by Dave Hunter

It's a tough call — I enjoyed both of my face-to-face interviews with Steve Earle (a long-time hero, a force of nature), and John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl were both extremely cool — but I think Ray & Dave Davies of The Kinks were the most memorable of all. In the inevitable "British Invasion stage" I went through as a teenager, I somehow became more fond of The Kinks than of The Beatles, Stones, The Who, or any of them. I guess it was a combination of Ray's songcraft and Dave's raw guitar that really grabbed me. Hearing Dave Davies explain in person how he achieved the legendary tone on "You've Really Got Me" — all while graciously pouring the tea — is a guitar moment that will be with me forever.

by Jonah Bayer

I remember the first time I interviewed one of my musical idols, Slash. I called him at about 5 in the afternoon and he complained that he had to wake up specifically to talk to me, but once we started going he was one of the most sincere and articulate subjects I've ever had the pleasure of talking to. We did the interview over the phone and when I met him later that night and told him how much I enjoyed talking to him, I'm pretty sure he didn't remember our conversation at all but was still gracious and friendly. That's just the kind of guy Slash is, I guess.

by Ted Drozdowski

I’ve had a lot of interviews I’ll never forget … backstage with Van Hagar on the first Monsters of Rock Tour, an hours-long conversation with Sonny Sharrock in a Boston restaurant where we were the only patrons, chatting with Porter Wagoner at home on his ranch, speaking with Pete Townshend about songwriting, every discussion with the brilliant Chrissie Hynde, hanging up on the smug jackasses in Television and starting a phone call with Lou Reed with a joke at his expense that actually made him chuckle. (For the record, I think Lou’s a peach.)

But the interview that really made the deepest and most enduring impression on me was my first conversation with modern Mississippi hill country blues patriarch R.L. Burnside. It was on the front porch of his home, then south of Holly Springs, Miss., and I was struck by R.L.’s sincerity, warmth and good humor, and the pride he took in discussing his music. As anyone who met R.L. learned, it was nearly impossible to dislike him. And I was as won over by his personality as I’d already been by his music. I was also struck by the awful poverty of our surroundings. After I left R.L.’s porch I promised myself that I would do everything I could to bring attention to R.L., Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill and the other north Mississippi blues artists whose raw sound was just beginning to reclaim a place in the genre at the time, in hopes that exposure would equal dollars for them. I had no idea that the friendship I began to build with R.L and others I met on that trip South would change my life, eventually, after much resistance on my part, leading me to quit playing rock and take up juke joint blues with Scissormen, leave a well-paying day job, and even move from Boston to Nashville. That afternoon on R.L.’s front porch literally changed my life. I sure do miss that old man!

by Russell Hall

Michael Stipe
A phone-interview I did with Michael Stipe in 2004 is probably the most memorable interview for me. At our scheduled time to chat, I sat by the phone, ready to go, and indeed Stipe rang me up from his home in Athens, Georgia. He said, however, that he'd just returned from a visit to the dentist and couldn’t speak because his mouth was numbed with Novocain. The next day he phoned again. This time, however, he said he was traveling to Barcelona the following day to attend a friend’s wedding, but that he had misplaced his passport. He said he'd practically torn apart his Athens home searching for the passport, to no avail, and was therefore flying immediately to his New York apartment in hopes of finding it there. The following morning — passport now in-hand — he phoned from Atlanta’s Hartsfield airport and assured me he would call again as soon as he got settled in his hotel room in Spain. True to his word, he phoned again from Spain, this time telling me to sit tight and that he would ring me again in exactly one hour. Sure enough, an hour later, the call comes — from a post-wedding dinner party in a Barcelona restaurant. Amazingly, amidst the noise and clatter, Stipe found a relatively quiet corner and proceeded to give me one of the most in-depth interviews I've ever had the pleasure of conducting. For 45 minutes, he talked about how R.E.M. had sought counseling to prevent their breakup, his thoughts about the viability of a solo career, his complicated relationship with his fans, and other matters that I had never seen him address anywhere else. In retrospect, I'm sure his candidness was a thoughtful make-up for all he felt he'd put me through. In any case my respect for him — already very high — soared after that experience.

