Matt Wake

Yeah, "the music is supposed to always come first," but don’t let anyone kid you: In popular music, a musician’s look is a very close second. Would Kiss have half as many fans if the band all dressed like Elvis Costello? Probably not. Do we want Lady Gaga looking like......

The man who hand-built the guitar Slash played on most of Appetite for Destruction lived in an old trailer behind Redondo Beach's Music Works. His name was Kris Derrig. Even though he was just in his early 30s, Derrig's waist-length hair was already gray. The replicas he made of 1959......

So you want to be a heavy metal star? You’re going to need more than a sweet Flying V, arena-crumbling anthems and a decent pair of leather pants. It also helps if you have a “metal sounding” name, preferably something that sounds vaguely European, larger-than-life and/or sinister. Some of these......

Much like some VHS bootleg of a vintage Judas Priest concert, early on That Metal Show was something headbangers shared with their brethren over a sixer on Saturday nights. Yet a few seasons in, the VH1 Classic program — which in 2008 began beaming classic-metal heroes last heard rocking Fiero stereos......

So how loud was it inside the Record Plant — then located near the corner of 3rd Street and La Cienega Boulevard — as Black Sabbath recorded basic tracks, all in the same room, for Vol. 4, the only album the band’s original lineup ever recorded in Los Angeles? “I think......

It looked like a big black tent. Offstage right and behind the bass bin speakers in a Stockholm arena, Ozzy Osbourne’s crew had set up a portable vocal booth. Inside the booth’s black curtained exterior was a microphone and stand, floor wedge monitor, and an intercom to communicate directly with the sound......

The riffs are heavy enough to crater a parking lot but with just the right amount of math and post-Zeppelin exotica to them. The lyrics address such subjects as tyrannicide and “a post-American world." Yes, on their 15th studio album, Dystopia, Megadeth remains the thinking-person’s thrash-metal band. Dave Mustaine’s snarling vocals,......

A stairway led from the Starwood Club's dressing room down to the stage, which was about 20 feet wide and maybe 12 feet deep. Down those stairs came Mötley Crüe, a new local band that mixed New York Dolls glam-punk with Van Halen pop-metal. It was a Friday night in......

In March of 2015, L.A. Weekly writer Matt Wake interviewed Scott Weiland while the singer was on tour with his most recent band, Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts. We published the original interview on March 30, the day before the release of the Wildabouts' debut album, Blaster. (That same night,......

On a recent afternoon, Chris Robinson is in Atlanta, the city he was living in 25 years ago while working on The Black Crowes’ 1990 multi-platinum debut, Shake Your Monkey Maker. That album featured Robinson belting out rooster-strut hits like “Jealous Again,” “She Talks to Angels” and a guitarified cover of......