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

OU band press shot 2024

"OU frequently sound like they’ve beamed in from the 25th century." Devin Townsend-approved Chinese metallers OU take prog metal into strange new worlds on II: Frailty

By Dave Everley published

Hailing from Beijing and sounding like they come from outer space, China's OU are pushing boundaries with new album II: Frailty

Joe Elliott at Sister Ray Records in London

"Me, Bono and Bowie hijacked a Mini and drove to this restaurant where the Edge was to sing him Happy Birthday": What happened when we went record shopping with Joe Elliott

By Dave Everley published

We gave Def Leppard's Joe Elliott £50

Ou, Hawxx and Mountain Caller

"What is this band about? I’m not sure. I like that it’s a mystery to me.” Meet five excellent young bands inspired by Tool

By Dannii Leivers published

Hawxx, Ou, Mountain Caller, Wheel and Every Hell are channelling current Metal Hammer cover stars Tool in a variety of weird and wonderful ways

Richie Faulkner and Rob Halford onstage, and a studio portrait of Rob Halford

"You look at all these people who are giving you the horns, from Eminem to Lionel Ritchie, and you think: Is this really happening?": Judas Priest on awards shows, Invincible Shield and the beauty of cats

By Dave Everley published

With Invincible Shield their third genuinely great album in a row, Judas Priest's late-career purple patch continues

Steve Howe

“We didn’t force a connection, it just happened.” Steve Howe remembers a fledgling Yes supporting Jethro Tull in America in 1971

By Dave Everley published

Supporting an already-established Jethro Tull in America helped Yes in their way to star status

White Zombie in 1994

“Drugs were everywhere in New York. Everybody knew at least five people who had OD’d. I always learned from other people’s mistakes”: the unlikely rise and sudden fall of White Zombie

By Dave Everley published

White Zombie’s final album Astro-Creep: 2000 was released on this day in1995. Rob Zombie looks back on the band’s unlikely success

A montage of metal musicians with their pets

“Anyone who doesn’t talk to their pets is a psychopath!” We asked a bunch of metal stars to tell us about their pets on International Pet Day

By Dave Everley published

Dogs, cats, ponies, goats, ducks – to mark International Pet Day, we asked members of Killswitch Engage, Amon Amarth, Green Lung and more to tell us about the animals they share their lives with

Marillion group portrait

"At one point an aggrieved producer threatened to attack them with a machete": Say what you want about Marillion's second album, but it was not easy to make

By Dave Everley published

Buoyed by the success of Script For A Jester's Tear, follow-up Fugazi was a victim of extremely difficult second album syndrome

Volbeat’s Michael Poulsen

“It was inspiring to see how Metallica worked. I had their posters before I had my first guitar”: how Volbeat’s Michael Poulsen stepped up to metal’s big league

By Dave Everley published

The story of Volbeat’s Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies album

Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson onstage in 1994

“I believed we would not get back together. I thought Rush was a place Neil was not going to be able to go back to emotionally”: how Rush survived the 1990s and early 2000s

By Dave Everley published

Rush refound their rock spirit in the 1990s – only to be blindsided by personal tragedy

A promo shot of Rick Astley with insets of AC/DC’s Bon Scott and Slipknot’s Corey Taylor

“I fell in love with Highway To Hell when I heard it in my dad’s pick-up truck. Bon Scott had a cheek to him”: pop superstar Rick Astley on his love of AC/DC, Slipknot, Yes and Foo Fighters

By Dave Everley published

From AC/DC’s Highway To Hell to Foo Fighters’ Everlong, these are the song Rick Astley is never gonna give up

Devin Townsend

"Prog music, or heavy music in general, is a very conservative scene. When you are willing to expose yourself emotionally, it’s a vulnerable place to be." Devin Townsend tackles The Prog Interview

By Dave Everley published

From his early days with Steve Vai to battling through mental health problems and explaining to Prog just why he prefers Beefheart over Zappa, there’s much to cover in this therapeutic discussion…

