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

"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

Andrew WK on stage in 2002

"I thought, 'I’m gonna make a song telling people to party, but party however they want.'" How an earnest, sober young man in a grubby white t-shirt called Andrew W.K. convinced a post-9/11 world to embrace positivity with a song called Party Hard

By Henry Yates published

Affected by the darkness of 9/11 and fed up of partying being owned by booze and drugs, Andrew W.K. went about writing an unlikely generational anthem

The Beatles in 1964

The 10 worst Beatles songs

By Henry Yates published

Even The Beatles had their off days, as these 10 stinkers prove

Mike McCready with a Fender Stratocaster

"It's a lot heavier than you'd expect": Mike McCready on Pearl Jam's next album, working with Andrew Watt, and the state of the US

By Henry Yates published

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready talks smashed Stratocasters, screaming solos, and why his band need their "asses kicked"

Walter Trout with guitar, leaning up against an abandoned truck

The Walter Trout albums you should definitely own

By Henry Yates published

The best of bluesman Walter Trout's studio back catalogue to catch in your net – and one to throw back

A section of the cover art from Jackson Browne's Late For The Sky

The story behind Jackson Browne's favourite Jackson Browne album cover

By Henry Yates published

Based on a painting by Belgian surrealist René Magritte, the cover photograph for Jackson Browne's Late For The Sky took weeks to capture

Bob Dylan, Curtis Mayfield and George Harrison portraits

14 peace anthems and the stories behind them

By Bill DeMain, Polly Glass, Jo Kendall, Henry Yates published

From pleas for equality to anti-war sentiments and social commentary, we look at some of the greatest peace songs of all time

Keith Moon in the studio and (inset) Kenney Jones at home

The 10 best Keith Moon performances, by Kenney Jones

By Henry Yates published

Kenney Jones replaced the irrepressible Keith Moon in The Who in 1978 – and these are performances by his predecessor he loves the most

Richie Sambora and Dolly Parton onstage at Glastonbury in 2014

Richie Sambora on Dolly Parton: "If you're not a fan, then you don't understand music very much"

By Henry Yates published

Former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora on blowing up Glastonbury with Dolly Parton, playing on Rockstar, and why "Dolly is Elvis, man"

Edwyn Starr studio portrait

"I saw one royalty cheque... and I never saw anything else from that point on": Edwyn Starr's raging classic War may have made his name, but it didn't make him rich

By Henry Yates published

‘War! Huh! Yeah! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!’: 10 words that entered the public consciousness in 1970 and have never left

Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen and Rick Nielsen

32 of the greatest onstage moments in the entire history of the rock guitar

By Amit Sharma, Polly Glass, Henry Yates, Ian Fortnam, Paul Henderson, Richard Bienstock, Joe Bosso, Andy Aledort, Damian Fanelli published

Celebrating the pioneering, the spectacular, the unexpected and the unrepeatable

George Thorogood studio portrait

"We actually took it to a musicologist because we didn’t want to get sued": the story behind George Thorogood & The Destroyers' Bad To The Bone

By Henry Yates published

George Thorogood’s ode to brawlin’ and heart breakin’ Bad To The Bone was inspired by The Rolling Stones and almost recorded by Bo Diddley

Starbenders, Wolfgang Van Halen, The Rolling Stones, Grace Potter and Skindred

The 50 best rock albums of 2023

By Fraser Lewry published

The past 12 months may go down in history as a period of tumult and turmoil, but on the positive side, rock'n'roll is very much alive and well – as the best 50 albums of 2023 reflect

Nader Mansour portrait

"My country might be in shambles right now, but I'm the king of these shambles": The Wanton Bishops' Nader Mansour on the beauty of Beirut

By Henry Yates published

Lebanese rocker Nader Mansour on giving up screaming, dating wild women and the insecurity of musicians

The cover of David Bowie's Hunky Dory, plus (inset) Jim James

Why I ❤️ David Bowie's Hunky Dory, by My Morning Jacket's Jim James

By Henry Yates published

My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James on the classic 1971 album that introduced him to the joys of David Bowie