Articles by Johnny Black

Johnny is a music journalist, author and archivist of forty years experience. In the UK alone, he has written for Smash Hits, Q, Mojo, The Sunday Times, Radio Times, Classic Rock, HiFi News and more. His website Musicdayz is the world’s largest archive of fully searchable chronologically-organised rock music facts, often enhanced by features about those facts. He has interviewed three of the four Beatles, all of Abba and been nursed through a bad attack of food poisoning on a tour bus in South America by Robert Smith of The Cure.

Articles by: Johnny Black

Ronnie Wood, Eric Clapton, Rich Grech and Pete Townshend onstage at The Rainbow

"He was selling guitars to raise ready cash to buy dope": The real story of the show that brought Eric Clapton back from the brink

By Johnny Black last updated 12 January 25

By mid-1971 Eric Clapton was a recluse with a heroin habit, until friends including Pete Townshend and George Harrison intervened to save his life

Jimmy Page, Keith Moon and Jeff Beck in 1966 (composite shot)

"I remember Jimmy yelling at us and calling us hooligans": Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, Jeff Beck and the chaotic session that sowed the seeds for Led Zeppelin

By Johnny Black published 1 December 24

In a small London studio, two Yardbirds, one member of The Who and a pair of passing session maestros united to record a spontaneous instrumental track. Things would never be the same again.

Howlin' Wolf recording in London with Eric Clapton

"I was thinking I was going to go down in history as the man who killed Howlin' Wolf": What happened when English rock royalty worked with a real blues icon

By Johnny Black last updated 22 November 24

Now revered as a linchpin moment in the history of the blues, Howlin’ Wolf’s 1970 London Sessions were recorded with Eric Clapton and various Stones and Beatles. This is the story, told by those who were there

Jello Biafra in front of a chalkboard reading, "Destroy All Gurus"

"I propose that businessmen should wear clown suits between the hours of nine and five": What happened when Jello Biafra ran for Mayor of San Francisco

By Johnny Black published 5 November 24

Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra's vision for San Francisco was both a great prank and barbed social commentary

"I asked George to turn it down a little. He looked at me and said: You don't talk to a Beatle like that": How The Beatles made Abbey Road, told by those who were there

By Johnny Black published 26 September 24

Making it was by no means all love, peace and understanding, but 50 years on, Abbey Road is now considered by many to be the greatest of all the The Beatles’ albums

A long distance shot of Pink Floy's Venice show, with fireworks exploding above the stage

"Playing live to 100 million people. It gets to you at times": The chaotic story of the day Pink Floyd hired an oil rig to play Venice and the mayor lost his job

By Johnny Black published 14 July 24

It was supposed to be just another Pink Floyd extravaganza. Nobody expected blackmail and a scandal that forced a city's mayor to resign

"On a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time": The story of the Bruce Springsteen show that saved his career and made him a star

By Johnny Black published 2 July 24

On May 9, 1974, Bruce Springsteen played the famous gig that saw him proclaimed as "rock'n'roll future". This is the story of what happened, by the people who were there

"The crowd just went off their brains. It was an amazing, fantastic first show": The story of AC/DC's live debut, told by those who were there

By Johnny Black published 3 June 24

On December 31, 1973, the fledgling AC/DC saw in the New Year by playing their very first gig at a bar in Sydney

Various musicians influenced by Jimi Hendrix

"There were guitar players weeping. They had to mop the floor up": How Jimi Hendrix invented everything we love

By Johnny Black published 29 April 24

When Jimi Hendrix arrived in London he blew the minds of the British rock elite. Soon they would follow his lead and develop and explosive new form of electric blues

Metallica posing in a corridor, and a close-up of Ian Anderson

"There was a two-minute pause, then everybody broke out laughing. They thought I was doing a joke": What happened the night Jethro Tull beat Metallica to a Grammy Award

By Johnny Black published 21 February 24

Prog rockers Jethro Tull pipped Metallica to win Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Recording award in 1989, and people are still talking about it

Van Halen posing astride a military tank

"Kids came in their thousands, and the first two rows looked like Attila The Hun’s frontline troops – frothing at the mouth": four years on the road with America's ultimate party band, Van Halen

By Johnny Black published 25 December 23

At the tag end of the 70s, Van Halen were poised to become one of the biggest-grossing acts on the planet... but the cracks were beginning to show