A promo shot of Slayer in 1983

This 41 year old video is the oldest known footage of Slayer, and it proves they were brilliant from the start

By Dave Everley published

Watch a pre-fame Slayer play a show in Anaheim, California several months before debut album Show No Mercy came out

Mick Mars studio portrait. He's wearing a cap and smiling

Mick Mars put together the most hedonistic band of their era and has the scars to prove it: Now out of Mötley Crüe, he's starting a solo career. Lived a life? You bet

By Dave Everley published

Mick Mars looks back on his career, from his early days on Sunset Strip to his years as an unlikely metal superstar

Taylor Hawkins

"You have to manifest your destiny. You have to think about what you want to do, then do it": A celebration of the life of Taylor Hawkins

By Dave Everley published

Two years on from the death of Taylor Hawkins, we remember and celebrate the life of the Foo Fighters drummer, natural showman and perennial 'Mister Fanboy'

A portrait of Don Airey

“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

By Dave Everley published

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

Ozzy Osbourne onstage in 1978

“He’d go to the pub, come back at 9 o’clock, out of it, and go, ‘Right, let’s start’”: the story of Ozzy Osbourne’s forgotten 1970s “prog rock” solo band

By Dave Everley published

A couple years before he met Randy Rhoads and released Blizzard Of Ozz, Ozzy Osbourne tried to launch a solo career with a different band

Slash wearing shades and top hat

Slash interview: Growing up with the blues, assembling Orgy Of The Damned, meeting Peter Green, and the crazy journey behind that Oscars thing with Ryan Gosling

By Dave Everley published

Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators start their European tour next week

Roger Waters promotional headshot from 1992

A rebuilt Wall, Madonna's producer and an American academic: How Roger Waters saved himself

By Dave Everley published

At the start of the 90s, Roger Waters was up against it. An epic concert of The Wall in Berlin was the first brick in rebuilding his career, followed by his third solo album, Amused To Death

Opeth

“I was a wreck, physically and mentally. I wanted to cancel shows, split up the band, all these kind of things”: Aiming to make a “super-heavy record,” Opeth embraced the Mellotron and made Damnation instead

By Dave Everley published

Mikael Åkerfeldt – who’d become band leader because no one else would do it – recalls the misery of making the landmark 2003 album which made him feel he could hold his own with the likes of Porcupine Tree

Kiss in the 1970s with an inset of Bill And Ted star Alex Winter

Why I love Kiss, by Bill & Ted’s Alex Winter

By Dave Everley published

“They were like superheroes”: how Bill & Ted star Alex Winter fell in love with Kiss as a 10-year-old. Excellent!

Marillion

Fugazi: A great title but no songs to go with it… even the pathologically casual Marillion started to worry they’d never write the record, and they’d never get a drummer to play on it if they did

By Dave Everley published

The story of how Marillion made their second album, 1984's aptly titled Fugazi

Judas Priest onstage at the Hydro in Glasgow

"No holograms, no troupes of dancers, just a giant light-up trident descending from the ceiling": Judas Priest keep it simple on a triumphant first night of the Invincible Shield tour

By Dave Everley published

A show 160 years in the making: Judas Priest, Saxon and Uriah Heap take to the stage in Glasgow

Ace Frehley holding a Les Paul guitar - studio portrait

"I don't think they're gonna retire. They've been retiring for the last twenty years": Kiss played their final show last year, but Ace Frehley isn't convinced

By Dave Everley published

The former Kiss guitarist on his latest solo album, continuing to have fun, and why you'll never see an Ace Frehley avatar in a million years

A posed photograph of Pink Floyd in 1973

“We weren’t tempted to pursue that particular avenue, no. Led Zeppelin did it much better than us”: the Pink Floyd song that made Nick Mason realise they would have been a “terrible” heavy metal band

By Dave Everley published

In an alternative universe, a late 60s Pink Floyd song could have taken them down an entirely different path