Sam Phillips
One of the most poignant moments I’ve experienced in an interview occurred with singer-songwriter Sam Phillips, in 2004. Through the years I had gotten to know Sam a bit, and her marriage to producer T-Bone Burnett had long been regarded as a storybook romance. In this instance we talked about "what love requires," which is a recurring theme in her songwriting. Then I asked her about failure — a subject she had broached, with some mystery, in a talk we had had a couple of years prior. "It's strange that you should bring that up," she told me. "I only realized about nine months ago what I was talking about, what I was sensing. What I had proof of, nine months ago, is that I had failed at love. It was something I didn’t know, but somehow I did know — that my long-term relationship with T-Bone was gone." Sam asked me to keep this news private — she had filed divorce papers that very day — and then she went on to speak with glowing affection for T-Bone, who had just come off his success with the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. "He’s been so generous to bring all this great music to our attention," she said, "but when I first met him he was making his own records. He’s a wonderful artist and one of the best songwriters I know. My subversive goal is to get him back to writing songs." Since then, of course, Burnett has done just that.

by Aidin Vaziri

“I don’t like your hair.”

I had just sat down to interview Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher for the first time and things were already going badly. I glanced over at the group’s then-guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, who was seated snugly next to Liam, for some reassurance but couldn't avoid staring at his bald head. That didn't help.

"OK, then," Gallagher said. "Let's have it. What's the question?"

We were backstage at one of those big radio station holiday shows in Berkeley, Calif., shortly after Oasis' 1995 album (What’s The Story?) Morning Glory had broken America and the group was headlining a bizarre bill that also included acts like Sonic Youth, Billy Idol, Love and Rockets and a little-known outfit called No Doubt.

The interview stammered ahead awkwardly for just a few minutes with Gallagher batting away most of the questions with useless answers (fortunately his older brother Noel, who I interviewed later that evening, was far more accommodating) when Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth’s iconic bass player, made the mistake of stepping into Oasis’ dressing room and asking for some Jack Daniel’s from the young British group’s gallon-sized jug.

Instantly, Oasis vocalist Liam Gallagher leapt off of the couch where he was being interviewed and shouted across the room to the band’s associates, “No, she can’t have any. That’s the last one. We can’t be having every Tom, Dick and Harry having me Jack Daniel’s.”

“We’ll buy you another bottle,” Gordon replied.

“No you won’t, that’s the last one,” Gallagher said firmly, through his thick accent.

Gordon left the room looking bewildered, not sure whether to laugh or cry.

Gallagher was entirely serious. “I’m not happy about that at all to tell you the truth,” he said, regaining his composure.

He sat back down in his seat, looked straight ahead with his penetrating eyes, fastened his stubbly chin and decided he was now impatient with the question and answer process as well. Only four minutes into the interview, Gallagher said, “Just let us get it over with it. What’s the last question?”

Every so often I score an interview with a musician who’s so famous that I wonder if said musician can hear my heart thumping through the phone. But after the five to 15 minute rush of the actual interview is over, it’s just me and a tiny tape recorder blaring back the sound of my voice. Funny how I never noticed how squeaky/valley girl/soft-spoken I was before!

In the dry and barren landscape of interviews that blur together with talks of tours and new albums and songwriting processes, though, there is always an interview or two that sticks out.

With that in mind, be on the lookout for the Gibson editorial staff to introduce our new series of blogs about interviews that were simply unforgettable.

My own stand-out interview wasn't so much an interview as a run-in. Four years ago I was working for an alternative weekly newspaper in Knoxville and wrote a blurb in our calendar section announcing that Jared Leto's rock band 30 Seconds To Mars would be playing that weekend. Having been almost too fixated on Leto's mid-'90s TV show My So-Called Life and his portrayl of the hunky-but-brainless Jordan Catalano, I could never really wrap my head around Leto's identity as a brooding musician. And frankly I didn't care for his tunes. Most of my write-up centered around the fact that the fabled Jordan Catalano would be coming to town.

The afternoon before the 30 Seconds to Mars show, the phone in my office rang.

"Hi, is this Ellen Mallernee?" said a voice filled with so much derision that I choked out that, yes, yes it was.

"This is Jared Leto."

I could barely catch my breath before Leto launched into a tirade about people like me and how I really needed to get over the whole My So-Called Life thing. He'd been in that show years and years earlier! And his band deserved attention of its own!

Jared Leto was screaming at me, and I thought it was the most fantastic thing in the entire world. In fact, I could hardly wait to get off the phone so I could tell my co-workers who I'd just been on the phone with.

