A director found guilty
of embezzling money
from two companies
who look after Deep
Purple’s royalties has
been jailed for six
years and four
months. Dipak Rao,
71, stole £2.4 million
to invest in money-
making schemes
which turned out to
be scams.An inquest into the
death of Keith Flint
declared insufficient
evidence to state that
the singer intended to
take his own life. The
Prodigy’s frontman
had cocaine, codeine
and alcohol in his
system at the time of
his death, previously
reported as the result
of hanging, on March- “We will never quite
know what was going
on in his mind on that
date,” says the
coroner’s report.
Mastodon bassist/
vocalist Troy Sanders
is to spend the
summer touring with
Thin Lizzy. “Being
asked to join Thin
Lizzy on stage is a big
deal and true honour
for me,” he comments.
Mastodon, who
released a cover of Led
Zeppelin’s Stairway To
Heaven on Record
Store Day in honour of
their late manager
Nick John (all
proceeds went to
charity), will “dive
head-first” into their
new studio album
later this year.Tickets are now
available for a new
career-spanning
retrospective Black
Sabbath (pictured)
exhibition which runs
from June 22 until
September 29 at
Birmingham Museum
And Art Gallery. It
features historical
photographs and
memorabilia sourced
directly from the
band members.The Def Leppard
frontman (and
discerning glam-rock
connoisseur) sings
the praises of T. Rex’s
second studio album,
Electric Warrior, and
looks back on his
Sanyo stereo days.T.Rex
ELECTRIC WARRIORBy Joe Elliot
MY FIRST
LOVE
“I had just
acquired myself
a stereo –
a fantastic Sanyo
stereo. It was
like a suitcase.
You’d lift up the
lid, the lid split in
two and the
speakers came off
these flexi-
hinges. It had
a record player,
a cassette player and a radio; you
could tape off the radio and off records.
“My mum and dad had bought me
a compilation album of everything on
Island Records at the time, so you got
a sample of Jethro Tull, Free, Mott The
Hoople, Cat Stevens, Jimmy Cliff... So
I taped that LP and traded it for a copy
of Electric Warrior.
“Ziggy Stardust came out a year
later, which might have actually gone
on to become a bigger love. But my
first love? Electric Warrior, absolutely.
It’s a great record. Get It On, Lean
Woman Blues, Life’s A Gas... I can be in
a dark room, and play that record by
just shutting my eyes and just letting
my brain hear it. I don’t have to put it
on, it’s that ingrained in my brain.
Chiselled in. It’s in my DNA.” PGCH
RIS(^) SH
IFLE
TT:
(^) JO
DY
DO
MIN
GU
E/P
RES
S (^) /
GE
TTY
A Foo Fighter of some 20 years
standing, guitarist Chris Shif lett has had
to work hard to step out from under the
imposing shadow that Dave Grohl and
his band cast. Not that Shif lett sees it
that way; he loves his day job.
His second solo album proper, Hard
Lessons, is an exuberant, outreaching
exercise in country and classic
rock’n’roll. He might have scratched his
name playing punk and ska in a covers
band, but his heart clearly belongs to
Merle Haggard and maybe even The
Replacements. It’s
a pleasing crossroads
where Hard Lessons
happily sits.
How much harder is
it leading a band
than playing in one?
These are the best
shows I’ve ever done as
a solo artist. It’s what
gives me those nerves every night – “Oh
shit, that’s my mic, that’s my stage” – but
it’s been perfect.
The last time we saw you live was
with the Foos at the Rogers Center
baseball stadium in Toronto, and you
all looked ridiculously relaxed.
By the end of a long tour, everyone tends
to get kind of crispy, and that didn’t
happen this time. I think that’s a gigantic
part of being in a band – the mental space.
It’s one thing to be able to play live, but
you have to be able to live with your
bandmates. It’s being able to play in the
van and the hotel room.
Geddy and Alex from Rush said they
couldn’t believe how composed you
all were before the show.
I took a picture with them and posted it
and said: “Hey, everybody, I’m the new
drummer for Rush! ” The amazing thing
about social media is that some people
were commenting: “My god!
Congratulations! ” Have you heard me
play drums?! I’m not the guy in the Foo
Fighters that’s getting that gig!
Talking of some of your other gigs,
you used to be part of the great ska
pop covers band Me First & The
Gimme Gimmes.
The five of us made those records, and
then not too long ago they started putting
out music they were making without me.
That was a line in the sand that I could not
be comfortable with them crossing, so
I no longer have anything to do with it.
Your new album,
Hard Lessons has
a real live-in-the-
studio, lightning-in-
a-bottle-moment
vibe to it. Was that
always the plan for
the record?
You go into the studio
and you don’t know
what you’re walking out with. A lot of it
has to do with your musical make-up,
too. There’s a song on there called Weak
Heart, and [producer] Dave Cobb said:
“Let’s make this sound like Aerosmith.”
But when I was learning it with the guys
that I’m touring with, one of them said:
“This sounds like a Kiss song.” And that
hadn’t even occurred to me. But it does.
I grew up worshipping Kiss, you can’t
deny that.
You play solo and with the Foos, you
have a podcast...
The other thing is that I’m married with
three children – that’s a job in itself. But
I’m lucky, I get to play music all the time.
And that’s what the dream was. This
beard’s less [from] touring and more
from having children, I think. When my
first son was born I looked like I was in
high school, now I look like my grandpa,
like I crawled out of a cave. PW
Hard Lessons is out on June 21 via East
Beach Records & Tapes/Thirty Tigers.
The Foo Fighters guitarist on joining Rush (sort of),
worshipping Kiss and balancing work with fatherhood.
Chris Shiflett
“These are the
best shows I’ve
ever done as
a solo artist.”
18 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM