Innehållsförteckning för October 2018 från Classic Rock

WELCOME Fifty years? That’s half a century! This month marks five decades since Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham first played together in public. Granted, they were billed as the New Yardbirds when they hit the stage at Gladsaxe Teen Club on the outskirts of Copenhagen in Denmark on September 7, 1968, but that was the first time anyone witnessed the band that would soon rename themselves Led Zeppelin. A lot happened in the years after that gig–just think of the body of work they crammed into the 12 years they were an active concern, before fate so cruelly intervened with the tragic death of John Bonham. Incredible playing, awesome live shows, albums that most bands would give their eyeteeth to have made, and, at the…

the DiRT RIP Thank you and good night. Eddie ‘Chank’ Willis June 3, 1936–August 20, 2018 Mississippi-born Willis was an American soul musician who played guitar and electric sitar for Motown Records’ in-house studio group, The Funk Brothers, during the 1960s and early 1970s. He appeared on The Supremes’ You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour and The Marvelettes’ Please Mr Postman, among other hits. Aged 82, he had been suffering from polio. Mark ‘The Shark’ Shelton December 3, 1957–July 27, 2018 Mark ‘The Shark’ has died in a German hospital just hours after his band, the Kansas-based heavy metal group Manilla Road, appeared at the Headbangers Open Air Festival. Shelton co-founded Manilla Road in 1977. His bandmate, vocalist Bryan Patrick, revealed that the guitarist suffered a…

Ed King September 14, 1949–August 22nd, 2018 LYNYRD SKYNYRD’S GARY Rossington was “shocked and saddened” to learn of the death of his former bandmate, a founder member who played guitar and bass with the southern rock icons from 1972 to 1975 and again between 1987 and 1996. King, who co-wrote the band’s hit Sweet Home Alabama, passed away at his home in Nashville at the age of 68. “I know he will be reunited with the rest of the boys in rock and roll heaven,” added Rossington. Before joining Skynyrd, King was a member of the psychedelic band Strawberry Alarm Clock during the 1960s. He played on Skynyrd’s self-titled debut album in 1973 and the following year’s Second Helping, and left the group after the release of a third record,…

the DiRT ★ HIGH HOPES Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Newcastle’s sludgy rock’n’roll deviants talk new music, their Catholic roots and actual pigs. JANINA SABALIAUSKAITE/PRESS “We love the momentum of Krautrock, and Motörhead and Black Sabbath at their most pacey.” “WITH ANY SORT of music with me, you’re dealing with emotional intensity,” Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs singer-songwriter Matt Baty reflects. “Regardless of our ridiculous and obnoxious name, there’s an underlying purpose behind everything we do, but it is shrouded in a mask of joviality.” The band that sanity demands we call simply Pigs grew out of numerous interlocked outfits in Newcastle’s flourishing underground rock scene, not least the sludgy bleakness of Khünnt, who share most of Pigs’ members. The latter’s new, second album, King Of…

the DiRT ★ HIGH HOPES The Dirty Nil Ant-infested motels, gunshots in the night… It’s just a regular day for this punk-infused rock trio. STEVE GULLICK/PRESS “The Who were pretty much the reason we wanted to start a band.” “THEY SAY THAT to rest is to rust,” frontman Luke Bentham says, while enduring, rather than enjoying, a slither of downtime. “When we’re at home we get to chill out, watch Netflix and hang out with our dogs, but we’re already ready to get back on the road.” Time at home isn’t something this Canadian trio (completed by drummer Kyle Fisher and new bassist Ross Miller) have been all that accustomed to in recent years. Having formed in their sleepy home town of Hamilton, Ontario in 2006, it was 10 years…

HAPPINESS IS A WARM FUZZBOX They saved their label Sub Pop from going bust, inspired the Seattle sound, and with furious new album Digital Garbage, Mudhoney show that their filthy tones are as sweet as they ever were. Words: Everett True CHARLES PETERSON/PRESS The heart of grunge. This is what Mudhoney are. This is what Mudhoney always have been. The heart of grunge. Whether the Pacific Northwest band are spitting liquefied anger on their latest album Digital Garbage–a howl of outrage, a scrimmage of disgust at the Trump administration and an out-of-control social network system that enables it–or inspiring a generation of rock fans to grow their hair long and freak out to their anthemic debut single, 1988’s Touch Me I’m Sick, Mudhoney have rocked the good rock. EMILY RIEMAN/PRESS…

