Mick Ralphs’ burly guitar tone and arrangements made “Ready for Love,” “Can’t Get Enough,” “Bad Company,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” and others part of the soundtrack of the ’70s.
English guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Mick Ralphs was among a select group of performers who achieved both consistent commercial success and artistic triumph throughout a career that extended from the mid-’60s until 2016, when a stroke led to his hospitalization and, eventually, retirement. Ralphs, who died on Monday, June 23, at age 81, was a founding member of two seminal British rock bands, Mott the Hoople and Bad Company. But he also had other collaborations and led groups that faithfully performed the other idiom he loved besides rock—the blues. Bad Company was recently voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with its induction ceremony scheduled for November. His co-founding Bad Company member Paul Rodgers issued a statement Monday on the group’s website shortly after the news broke.
“Our Mick has passed; my heart just hit the ground,” Rodgers said. “He has left us with exceptional songs and memories. He was my friend, my songwriting partner, an amazing and versatile guitarist who had the greatest sense of humor. Our last conversation was a few days ago, we shared a laugh, but it won’t be our last. There are many memories of Mick that will create laughter. Condolences to everyone who loved him—especially his one true love, [Ralphs’ wife] Susie. I will see you in heaven.”
Ralphs was born in 1944 in the Western English county of Herefordshire, and began playing with blues bands in his teens. As a soloist, Ralphs could deliver either flashy, speedy licks or thoughtful, intricate riffs and phrases. His songwriting prowess reflected an ability to create catchy lyrics and pen engaging melodies that would hook audiences. His fame and recognition expanded during his tenure in Mott the Hoople. Initially known as the Doc Thomas Group, and later the Shakedown Sound and/or Silence, the band began in 1966 with Ralphs on guitar, vocalist Stan Tippis, and bassist Pete Overend Watts. Later they added drummer Dale “Buffin” Griffin and organist Verden Allen.
They changed their name to Mott the Hoople after signing with Island in 1969, doing so on a request from producer Guy Stevens. He’d read a novel by Willard Manus titled Mott the Hoople, about an eccentric working in a circus freak show. Before releasing their debut album, Ian Hunter was recruited as frontman. The band’s early records didn’t make much impact, but David Bowie was a fan of their sound. He penned their first huge hit, “All The Young Dudes,” and produced their breakout LP of the same name in 1972. The Bowie influence heavily shifted the band’s idiomatic focus to glam. Still, Ralphs had one of his first big hits as a songwriter, “Rock and Roll Queen,” while with them. He also wrote a tune that would become a much bigger hit later: “Ready For Love.”
Ralphs’ dynamic guitar style would be headlined on yet another Hoople hit, “Roll Away the Stone.” This came right before he departed the band in 1973, in large part due to tensions with Hunter. Their beef even reached the rock press, though Ralphs’ decision would lead to a different pathway and subsequently more personal success as an instrumentalist and songwriter. He’d developed a friendship with vocalist Paul Rodgers, who’d also recently left the band Free. What was first viewed as only a writing partnership blossomed into a recording session, and drummer Simon Kirke asked to sit in. They would recruit former King Crimson member Boz Burrell as the bassist, and Bad Company was born. The self-titled debut LP topped the charts, Ralphs’ tune “Can’t Get Enough” (also known as “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love”) reached number five on Billboard Hot 100, and the album was ultimately certified as a five-times-platinum seller.
Instantly identifiable power chords, crackling riffs, and engaging, entertaining lyrics were the assets of the best Bad Company singles and albums. Ralphs’ array of compositional gems also included “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad,” and a re-recorded, bigger hit version of “Ready for Love.” In addition, he co-wrote “Bad Company,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” and many other staples of the classic-rock canon. Bad Company cut 12 albums in one incarnation or another between 1974 and 1996. Ralphs and Rodgers would maintain their friendship and work together periodically during Ralph’s later years. He’d also have reunions with his mates in Mott the Hoople (2009, 2013) and Bad Company (2008, 2010, 2016). He even toured with Hunter in 2002. One of his finest post-Hoople/Bad Company achievements was co-writing “Flying Hour” with George Harrison in 1988, plus he toured with David Gilmour in the mid-’80s, for Gilmour’s second solo album, About Face.
“Feel Like Makin’ Love” and “Ready for Love” might be the most familiar essays in Ralphs’ guitar style. He favored Marshall stacks and explored both their clear and overdriven characteristics. In “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” his blend of acoustic and electric guitar helped define that classic rock trope, and the crushing chords of the refrain are the stuff air-guitar fantasies are made of. Plus, his closing solo, a backdrop to Rodgers’ singing, is pure Les Paul and Marshall bluster. In the latter, his sweet-toned playing walks a line between blues and rock balladry, with a pre-chorus and chorus reinforced by his stinging chords. And while the solo is yielded to Rodgers’ piano, it’s Ralphs who creates the song’s spine. His usual tools: Gibson Les Paul Standards and Juniors, Firebirds, SGs, and a Flying V in the video for “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” as well as Fender Stratocasters, Telecasters, and Esquires.