But then Leto said the truly irrational thing that will make the phone call forever unforgettable to me.

"Ellen, you're going to be a terrible mother. It's people like you who really screw up little kids."

All I cared was, I'd gotten to talk to Jordan Catalano on the phone, and that's something not even Angela Chase can say.

-Ellen Mallernee

Read our quick round-up of what the Gibson editorial staff is listening to this spring.

Aidin Vaziri, writer: “The best music is the kind that stops you in your tracks and makes you listen. I think that's how a lot of people feel when they hear Other Lives for the first time. A little-known band from from Stillwater, OK, headed by bushy-bearded frontman Jesse Tabish, who has one of the most captivating voices I’ve heard in ages, the group started out playing 45-minute long meditations before realizing it could pack all the beauty and impact into four-minute gems like ‘Black Tables’ and ‘Paper Cities.’ The group’s self-titled debut — produced by Joey Waronker (the Eels, Lisa Germano) and engineered by Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck) — is out this week on ATO Records and it honestly sounds like none other.”

Ellen Mallernee, editor: “When I first listened to Neko Case’s new ‘country noir’ album Middle Cyclone, I thought, eh. But then that thing happened, that thing that happens when you listen to really good CDs 50 times over — I fell in love with it, and each new listen revealed something new. Still, despite the fact that this album charted wayyyy higher (No. 2 on the Billboard charts) than her former solo disc, I don’t think it’s quite as accessible. Her abstract lyrics are even more arty, her melodies are less distinguishable, and her songs take a little longer to love.”

Dave Hunter, writer: “This week I’ve been listening to Lucinda Williams’s latest album, Little Honey, a lot. I'm particularly digging the raw, rough’n’ready guitar tones and playing on ‘Real Love’ and ‘Honey Bee.’”

Jonah Bayer, writer: “I am currently obsessed with ‘Everything To Nothing’ by Manchester Orchestra, which comes out on April 21. I wrote these guys off for a really long time because they were so overhyped, but the new disc is a really amazing conceptual rock record that evokes everyone from My Morning Jacket to Pedro The Lion and literally manages to successfully defy genre stereotypes. My favorite track is ‘Tony The Tiger,’ which is probably the best mid-tempo post-hardcore song that's been written since the ’90s. Plus, it’s a named after a delicious cereal.”

Russell Hall, writer: “After seeing a recent repeat of Ryan Bingham’s performance on Austin City Limits I've been listening to his Mescalito album non-stop. Some alt-country artists are starting to seem like posers, but he's the real deal. In some respects he reminds me of a young John Prine, except Bingham is rougher around the edges (a good thing). Can't wait till his next album — Roadhouse Sun — comes out in June.”

Ted Drozdowski, writer: "Left Lane Cruiser are dirty badasses from Fort Wayne, Ind., and they’re the bastard grandkids of R.L. Burnside and Sid Vicious, a duo who make Mississippi hill country and the Bowery sound like they’re adjacent counties. I’ve also been listening to Billy Boy Arnold, John Primer, Billy Branch and Lurrie Bell. The new two-album set they’ve banded together to cut — Chicago Blues: A Living History — is the genre’s best in years. It reclaims the style from every
suit-and-sunglasses-wearing pack of jackals who’ve ever hacked through ‘Sweet Home
 Chicago,’ and there’s a lot of ’em. OK, one more group that's been in my tapedeck is Hill Country Revue. Led by North Mississippi All Stars drummer
Cody Dickinson and that group’s bassist Chris Chew, this group carries the All Stars
mantle, romping through Mississippi hill country juke joint blues laced with hearty
rock and roll. New album out May 10 called Make a Move and a likely big hit
of Bonnaroo 2009."



As of today, Barack Obama has 288,231 followers on Twitter. The New York Times has 127,531. And … Gibson has 120.

Obviously, our figure is nothing to write home about, but we’ve set a goal — to get 2,000 fans by month’s end and we hope you’ll help us meet that goal by following Gibson Lifestyle on Twitter. (Start following us now!)

You may be wondering what Twitter is all about. It’s a fun, low-maintenance cross between a social networking and a blogging site, and it’s been around since 2006 but has really started skyrocketing in popularity this past year.



Essentially, it allows you to update your “followers” about what you’re up to — but you can only use 140 characters tops to relate your updates. In our case, we’ll be posting links to new product announcements, exclusive industry news, contests, interviews and reviews, free music and more. 