NO WONDER HE PLAYS THE BLUES Woke up this morning, his relationship is on the rocks, his life is empty and he’s down in a hole… We take a five-hour drive with broken-hearted blues hero Joe Bonamassa. Words: Dave Everley Photos: Alison Clarke Joe Bonamassa has a head full of heartbreak and a soul full of pain. As a blues musician, that’s part of the job description. But right now he has the air of a man who has taken an emotional battering and is hanging off the ropes as a result. “As of now, it’s too far gone,” he says forlornly, slumped deep in a chair in the upper lounge of his tour bus as motorway lights flash by outside the tinted windows. “And it’s one hundred per cent…

ON THIS MONTH’S FREE DIGITAL ALBUM… ROVERS, RAMBLERS AND ROCKERS Ten stellar highlights from Earache Records, including tracks by Blackberry Smoke, Massive Wagons, Rival Sons and many more–all in one exclusive compilation. 1 Massive Wagons Sunshine Smile Comparatively little-known purveyors of rocksolid, groovelicious rock’n’roll from Carnforth (yes, we had to Google it too), Massive Wagons surprised everyone last month when their album, Full Nelson, hit No.16 in the UK chart. Listening to this swaggery stomp of ‘fuck yeah!’ attitude, you can’t help feeling extremely happy for them. Who says proper rock can’t penetrate the masses? Wagons, roll! From Full Nelson www.facebook.com/MassiveWagons 2 Those Damn Crows Blink Of An Eye Meanwhile, over in Bridgend, five tattooed guys (and former school chums of Bullet For My Valentine) are sustaining South Wales’ reputation for…

Mudhoney Digital Garbage SUB POP The return of rock’s last sane men. First of all, thank Christ there’s a new Mudhoney record out. Mark Arm and crew were always the eye-rolling bullshit detectors of grunge’s brown wave and holy smokes, and we’re tits-deep in bullshit these days. If there is one thing certain in this world, it’s that the new Mudhoney record is gonna sound like the old Mudhoney record, and that’s just the kind of consistency we need in these perilous times. They don’t experiment with harps or extended remixes or anything here. There’s a synthesiser, but it’s a chintzy late-70s new-wave synthesiser, so it’s cool. One thing, though: it always seems out of touch when rock’n’roll legends use the parlance of the times in their lyrics. Like when…

David Bowie Loving The Alien (1983–1988) PARLOPHONE Bowie’s most critically derided period, remixed, remastered and partially rehabilitated. After the majestically rich glam box set, the gloriously excessive cocaine-soul period and the art-rock genius of the Berlin albums, Bowie’s 1980s reinvention as mullet-haired mainstream pop star was always going to be a tougher sell. Even Bowie himself called these his “Phil Collins years”. Padded out with uneven live albums, indifferent remixes and anodyne film soundtrack songs, this 120-track package makes for depressingly arid listening in places. That said, no anthology that includes the heart-soaring Absolute Beginners or the high-gloss Let’s Dance can be considered a total wash-out. Bowie’s 1983 album Let’s Dance album sold a career-topping 10 million copies, transforming this former leper messiah into a stadium-rocking superstar. Nile Rodgers’s bright,…

Brian Downey’s Alive And Dangerous The former Thin Lizzy man recreates a classic live show. Lizzy’s drummer gives us the lowdown on his new group, who are playing the band’s iconic live double album Live And Dangerous in its 40th-anniversary year. What’s the story behind the band? There was a Thin Lizzy reunion with Scott [Gorham] and the guys in 2010, which was enjoyable, but afterwards I really missed playing. When I saw these guys [bassist/lead vocalist Matt Wilson and guitarists Brian Grace and Phil Edgar] playing at Vibe For Philo [an annual event to celebrate Phil Lynott], playing Thin Lizzy material, it seemed like a good idea. You’ll be playing Live And Dangerous in full. How faithfully do you stick to the original versions? We try to be as…

