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GuitarPicks.com, Mattituck, NY (2026)

05/27/2026

62 laps for Lenny Kravitz … though it may as well be 26 for the ageless wonder and space alien; born Leonard Albert Kravitz on May 26th, 1964 in New York City.

The one time “Romeo Blue” truly became Lenny Kravitz to the world in fall 1989 when “Let Love Rule” hit the airwaves—and MTV—and nothing else out there sounded like what this young, fresh, new, authentic artist was sharing with the world.

Two years prior, Kravitz eloped with Lisa Bonet in the midst of her run with “The Cosby Show” and “A Different World”—the two getting married on her 20th birthday in Las Vegas in November 16th, 1987; daughter Zoë Kravitz born on December 1st, 1988 … a future topic of musical inspiration for Lenny.

“Mama Said” blowing up huge in April 1991; “Are You Gonna Go My Way” hitting another gear in March 1993—Lenny Kravitz was everywhere—a true original in an era where music was loaded with so many artists who lacked their own voice, style or genre; hair metal transitioning to grunge and just chaos for so many others.

Kravitz is now a dozen studio albums deep into his musical journey; “Blue Electric Light” released May 2024—his first new album since “Raise Vibration” in 2018.

LK is back on the road this summer with a slew of overseas shows that will take him through August—Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, France, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium and the United Kingdom—Kravitz is going global in 2026 and the planet is here for it.

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05/26/2026

Checked out Alter Bridge at The Pinnacle in Nashville, Tennessee last week; didn’t walk with any picks or sticks—but it was a killer setlist and got a few old CDs signed by Mark and Flip.

A few cuts from the new self-titled album, as well anthems that span their two-decade career:

Slient Divide
Addicted To Pain
Cry Of Achilles
Fortress
Playing Aces
Burn It Down
Open Your Eyes
Broken Wings
Watch Over You
Ghost Of Days Gone By
Tested And Able
Rise Today
Metalingus

Blackbird
Isolation

The boys are headed across the pond this summer but will be back in the States this fall—so if they’re coming to a city near you, find your way to this killer show.

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05/25/2026

Van Halen’s eighth studio album—and second with Sammy Hagar at the helm—celebrated its 38-year anniversary this week; originally released on May 24th, 1988.

Like it’s predecessor “5150” the album hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart—the second of four consecutive No. 1 studio albums for the boys—and is had four Billboard Hot 100 Top-40 singles with “Black And Blue”, “Finish What Ya Started”, “When It’s Love” and “Feels So Good”—as the album went on to sell over four million copies.

Donn Landee produced this record with Eddie Van Halen and the boys at 5150 Studios up in Coldwater Canyon—and gave it another spin with a remaster last October as part of the band’s “The Collection II” set—where all four Hagar-era albums got the remaster treatment.

Ed would say years later that the original album wasn’t mixed as well as he would’ve liked—“Sonically it was sh*t—while other criticism knocked that Michael Anthony’s bass guitar was too low in the mix… which caused speculation that this might’ve been purposefully done due to the brothers’ growing animosity towards Anthony, who years later was forced out of the band and had songwriting credits removed or altered.

“OU812” was dedicated to to the late Jan Van Halen—father to Edward and Alex—who passed on December 9th, 1986 at the age of 66, with liner notes that read, “This one’s for you, Pa” from his boys.

A lot of recent chatter about original pressings versus remastered editions lately; “OU812” definitely benefits from the remaster, as the original production sounded thin and the recent remastering gives it a little extra muscle.

Here are some killer Van Halen picks from the mid-‘80s; some of which are available at GUITARPICKS.com, so head on over, do a search and check ‘em out!

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05/23/2026

Four decades of “Look What The Cat Dragged In”—Poison’s debut album dropping on May 23rd, 1986—putting this glam rock quartet on the map, as the next wave of Sunset Strip glam rock was officially underway.

It’s been talked about in hair metal docs, or books like “Nothin’ But A Good Time”—apropos as we talk up here—but the workhorse mentality and marketing chops that Bret, C.C., Rikki and Bobby had in that era … it was something else.

From the neon green logo—a color that became “Poison green”—because the paper for that color was cheaper and they could make more flyers to little Sunset Boulevard with … it was an all-or-nothing quest to make it, and they did.

The stories about living in the back of a dry cleaner; rats everywhere—and then landing on C.C. DeVille when Matt Smith headed back home to Pennsylvania for his pregnant girlfriend—it all came together.

There’s also the famous story about how the album got recorded when Stevie Nicks booked time at a studio, but was partying too hard to show up to record.