Reputable marketers have lauded Twitter as a powerful tool to reach new and bigger audiences, and that's our hope. We know we have a good thing going on with Gibson Lifestyle; the challenge is to let more and more people know. Here's hoping Twitter helps us with that, and hey, don't knock it 'til you try it! 



Start following Gibson Lifestyle today. 

 

In the next month, our Lifestyle site will get a major facelift. But more than just prettying her up, our aim is to make it easier for you to find the interviews, product spotlights, and reviews you want to read and get to all the other things you like, too – contests, videos, free MP3s.

While we’ve still got Lifestyle on the drawing board, please let us know what changes you’d like to see by commenting in the space below. We’re all ears!
 

NAMM: Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009

NAMM Hair!!


A View from My Corner of the Gibson Booth

The past three days here at the Gibson booth have been, in a word — stimulating.  Legendary musicians Kris Kristofferson, Brian Wilson and Robby Kreiger gave intimate performances to appreciative audiences standing within arms-length. Renowned guitarists Joe Bonamassa, JJ French, Billy Morrison, Brian Ray, Dave Amato and Don Kirkpatrick (to name just a few) held impromptu jams, then mingled freely with attendees who found themselves in the right place at the right time. The Gibson Entertainment Relations team hosted countless talented artists as they checked out the current line-up of Gibson guitars.  Between the amazing guitars hanging throughout the room, the legendary musicians and pop-culture icons mingling about, this year’s Gibson booth offered enough eye-candy to last a lifetime.

The spotlight at this year’s show, however, was definitely the new Dark Fire guitar from Gibson USA. With approximately14 Dark Fire stations set up with Guitar Rig 3 and Ableton Live software, there was a continuous swarm of guitarists (from professional players to hobbyists) putting the Dark Fire through its paces. Gibson Product Specialist Aljon Go and I fielded Dark Fire questions from perhaps every possible demographic —from music theory professors and touring musicians to young teens just starting out. We spoke with skeptics and traditionalists who tried to find reasons to avoid this brilliant new technology, but all left satisfied that the Dark Fire guitar functions on a level that meets even the most demanding musician’s expectations. —Vincent Wynne            

NAMM: Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009

Interview with Puddle of Mudd's Wes Scantlin


Epiphone Party at the Hilton Hotel

Archer




Bad Influence




Duke Robillard


Puddle of Mudd






Arthur Hanlon


Blind Melon


Glenn Hughes (Black Sabbath)


Brandi Cyrus


The Donnas


NAMM Vlog No. 11: The Donnas visit the Gibson Room at NAMM Saturday evening.


Twisted Sister


Tesla


NAMM Vlog No. 10: Tesla's Frank Hannon and Dave Rude on the Gibson Gear stage.


Brent Hinds of Mastodon


NAMM Vlog No. 9: Mastodon's Brent Hinds demos a Gibson Custom Robby Kreiger SG.


NAMM Vlog No. 8: Stars dropped by left and right on Saturday. Here are a few we caught on camera — Twisted Sister's JJ French and Eddie Ojeda, Frank Stallone, Anthrax's Scott Ian and Arthur Hanlon.


NAMM Vlog No. 7: Saturday afternoon, American Idol's Brooke White dropped by for an impromptu performance of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" on a Gibson Hummingbird.



NAMM: Friday, Jan. 16, 2009

John Corbett


Dark Fire community gathering on the Gibson tour bus




Gage Shinoda (world's youngest Dark Fire owner?) and Gibson Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz


Brett Anderson of The Donnas


NAMM Vlog No. 6: Recording Artist Dave Yaden performs on a Custom Baldwin Piano.


Don Kirkpatrick


Brian Ray (Paul McCartney's guitarist) and Don Kirkpatrick (Rod Stewart's guitarist)


J.C. Smith


Yogi Lonich and Cory McCormick (members of Chris Cornell's band)


NAMM Vlog No. 5: REO Speedwagon's Dave Amato has a jam session with Joe Bonamassa mid-afternoon Friday on the Gibson Custom stage.


Joe Bonamassa and Dave Amato


Joe Bonamassa


NAMM Vlog No. 4: Introducing (kind of) the new Jimmy Page Les Paul from Gibson Custom.


NAMM Vlog No. 3: Brian Wilson performs "God Only Knows" and "California Girl" to a full house in the Gibson room.