Hogjaw The southern rockers are getting a taste for touring. THE TREATMENT: JULIAN NAPIER/PRESS Vocalist/guitarist JB Jones introduces the Arizona-based southern rockers as they limber up for their first ever British tour, promoting their latest album Way Down Yonder. Hogjaw debuted in the UK at Ramblin’ Man Fair back in 2016, after a warm-up gig in London. How was that? We had wanted to get to the UK for quite a while, so it was short but sweet. At Ramblin’ Man we had great weather. We were on in the Outlaw Country tent and the reaction was great. It felt like a good start. Now come thirteen headline dates. Have those five tours of mainland Europe prepared you for such a clash of cultures? Maybe not, because last time we…

LIVE! Iron Maiden ‘Vintage Maiden, but with the theatricality pushed to new heights.’ London O2 Arena The heavy metal maestros remain in a class of their own. ★ Empires crumble, dynasties die out, entire galaxies fizzle into darkness, but Iron Maiden endure. Perennially uncool to the gatekeepers of highbrow taste, but still reliably packing out huge arenas across the globe after more than 40 years, these stout yeomen of Middle English metal are a fascinating self-contained phenomenon. If the nostalgic, patriotic, Brexit-leaning heartlands of Britain could be distilled into an operatic rock pageant, it might look and sound a lot like this show. The Maiden formula is conservative, bombastic and as subtle as a drunken pig-wrestling contest. And yet, after all these decades, they still deliver an amazing spectacle unlike…

This month’s contributors STEVE MITCHELL You might not recognise the name, but regular readers of Classic Rock will definitely recognise his artwork. Steve has illustrated many CR covers and CD artwork over the past decade. This month he’s played a blinder with his striking Led Zeppelin cover image. To see more of Steve’s work, check out his Instagram at instagram.com/fiftysevendesign EVERETT TRUE In 1991, Entertainment Weekly called Everett True “the man who invented grunge”. He’s been trying to live down the claim ever since. A former editor and publisher of VOX, Melody Maker and Plan B Magazine, Dr Jerry Thackray (his real name) now lives in Haywards Heath and teaches music journalism. This month he chats with his old pals Mudhoney (page 30). JOHN McMURTRIE In truth, photographer John McMurtrie…

NEWS Pearl Jam recently raised $11 million for local homeless charities from a pair of shows at Seattle’s Safeco Field, home of the city’s Mariners baseball team. Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee have been photographed together in the studio with producer Bob Rock. It has been speculated that the ex-Mötley Crüe duo may be working on material for the upcoming Netflix movie of the Crüe biography The Dirt. Former Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts was forced to cancel a number of dates after suffering a stroke. Betts, 74, is one of only two surviving members of the original ABB line-up, the other being drummer/percussionist Jaimoe Johanson. Vinnie Paul (pictured) died from a heart condition, according to a coroner’s report. The former Pantera drummer, who passed away in June at the…

Sightings Start Rumours AC/DC Are Recording Current and past members spotted together at studio. THERE’S GROWING EXCITEMENT among AC/DC fans following reports that band members are holed up, and possibly recording, in Canada. Speculation over renewed activity began on August 8 when singer Brian Johnson and drummer Phil Rudd–both estranged former members of the group for their last bout of touring–were photographed together laughing and joking outside Warehouse Studios in Vancouver, where the band recorded their last three albums. There were also reports of guitarist Stevie Young, who officially joined the band in September 2014 following the retirement of his uncle Malcolm Young, being seen in the city. Later on the same day another photo appeared online, this time showing Stevie and Angus Young having a ciggie outside the same…

Sharp Dressed Man Rock’n’ Roll accessories This month @jamiehibbard is elegantly wasted in these three sartorial stand-outs. Red Wing Rover Now the cooler weather is upon us thoughts naturally turn to warmer clothes and boots. SDM’s default is always to go on to the Red Wing store to scope out what new styles they’ve got, and happily this year’s search has turned up this new style, the Rover. Made with premium leather from the Red Wing tannery and a Cushion Crepe shock-absorbing sole, this is a boot built for comfort. £249 RedWingHeritage.com Alpha Industries Polar jacket Who doesn’t need a military-spec parka in which to tackle blizzard conditions? Well, ok, so you might not need one, but it is good to have just in case. And these guys have been…