Enigma gave Poison a paltry $23,000 budget to record—so producer Ric Browde cut a deal with a an engineer at legendary Music Grinder Studios—that whenever Nicks had time booked and no-showed, Poison would roll in to record this debut; the engineer paid under the table.

The album was tracked and mixed in 12 days and the boys got a premium Hollywood recording studio experience—on a budget—which was very on-brand for the Poison ethos in that era.

All that’s left now is a long-awaited reunion tour and Michaels to quit touring with hired guns—get DeVille, Rockett and Dall on the horn and let’s party like it’s 1987 next year, boys.

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05/20/2026

Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend is celebrating 81 laps today; the co-founder, guitarist, keyboardist, second lead vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Who born on May 19th, 1945—and thankfully still going strong.

We wax poetic about it on this page often, but it’s such a gift that so many of our musical heroes and guitar gods are still with us—especially considering how many met an untimely demise.

When you think of a Pete Townshend having to bury Keith Moon back in 1978 or a Jimmy Page watching John Bonham check out in 1980—the same year Paul, George and Ringo said farewell to John and the world lost its first Beatle—we can’t take any of this for granted.

Pete is still here at 81; yet the legendary Jimi Hendrix he told to upgrade to 100-watt Marshall amplifiers back in 1966—he’s been gone since September 18th, 1970—Hendrix passing on at 27 years young.

None of us are promised tomorrow; that sentiment seems to loom even bigger in the dangerous world that was rock and roll, decade after decade.

Pete Townsend is still here—his music lives forever—and that is a really awesome thing to raise one up to tonight. Cheers, Pete.

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05/20/2026

All this recent chatter about the Michael Jackson movie; got us thinking about Eddie Van Halen this week and busting out the original Warner Bros. version of Van Halen’s catalog to crank at the warehouse—from 1978 through 1995—in order and everything in-between.

Edward famously recorded the “Beat It” solo on October 4th, 1982 on off-week between the second and third legs of the band’s “Hide Your Sheep” tour for “Diver Down”—the Jackson album released on November 29th, 1982 when Van Halen was playing in Huntsville, Alabama—“Beat It” released as a single on February 21st, 1983.

Van Halen was back in the studio months later; June through October of 1983—while Jackson’s world tour for “Thriller” kicked off December 30th, 1982 and ran through April 20th, 1983—only six American cities (two night gigs) before going overseas.

Edward and Michael would finally share a stage after “Beat It” became a pop-culture phenomenon—July 13th, 1984—when both happened to be in The Lone Star State at the same time.

The Jackson’s “Victory Tour” played Texas Stadium on an off-night for Van Halen—Edward and the boys coming off of three nights at The Summit in Houston, before three in Dallas at Reunion Arena.

It was an unrehearsed, surprise guest appearance that is available on YouTube; no one really knowing what a monumental event this one-off would be.

Van Halen’s tour ended September 2nd, 1984—the Monsters Of Rock festival in Nurenberg, Germany being their final show with David Lee Roth in that era; the long time frontman bailing on on April Fool’s Day in 1985—which had many thinking it was a joke.

What an era, as anyone around to witness this all in real-time can tell you.

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05/16/2026

64 laps for the legendary Ian Astbury of The Cult—born May 14th, 1962 in Heswall, Cheshire, England.

The Cult is still bringing the heat with Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy—seemingly always on tour and event doing some Southern Death Cult sets over the past year; going deep into the old catalog.

11 studio albums to date—their first was “Dreamtime” (1984) and most-recent is “Under The Midnight Sun” (2022)—while that mid-80s to early-90s sweet spot was so killer; “Love” (1985) and “Electric” (1987) considered masterpieces of the era, while the band slid into a bit of a more commercial and hair metal-adjacent energy for the Bob Rock-produced “Sonic Temple” (1989) and Richie Zito-produced “Ceremony” (1991).

For those who were on board in 2001, the band came back hard and strong with “Beyond Good And Evil”—Matt Sorum back on the kit, as well.

Forever a national treasure of a band and cheers to Ian for being up front bringing thunder (and rain) all these decades.

GUITARPICKS.com

05/13/2026

60 laps for the smooth-sounding Darius Rucker—Hootie & The Blowfish frontman and solo artist born May 13th, 1966 in Charleston, South Carolina.

As always on this page, we try to give shoutout and hit anniversaries or milestones for artists—cognizant of the fact we have followers and customers all ages and walks of life—meaning that a lot of folks might know Darius as a country artist for the past two decades, while knowing he was also in Hootie & The Blowfish … but how many realize that the band’s debut is 22x platinum and has sold over 22-million copies in the United States alone?

