Rick Nielsen is best known as Cheap Trick’s lead guitarist and main songwriter. In the late '70s, Cheap Trick helped popularize power pop with their songs “Surrender” and “I Want You To Want Me," which were precursors to the ...
Mark Ronson's big break as a producer came from working with Amy Winehouse to find the perfect sound for her career defining album, Back To Black . Since then, Ronson has gone on to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe and seven Gram...
BROCKHAMPTON's original members formed after posting on a Kanye West fan message board in 2010, and then started making music in The Woodlands, Texas. Since then, they’ve turned the idea of a boy band on its head. With as man...
Archie Shepp is a tenor saxophonist and composer who's spent over half a century contributing to the evolution of Black music. Shepp has long fought for Black musicians to get their fair share of credit, recognition and recom...
Craig Finn, the lead singer and songwriter of The Hold Steady, is known for his vivid, literary-style songwriting. He often writes about characters going through an existential crisis. The Hold Steady released their eighth al...
Moby may be one of the most highly recognizable dance-music artists of all time, but he’s also a talented multi-hyphenate whose unconventional 30-year career includes massive success as a producer and DJ, and notoriety as an ...
Brian Eno’s 50-year career is teeming with innovation. He started out playing synths in the early ‘70s as a member of the UK glam-rock band Roxy Music and went on to create an entirely new musical genre—ambient music, and lat...
Liz Phair helped lay the foundation for a generation of fierce, independent artists on her gritty 1993 debut album, Exile In Guyville . Early in her career, she pushed for freedom and creative control, especially for female a...
Rhiannon Giddens is a brilliant fiddle and banjo player who’s one of the few musicians alive today trained in the centuries-old black string band tradition. Giddens is a North Carolina native but now lives in Ireland, not far...
In 2005 singer Bonnie "Prince" Billy a.k.a. Will Oldham and guitarist Matt Sweeney released the Superwolf album, which has developed a cult following that includes Rick Rubin who absolutely fell in love with the project. Now,...
Peter Frampton is a classic rock guitar god who rose to international fame in the late ‘70s with his chart-topping double album, Frampton Comes Alive! Justin Richmond caught up with Frampton recently to talk about his new alb...
System of a Down’s classic Rick Rubin-produced album, Toxicity, turns 20 this year. Released in 2001 one week before 9/11, the politically charged and wildly bizarre album provided the perfect soundtrack for a world descendin...
Listening to Jimbo Mathus and Andrew Bird’s new album, These 13 , is like taking a trip down South … a century ago. It’s new territory for Andrew Bird, a classically trained multi-instrumentalist from the Chicago suburbs who’...
Few bands have experienced such extreme highs and lows as the Bee Gees. Throughout their decades-long career, the band of brothers managed to be both grossly underrated and one of the best-selling acts of all time. Barry Gibb...
Merry Clayton is a legendary backup singer who has managed to consistently steal the spotlight. Merry’s journey from a renowned backup singer to a solo artist was documented in the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet From Stard...
Marianne Faithfull has been many things throughout her half a century in music—a close confidant of the Rolling Stones, a pop star, a homeless drug addict and a critically acclaimed comeback artist. Despite a career filled wi...
Valerie June has helped widen the scope of contemporary Americana music. She’s one of few African American women in the category and her unique combination of gospel and Appalachian folk is a shimmering example of what's poss...
Malcolm Gladwell recently spoke with Ziggy Marley as part of the Live Talks Los Angeles series. Their conversation centers around a book of photographs Ziggy curated called Bob Marley: Portrait of the Legend . Ziggy has gone ...
Since forming in 1996, Linkin Park has sold over 100 million records worldwide. Their enormous success mixing genres like hip-hop, metal and anthemic pop was spearheaded by the band’s ultra-talented founder, Mike Shinoda. In ...
Since his first conversation with Rick, Kenny Beats’ star has continued to rise. In the past couple of years he has produced songs with Ed Sheeran, Da Baby and Vince Staples. He’s also taken several trips to the UK, and produ...
There’s a reason Kenny Beats is one of the great young producers in Hip Hop. Because he has a vast understanding of the regional sounds and histories of cities to pull from when making beats for an artist. This allows him to ...
Rick Rubin speaks with the great Joan Baez fresh off her birthday and the announcement that she'll be among this year's Kennedy Center honorees! Joan was known the world over as the Queen of Folk at the height of her career i...
Most people know Rivers Cuomo as Weezer’s brilliant, quirky lead singer. But one thing people may not know, is that several years ago, a bizarre conspiracy theory made its way around the Web that Rivers was actually Kurt Coba...
Rick Rubin connected with Earth, Wind & Fire's Verdine White to talk about the early days of the band and about their producer, Charles Stepney, who Verdine calls their George Martin. Also Rick reads to Verdine a poignant not...