2,053,679 AND STILL GROWING! SOCIAL CLUB Get social, debate and interact with Classic Rock TO CD OR NOT CD I’ve bought this magazine since issue one. I grew up reading Sounds, and Classic Rock became my music bible. I have never written before, however I feel it’s time. I do not agree with issue 253’s free album being a digital download. I know you may say that I should get with the times and accept it. Well, I am with the times–I have iPods, iTunes and pay for a legal streaming service on my PC, tablets and phone etc. I also buy CDs, which supports bands, and go to many gigs both locally and nationally. It’s easier to pop a CD in in the car. I don’t want to mess…

THE HARD STUFF the ultimate ROCK REVIEWS section Rod Stewart Blood Red Roses DECCA/REPUBLIC Post-American Songbook renaissance continues. Listening to Look In Her Eyes, the opening track on Blood Red Roses, you’d be forgiven for forming the opinion that Rod has simply given up: succumbed to the ravages of time and reached for the autotune. But it actually offers evidence the former Face is still in the game. The canny Stewart eye remains on the commercial pop market, and if they like their vocals autotuned, then autotuned it is. Look In Their Eyes is the album’s Graham Norton moment, a classically Stewart-ed uptempo ballad for the mainstream. Meanwhile, there’s more than enough bounty for the scarfed hard-core (still clinging to post-mod, sky-reaching hair that offers every indication that someone’s holding…

Tom Petty An American Treasure REPRISE Gainesville gold from the strongbox: an aptly titled set that unearths a wealth of lost classics. He was one of the good guys, Tom Petty, and while his death may not have had the global impact created by David Bowie’s passing, there’s a big hole left where he used to be. It’s likely that his fans will immerse themselves in this career-spanning four-CD box set with mixed emotions. Lovingly compiled by his daughter Adria and his wife Dana, with Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench hands-on, this is no hasty cash-in. The music is exemplary: rock’n’roll, southern gothic, serious stuff and downright fun tunes. It starts with Surrender, an unreleased track from the 1976 debut, and sweeps across the following decades, offering stacks of…

MC5 Total Assault Box RHINO For real rock’n’roll motherfuckers only: a no-frills box set of all three albums. Through the course of three messy, wildly uneven albums, the MC5 redefined rock’n’roll with such elegant ferocity that people are still trying to catch up with them. Hot on the heels of their 50th anniversary, the career-defining Total Assault Box belches up all three albums, warts and all, and lets the listener decide what side of history they wanna be on. No remastering, no bonus bullshit (well, they’re on coloured vinyl and there’s a booklet), just the entire history of the baddest band in the land splayed out rough, raw and ready. Their’68 debut Kick Out The Jams remains their untouchable masterpiece. Recorded live and in the red over two nights at…

27: The Legend & Mythology Of The 27 Club Gene Simmons POWERHOUSE BOOKS Kiss man deconstructs rock’s macabre club. Considering the amount of press coverage that’s been given to the ‘27 Club’ in recent years, it seems strange that it’s been so little discussed on the bookshelves. As any rock bore knows, a string of stars–beginning with bluesman Robert Johnson and including Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones and Janis Joplin–all died at the age of 27. Media fascination around this statistic has grown steadily since the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994 and peaked with the death of Amy Winehouse in 2009. All of which suggests there’s a serious investigative book to be written on the correlation between fame, youth and mental illness. Simmons, however, isn’t the man to do it.…

INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK the DiRT Alice Cooper Backs National Album Day Renewed popularity of the much-loved format continues to grow. ALICE COOPER HAS thrown his weight behind the first ever National Album Day, an initiative to celebrate all aspects of the UK’s love of the album. The event, planned to mark the 70th birthday of the format, is endorsed by the BBC. At precisely 3.33(r)pm on Saturday, October 13, the British public is invited to play their all-time favourite record. A social media campaign (see @AlbumDayUK and #NationalAlbumDay) asks people to nominate and share the album, across all genres of music, that has most inspired them. In 2017, 135 million albums, or their equivalent, were either purchased on CD or vinyl, downloaded or streamed–up 9.5 per cent on…

