The American artist Drew Struzan passed away at the age of 78 in October 2025. Although his name might not be familiar to many Rock and movie fans, chances are you’ve had a poster illustrated by him on your wall at some point in your life. Struzan was known for his airbrushed one-sheets technique when designing movie posters. He was responsible for more than 150 iconic film posters, including The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, E.T., Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and Star Wars. But he also created many covers for famous Rock and Roll albums. To pay tribute to the legendary artist, Rock and Roll Garage selected some of the album covers he made. Rock and Roll album covers created by Drew Struzan Poco "Pickin' Up the Pieces" (1969) Grand Funk Railroad "Phoenix" (1972) Roy Orbison "Memphis" (1972) Black Sabbath "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" (1973) Canned Heat "One More River to Cross" (1973) Alice Cooper "Greatest Hits" (1974) Alice Cooper "Welcome To My Nightmare" (1975) Iron Butterfly "Scorching Beauty" (1975) Other movie posters he illustrated were: John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982), "First Blood (Rambo)" (1982), "Risky Business" (1983), "Police Academy" (1984) "The Goonies" (1985), "Better Off Dead" (1985), "Big Trouble in Little China" (1986), "The Name of The Rose" (1986), "Hook" (1991), "Hocus Pocus" (1994), "Mallrats" (1995), "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001). During his career he won the awards: "Saturn Award" (2002), "Inkpot Award" (2010), "Saul Bass Award" (2014), "Sergio Award" (2016) and "Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame" (2020).The post Rock and Roll album covers created by Drew Struzan appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.

The guitarist Dennis Stratton was a member of Iron Maiden from December 1979 to October 1980, less than a year. But alongside Dave Murray he was one of the guitar players on the band's first album. With classics like "Iron Maiden", "Running Free", "Prowler", "Phantom of The Opera", "Charlotte the Harlot" and "Transylvannia", that record is celebrated by the fans of the band to this day. Although he was fired due creative differences by the band after their tour supporting Kiss in Europe, he is a good friend of Steve Harris and talked in an interview with Rock Talk about their friendship. Dennis Stratton talks about his friendship with Steve Harris "I speak to Steve all the time, mostly about shit West Ham football. He has been a West Ham supporter with a life full of misery. But yeah, I was with Steve in Finland a couple of weeks ago, and Simon [Dawson, new Iron Maiden drummer], who's doing a fantastic job. Love Simon. I saw the show with the crazy Finns. And then we came back. I had a week at home. I was playing in the UK in London, and then we went to the London stadium, met up with them again, and had something to eat and drink." "But the show at the London stadium, I was blown away. The sound was just unbelievable. I've been to many Donningtons, many Reading festivals and concerts at the O2, but for a metal band, every rock band [that played] at the London stadium, [they] never had a sound like it. The separation of the guitars was perfect. The power chords, the way they run on the guitars, they were singing, and Bruce's voice was sounding great." "We went back afterwards to see Steve, and he came out and we had a cuddle, when I said to him, 'Well, Steve, that's the best sound I've ever heard.' And I spoke to him the next day on the phone, and I said, 'Honestly, I'm still buzzing.' I've heard 'em so many times... but the sound at that London [show] was the best I've ever heard," Dennis Stratton said (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). After Maiden, Stratton recorded albums with Lionheart, Praying Mantis (Also as occasional vocalist) and also with Paul Di'Anno. At the age of 73 he continues to tour performing especially that first Iron Maiden album he was part of. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM2Q_8CPLno&list=RDiM2Q_8CPLno&start_radio=1&pp=ygUbaXJvbiBtYWlkZW4gZGVubmlzIHN0cmF0dG9uoAcBThe post Dennis Stratton talks about his friendship with Steve Harris appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.