Ralphs’ forays into solo albums wouldn’t prove quite as successful as his group projects. He cut Take This, his first, in 1984, and released It’s All Good in 2001, and That’s Life—Can’t Get Enough in 2003. None of those replicated the success of the Mott the Hoople or Bad Company releases, but in 2011 Ralphs would return to his early musical love. He formed the Mick Ralphs Blues Band. Though his final performing years weren’t marked with the big hits that characterized his greatest commercial period, Mick Ralphs had a lengthy and impressive career, and he’ll long be remembered for being a prime contributor to some of rock’s finest ensembles. His brawny guitar tones will remain a signature of classic-rock radio as long as the format exists. PG
Halestorm announces new album "Everest" and fall tour with Lindsey Stirling and Apocalyptica. Produced by Dave Cobb, the album explores the band's journey with deep lyrics and epic musical detours. "Darkness Always Wins" is the first single impacting Active Rock radio.
Halestorm, the GRAMMY-winning band initially formed by siblings Lzzy and Arejay Hale with guitarist Joe Hottinger and bassist Josh Smith, have announced Everest, their sixth studio albumoutAugust8 on Atlantic Records. Today the band also announced the “nEVEREST Duality tour,” a US/Canada tour this fall with Lindsey Stirling and supported by Apocalyptica. Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 2 at 10 AM local time.
Last week, the band offered a glimpse of Everest with “Darkness Always Wins,” the first song to be revealed from the upcoming collection. The song teases an album, produced by GRAMMY winner Dave Cobb (Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell), that dives deeply, both lyrically and sonically, into the band’s mountainous climb over the last couple decades.
“Our albumEverest is a story of our journey as a band, full of beautiful endings and new beginnings,” says Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale. “We weave a tangled web of melancholy, frustration, anger and the vast purgatory of love and love lost. It is a rollercoaster of epic musical detours, great songwriting and completely unhinged twists and turns. Everest is an auditory representation of the 4 pillars of Halestorm. Let us reintroduce ourselves and invite you into our world…if you dare.”
Rolling Stone said of “Darkness Always Wins,” "What the song has going for is its catchy, brooding, and dramatic in all the ways we love Halestorm songs to be,” and Revolvernoted "The arrangement remains lean even as the amps begin to crank into the red, though ‘Darkness Always Wins’ still sports some exquisite minor-key melodicism, a metal-chunked bridge, loud-as-hell requiem bells and a classically rippin’ rock guitar solo."
“Darkness Always Wins” impacts at Active Rock radio this week, but already debuted as the “Greatest Gainer” at the format with early airplay last week.
The newly announced nEVEREST tour follows an epic run first supporting Iron Maiden in Europe and dates with Volbeat in the US with a one night-only-performance at Black Sabbath’s final show in Birmingham, England. See below for a full list of upcoming dates.
Guitar players wanting to catch the Grateful Dead’s particular lightning in a bottle exist along a spectrum. Some are content to take inspiration from Jerry Garcia’s playing but make their own way regarding guitar choice and signal path. Others strive to emulate Garcia’s sonic decisions down to the most minor details and create signal paths as close to Jerry’s as possible. In recent years, an ecosystem of gear has developed around fostering Jerry Garcia’s electric tone, including everything from guitars, amps, and stompboxes to on-board preamps and speakers.
Entire books about the Grateful Dead’s gear have been written, so we can’t cover it all here. Garcia tinkered with all facets of his sound from about 1971 until 1978, when his signal path reached stability. By then, his On-Board Effects Loop—an innovation he developed to control how much signal reached his effects—was dialed in, his backline firm, and his choice of effects pedals solidified. Even then, adjustments were made, especially when MIDI arrived or when technology like in-ear monitoring was used. Here are some basics.
Scarlet Fire’s recreation of Garcia’s Wolf, originally built by Doug Irwin.
