Jim Nelson

When Jim Nelson began his radio career in Los Angeles — on the air and producing and writing national shows PowerCuts and In the Studio — much of what we think of today as Classic Rock was still new. Then, just as the grunge era was beginning, he started his second career as a music writer. Since 1978, he’s interviewed and/or written about Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, Steve Perry of Journey, ZZ Top, Bon Jovi, Yes, Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, Aerosmith, Jackson Browne, Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, The Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, Foreigner, and so many more. In 2021 Nelson retired from radio after 43 years, and with his Classics Du Jour series Classic Rock Landmarks: A Deep Dive into the Iconic Songs that Changed our Lives, he returns to writing regularly about the music he’s loved since childhood. Nelson is a huge fan of major league baseball and the Dodgers, U.S. history, and distance running, and he lives with his girlfriend and his step-cockatiel in the western suburbs of L.A. View all posts by Jim Nelson →

Articles by Jim Nelson

Classic Rock Landmarks: Sweet Child ‘O Mine

“I was f@#king around with this stupid little riff,” Slash has said of the origins of Guns N Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” That “stupid little riff” is, by the way, the riff that in 2004 Total Guitar magazine readers voted the greatest guitar riff of all time, beating out the opening riffs of Nirvana’s … Continue reading Classic Rock Landmarks: Sweet Child ‘O Mine →

Classic Rock Landmarks: Free Bird

“What song do you wanna hear?” singer Ronnie Van Zant asks the crowd before Lynyrd Skynyrd kicks into 14-minutes of “Free Bird” on their 1976 live album, One More from the Road. He was speaking rhetorically. By then, the whole world knew what song everyone wanted to hear at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. Hell, that’s … Continue reading Classic Rock Landmarks: Free Bird →

Classic Rock Landmarks: Like a Rolling Stone

“He not busy being born, is busy dying.” There it was, hiding in plain view in one of Bob Dylan’s most memorable lyrics, released in the spring of 1965. “He not busy being born, is busy dying.” Dylan, 23 and a firmly established toast of the thriving folk scene, laid it all out there: stagnation … Continue reading Classic Rock Landmarks: Like a Rolling Stone →

Classic Rock Landmarks: Yesterday

“Scrambled eggs. Oh, my baby, how I love your legs. Not as much as I love scrambled eggs.” Paul McCartney once sang those words with Jimmy Fallon to the tune of “Yesterday” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, putting Fallon in rarified air singing the original lyrics with the man who wrote them. (If you … Continue reading Classic Rock Landmarks: Yesterday →

Classic Rock Landmarks: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

If you get to talking with the great songwriters, you’ll notice a common thread, a connecting theme, and you’ll hear it over and over. They generally have no idea where their songs come from. In 1965, a 21-year-old guitarist in a London band supersized that notion when he wrote a guitar lick for the ages. … Continue reading Classic Rock Landmarks: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction →

Classic Rock Landmarks: Stairway to Heaven

Stairway to Heaven. Is this Led Zeppelin classic the greatest rock & roll song ever? Possibly. Who’s to say? It turns out that plenty of people have had something to say about it. To wit, “Stairway” was the most requested song on FM radio stations in 1970s America, despite never having been released as a … Continue reading Classic Rock Landmarks: Stairway to Heaven →