Henry Yates

Henry Yates

Henry Yates has been a freelance journalist since 2002 and written about music for titles including The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Classic Rock, Guitarist, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer. He is the author of Walter Trout's official biography, Rescued From Reality, a music pundit on Times Radio and BBC TV, and an interviewer who has spoken to Brian May, Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie Wood, Dave Grohl, Marilyn Manson, Kiefer Sutherland and many more. 

Articles by: Henry Yates

Kenny Wayne Shepherd studio portrait

"People will become conditioned to artificial intelligence and learn to accept it": Kenny Wayne Shepherd on the spark of Stevie Ray Vaughan, smoking with Joe Bonamassa, and the dumb creep of AI

By Henry Yates published

The second volume of US bluesman Kenny Wayne Shepherd's Dirt On My Diamonds series is out now

Zakk Wylde posing for a photograph with a guitar

“Ozzy says, ‘I’ve never thrown a TV out the window.’ So I rip one out of the wall and launch it out of the window”: Zakk Wylde’s crazy tales of Ozzy Osbourne, Axl Rose, Eddie Van Halen and more

By Henry Yates published

Trashing hotel rooms with Ozzy, teaching Mark Wahlberg how to rock and almost joining Guns N’ Roses – Black Label Society guitar berserker Zakk Wylde has done all of it and more

The Freddie Mercury statue at Lake Geneva, Montreux, Switzerland

"Keep writing me words, keep giving me things, I will sing, I will sing": A look back at Freddie Mercury's final Queen album, Made In Heaven

By Henry Yates last updated

Put together as a labour of love by Queen’s surviving members, Made In Heaven was followed by multi-platinum sales and five Top 20 UK singles

The Cold Stares live on stage

"I thought Free were from Alabama, because it sounded southern to me": The Cold Stares' seventh album is both a love letter to Kentucky and a call for unity in volatile times

By Henry Yates published

Embracing their roots on record for the first time, The Cold Stares' seventh album The Southern shares a vision of the South you won't see from other musicians or the media

Nickelback posing for a photograph in the recording studio in 2005

“The last time I saw Dimebag Darrell, he hands a bottle of JD over, I take a huge pull off it and throw up. I think I told him I loved him”: Why Nickelback are the rock band all other rock bands secretly wish they were

By Henry Yates published

In 2005, Nickelback were already one of the biggest rock bands in the world – and All The Right Reasons was about to make them even bigger

Joanne Shaw Taylor studio portrait

"Taylor Swift is probably the most influential guitar player of my generation": This is the soundtrack of Joanne Shaw Taylor's life

By Henry Yates published

Joanne Shaw Taylor picks her records, artists and gigs of last significance, and reveals why her nephew is practising for a Viking funeral

Jimi Hendrix in 1968

"He remains the world's most influential guitarist": Six essential posthumous albums by Jimi Hendrix

By Henry Yates published

We've sifted through the hundreds of legally dubious and musically bankrupt albums released under Jimi Hendrix's name since his death in 1970, and come up with six of the best

Jimi Hendrix onstage and (inset) Eddie Kramer

"He would have embraced rap and hip-hop because he absorbed music like a sponge. It would have become part of what he created": What Jimi Hendrix means to me, by Eddie Kramer

By Henry Yates published

Producer and engineer Eddie Kramer looks back on his association with the great Jimi Hendrix

Bryan Adams leaning on a motorbike

"For me there was no message. I was just trying to write great songs": The Bryan Adams albums you should definitely listen to

By Henry Yates published

There are infinitely more highlights in the Canadian singer-songwriter’s bulging catalogue than just 'that song'

Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose in a police car

Bikers, fire hoses and looting: the story of the Guns N' Roses fan riot in St. Louis

By Henry Yates last updated

On July 2, 1991, the infamous 'Rocket Queen riot' kicked off during a Guns N' Roses show at the Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis. This is what happened

Rick Wakeman poses for a portrait in 1976

“I don’t recall stockings and suspenders coming into Arthurian legend, but hey, they do now!”: how Rick Wakeman staged the most OTT live shows of the 1970s

By Henry Yates published

The story of prog icon Rick Wakeman‘s epic 1970s shows for Journey To The Centre Of The Earth and King Arthur On Ice