Q&A Hugh Cornwell The former Stranglers frontman on surviving prison, staying sharp, pedal power and the art of songwriting. Words: Mick Wall BERTRAND FEVRE/PRESS “The necessity of The Stranglers adopting a pose appealed to our provocative nature.” Hugh Cornwell has never been like other rock stars. The singer/guitarist best known for fronting punk rockers The Stranglers had already obtained a degree in biochemistry and was doing a post-grad degree in Sweden when he formed his first band. The sensitive soul has written books and done time in prison. He’s the tasty-looking geezer who sang Always The Sun while wearing a long, dark overcoat that looked like it belonged to Harold Steptoe. A genuine case of what you see not being what you get. His new solo album, Monster, is the…

MONSTER TRUCK WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS …stays in Vegas? Not this time. Classic Rock joins Monster Truck in the gamblers’ paradise and gets an eyeful of 24/7 drunkenness, debauchery and decadence on a spectacular scale… Words: Sleazegrinder Photos: John McMurtrie I’m staring at Elvis Presley’s karate outfit. It’s on display right outside the Paradise Towers elevators in the lobby of the Hard Rock casino in Las Vegas. The entire hotel is dedicated to the golden (let’s say 1957 to’97) era of rock music. I’m not sure how to take any of it. What do I learn from this? Okay, I saw Morrissey’s suit jacket from an NME cover shoot. Now what? Do I get to heaven? What is any of this even about? I’m pondering this because I’m killing time…

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO WILKO JOHNSON A free full education should be available to all; the NHS is a wonderful thing; imminent death can focus the mind; love never dies… These and more guiding nuggets from the death-defying guitarist. Interview: Ian Fortnam With a personality defined by raw charisma and sheer likability, Wilko Johnson is unmistakable. As his steelyeyed, hairless skull snaps and spins on its slender neck, he’s as vital and alert as an amphetamine meerkat. His charming, instinctive honesty machine-guns flat Canvey Island vowels laced with street smarts, hard-won experience, snippets of apposite poetry and wonder–always wonder–into the ether. Mortality-dodging, gangster-sharp, amateur astronomer Wilko’s eyes are always on the stars. All these uncontrived assets, the irresistible ingredients of an inarguable national treasure, make it easy to forget that…

OUT, BUT NOT FOR THE COUNT Dan McCafferty might no longer be in Nazareth, but he’s still recording. Since his enforced retirement from Nazareth, Dan McCafferty has made a handful of short on-stage appearances, including a performance of This Flight Tonight accompanied by an orchestra at last year’s Sweden Rock Festival. Laying down a solo album of his own in the room next door, McCafferty was an occasional visitor to the studio as the new-look Nazareth recorded Tattooed On My Brain. Although the singer says it was “a rather bittersweet experience”, he was “very, very impressed” by the music his old friends were making with Carl Sentance. McCafferty has attended several Nazareth shows, but resists the temptation of a guest appearance. “That would be like someone’s ex-wife turning up at…

CLASSIC ROCK ALBUM OF THE WEEK CLUB Every week we choose a classic album–some obscure, some well known–and share knowledge and opinion. Listen and debate with us at: http://bit.do/aotw. Have your say on the history of rock, one album at a time… And you might just see yourself in print. A Farewell To Kings Rush (1977) WHAT YOU SAID Benjamin Kelk: This is a quintessential listen for first-time Rush listeners. Absolutely perfection from beginning to end (all Rush albums are though). From the opening notes of the title track to the closing, fading strums of Cygnus X-1, there is never a dull moment on this album. Every time I listen to it is like the first time I listened, gives me chills every time. All bow down to the mighty…

Billy F Gibbons The Big Bad Blues SNAKEFARM ZZ Top frontman goes back to his roots for second solo album. Like the bands he’s fronted for most of his adult life, Billy Gibbons isn’t afraid to throw a musical curve ball or two. ZZ Top’s remarkable leap from bar boogie blues to electronic-fuelled pop made them international superstars in 1983 with the release of the Eliminator album, then when Gibbons announced his first solo record in 2015 with the Afro-Cuban flavoured Perfectamundo and then performed at the Havana Jazz Festival, his shift in musical gears was another example of the Gibbons philosophy that some left turns just feel right. There’s no mistaking the incarnation of Gibbons on The Big Bad Blues: dirty, boogie blues, gritty, down at heel and sometimes…