Although bassist, singer, and keyboardist Geddy Lee is a huge fan of Progressive Rock music and Rush is known as a Progressive Hard Rock band, he has always been interested in many other types of music. Whenever there is an interesting bass guitarist, he listens to their bands' music. Over the decades, he has talked about many bands with remarkable bass players, sharing his opinions about them. One of those bands was the American group Red Hot Chili Peppers, which features Flea as their bassist. What is Geddy Lee's opinion on the Red Hot Chili Peppers Geddy Lee is a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, especially because of the band’s acclaimed bassist, Flea. The Rush frontman has always admired his bass playing and even tried to incorporate some of his style into his own."Flea blows my mind. I mean, when you talk about a generation of bass players that started slapping. There’s so many. I guess it grew a little bit out of jazz, a little bit out of R&B. I remember for a time, that’s all you heard." "Every bass player was slapping and popping, slapping and popping. And then there was Flea, who could slap, pop, and play everything in between, to such incredible, dextrous degree, that I just felt he used that in such a brilliant way. He brought that sensibility of … I guess, what you would call in that period, sort of a contemporary R&B style of play into a rock genre. (He) always kept it rock. Always does rock." "And I love the fact that he has all those tools in his toolbox. More tools than most other bass players have, in my view. And he always experimented with different instruments, and got a bit of a different tone. And again, here’s a guy that did a lot of pop music, and yet that pop music had very aggressive, very creative, very melodic bass lines. So I just love that about his playing, and I’ve come to appreciate it over the years, more and more. He’s very identifiable, and he has a singular style of playing," Geddy Lee told Rolling Stone in 2020 listing Flea as one of his favorite bass players. Geddy Lee compared the bass in "Give It Away" with the one from The Beatles' "Come Together" In Rock and Roll music, the guitar has most often been the instrument that captures the listeners’ attention. However, there are a few tracks, like The Beatles’ “Come Together,” where the bass takes the spotlight and becomes the driving force of the song. For Geddy Lee, the Red Hot Chili Peppers classic “Give It Away,” from their 1991 album "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", relates to that, as the bass is also the central element of the track. “(Flea) He is a monster player. Flea is one of the great, you know, contemporary bass players. His influences are so Funk driven, yet, he can do anything. On ‘Give It Away’ he is just like the bass in ‘Come Together’. Like the bass in so many great pop songs. He is providing an alternate rhythm for the drums and an alternate melody and he is working at the bottom of the neck and the top of the neck. He is going back and forth between. Which I always love as a bass player, that’s a perfect example of that,” Geddy Lee told Amazon Music in 2019 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). "Give It Away" was one of the songs he told the streaming service that inspired his playing the most. He tried to learn how to play a bit like Flea Although the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rush did a very different kind of music, Geddy was inspired by Flea. He even tried to incorporate some of that inspiration in the 1990s. However, that didn't work so well because he really couldn't play like the musician as he recalled in his book "My Effin' Life" (2023). "At the time, incidentally, I wanted to bring a more percussive, rhythmic approach to the way I hit the strings, and developed a kind of flamenco approach to playing. It was partly inspired by watching Les Claypool of Primus on stage and listening to players like Flea, who switched seamlessly from a slap style to traditional yet still adventuresome Rock." "What accidentally made my style unique was that I was pretty much a failed slap player. When I attempted my strings sounded too clicky and lost 'oomph'. So I developed my own finger technique to produce an aggressive rhythmic approach that retained my signature twang. What at first sounded weak and weird in the context of Rush provided a different but still powerful backbone," Geddy Lee said. Geddy Lee is a fan of the RHCP drummer Chad Smith https://youtu.be/Y7PtYnltIKA?si=i3f5F5lEDtj9MTiI&t=274 Besides Flea, Geddy Lee already praised Chad Smith, RHCP's drummer, who is also a fan of Rush and the late drummer Neil Peart. Curiously, when mentioning Smith as a drummer he liked, in an interview with The Guardian in 2023 answering questions from fans. Geddy also mentioned Anika Nilles, who was announced in 2025 as the touring drummer for Rush's return to the road. Smith performed "Working Man" with Alex Lifeson and Geddy in 2022 at the Taylor Hawkins tribute show in Los Angeles. "There are so many. We’re living in a time rich with great drummers. I love (Tool’s drummer) Danny Carey’s playing. I love (Red Hot Chili Peppers’) Chad Smith. Very different to Neil, but the man has so much power. I heard this drummer the other day, I think her name is Anika (Nilles). She played on the last Jeff Beck tour and I thought she was terrific," he said. After Smith played with them in 2022, he talked about the band in an interview with Power Hour. "For me to be able to play with them... I mean, when I was 15, the record for me, was "2112". I would put the f*cking 8-track in, smoke some weed in the parking lot before going to school like every day and I was like in! (Then) I changed my f*cking drum set, set up the cowbells, the whole thing. I have my Neil phase, which I think any drummer had," he said. When Red Hot Chili Peppers was formed in 1982, Rush already was a known band for almost a decade. But the band would really become commercially successful in the 1990s. Especially because of albums like "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" (1991) and "Californication" (1999). The post Geddy Lee’s opinion on the Red Hot Chili Peppers appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.