Jimi Hendrix studio portrait

The hits, the posthumous tracks, the interstellar space jams: These are the 20 greatest songs Jimi Hendrix ever recorded

By Classic Rock last updated

In four short years Jimi Hendrix created a rock'n'roll revolution, changing the way guitarists played their instruments and redefining what was possible in music itself

The Black Keys

"If you're a band that ascends quickly into huge shows, you don't have the perspective to be freaked out by it": The Black Keys look back on platinum sales, Grammy awards, burnout and reignition

By Henry Yates published

As pack leaders of the post-millennial alt.blues scene – until fame turned their hair grey – The Black Keys have rediscovered their mojo on twelfth album Ohio Players

U2: Under A Blood Red Sky cover art

"I really believe that tonight we're going to make history": Before the giant lemons and irony, U2 put on one hell of a live show

By Henry Yates published

Bono predicts a big future for U2 on Under A Blood Red Sky

"I think the blues can be very beneficial on a medicinal level": Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks pick the blues albums that are good for your health

By Henry Yates published

Everybody’s favourite husband-and-wife team flip through their record collection and dig out the platters that truly matter

Mdou Moctar: Funeral For Justice cover art

"Music to stop you in your tracks": Mdou Moctar pulses with a fiery momentum on Funeral For Justice

By Henry Yates published

Funeral For Justice is the sixth studio album from Nigerien desert rockers Mdou Moctar

Honeymoon Suite studio portrait

"Jamming out – I call it jerking off": Why Honeymoon Suite's new songs will not be messed with when they're played live

By Henry Yates published

Honeymoon Suite frontman Johnnie Dee on politics, car accidents, and that time he flew to Canada and missed out on meeting Ian Anderson

Motley Crue studio portrait

"We're the bastards": listen to Mötley Crüe's spidery comeback single Dogs Of War

By Henry Yates published

Exclusive: Vince Neil tells us all about Mötley Crüe’s first single since 2015

Motley Crue studio portrait

"We don't want to stagnate": Mötley Crüe sign with Big Machine Records – Vince Neil exclusive

By Henry Yates published

Sunset Strip veterans Mötley Crüe join Scott Borchetta’s Nashville label, with new single Dogs Of War due later this week. Crüe vocalist Vince Neil gives us the dirt

Scott Stapp studio portrait

"We're not defined by the five worst days in our lives": Scott Stapp has had dark days, but he knows the world we live in is not all unicorns and rainbows

By Henry Yates published

Returning with new solo album Higher Power, Creed frontman Scott Stapp reflects on why music keeps pulling him through

Audioslave backstage at the Jimmy Kimmel show in 2005

“I don’t think there was a single riff I wrote after 1992 that Zack de la Rocha even liked”: how Audioslave saw Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello escaping his own past

By Henry Yates published

In 2006, Audioslave’s Tom Morello and Chris Cornell sat down with Classic Rock to reveal all about their third album, Revelations

Headshots of Son House and (inset) Jack White

"It became my favourite song the first time I heard it, and it still is": How Jack White rocket-fuelled his hero Son House for a whole new generation

By Henry Yates published

When The Whites Stripes' Jack White was 18, he heard Delta bluesman Son House for the first time. It was a song that spoke to him "in a thousand different ways"

Philip Sayce sitting on a table beneath some trees holding an acoustic guitar

"So I drink it – and the next thing I know it was eight days later": Bluesman Philip Sayce on industry sharks, his werewolf obsession, and the dangers of drinking at LA parties

By Henry Yates published

Philip Sayce: sometimes he wants his guitar to sound like a huge, angry lion, or sometimes a spaceship lifting off

ZZ Top posing by a limousine circa 1980

"We were starting to work in the girl theme. Cars, girls, fast and loud – those elements were starting to gel": How ZZ Top reinvented themselves with Degüello to pave the way for Eliminator

By Henry Yates published

With some top tunes, a vintage clavinet and a battery of effects plastered all over it, Degüello successfully updated ZZ Top’s old-school blues and pointed the way towards future superstardom

Hannah Wicklund press shot

Rising star Hannah Wicklund is only in her mid-twenties, but she's been building towards her new album for decades

By Henry Yates published

Meet a multi-instrumentalist and vocal powerhouse tipped for great things: Hannah Wicklund