Brian Wilson & Band






NAMM: Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009

Just Another Day at the Office
I’ve been on the road now with Gibson for about 10 days providing support for Gibson USA and, in particular, the Dark Fire guitar. Last week, the Dark Fire made a huge impression on the CES crowd, and now Dark Fire is flooring the NAMM attendees. I must admit, after spending so much time with the self-tuning Dark Fire guitars, tuning up the remaining Gibson USA line before the NAMM show was like going back in time — “You mean you gotta tune these things?” I can tune 15 Dark Fire guitars in about 7 minutes — that’s about 30 seconds a guitar. That’ll spoil any tech. But the highlight of my day on Thursday was being introduced to Peter Thorn — Chris Cornell’s guitarist. Peter had never played the Dark Fire before, and he wanted to check it out. Peter told me that Chris has a bunch of songs in odd tunings that require him to bring a slew of guitars to each gig. So I showed him the basics on tuning the Dark Fire, and he watched the guitar tune itself. As any pro would, he tested the intonation and pitch of the strings with a skeptical ear. What a blast it was watching Peter’s face light up with confidence after putting the Dark Fire through its paces. He looked at me and said, “This could work for me,” and he instructed his ER rep from Gibson to send him a Dark Fire. Just another day at the office. ⎯Vincent Wynne

NAMM Vlog. 2: R.E.O. Speedwagon's Dave Amato (on a Gibson Custom Les Paul Axcess) and KISS' Bruce Kulick (on a 50th Anniversary 1959 Les Paul Standard) had a mid-afternoon jam on Thursday afternoon on the Gibson Custom stage. Next up: Brian Wilson on the Gibson USA main stage!


NAMM Vlog No. 1: The Gibson crew has just arrived in sunny Anaheim, California and the Gibson room at NAMM couldn't be any better or any more packed with stars! The Doors' Robbie Kreiger stopped by to say hello to Gibson CEO and Chairman Henry Juszkiewicz and Billy Morrison demoed Gibson USA's new Dark Fire guitar. Watch our footage here! Next up: watch R.E.O. Speedwagon's Dave Amato and KISS' Bruce Kulick jam on Custom Shop Les Pauls.



NAMM: Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009

Gibson Sets the Stage for Winter NAMM

Gibson landed in Anaheim, Calif., earlier this week to set the stage for the 2009 Winter NAMM show. Greeted by the warm sun and gusty Santa Ana winds that helped turn the skies a crisp blue, one couldn’t help but marvel at the spectacular mountainous backdrop that surrounds Anaheim.

But there was little time for gazing out at the horizon, as the Gibson team set out to transform a very generic convention center space into the coolest room on the planet. With over eight Gibson brands represented at this year’s winter NAMM show, the set-up involved two 12-hour days of careful planning and precise implementation. It was hard work, but as Gibson employees like to admit, motivation comes in many forms.

After all, looking up from your daily grind to watch a Custom Shop employee hang a dozen 2009 50th anniversary ‘59 Les Paul Reissues could certainly provide a morale boost.  And glancing over your shoulder to see master luthier Ren Ferguson fine-tune a few 2009 Gibson Hummingbirds could certainly relieve a little stress. And gazing out over a sea of shimmering Dark Fire Standards from Gibson USA would no doubt leave you feeling proud.  It’s no wonder, then, that the Gibson team succeeded in creating the coolest booth at this year’s winter NAMM — in only two days.

The show begins today and runs through Sunday (Jan. 15-18). The Gibson booth will host a bevy of musical performances throughout the week including a rare performance Thursday by the legendary singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson (1:00pm).  Don’t forget to check back for more video footage and Gibson updates from 2009 summer NAMM!  ⎯Vincent Wynne 

Coming from a girl born and raised in modest Nashville, Tenn., my first trip to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show was nothing short of spectacular. 

This past weekend, I was there on business for Gibson, hunched over in a shadowy corner of our enormous tradeshow tent during the day, filing video blogs (and teaching myself Final Cut as I went). But at night, I wandered down the Vegas strip with my chin cocked up, gaping at all those lights, all that smutty, glitzy goodness. 

Everyone says money flows through that town like water. In Vegas, people talk about money all the time. They’re always tucking it away into billfolds, blowing it tableside on games of roulette and blackjack, on $20 cocktails, on honkin’ steak dinners. People count their money brazenly in front of others and spend it casually and frequently. All that excess is exciting, if tiring.

