4. Uli Jon Roth
“I grew up with Scorpions and my era was with Mathias Jabs on lead guitar. On a nostalgic level, he’s almost a tie with Uli, though Uli is probably the better and more interesting out of the two. After hearing Mathias, I kinda backtracked and bought Virgin Killer. It felt so loud, almost like death metal to my ears.
“Uli is a great rhythm player too, he wears his inspiration on his sleeve and it’s mainly Jimi Hendrix. Obviously he gets a lot of credit for his solos and rightfully so, they’re all fuckin’ fantastic. They’re still putting out good records. I’ve seen Uli live a couple of times, he’s always so loud. I think he should throw away his Sky guitar and get his Stratocaster back. It sounds too high-endy and sharp for my tastes, though I get that he wants to maintain his trademark single-coil sound.
“I wanted to be Mathias Jabs as a kid. He definitely loves guitars… I believe he has a shop. I had a chance to meet him at MusikMesse in Frankfurt a while ago, he was stood right next to me. But I couldn’t do it… it was too much. They once invited us over to meet the whole band once, but I said no because I knew I wouldn’t be able to deal with it. That’s how much of an influence he was. Mathias is very underrated, but he can sure play that Explorer.”
“We’ve never thought we have made the perfect record. We are always on the lookout to discover new ways of doing things, new sounds”: Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith on Tears For Fears’ restless creativity, artistic independence and the search for surprise
“I tried to make the concert feel like my own spin on a rock show. My dream was for people to jump and scream and be all sweaty by the end”: Olivia Rodrigo reflects on her hugely successful Guts World Tour