America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but it lacks a few things compared to other countries. Why can’t America have a high-speed rail, a healthcare system that won’t bankrupt you, or super cool toilets like they do in other parts of the world? Why are we still tipping on every meal, and why can't you find a decent meat pie anywhere?The great American experiment has done pretty well for the past 249 years, but we still have some blind spots. It would be cool if a brave politician could one day make America truly great by poaching all the best ideas from around the world and creating the perfect country. Pedro Pascal City GIF by The Wild Robot Giphy A Redditor recently asked people on the AskReddit subforum, “What's one interesting thing you saw in another country that made you think, 'How does my country not have this?" The responses are a great starting point for this hypothetical leader to begin making the improvements we’ve all been dying for. Bidets? Yes, we can! French fries with gravy? Yes, we can! Beer at Burger King? Yes, we can!We compiled a list of the 15 most interesting things they have in countries that should be implemented in America, like, yesterday.15 cool things they have in other countries that we need in America1. Cashiers can sit down"I was an exchange student in Germany during my Junior year in high school. Right before I left, I had a job as a cashier at a grocery store. When I first went shopping in Germany, I thought, 'THEY GET TO SIT?! WHY COULDN'T I DO THAT?!' The only place that does this in the U.S. now is Aldi, which of course is a German company.""Corporations: 'It's a slippery slope. If we let cashiers sit, what's next? The federal government will make a law that says that pregnant women get time off, and we have to give them money? Fathers get paid time off, too? We let people stay home if they're sick, without a doctor's note? Employees get more than 2 weeks of vacation per year? We have to pay people enough to afford both food AND housing? Where does it end?!'" Why can't they just sit down? via Canva/Photos2. On-time public transport"I travelled everywhere in Japan by public transport. My Japanese was terrible, but I could get everywhere with Google Maps because of the utter reliability of the services. I turned up at the station or bus stop and caught the transport that presented itself. The train, which was 5 minutes early, was not my train. The one that was on time on the right platform was the one I needed to catch." 3. Fit-levers on faucets"I saw something similar in Mexico City, only it was a foot pedal to activate/flush a public toilet. This operation seems so much more sanitary than using a handle to flush a toilet.""You want two peddles: 1) to lower the seat (it should automatically lift back up unless it has a lid which auto-closes); 2) flush."4. Coupon crushers"In 1997, I was in Singapore and saw these things that looked like vending machines. It was a machine that you would take your empty pop can, and put it in this compartment, lift a handle to crush the can. It would then drop down into the machine. Then the machine printed out coupons for businesses in the area. I thought it was genius! I've never seen it anywhere else."5. Bidets"More Bidets, pls. My anus can only take so much tp.""Honestly, every person who has tried it has understood why I love them so much. It’s uncomfortable at first because it’s different, but it really does leave you feeling much cleaner." A bidet.via Canva/Photos6. Private public restroom stalls"Public restroom stalls without the stupid gaps in between the doors, and smaller to zero gaps on the bottoms of the doors."7. Server buttons"In South Korea, there were buttons on the tables to signal you were ready to order, pay, whatever. It meant no pushy or hovering waitstaff and they were able to chill and relax a bit when no one needed their help.""In Korea, they have a 'bing-bong' button on your table on a restaurant. If you need something, you press the button, your table number shows up on a screen by the server station, and they come over to your table. Usually, I just hold up my empty bottle or side dish and make eye contact from across the room, and they smile and bring me another one. Otherwise, the servers don't come by and bother you during the meal. It's so so so much better this way.""We have this at Korean BBQ restaurants in Los Angeles."8. French fries with gravy"In Canada, you can get French fries with cheese and gravy.""We have this in the US. If you're in the Jersey/New York area they're called Disco Fries."9. Free healthcare"Basically, your medical bills are paid for by your taxes, so when you go into the hospital, the only thing that ends up costing money is the parking. The drawback can be that there is a waitlist for some surgery (except when it's urgently needed to keep you alive), at this time, medical insurance can pay for it, but it's still not as expensive as in America. Also, depending on the country, your medication is also a fraction of the actual cost. For example, in America a box of medication I have to take would cost me about US$600 a month, here in Australia that same medication only costs me about US $15""Socialized medicine is only as good as the people implementing it. If it isn't working properly, that isn't really the concepts fault. It's the people running it." Free healthcare, anyone?via Canva/Photos10. Traffic light countdowns"In Germany, the traffic lights go