Geoff Barton

Geoff Barton

Geoff Barton is a British journalist who founded the heavy metal magazine Kerrang! and was an editor of Sounds music magazine. He specialised in covering rock music and helped popularise the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) after using the term for the first time (after editor Alan Lewis coined it) in the May 1979 issue of Sounds.

Articles by: Geoff Barton

Journey posing for a photograph in 2008

“We asked Perry: ‘Do you want to write a new record?’ ‘No, no, no.’ At that point you’re wondering, why did we even bother putting Journey back together?” How Journey found a brand new singer on YouTube and banished the ghost of Steve Perry

By Geoff Barton published

Former YouTube singer Arnel Pineda helped Journey open up a whole new chapter in their career

Black Sabbath standing in front of their tour bus in 1975

"Ozzy jumped from one subject to another with astonishing rapidity, like some frantic pigeon": A mind-mincing encounter with Black Sabbath on the Sabotage tour

By Geoff Barton published

By 1976, Black Sabbath already had a huge heritage to live up to. We joined them on the road in Portsmouth

Judas Priest posing for a photograph in 2004

“Don’t relationships always get nasty in the end? A few knives get stuck in and before you know it, it’s out of control”: How Judas Priest reunited with Rob Halford to regain the metal throne with Angel Of Retribution

By Geoff Barton published

In late 2004, Classic Rock joined the reunited Judas Priest on the road in Spain

AC/DC’s Angus Young holding a guitar

“We were heartbroken. The world had lost a big talent. But as a band we had lost much more”: The rollercoaster story of AC/DC’s Back In Black, the 50-million selling album that emerged from tragedy

By Geoff Barton published

How AC/DC recovered from the death of iconic singer Bon Scott to make the biggest rock album ever

Ozzy Osbourne posing for a photograph in 2009

“That TV celebrity that I became, I didn’t like it. My heart is in music. I hated every second of it”: How Ozzy Osbourne rediscovered himself with the Scream album

By Geoff Barton published

In 2010, Ozzy Osbourne released his eleventh solo album Scream – and he had reality TV, reunions and “Jesus Freaks” on his mind

Kansas

“I came into the studio on the last day and said, ‘I think you better hear this one.’ It was kind of a curse.” When Kansas cracked the charts with a song they didn’t want to record

By Malcolm Dome, Geoff Barton published

In 1976 the US prog rockers found themselves in the upper reaches of the US charts with drivetime classic Carry On Wayward Son – which nearly fell victim to lethargy

Paul Di'Anno and Steve Harris onstage in 1980

"Fake blood starts pouring from an amateurish-looking skull incorporated into a plank of wood": A night out with Iron Maiden before they were famous

By Geoff Barton published

In October 1979 Classic Rock's Geoff Barton watched Iron Maiden play a heavy metal disco in North West London. He took notes

Twisted SIster’s Dee Snider in full make-up in the mid-80s

“I called Gene Simmons. He said: ‘How the hell did you get this number?!’ That was when I got the idea that we weren’t going to be best buddies”: Dee Snider’s wild tales of Robert Plant, Frank Zappa, Freddy Krueger and Kiss

By Geoff Barton published

From Johnny Cash and John Denver to Manowar and Henry Kissinger, former Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider has mixed with them all

Ritchie Blackmore smashing his guitar onstage

"I was lying in bed at about three in the morning when an axe smashed through my door": Deep Purple’s 25 maddest moments

By Geoff Barton published

Life in Deep Purple has never been dull

Detective - debut album cover art

"The sound of a band that knew its influences and leaned into them unapologetically": Detective's debut album paints them as the original Greta Van Fleet

By Classic Rock Magazine published

Michael Des Barres leads Detective through an album that owes much to their Led Zeppelin paymasters

Paul Rodgers and Brian May onstage

"I think Freddie would be happy, because I feel his spirit throughout the music": How Queen + Paul Rodgers took Freddie Mercury's spirit back to the stage

By Geoff Barton published

Before Queen + Adam Lambert there was Queen + Paul Rodgers. We spoke to them about the plusses and the minuses