"They couldn't transport the snakes in the cattle trailer because it upset the Longhorn and the buffalo": How ZZ Top took Texas on the road in the most sanity-defying tour ever staged

By Johnny Black published 20 December 23

ZZ Top's Worldwide Texas Tour featured a plexiglass pyramid filled with rattlesnakes, trained buzzards, a fake wolf, and a night in Pittsburgh one doctor called "the most horrible thing I have seen since World War II"

A photograph of the Beatles with coloured films held over their faces

“All I could do to accommodate requests for new sounds for them was just to abuse the equipment": How The Beatles' Revolver revolutionised music

By Johnny Black published 14 December 23

Revolver is a feat of The Beatles' sonic experimentation and songwriting genius, and this is the story behind how the album was made

Freddie Mercury at a table at Queen's Jazz launch party

"Dwarves with trays of cocaine on their heads? It never happened. Well, I never saw it. Actually, it could have been true...": What really happened at Queen's most outrageous party

By Johnny Black published 1 December 23

In 1978, Queen launched their Jazz album with a huge Halloween party at the Fairmont Hotel in New Orleans. People are still talking about it

“Steve invited me round to his nan’s house to jam”: the story of Steve Harris’s pre-Iron Maiden bands Gypsy’s Kiss and Smiler and the birth of a legend

By Johnny Black published 7 October 23

How future Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris went from trainee draughtsman to superstar in waiting, as remembered by the people who knew him

"We had heard about fans in Russia being sent to prison just for owning our records": a story of Uriah Heep, KGB agents, guns, girls and gallons of vodka

By Johnny Black published 21 September 23

Moscow at the height of East-West tensions was a grim, alien city. What better place for fading British rockers Uriah Heep to raise their profile?

Gram Parsons wearing reflective aviator shades

"If there was a day in my life I could take back, it would be that day": The death of Gram Parsons - a story of drugs, theft, and a burning corpse

By Johnny Black published 19 September 23

The strange and tragic story of the death of Gram Parsons, told by the people who were there

Elton John performs at Doug Weston's Troubadour on August 25, 1970 in Los Angeles

"We knew within forty-five minutes that we had a superstar. It was electrifying": The Elton John show that launched his career into the stratosphere

By Johnny Black published 25 August 23

In August 1970, Elton John played his first US gig at the 300-capacity Troubadour club in Los Angeles. It would change everything

"So there I was, sitting in the driver's seat of a Lincoln Continental, underwater": The night The Who’s Keith Moon drove his car into a swimming pool

By Johnny Black published 24 August 23

Keith Moon celebrated his 21st birthday by taking one of his cars for a swim – or did he? Eyewitnesses explain what they saw – or think they saw

What happened the night Stevie Ray Vaughan died - by those who were there

By Johnny Black published 4 May 23

On August 27, 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan played the gig of his life. Just hours later he was killed when his helicopter crashed in thick fog. This is the inside story of that tragic day

Drugs, guns, and the tragic death of Mountain's Felix Pappalardi

By Johnny Black last updated 17 April 23

The combination of drugs, guns and a troubled wife meant things wouldn’t end well for the Mountain bassist. Here, insiders and eye-witnesses remember his murder trial

The Doors strep off their plane at Heathrow Airport

The Doors in London: "Jim was enigmatic and almost unbelievably beautiful"

By Johnny Black published 23 February 23

The Doors brought controversy with them when they arrived to play their debut UK gigs, but over two nights at London’s Roundhouse it was their incendiary music that did the talking.

When Pink Floyd reunited for Live 8: "It was like sleeping with your ex-wife"

By Johnny Black published 30 November 22

Pink Floyd’s classic line-up reunited only once, to play the historic Live 8 charity concert in 2005. Just don’t ask them to do it again

"Everybody was dumbstruck" - how Jimi Hendrix's arrival in London changed everything, as told by Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and more

By Johnny Black published 23 November 22

Jimi at 80 When Jimi Hendrix arrived in London in 1966, he not only blew the minds of fellow rock legends-in-making: he'd help spark a whole new form of electric blues

"Out, demons, out!" The historic day The Fugs attempted to levitate the Pentagon

By Johnny Black published 21 October 22

“This pistol is filled with LSD. I’m gonna squirt the troops and get them all high"

Johnny Black

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