It starts with guitars. For players wanting to get their Jerry on, there’s a wide range of Garcia-esque instruments—with just as wide a range of prices—out there. Recreations of the Doug Irwin guitars and the Fender Alligator Strat abound. China-built models from companies likePhred Instruments can go for as little as $700 or so. Luthier Thomas Lieber apprenticed with Irwin long ago, and his Lieber Guitars will deliver a copy of a variety of Garcia models. Leo Elliott’s Scarlet Fire Guitars out of Dallas, Texas, takes things in another direction. Elliott builds Doug Irwin replicas that start at $20,000 and go up from there, with a current wait time of about 18 months for an instrument. He’s outfitted many of the top Garcia guitarists today, including Zach Nugent and Jeff Mattson. Elliott says, “I’m a self-taught luthier; I didn’t really build my first guitar until 2010. I understood a little bit about woodworking before I got started, but I learned by reading books and through trial and error. I started building replicas of Doug Irwin’s Wolf guitar right away, which is sort of like building a car and starting with a Ferrari. I didn’t know any better. Then, eventually I got to know Doug Irwin and collaborated with him. So, I got to hold Garcia’s Tiger guitar and get to know it really well. There’s one guy who helps me around the shop, but otherwise, I am building these guitars on my own. I’m collaborating with Doug Irwin on a new series of Tiger guitars, which will retail for 50 grand each.” That’s one way to get your Jerry going.
The JBL-inspired Milkman K-120.
Garcia’s choice of amplifiers is another matter. He preferred Fender Twin Reverbs loaded with JBL Alnico speakers, which were popular amongst many rock bands in the 1970s. The details get complicated; Garcia’s amps were heavily modified, and the Fender Twin served as a preamp that ran to a McIntosh MC-3500 power amp.
It’s hard to find vintage JBL speakers today—at least ones in good shape. San Francisco’s Milkman Sound, founded by Tim Marcus, has created a faithful reproduction of those classic JBLsthey call the K-120. They’re coupling those speakers with a Garcia-style recreation of his Fender Twin that Marcus named the JG-40. “I think 75 percent of Jerry’s tone is in the JBL speakers,” Milkman’s founder says. “But when you start to analyze the other 25 percent, you kind of have to start withDon Rich. [Editor’s Note: Rich was the guitar player in Buck Owens’ band, pioneers of the Bakersfield Sound.] That’s Jerry’s tone, too, but the difference is Garcia’s midrange was a bit throatier. It sounds clean, but really, it’s not clean at the same time. Especially his tone in the late ’70s. There is something about running that Fender Twin Reverb through the McIntosh that would just completely blow out the tone in a really interesting way.”
Garcia colored his tone with off-the-shelf effects. This was, after all, long before the days of boutique pedals. By 1978 and beyond, you’d hear him playing through an MXR Distortion+, an MXR Analog Delay, and an MXR Phase 100. He often used auto wahs, preferring the Musitronics Mu-Tron envelope filter as well as a Mu-Tron Octave Divider and a Mu-Tron combination volume and wah pedal.
When I asked Jeff Mattson, Bella Rayne, and Tom Hamilton Jr. exactly how orthodox they are about using the kind of gear that Garcia did, I got three different answers.
Mattson tells me that because Dark Star Orchestra is doing something very specific, he really has to tailor his sound as carefully to Garcia’s as he can. “Some folks get too hung up on small things, like what kind of cable to use and things like that, and I don’t go that far. But it’s important for Dark Star Orchestra to get Jerry’s sound right because we are covering different eras and different shows. In 2022, for example, we went to Europe and recreated shows from the Dead’s famous Europe ’72 tour, so you have to pay close attention to what kind of gear they were using to do that right.”
Hamilton works differently. He’s always preferred a higher-gain signal than Garcia ever did, landing in more of a British or heavy metal tone. (Randy Rhoads was a big influence.) “I’ve always approached it like, ‘What’s the new information we can put into this thing?’” he says. “Not just recreate but pushing in a forward direction. And anytime I’ve played with the guys who played with Garcia back in the day, they always said to me, ‘You’re here because you’re here. Don’t try and do what we did back in 1978 or do it because Garcia did it that way.’ They’ve always encouraged me to be myself.”
Bella Rayne is just wrapping her head around what it really means to try to sound like Garcia. “Besides Jerry, I’m influenced by guitarists like Dickey Betts and Derek Trucks, so my tone tends to be a bit heavier and bluesy,” she explains. “I’m generally running a Stratocaster through a Fender Twin Reverb. But recently, I was doing a show, and a buddy of mine set up a Jerry rig for me, and that was so cool: JBL speakers, McIntosh head, the whole setup. I had never played through one. I didn’t know what the hype was all about. I plugged in, and it was just amazing; there was such a snap, and I was really commanding the band. I can see myself keeping my current rig but adding a Dead-rig to experiment. But honestly, anything is fine; I am not picky. I just want to play the best that I can.”
On our season two finale, the country legend details his lead-guitar tricks on one of his biggest hits.
Get out the Kleenex, hankies, or whatever you use to wipe away your tears: It’s the last episode of this season of Shred With Shifty, a media event more consequential and profound than the finales of White Lotus and Severance combined. But there’ll be some tears of joy, too, because on this season two closer, Chris Shiflett talks with one of country music’s greatest players: Vince Gill.
