Rolling Stone Australia December 2015

“It was an inspired idea getting Phil Jamieson to interview the chaps from Cold Chisel.” Phil’s New Gig? INSPIRED IDEA GETTING Phil Jamieson to interview the chaps from Cold Chisel (RS 768). If ever there was a band to inherit Chisel’s crown, it would surely be . . . well, it wouldn’t be Grinspoon, but they’re still fun to watch. And Phil proved himself an entertaining interviewer. Ever thought about making him a permanent staff member? Gary Wallace, Lake’s Entrance, NSW Howard’s End I DIDN’T KNOW WHETHER to laugh or cry while reading your interview with Terence Howard (RS 768). The man is quite clearly, gloriously bonkers – it would be endearing if there wasn’t a psychologically scary side to him. And you have to feel for anyone who saw…

RS FILMS ‘JACKASS’ TURNS 15 A decade and a half after the shocking show’s debut, the cast reunites to explain the genius and the horror behind some of our favorite stunts – from the hilarious to the downright painful. LIST 50 GREATEST HAIR METAL ALBUMS OF ALL TIME The definitive list of the greatest albums from the era of hair-spray, man-makeup and lace-up leather trousers. GALLERY NORTHEAST PARTY HOUSE TOUR DIARY The Melbourne dance lords are on their first big overseas tour, hitting Europe, the UK and the States. They’ll be sending photo evidence as it happens. GALLERY 10 ARTISTS YOU NEED TO KNOW GET COOL NOW When people ask you what new music they should be listening to, you should have this page bookmarked. Seriously. VIDEO THE BILLION VIEW…

Taylor & Mick Get Ya-Ya’s Out Taylor Swift’s 1989 tour has featured huge guest stars, from Steven Tyler to Justin Timberlake, but no one at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena was prepared when she welcomed “one of the greatest entertainers of all time – my friend Mick Jagger”. Mick and Taylor powered through “Satisfaction”, with Taylor showing off some wild new stage moves. Later, she simply tweeted, “Drops mic.” SCHOOL OF ROCK Slash made his first visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he took a picture of Chuck Berry’s lyrics to “School Days”. “I was impressed!” Slash says. IT’S MADONNA, BITCHES! “I don’t follow the rules, and I’m not about to start,” said Madonna to RS earlier this year. She didn’t disappoint at the opening night of her…

BETWEEN JANUARY 1965 and February 1966, Bob Dylan wrote and recorded his first three electric albums, breaking from folk music and forever changing the course of his career and of rock itself. And as his exhaustive new studio-outtakes box set reveals, the journey toward the perfection of Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde was just as fascinating as the final products. The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12, out November 6th, offers a definitive look at the development of Dylan’s plugged-in sound, unveiling embryonic takes and alternate versions of some of his greatest songs, including “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Visions of Johanna”. “At the beginning, most songs were fairly shapeless,” says organist Al Kooper, a key collaborator on…

‘Visions of Johanna’ with the Hawks Shortly before heading down to Nashville, Dylan attempted to record this surreal song with the Hawks (later known as the Band) in a New York studio. It’s as fast and aggressive as the released version is gentle, yet somehow it manages to be just as gorgeous. ‘She’s Your Lover Now – Take Six’ Dylan and the Hawks spent 19 takes trying to nail this stunningly bitter song about a nasty breakup. “You just sit around and ask for ashtrays,” Dylan snarls. “Can’t you reach?” It wasn’t released until 1991, with the first Bootleg Series. “Maybe it was just too mean,” says Greil Marcus. ‘Desolation Row Piano Demo’ The first 10 years of Tom Waits’ career in a two-minute song fragment: an alternate-reality version of…

AN HOUR BEFORE THEY TOOK the stage at MTV’s Video Music Awards in Los Angeles on August 30th, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were sure their set was going to be a total disaster. The Seattle rapper-producer duo had just finished the final run-through of the performance – an ambitious outdoor version of their new single, “Downtown”, involving tricky choreography and multiple guest vocalists – and nothing was going right. “We watched the playback, and Ryan was bummed,” says Macklemore. “He was like, ‘Dude, this isn’t good. It’s going to be a shitshow.’ ” In the end, their first televised performance in more than a year went off without a hitch – but it was a high-stakes moment for more reasons than one. The last awards show Macklemore and Lewis performed…