from green to yellow to red like they do everywhere else, but after red, they light up red + yellow together before green. That way people have a head start getting ready to hit the gas and by the time it’s green you’re immediately moving forward. Bothers me more than it should when it just goes from red to green in other countries."11. The government does the taxes"Taxes filed FOR YOU, and the return just appearing in your bank account."12. Beer vending machines"Beer at Burger King" (One-upper!)13. Attached caps"This one's less exciting than a lot of others, but I bought a bottle of Coke in London, and when I opened it, I realized there was a little piece of plastic that held the lid to the neck of the bottle, so you don't have to hold it. I can't believe we don't do that in the US. It's such a tiny little thing, but it feels like a no brainer when you think about it.""That is due to a new law (an EU law, but a lot of brands have done it for their UK products too). Bottle caps have to be attached to the bottle to prevent them from being littered and to help ensure that they are also recycled along with the bottle."14. Meat pies"America, they are just not as big a thing here as they are in other countries. I loved them in New Zealand, in fact, when I was there, they had a fast food joint called Georgie Pie that was absolutely fantastic, also bakeries everywhere, where you could get them too."15. Clean public toilets"Clean, modern public toilets. I've been to Japan a few times, and those public toilets are amazing. I need to go back to try the one-way glass wall ones. (On a side note, having been to some Japanese music festivals, it seems that they have no problem setting up mens bathrooms in a way that the women line up looking directly into the men's bathroom. Very odd.) Clean public bathroom.via Canva/PhotosThis article originally appeared in June.

The presumed father of a newborn baby was skeptical of his paternity after the baby girl was born with blonde hair and blue eyes. He and his wife of two years have brown hair and brown eyes, so he thought there was no chance it was his child.The wife reassured her husband that they could have a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby and that, quite often, a baby’s hair and eye color can change over time.But the husband “freaked out at this and refused to listen,” the wife wrote in a viral post on Reddit’s AITA page. Instead, he “demanded a paternity test and threatened to divorce me if I didn’t comply, so I did.” A fighting couple faces away from each otherCanvaThe man was so confident that after the baby was born, he moved into his mother’s house while he awaited the results of the DNA test. The wife stayed home with the baby and was helped through the first few weeks by her sister.To make things worse, the wife’s mother-in-law began to make threats. “My MIL called and informed me that if the paternity test revealed that the child wasn’t his, she would do anything within her power to make sure that I was ‘taken to the cleaners’ during the divorce,” the mom shared on Reddit.Finally, three weeks after the child was born, the DNA test results arrived and the husband came home to read them with his wife. “I was on the couch in the living room, so he sat next to me and we started to read the results,” she wrote. “They showed that he was the father and my husband had this shocked, kinda mortified look on his face with his eyes wide as he stared at it.” Man looks at his phone in disbeliefCanvaThe wife said, “I told you so,” and laughed in his face. In the post, the wife also notes she has “zero history” of cheating.Although it is rare for two people with brown eyes and brown hair to have a blue-eyed, blonde-haired baby, it is entirely possible. According to Verywell Health, there is a 19% chance that a couple with brown eyes can have a blue-eyed baby. And, as the wife noted earlier, a baby’s eye color can change over its first year of life.Further, two people with brown hair can have a blonde-haired child if both parents carry the recessive gene for blonde hair. The blonde hair may darken over time as well. A blond hair, blue-eyed baby looks at the cameraCanvaIf the father had done a quick Google search on the topic, he would have quickly realized that there was a very strong case that he was the father and the drama could have stopped before any damage was done to the marriage.The positive part of this story is that the wife’s post on Reddit earned her a ton of support from people who thought her husband’s antics were utterly inappropriate. The support probably also helped to put her husband's wild antics into perspective while she determined their future. The wife felt bad about laughing at her husband, but most people thought it was appropriate, given her husband's behavior.“Not only doesn’t he have a basic grasp of genetics, he threw a tantrum and left you immediately after having the baby to struggle alone for almost a month,” CrystalQueen3000 commented. “He’s lucky all you did was laugh in his face.” DNA sequencing from a paternity testCanvaA lot of commenters thought that the woman should leave her husband for accusing her of cheating and leaving her alone with the child.“Honestly, if my husband left me for weeks after giving birth due to a faint assumption like this, I would be done. I can't be together with someone who abandoned me when I needed them desperately,” Matakakiba wrote.This article was originally published last year.