For context, Prince sold about 16-million copies of “Purple Rain” and U2 moved about 17-million of “The Joshua Tree”.

Pink Floyd sold about 11-million copies of “Wish You Were Here”, Boston’s perfect self-titled debut is 18x platinum, Phil Collins’ “No Jacket Required” did just over 17-million and Def Leppard’s long-awaited “Hysteria” moved about 14-million units in the States.

You are talking some serious rarified air when rock acts sell at this level, and in the summer of 1994—when hair metal had been put out pasture and grunge had pretty much run its course Hootie brought their college rock out of Charleston and turned music on its ear.

This wasn’t a surprise for folks in the South, as the band’s “Kootchypop” independent EP sold close to 60,000 copies—which caught the attention of Atlantic Records and the rest was history.

Still a perfect record to this day—and weirdly a hidden-gem for a generation that might’ve missed it 32 years ago … give it another spin and cheers to D-Ruck on another trip around the sun.

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5m

05/11/2026

Paul David Hewson—better know to the world as Bono of U2—celebrated his 66th lap; born May 10th, 1960 in Dublin, Ireland.

Hard to think of an artist and band that was so massive for one generation, while completely missed by the next.

Anyone who missed the heart of the ‘80s—go back and rewatch “Rattle & Hum” and see just what a force of nature “The Joshua Tree” tour was.

If that live footage from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona doesn’t give you chills when “Where The Streets Have No Name” get going with that extended intro … you’re not alive.

Go pull up the video for “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” as the band is walking up and down the Las Vegas Strip, while fans react like they literally just saw Elvis.

“With Or Without You” proved to be the band’s first number one his in the United States and Canada; the video winning the Viewer’s Choice; the people’s favorite (while technology, innovation—and a great song—earned Peter Gabriel the Video Of The Year with “Sledgehammer”).

All that to say, the next generation of “people” only remembers U2 as a band that shoved a free album nobody asked for on their iPhone in 2014 when “Songs Of Innocence” was release that September—while others know Bono more for his activism, opposed to being a frontman for the ages.

It’s absolutely wild how perception becomes reality and pop culture history can cause a recency-bias that has people forgetting eras prior.

“Achtung Baby”, “Zooropa” and “Pop” were all so cutting-edge in the ‘90s—as so many bands lost their voice and identity—while those earlier records like “Boy”, “October”, “War” and “The Unforgettable Fire” shaped the early ‘80s … and don’t sleep on that ‘00s rebirth with “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”.

Brilliant band that more people need to bring back to the front of their minds.

GUITARPICKS.com

05/08/2026

We were recently rewatching the episode of “What Makes This Song Great” for Stone Temple Pilots and “Interstate Love Song” (link in comments) … and man, what a masterclass that breakdown really is—Weiland’s’ jazzy vocal runs over that killer chord progression from Robert DeLeo.

On the surface it just felt like a magical, whimsical, perfect, three-minute pop-rock song of spring and summer 1994.

Three-plus decades later, you realize what a timeless masterpiece the song really is—and why—the way Rick breaks it down.

This was the DeLeo brothers on the cover of Guitar World back in August 1994; very cool to see—but also an abrupt shift.

For context as to much music had changed over a three-year period—August 1993 featured Ace Frehley, flanked by make-up wearing Dimebag Darrell and “Snake” Sabo … August 1992 was James Hetfield and Tony Iommy talking the heaviest of metal … August 1991 was “Snake Sabo” and Scotti Hill as Skid Row’s “Slave To The Grind” was all the rage.

Even with all that, what a time to be alive as a rock fan and guitar enthusiast.

GUITARPICKS.com

05/04/2026

Not enough words about this album.

Actually, too many—check back in our archives as we look for any reason in the world to mention the masterpiece concept album that is “Operation: Mindcrime” and brilliance of QUEENSRŸCHE.

Everybody got on a ride at some different point of the journey, but for those who arrived prior to May 3rd, 1988—or soon thereafter—you know exactly what the rock world was like when this album entered the zeitgeist.

38 years of “Operation: Mindcrime” hailed as a masterpiece.

Enough talking about this one; go give it a listen for the millionth time, or the first time—it still packs the same punch, start to finish.

And for those lucky enough to have witnessed the “Building Empires” tour in 1991—the band firing on all cylinders with “Empire”—while stopping a few songs into the set to play this 15-song gem in its entirety, massive screens adoring the stage with visuals to enhance the storytelling … we’re some of the lucky ones.

REVOLUTION!!

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