ROUND-UP: BLUES By Henry Yates Shemekia Copeland America’s Child ALLIGATOR It’s not often you find the chip surpassing the old block, but with respect to the late Texas tussler Johnny Copeland, his daughter Shemekia is making that hallowed surname her own. Following her best-so-far Outskirts Of Love album, Copeland’s eighth release coincided with her pregnancy, and is an icy shiver at the poisoned world her son’s set to inherit. Refreshingly, rather than take the standard potshots at Donald Trump, Copeland’s outlook is redemptive and hopeful, and it’s to her credit that this open-hearted material never comes off as cloying. Opener Ain’t Got Time For Hate is a tough but tender strut, while Smoked Ham And Peaches is a banjo-driven porch-rattler, its lyric demanding the truth, sung with a twang. Best of…

Joe Strummer Joe Strummer 001 IGNITION Before The Clash, after The Clash, but not really The Clash. ALEX DEMYANENKO/PRESS The Clash never did re-form, but just before Joe Strummer died in 2002, it had never seemed more likely. Old wounds had healed, Strummer and Mick Jones were collaborating again and distance had cemented The Clash’s place as rock greats. And while he could never quite flee the mothership, Strummer toiled long and hard. For all that the commercial breakthrough remained elusive, his drinking and depression were at bay, he was building up a substantial volley of post-Clash work and, at the age of 50, a promising future beckoned. The 32-track (35 in box-set form) 001 is, like everything Strummer turned his hand to, a glorious mess. The first disc is…

LIVE! Steve Hackett The former Genesis guitarist previews eight dates of orchestral shows. “It still thrills me that John Lennon gave an interview saying Genesis were among the bands he loved to listen to.” The guitarist continues to celebrate the legacy of his late, lamented former band, Genesis, this time accompanied by an orchestra. These eight UK dates will be performed with an orchestra, something you tried last year in America with a forty-one-piece as a one-off. Yeah, and it went very well with the Buffalo Symphonic. We’re not bringing them over, but we are using the conductor, Bradley Thachuk. So which orchestra will you have with you? They’re called The Heart Of England. We started off with the idea of forty-one of them but it’s looking like there will…

LIVE! The Treatment The band prepare for nine UK dates with their new frontman. No longer considered new kids on the block, the British hard rockers launch a nine-date headline tour, backed by Airrace and Tequila Mockingbyrd. With Spinal Tap it was drummers, but The Treatment seem to have a problem with lead singers–Tom Rampton is the third one you’ve had. Dhani Mansworth: For us, this is a case of third time lucky. Mitchel [Emms, whom they found after he appeared on TV show The Voice] was a very different person–his influences and direction, and what he wanted out of music. 2018 is actually the band’s tenth anniversary. Tagore Grey: It makes us feel older than we’d like. Being picky, we first met ten years ago but didn’t become The…

LIVE! The Lemon Twigs London The Lexington Glam kids are alright. ★ Paul Weller’s watching tonight, and knows better than most that the degree of teen talent dubbed precocious on the D’Addario brothers’ debut as The Lemon Twigs, Do Hollywood, was normal when rock was young. Goofy brat androgyne brother Michael is now 19, and relatively introverted longhair Brian 21. New album Go To School’s deployment of voraciously absorbed early-70s styles, glam-punk to the fore, in a Sondheim-influenced musical about an alienated chimp who burns his human high school down is, admittedly, ambitious for any era. This post-Columbine Carrie, or maybe Grease, takes up most of the set. Album guest and band deity Todd Rundgren can’t make it, but Michael’s goofy charisma is enough. From his PG-rated Lou Reed patter…

Heavy Load Dan Reed on having a good work ethic, bad business decisions, spirituality and reactivating the Network. Interview: Dave Ling Heavy questions for heavy rockers Born in Portland, Oregon on February 17, 1963, Dan Reed formed the funk-infused Dan Reed Network in 1984. Over the following decade the group released three albums and supported the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, among others. The Network went on hiatus in 1993, after which Reed pursued a mainly solo career. It was reactivated in 2012. Their new studio album, Origins, is their fifth. Did you have a happy childhood? Very much so. Growing up on a farm in South Dakota gave me a crazily driven work ethic, but I was surrounded by nature, which was very peaceful. It…