing me!” Travers continues: “I liked him, just loved him immediately. I went, ‘That’s my kind.’ He just didn’t get it. I mean, he had chapped lips because it was so dry out there, yeah, but he [had] forgotten that.”

Travers also commends promoter Bill Graham for his work organising Day on the Green, adding: “The backstage area has Astroturf and tables and umbrellas, trailers – and everybody’s hanging out together.”

With Pat Travers known for his raw bluesy sound and tracks like Rock ‘N’ Roll Susie, Heat in the Street and Stevie, he and his band served as a perfect complement for the other hard rock giants on the bill.

In other news, Pat Travers release Statesboro Blues (Live in Baltimore 1982) from his archive back in April. He told Melodic at the time: “It sounds live… I’ve found that people often prefer a rougher sounding live mix, even if they don’t know it. They’re not conscious of it, ‘this one’s too high fidelity’, but when it’s a little trashy, it has more energy and sounds more urgent.

“Rock ‘n’ roll is not supposed to be clean and slick live. It’s got to have an edginess to it, and not be too predictable. There should always be surprises. Especially unintentional ones.”

The post “I go, ‘Hey, Steve, how you doing?’ He goes, ‘My f**king lips are killing me!’”: Pat Travers on the hilarious first time he met Steven Tyler appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

If you’re one of the many who didn’t manage to nab tickets to Black Sabbath’s final show in the 16 minutes before they sold out, you’ll be pleased to know it will be streamed live, so you can watch from home.

The event, dubbed Back to the Beginning, will see Sabbath’s original lineup – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – reunite for one final time at Villa Park in their hometown of Birmingham, with support from genre heavyweights including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Gojira and many more.

• READ MORE: “That was the best thing that ever happened to us”: Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward recalls being “amazed” by hearing Tony Iommi play guitar

And it’s now been revealed that a pay-per-view livestream will be available, produced by Mercury Studios, the same company behind Metallica Saved My Life and One to One: John & Yoko.

Livestream tickets are available now via backtothebeginning.com, priced at £24.99 each. Viewers will not only get access to the livestream itself from 3PM on the day of the event (5 July); they’ll also be able to rewatch the show in its entirety for 48 hours afterwards.

“We had such an overwhelming demand from fans from around the globe, who couldn’t get tickets to the show, and they took to social media, pleading with us to broadcast a livestream of the show. Being this is such a historic event, we just couldn’t let them down,” says Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife and manager.

Kelly Sweeney, managing director of Mercury Studios, adds: “Mercury Studios [is] incredibly proud to be involved in capturing this monumental milestone at Villa Park. Back To The Beginning will be an unforgettable experience, and our aim is to deliver this moment to fans worldwide, wherever they are, so they don’t miss out on seeing music history being made.”

In other news, Ozzy Osbourne recently spoke of his struggle to accept how influential he’s been on other musicians over the course of his career, commenting: “I’m very self-critical about people’s adoration.” He also promised that despite his physical ailments, he’ll be giving the show “120%” effort.

Get your tickets to the official Back to the Beginning livestream at backtothebeginning.com.

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