Classic Rock Corner

Eddie Van Halen's Life Story Erupts in New Book

Eddie Van Halen's Life Story Erupts in New Book

Lee Oskar Honors Holocaust Survivors and Victims on Never Forget

Lee Oskar Honors Holocaust Survivors and Victims on Never Forget

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Vanilla Fudge's Mark Stein Cooks Up Contemporary Issues on Solo Record

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 30, 2021

Like a lot of Classic Rockers who make their living on the road these days, Mark Stein found himself with a lot of at-home time during the pandemic. But also like many of his musician brethren, he decided to take that forced time off and pour it into a creative...
Warren Haynes and Gov't Mule Get Heavy into the Blues

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 23, 2021

Even those who have followed the multi-faceted career of Warren Haynes—whether with the Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule, his solo output or other collaborations—might be surprised to hear that he’s never done an all-blues album. Until now. The singer/songwriter/guitarist, along with the rest of the Mule (Matt Abts on drums,...
Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy Finally Get Their Documentary Due

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 9, 2021

On many a Classic Rock fan’s shortlist of groups who have thus far been denied by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Thin Lizzy is usually high on the ranking. And though mainstream U.S. audiences only know “The Boys Are Back in Town” or (perhaps) “Whiskey in the Jar”...
Graham Nash's Life Through the Lens

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 5, 2021

Graham Nash has been making music for more than 60 years. First with friend Allan Clarke, then as the pair co-founded the English Invasion group the Hollies, and later as a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young). He also had a consistent and intertwining solo career. But...
Robby Krieger Opens the Doors of His Memories

By Bob Ruggiero
Oct 25, 2021

Of all the classic rock bands, the Doors might have the most solid connection with literature. After all, they were named after Aldous Huxley’s must-have-hippie-bookshelf-title The Doors of Perception. Singer Jim Morrison wrote reams of poetry and lyrics, anthologized in this year’s The Collected Works of Jim Morrison. The late...
James Taylor And Jackson Browne Declare How Sweet It Is To Be Back In Houston

By Pete Vonder Haar
Oct 18, 2021

James Taylor, Jackson Browne Toyota Center October 17, 2021 For GenX-ers like myself, now is truly the twilight of the artists who were more or less ubiquitous when we were growing up. It isn't just that half the Beatles are long dead, or that our only recollections of Hendrix, Joplin,...
Yes Keyboardist Geoff Downes is on a Proggy Quest

By Bob Ruggiero
Sep 29, 2021

When MTV recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, the old trivia question about “What was the first video ever played on the channel?” came around again. It was, of course, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the English duo Buggles, made up of singer/bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes. In 1980...
The Many Mugs of Stevie Van Zandt Come Together in New Memoir

By Bob Ruggiero
Sep 27, 2021

When talking to the multi-hyphenate man Stevie Van Zandt, it’s a challenge to pick just which version of him to discuss first. The guitarist/best bud of Bruce Springsteen and core member of the E Street Band who also has a thriving solo career? The actor in groundbreaking cable series like...
Gordon Gano on the Violent Femmes' Reissue and Return to the Road

By Bob Ruggiero
Sep 13, 2021

The Violent Femmes are just three gigs into their first live shows since the pandemic started. And singer/guitarist Gordon Gano is pretty much just picking up from where he left off. “Well, the stage is the place to be after 40 years of us doing it. In the past, we’ve...
John Mellencamp's Life of Roots, Rock and Rebellion

By Bob Ruggiero
Aug 31, 2021

It’s telling about John Mellencamp that his nickname, “Little Bastard,” is not only a sobriquet that he revels in, but does his damnedest to live up to. His tough-as-nails/loud-as-a-motorcyle-engine persona and songs have helped define an image and put him on the same shelf as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger and...
The Metal Magic of Ronnie James Dio Shines in Posthumous Autobiography

By Bob Ruggiero
Aug 19, 2021

When Ronnie James Dio—announced in 2009 that he had stomach cancer, it certainly gave him an impetus to complete the autobiography that he’d been working on for a while. He’d already had a sizable chunk of the manuscript written down in what his widow Wendy Dio said was his “beautiful...
Last Night: The Black Crowes and Dirty Honey at The Woodlands Pavilion

By Bob Ruggiero
Aug 15, 2021

When it hit record store shelves in February 1990, the Black Crowes’ debut album Shake Your Moneymaker somehow seemed both familiar and out of place. The Georgia quintet’s overall sound was unapologetically a throwback to the bloozy boogie bands of the ‘70s like the Rolling Stones, the Faces and Black...
The Box Tops Deliver a Letter to Houston

By Bob Ruggiero
Aug 9, 2021

In many rock, blues, and country songs, written letters do not bring good or welcome news to the recipients. They usually carry messages about the death of a loved one, a dumping by a romantic partner, demands for payment or threats of retribution. But in 1967’s “The Letter” by the...
Ellen Foley Comes Out Fighting and Remembers Meat Loaf & Jim Steinman

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 29, 2021

While her place in pop culture and rock history is secured as Meat Loaf’s duet partner on the epic “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” Ellen Foley is just as importantly a multi-hyphenate entertainer whose long resume includes credits in movies, television, musical and theatrical roles on and off Broadway, and...
Classic Rock Titans and Friends: Harrison and Clapton

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 27, 2021

One of rock and roll’s most enduring friendships was between George Harrison and Eric Clapton. From December 1964 when they first crossed paths during a Beatles Christmas show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon (Clapton was playing with the Yardbirds) up to Harrison’s 2001 death, the pair shared recording studios, concert stages,...
Foghat Celebrates 50 Years of Fast Licks and Slow Rides

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 26, 2021

Roger Earl was all of 12 years old when he went through an experience that his tsk-tsking mother said affected his mental condition. That may have been true, but it also set him on a life and career path that, at age 75, he wouldn’t have traded for anything. “There...
There's Harmony and Humor with the BROS Currie on Side Project

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 2, 2021

It’s a well-worn trope—albeit one that seems to be true—that rock and roll brothers in the same band will battle and break up. Ask the Everlys, Gibbs, Wilsons, Fogertys, Davies, Robinsons, or Gallaghers. Hell, even the Dorsey brothers had a bitter feud with competing big bands back in the day...
Warrant Brings Houston a Special Slice of Cherry Pie—Plus Eddie Trunk!

By Bob Ruggiero
Jun 22, 2021

To his listeners across the country on various radio shows and a podcast—but most prominently his daily Trunk Nation program on SiriusXM—Eddie Trunk is an Oracle of All Things Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. Add Prophet to the list, since something he’s been saying nearly since the pandemic started has...
Miles Copeland Remembers the Police, Go-Go's, Bangles, and Timbuk 3 in New Memoir

By Bob Ruggiero
Jun 11, 2021

Miles Copeland II was a longtime CIA operative in the Middle East and involved in all sorts of secretive spy missions from the 1940s through the ‘60s. And his son—Miles A. Copeland III—often had to use similarly delicate skills and negotiating tactics, only in the world of rock and roll...
Dennis DeYoung Wraps Up Recording Career with Nostalgic - Yet Timely - 26 East Vol. 2

By Bob Ruggiero
Jun 10, 2021

He thought he was done making new music. Finito. End of the Road. When Dennis DeYoung released what he was calling 26 East last year, he fully expected it to be his final studio album in a long and storied career that stretched back to 1972 with the first Styx...

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