Dave Everley

Dave Everley

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.

Articles by: Dave Everley

Rick Astley and Rick Wakeman

“Rick Wakeman’s solo albums were just brilliant… when I heard he was doing Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace, I bought 12 tickets”: Prog is the reason Rick Astley became a singer

By Dave Everley published

Pop star made his life-changing decision at a Camel concert, before discovering the work of keyboard genius Wakeman via Yes

Rush – R50

“Fans can fulminate over the tracklisting – ‘Where the hell is The Fountain Of Lamneth?!’ – but it hits all the right beats”: Rush’s R50 is a luxurious celebration with an emotional punch at the end

By Dave Everley published

Multi-format box set cherrypicks at least one track from every studio and live album of the Canadian giants’ career

Steven WIlson

“Once you realise your existence is futile and life is a random gift, you think, ‘I’m going to make the most of it.’ Life is meaningless – so embrace it”: Steven Wilson looks back at Planet Earth

By Dave Everley published

His challenging return-to-prog album The Overview contrasts the collapse of a nebula with a bursting grocery bag in Swindon, all to illustrate that space is “nothingness; it’s scary; it’s death”

Ricky Warwick posing for a photograph on rocks

“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

By Dave Everley published

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

Kate Bush

“If you look at it, it’s my reputation… I need five months to prepare a show, and I can’t be writing new songs or promoting the album”: Is this why Kate Bush only ever toured once?

By Dave Everley published

Gruelling exertion, exhilaration, determination and a human tragedy all played a part in her 1979 Tour Of Life – and she never hit the road again

Jethro Tull

“We all breathe the same air; we all reap the same potential doom from climate change; we better all bail out the boat… It’s a feeling of slightly despairing affection”: Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson stays curious while he still can

By Dave Everley published

Curious Ruminant, the band’s third album in three years, is more meditative and personal as their leader explains why he’s more motivated than ever

Jethro Tull – Curious Ruminant

“The rustic feel of Songs From The Wood or Heavy Horses… a sense of urgency still surrounds the band”: Jethro Tull’s Curious Ruminant

By Dave Everley published

Their 24th album echoes the renewed vigour of The Zealot Gene and RökFlöte, but takes a different path

David Johansen posing for a photograph in 1979

David Johansen, New York Dolls singer, dead at 75

By Dave Everley published

The death of New York Dolls singer David Johansen has been confirmed by a spokesperson

David Lee Roth surrounded by women in bikinis

"It couldn't get any better than that, and it didn't": David Lee Roth teaches a lesson in how not to conduct a solo career in five albums

By Dave Everley published

David Lee Roth's precipitous post-Van Halen tail-off is documented on The Warner Recordings 1985-1994

Styx publicity photo

"All we wanted was to stamp out Queen and Aerosmith": Inspired by Keith Moon and Star Trek, Come Sail Away took Styx to places they never expected

By Dave Everley published

A song about being picked up and taken away by aliens, Come Sail Away gave Styx a career boost and eventually took on a life of its own

Overkill’s Bobby Blitz Ellsworth posing for a photograph in 2019

“I used to walk in a venue with a beer in each hand, with a hard-on and looking for a fight”: Overkill’s Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth is the thrash survivor that cancer and a stroke couldn’t kill

By Dave Everley published

Overkill’s Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth has spent a life on thrash’s frontlines

Nita Strauss press pic

"I’ve been whipped, stabbed and had to have surgery. Most recently, I got licked on the tongue by Alice Cooper's snake." Nita Strauss shares the battle scars that shaped her into a modern guitar hero

By Dave Everley published

From Alice Cooper to Demi Lovato and her own solo work, Nita Strauss has become a modern metal icon

Becoming Led Zeppelin admat

"It doesn't wholly demystify them, but it reveals the human brilliance at their heart": Becoming Led Zeppelin strips away the mystique to present the birth of a legend

By Dave Everley published

Rare footage and the voice of John Bonham – Becoming Led Zeppelin is cracks opens the door into an unseen world

Luke Spiller onstage with arms aloft

"I’d listen to that song and dream about my future": The Struts' Luke Spiller picks the soundtrack of his life

By Dave Everley published

Luke Spiller picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and reveals the classic album he might record new vocals for

Jonathan Hulten – Eyes Of The Living Night

“Sometimes his lyrics are so indistinct they may as well be wordless. Sometimes they are actually wordless”: Jonathan Hultén’s Eyes Of The Living Night is brilliant and beautiful

By Dave Everley published

After channeling Nick Drake and Bert Jansch on his first record, the Swedish guitarist’s pivot from extreme metal brings him to a Kate Bush-like world

Korn guitarist Head photographed against a black background

"It was darker than other bands but it really got me to let go of the old and embrace the new." The late 80s alt-metal album that Korn guitarist Head says accidentally invented nu metal

By Dave Everley published

The alt-metal classic that came out of nowhere and changed everything

Larkin Poe - Bloom cover art

"The joy is more joyous, the heartbreak more alluring": Larkin Poe serve up more country-infused rock'n'roll on Bloom

By Dave Everley published

Nashville siblings return with an album as earthy as the dust blown up by a Tennessee gale

Ice-T/Slayer

"We're in debt to Slayer forever." Ice-T explains why Slayer's comeback is great for metal fans

By Dave Everley published

Body Count frontman and self-professed Slayer superfan Ice-T talks the return of the Big Four's most notorious band

Nightwish press pic 2024

"It’s a break from touring, it’s not a permanent stop." Floor Jansen on Nightwish, Yesterwynde and what comes next

By Dave Everley published

Nightwish might not have been on the road in 2024, but they still put out one of the year's best albums

Aerosmith posing for a photograph in the early 1970s

“Our best friends were drug dealers. We identified with them because we felt like outcasts, menaces to society”: The chaotic story of Aerosmith’s early years

By Dave Everley published

The birth of American rock’s original Crazy Gang

Mastodon 2008

"He said, 'The last thing I want is you guys going on David Letterman and the freakin’ drummer’s singing." How Mastodon left sludge metal behind for cosmic prog metal on Oblivion

By Dave Everley published

A drunken fist-fight, childhood tragedy and an all-star producer all helped Mastodon channel their melodic tendencies on Oblivion

Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson in 2018

“I’d rather be remembered for our legacy than returning as the top Rush tribute band”: Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee are jamming together – but they have no plans to resurrect Rush with a new drummer

By Dave Everley published

Alex Lifeson reveals he and Geddy Lee have weekly jam session – and they record the results

Blood Incantation 2024

"We’ve played shows on mushrooms in the past." Blood Incantation made one of 2024's trippiest, most ambitious metal albums, and we're starting to see why

By Dave Everley published

Blood Incantation talk all night raves, psychedelics and being mistaken for Depeche Mode

Black Sabbath in the early 1970s with an inset of Dave Walker

“We really weren’t compatible. It was kind of cool, but there was a lot left to be desired”: The singer who briefly replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath in 1977 – and then was forgotten

By Dave Everley published

It was a short tenure – but they recorded at least one track together

The Radicant

“I chose to leave, to focus on myself… It was a very difficult, painful, sad time for everyone”: Vincent Cavanagh had to quit Anathema to become The Radicant

By Dave Everley published

After abandoning a fully-written solo album in 2021, former frontman looks forward to a life without a leather jacket – and possibly without a guitar – with his debut EP We Ascend leading the way