I was sad to leave Vegas yesterday, and I took a cab to the strip for one last look. The Bellagio fountains were blasting and everyone was wearing tee-shirts, carrying around four-foot tall cups full of sticky rum drinks. I filmed it all for one last vlog that will post tonight.

This will sound cheesy: The best part of the Consumer Electronics Show this year was hanging with my co-workers. The people who work at Gibson are some of the best I’ve ever met. Many of them hilariously funny, amazingly talented and downright kind, not to mention resourceful and hardworking, and that comes through in many of the vlogs posted here. Watch them all and please forgive my amateur video editing. I’m working on it!

I'm a lucky girl.

I get to wrangle a motley crew of writers who turn in stories with leads like this: "Rock stars are not like us. For breakfast, they eat groupies and large swaths of leather, washing it down with a glass of fire. And they can knock out amazing songs while sitting on the crapper." (See The 15 Stupidest Rock Quotes of '08.) 

There's no editing a sentence like that. I just have to let it roll. I've never met Aidin Vaziri, the writer of that article. In fact, I've only personally met one of the writers who contribute stories to the site each week.

But I feel like I've known these guys all my life. 

If I want a snarky, tongue-in-cheek story, I turn to Aidin. (Example A.) If I want a perfectly written and loving tribute to a musician who's passed, I come calling on Russell Hall. (Example B.) If it's a dissection of an obscure indie band I'm looking for, it's Jonah Bayer no question. (Example C.) After all, he lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where he runs wild and free with a pack of skinny hipsters. (The photo above I plucked from Jonah's Facebook. He's the gentleman atop the other gentleman's shoulders on the right.)

And so on ... each writer has his own niche and each comes from a different background. We have writers on staff who've waxed poetic for Rolling Stone, Spin, Guitar World, No Depression and Harp. And now we're proud to have them on board at Gibson.com.

Check the Lifestyle site often and get to know them youself.

I hear this question a lot ― mostly from people within our own company: Why in the world are we using our Web site to write about brands other than Gibson? Are we trying to sell instruments for our competitors or something?

Jim Dalrymple’s article on Signature Fender artist Billy Corgan, for example, or Dave Hunter’s article on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s tone. What were we thinking, right? Well, we were thinking of you and what you want ― which is probably to be the best guitarist you can be.

Obviously, we want you to buy Gibsons ― and there’s plenty of information to be had about our guitars on the Web site ― but I don’t think we need to load you up with a bunch of cockamamie marketing copy to get you to buy our brand. Our guitars speak for themselves.

About a year ago we made the choice to include other guitar brands in our editorial coverage. It all came down to what we want this site to be, and we want it to be much more than just your average corporate bulletin board. We hope to establish Gibson’s Lifestyle site as a definitive source for music news, and original interviews and features. And that requires us to acknowledge the existence of other guitar brands. Even if it does get our sales people hopping mad.

So if you see a stray Fender or Martin here and there, now you know.
 

We don’t send out too many surveys, but that doesn’t mean we’re not listening to you. Rather than bug you with a check-yes-or-no questionnaire, we pay close attention to what you click on when you visit Gibson.com. In fact, my first order of the day every day is to put together a report on which of our Lifestyle stories you clicked on the most the day before.

We’re big on Top 10 lists, but that’s only because you are. Four of our Top 10 lists found their way onto Gibson.com’s Top 10 Stories of 2008, as did two other list-type stories. You also like reading about new Gibson products (surprise!), how to achieve a famous artist’s guitar tone and how to make your guitar sound better overall.

Without further adieu, these are the most-clicked on Gibson.com stories of 2008, in the format you like best.

1. 10 Commandments from the Rock Bible

2. 25 Secret Ways to Get The Guitar Tone of Your Dreams 

3. Introducing The Gibson Dark Fire Limited Edition First Run

4. 15 Artists That Successfully Went Solo

5. Who Made This An Open Forum? 10 Great Moments in Rock and Roll Heckling

6. Open and Alternate Tunings: What They Are and Why Page, Iommi, Grohl, and Slash All Use Them

7. Upgraded, Limited True Vintage Hummingbird, J-45, and SJ-200 Now Available

8. Get That Slash Tone and Style

9. 10 Great Greatest Hits Albums 

10. Top 10 Albums That Every Music Snob Name Checks