Gill’s illustrious solo career speaks for itself, and he’s played with everyone from Reba McEntire and Patty Loveless to Ricky Skaggs and Dolly Parton. He even replaced Glenn Frey in the Eagles after Frey’s death in 2017. His singing prowess is matched by his grace and precision on the fretboard, skills which are on display on the melodic solo for “One More Last Chance.” He used the same blackguard 1953 FenderTelecaster that you see in this interview to record the lead, although he might not play the solo the exact way he did back in 1992.
Tune in to learn how Gill dialed his clean tone with a tip from Roy Nichols, why he loves early blackguard Telecasters and doesn’t love shredders, and why you never want to be the best player during a studio session.
If you’re able to help, here are some charities aimed at assisting musicians affected by the fires in L.A:
NASHVILLE, TN – Pablo Picasso had his famous Blue Guitar. Now, so does Brad Paisley, courtesy of the Fender Custom Shop. Last Wednesday, Paisley unveiled his latest signature model, the “Lost Paisley” Telecaster, at a Q&A session and mini concert at Fender’s East Nashville headquarters. The instrument is an exacting reproduction of Paisley’s own, rare 1967 Tele in a stunning, practically glowing, blue-flower paisley finish, with custom-wound Seymour Duncan pickups and a bender that can be set to the B string or, as Paisley prefers, the G string. Spoiler: It looks and sounds badass, even with Paisley playing through a Fender Champ, which you’ll experience when you watch our video. The street price for this limited edition instrument is $7,000.
Of course, PG’s John Bohlinger and our video team of Chris Kies and Perry Bean were at the unveiling, and Bohlinger and Paisley went deep into the new instrument’s back story. As Paisley tells it, after a sheet of the rarely used blue paisley paper that Fender briefly employed for a guitar finish in 1968 turned up in an old ammo box from the Vietnam era, which sounds like a saga in itself, it fell into the hands of guitar historian Alan Cross, who brought it to Paisley’s attention.
Mother and child reunion: The original, at left, and the Custom Shop-built recreation of Paisley’s ’67 Tele. It’s an estimable instrument and carries a serious price tag: $7,000.
Fender briefly produced both red and blue paisley instruments to capture the vibe of the Summer of Love. Compared to the red, which faded to the now famed Fender “pink paisley” hue, the original blue-paisley-finish models are quite rare. Hence the “lost,” in Lost Paisley. Cross took the paper to Paisley, who almost immediately got to work, applying it to the ’67 Tele he had modded for a G-bender by Joe Glaser shortly after Paisley arrived in Nashville in the mid-1990s.
“Once I put the original paper on this guy right here,“ he said, referring to his original instrument, “this became my favorite guitar.” As his affinity for the look and feel of the instrument continued to grow, Paisley figured he’d take it to Fender’s Custom Shop, which had earlier developed his pink paisley signature (based on his ‘68) and his road-worn Tele models.
A close-up look at the finish, which has a nearly reflective quality.
The Lost Paisley model has a lightweight body, crafted from a unique combination of alder, paulownia, and spruce. The finish is relic’d, to match Paisley’s axe, with a colorful, metallic burst. It has a custom ’60s oval C-shape maple neck with a round-laminated maple fretboard. Under the hood, the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Hand-Wound Lost Paisley pickups provide warmth, clarity, and tonal balance, which was audible at the unveiling, and the Glaser “G” Bender system allows for fluid, pedal-steel-like bends. In addition to its late-’60s appointments, the instrument is bundled with custom accessories, including a vintage-style case, period-correct Fender strap, and certificate of authenticity. At one point while he played, Paisley had to check to be sure he was picking the Custom Shop model rather than his original. “I literally just picked this guitar up for the first time, and it feels just like I’m playing my original,” he noted.
The hardest aspect of reverse engineering the Lost Telecast was recreating the paper for the finish. “Now, between [Nashville tech to the stars] Joe Glaser and [noted guitar collector and dealer, and former Paisley guitar tech] Zac Childs, we know more about adhesive paper than I ever went down that ramp before. It’s literally aluminum foil with a paper backing, and then there's an embossed paisley pattern on it. Getting the color right maybe was the hardest thing. We would change one number in the color code for one of the shades of this and it would look completely wrong.
When he finished his ’67 with the blue paisley paper from the ammo case, “I did the bursting myself to make it look like I thought it should. And so when we did this new version, I’m like, we gotta make sure that this plastic fades and oxidizes or whatever it is. I just love the way these colors work together. In the end, it’s showbiz. What looks cool on stage? And every from the size of the burst and the way that the paint interacts and the way that it fades and the relic’ing of the paper and the cracks all play into that. Then, it’s all about feel, and this guitar looks and plays great. The Custom Shop nailed it!”