Are you the type of person who always writes grocery lists by hand? Perhaps on the back of a receipt, in a special notebook, or on an index card? Do you insist on this method, even though you’re the only one in the store unfurling paper like an ancient scroll while everyone has their heads down, tapping away at their phones?Lists are undoubtedly important. In a poll, research revealed that the average British adult writes an average of three to-do lists a week—which, in some cases, can add up to 9,766 lists in a lifetime. “Evidently, we all rely on lists for one aspect of life or another,” commented Shahbaz Khan from STABILO, a high-quality pen and pencil company.But when it comes to the actual list-making, does the method in which you create it really matter? Apparently, yes. And your choice, handwritten or digital, can say a lot about your personality.If you prefer handwriting, you’re likely… To have a mind that operates like a filing cabinetIn 2024, two professors at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Dr. Audrey L.H. Van der Meer and F.R. (Ruud) Van der Weel, found that handwriting activates more elaborate and widespread brain connectivity patterns compared to typing. They suggest that the physical act of moving your hand while writing creates spatial and temporal patterns in the brain that promote learning. media4.giphy.com In a similar study, Japanese researchers found that participants who wrote calendar events by hand on paper showed increased brain activity—particularly in memory regions—compared to those who recorded the same information on smartphones. The hand writers also recalled the information 25% faster than those who typed. Writing by hand triggers extra neural activity in regions tied to learning and memory. So, no matter how messy your handwriting might be, that grocery list might also be giving your memory a little work-out.To be naturally conscientious and understand the secret to successConscientiousness isn't the same as self-control or self-restraint—rather, it refers to a person's tendency to be organized, reliable, goal-directed, and self-disciplined. It's no surprise, then, that those who score highly in conscientiousness tend to be successful: they aim for high-profile outcomes and have the ability to develop well-thought-out plans to accomplish their goals.Comfortable getting tactileNothing quite compares to writing with your perfect pen. (By the way, what's yours? A Pilot G2-2? Uni-ball Vision Elite? Or perhaps something fancy, like the Squire Classic Pen from Baronfig?) It's a complete sensory experience as your pen glides across paper. This physical connection helps create a deeper engagement with the task at hand.To not buy on impulseYanliu Huang and Zhen Yang from the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University examined how handwritten shopping lists differ from digital ones. Their research showed that people who write lists on paper tend to make more planned purchases and fewer impulse buys. A woman looks at her grocery list in a supermarket. Photo Credit: Kampus Production/PexelsHowever, there are a few downsides to a handwritten grocery list…Let's face it: sometimes you can't read your own handwriting. When rushing, you might scribble illegibly, forget items, or leave the paper at home entirely. (Pro tip for forgetful hand-writers: snap a photo of your list before heading out, just in case.)Paper lists are also cumbersome to update on the go. Picture this—you've just remembered you need onions while backing out of the driveway, but now you're scrambling for a pen. Don't do this. Plus, paper lists make it difficult to coordinate shopping with other people.If you’re #DigitalForever, you’re likely… In a poll of 2,000 people in the United Kingdom, researchers found that when it comes to list-making, only 40% use their phones, while 63% write on notepads and 24% use sticky notes. So congrats—you're right in the middle!Extremely efficient and organizedYour phone is a miracle list-maker: people who use digital lists value practicality over sentimentality—they appreciate the power of automatic sorting, expense tracking, and integrated coupon features. These lists can be updated instantly and accessed from almost any device, making them the most efficient, streamlined option. People who use digital lists value practicality over sentimentality.Photo Credit: Jack Sparrow/PexelsSomeone who uses data to make decisionsBeyond expense tracking, many apps provide nutritional data, meal planning suggestions, and inventory management—helping you make smarter, healthier food choices. You're not just shopping anymore; you're strategically planning your nutrition.Collaborating with someone in the kitchenThe beauty of a digital list is that it can be shared with others in real time, allowing multiple people to add items seamlessly. This eliminates miscommunications and duplicate purchases while reducing paper waste and promoting environmentally friendly habits.The digital life has its downsides, too…Taking a break from your phone can be refreshing, but keeping your grocery list there means more screen time—potentially leading to digital fatigue or distractions from notifications and other apps. There's also the practical concern: what if your phone dies, you lose internet connection, or your service drops out while shopping?Grocery shopping can be such a treat. Whether you use digital lists, handwritten scribbles, or memory tricks to track what you need, there's no wrong approach. The “best” way to write a grocery list depends on you: your personal preferences, your lifestyle, and what works for your routine. Ask yourself, “What will make me feel the most organized and calm?” Then let your grocery list lead the way.This article originally appeared in June.