Throwback Thursday: 9 badass rock 'n' roll Straight covers from 1982

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      The year 1982 was evidently a great time for rock and roll interviews at the Straight. Within a span of just five months Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, and even Paul McCartney graced the cover of the paper, with stories inside that a few long-time readers might remember. Check out the wild covers below, and read through a carefully curated selection of quotes from a few legendary rock 'n' roll stars.

      Ozzy Osbourne on the cover the Straight's June 11, 1982 issue.

      Ozzy Osbourne: On a Crazy Train
      By Steve Newtown

      S.N.: "What's the Vancouver audience in for as far as your new stage show is concerned? I read in Circus magazine that you throw real calves' livers and pigs' guts around..."

      O.O.: "No, we used to, but we had to stop that. We got a fair amount of complaints, and it went a bit over the top, so I put a stop to it. And I don't kill any animals on stage, if anybody's worried about it."

      Iron Maiden on the cover of the Straight's July 9, 1982 issue.

      Iron Maiden's Clive Burr
      By Steve Newton

      S.N.: "Is Iron Maiden a heavy drinking and partying group?"

      C.B.: "You could say that, yes. It's sort of an understatement."

      Robert Plant on the cover of the Straight's July 23, 1982 issue.

      Robert Plant: Zeppelin Is Finished
      No byline

      Author: "Was it a definitive decision that Led Zeppelin was going to be no more?"

      R.P.: "Yeah, it was unanimous. Four-piece bands have been known through history as being really tight. If they ain't tight musically, they're not worth pursuing. So we were tight musically, and there was friendship and kinship. It had its ups and downs, but it really was superb. When a four-piece is no longer a four-piece, what motive, what right, what purpose would it serve to suddenly start elaborating on it? To bring in more people, changing the colour of it to suit the situation—it wasn't valid."

      Burton Cummings on the cover of the Straight's August 27, 1982 issue.

      B.C. Woos B.C. Management
      By Sorelle Saidman

      "Cummings has seen his career take a few twists in the last year or two—up, down and sideways. He got married. HIs next to last album, Woman Love, was refused by his American label. He made a movie and got fair to good response from the Canadian critics, but Melanie has yet to be released in the States. His last album, Sweet Sweet, barely dented the American market, and the Canadian response was equally disappointing. And Cummings parted company with his U.S.-based long-time manager, Shep Gordon. Hence the interest in Bruce Allen."

      David Lee Roth of Van Halen on the cover of the Straight's September 3, 1982 issue.

      The World According to Roth: I Wham, Therefore I Am
      By Robert Newman

      On Women and the Family:

      D.L.R.: "People always harass me because they think I'm sexist. I'm not sexist. People think I'm chauvinistic. I'm not chauvinistic. I do like to think of myself as a menace to human decency and a threat to women, but I pay my taxes. I'm a family-oriented kind of guy. I personally started four or five since January."

      ZZ Top on the cover of the Straight's September 24, 1982 issue.

      ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons 
      By Alex Varty

      A.V.: "In some of your songs you've shown a wildly individualistic view of the world..."

      B.G.: "Yeah... we did a tour with some of your guys, the Loverboy band. They joined the ZZ group for a while, and we found there was something really remotely similar about the two opposite ends of the continent. We had a damn good time with them. They're kind of individualistic. Talking to a Canadian is like talking to a Texan: there's nothing wrong about being proud of where you're from. And that sure shows up in the music."

      Rush's Geddy Lee on the cover of the Straight's October 8, 1982 issue.

      A few Rush words from Geddy Lee
      No byline

      "Lee says there are some people who always want the band to play Working Man and always be the band that made that song. But Lee says, "That was 1974. Face facts. You can't do that. No one can do that and still grow up as a person." "

      The Who's Pete Townshend on the cover of the Straight's October 15, 1982 issue.

      Pete Townshend: "The Who will go on as long as we get a kick out of it"
      No byline

      Author: "The Stones say they stay together because they love rock 'n' roll and it's their whole life. What has kept the Who together over all these years?"

      P.T.: "I think the same thing to some extent. But I've always felt that despite the fact taht the Stones are the archetypal English rock band for me—I love their music and I love their attitude—I don't admire everything about them, as people."

      Paul McCartney on the cover of the Straight's October 22, 1982 issue.

      Interview: Paul McCartney
      No byline

      Author: "What influenced you to finally write about John Lennon's death?"

      P.M.: "I was wondering if I could write anything connected with John's death, and for a while there was nothing coming to me at all, but I sat down one day and I was just strumming along, and an idea occurred to me, that if John was here today and I was saying, "I knew him well, he was a terrific guy," he'd be saying, "Aww, a load of rubbish." It's in his character. That's what the song is about. "And if I said I really knew you well, what would your answer be? Well, knowing you, you'd probably laugh and say we're world's apart," and this kind of thing."

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