40 years on from his passing, Scott Gorham, Eric Bell, Mark Stanway, Laurence Archer and more talk about the bandmate and friend – the real Phil – that they knew.

Don’t have a plan. Don’t be cocky. Doing drugs is dumb. He knows what it’s like to be poor. He’ll know when it’s time to quit – and will. These things and more shape his world view.

Every month we get inside the mind of ...

The Ten Years After bassist survived Hamburg’s Star-Club, sparked the blues boom, achieved immortality at Woodstock – and is still going strong at 82. “Music,” he says, “it’s a drug…”

SINCE FOUNDING BIG Wreck in the early Nineties, Ian Thornley has filled his band’s songbook with arena-conquering melodies, Led Zeppelin-hailing heft and some of the most super-heroically knuckle-bust

Judas Priest’s heavy metal air-raid siren lived a lie before grasping the nettle of his sexuality. Now his honesty and passion drive him and his band onwards towards their eighth decade. “I still love my metal,” insists Rob Halford.