Glenn Hughes posing for a photograph in 1976

“John Wayne said: ‘My daughter would be so happy to get your autographs.’ So David Coverdale and I signed his cowboy boots”: Glenn Hughes’ wild tales of Ritchie Blackmore, David Bowie, Phil Lynott and The Duke

By Geoff Barton published

Bowie, Blackmore, Richard Burton and Linda Blair – Glenn Hughes has crossed paths with them all

Terry Reid headshot

"Ritchie Blackmore never missed a note, and that ain't easy when you're about to be beheaded": An introduction to Terry Reid, the man who could have fronted Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple

By Geoff Barton published

Unfairly framed as rock’s ultimate nearly man, Terry Reid chose to take his own path, and he's still going strong

Deep Purple posing for a photograph in 1975

“I had a meltdown. Cocaine psychosis took over – it’s a form of paranoid schizophrenia”: How Deep Purple split from Ritchie Blackmore and made a funky masterpiece in Come Taste The Band

By Geoff Barton published

Ritchie Blackmore was out, US hotshot Tommy Bolin was in and Deep Purple’s Mk IV line-up were about to make the most under-rated album of their career

Deep Purple backstage on the Perfect Strangers Tour in Australia

"Purple is like an old love affair and love can be very close to hate": Deep Purple on chemistry, magic, and the birth of Perfect Strangers

By Geoff Barton last updated

We travel back in time to 1984 and talk to the reformed Deep Purple as the ready themselves to release comeback album Perfect Strangers

Jim Morrison of The Doors onstage in 1968

“Jim’s whole shaman thing only became apparent later, after people wrote books about us. To us, he was just the frontman”: Jim Morrison – the man behind the myth, by the people who knew him

By Geoff Barton published

Shaman? Lizard King? Visionary? This was the real Jim Morrison, according to his Doors bandmates

Deep Purple in 1969

Every Deep Purple album ranked, from worst to best

By Geoff Barton published

Updated Deep Purple's albums ranked, from patchy Purple to purple patches, from iconic albums to the one Ritchie Blackmore dubbed "cattle grazing" to the one with the new chap

Marc Bolan holding a spanner

"That's the problem with me, you see. I'm a lunatic": The true story of Marc Bolan's final days

By Geoff Barton published

Marc Bolan, the Guru Of Glitter, was killed in a car crash in 1977 – just as his career was on the rise again. This is the story of his final hours

Kiss posing for a photograph in 2009

“The great albums were not made under a microscope. They were made by living, breathing people who were excited by what they were doing”: How Kiss fought back against the music industry with Sonic Boom

By Geoff Barton published

In 2009, Kiss released Sonic Boom, an album that called back to past glories

Moggs Motel cover art

"Reminiscent of a deeper, darker version of UFO": Phil Mogg ponders his own mortality on the brilliant Moggs Motel

By Geoff Barton published

Mogg-nificent

Ian Gillan

“We had collapsed financially – I couldn’t pay the wages. I was on the verge of bankruptcy”: The chaotic story of Ian Gillan’s erratically brilliant solo career

By Geoff Barton published

Jazz-funk, solo hits and near-bankruptcy – this is the turbulent story of Ian Gillan’s post-Deep Purple career

Fanny: The Reprise Years 1970-1973 cover art

"The most comprehensive collection of Fanny material to date": The full Fanny and more celebrated on The Reprise Years 1970-1973

By Geoff Barton published

Fanny business

Sammy Hagar - All Night Long cover art

"I'm sure this sounded perfectly bitchin' blasting out of a Camaro's hi-fi": Sammy Hagar provides the late-70s party soundtrack on All Night Long

By Classic Rock Magazine published

Sammy Hagar's puffed-up personality oozes from every pore during a short, sharp, scintillating set

Tormé: The Bernie Tormé Archives Vol. 2 1985-1993 cover art

"Cheap, rushed and ill-conceived": Bernie Tormé sounds inessential on second archive collection

By Geoff Barton published

The Bernie Tormé Archives Vol. 2 1985-1993: Big in Cleethorpes

Def Leppard in 1979

"This next song is about destruction, like all heavy metal songs": In 1979, the fledgling Def Leppard played a small club show in Sheffield, and our man was there

By Geoff Barton published

Joe Elliott might decry the phrase "heavy metal" in 2024, but 46 years ago he was ready to embrace it