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Fred Schruers

Fred Schruers

Fred Schruers' writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Circus, Premiere and Entertainment Weekly. He wrote a business blog about the entertainment industry at Portfolio.com, in addition to being one of Premiere magazine's most loved-and-feared figures (he wrote the annual Power List). Fred is currently a senior writer for TheWrap.com.

Steven Ward's 2001 interview with Schruers

93 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Linda Ronstadt: Heart Like A Wheel (Capitol ST 11358)

Review by Fred Schruers, Crawdaddy!, March 1975

THIS ALBUM of ten lusciously produced singles is marked by a tonic '50s earnestness that explores a closed set; beyond the singer and her putative ...

Patti Smith: Radio Ethiopia (Arista)

Review by Fred Schruers, Crawdaddy!, December 1976

CHATTY PATTY: PISSIN' IN WAX ...

Melanie, Joni Mitchell: Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum 7E 1087); Melanie: Photograph (Atlantic SP 18190)

Review by Fred Schruers, Crawdaddy!, February 1977

JONI DRONES, MELANIE FINDS NEW KEY ...

Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (Warner Bros.)

Review by Fred Schruers, Circus, April 1977

YOU COULD look it up. After 10 years and a like number of frequently boring albums (some great stuff in there, too), these penguin fanciers ...

Jan Hammer, Jeff Beck: Jeff Beck & Jan Hammer: More Lively Than Wired

Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 9 June 1977

Jeff Beck Explodes With The Jan Hammer Group Live ...

Little Feat: Time Loves A Hero (Warner Bros. BS 3015)

Review by Fred Schruers, Crawdaddy!, July 1977

FEATS HAVE FAILED ME NOW ...

Jesse Winchester: Winchester '77: Jesse Trades His Burden For A Breeze

Interview by Fred Schruers, Crawdaddy!, July 1977

MONTREAL— Hands jammed into his back pockets, Jesse Winchester stands at the window staring holes through the spring snowstorm. Birch logs spit and crack reassuringly ...

Richard Hell & The Void-Oids: Blank Generation (Sire SR 6037)

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977

RICHARD HELL HAS been touted as an underground genius for nearly three years, and this debut album boldly tries to document him as such. The ...

Linda Ronstadt: Simple Dreams

Review by Fred Schruers, Crawdaddy!, November 1977

WHEN LINDA Ronstadt dropped her hands down the mike-stand and went to make some small talk with the audience at a New York concert early ...

Tom Waits: Foreign Affairs (Asylum 7E-1117)

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1977

THE ADMIRING audience that Tom Waits built up with his early work now worries about him in a way that does his derelict's persona proud: ...

Randy Newman: Inside The Criminal Mind

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Crawdaddy!, December 1977

EAST BATON Rouge Parish, LA. — "I wasn't unhappy. I didn't feel guilty about it. I just didn't do anything for three years." ...

Deniece Williams is Here to Stay

Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 2 February 1978

Songbird Album Showcases Ex-Wonderlove Singer ...

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty Can Make 'Em Scream

Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 2 February 1978

Are the Heartbreakers on the Brink of Stardom? ...

Rick Danko: Rick Danko (Arista)

Review by Fred Schruers, Circus, 16 February 1978

SO IT WASN'T our imagination — Band fans have been chomping on gruel since the release of the group's second album. Rick Danko's solo debut ...

Natalie Cole: A Thoughtful, Thankful Sophisticated Lady

Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 2 March 1978

Natalie Cole's Career Soars after Two Grammys, Three Hits ...

Pat Travers Takes a Band

Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 2 March 1978

Canadian Guitarist Expands Basic Unit For U.S. Surge ...

Emmylou Harris: Full House at the Elite Hotel

Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 16 March 1978

Emmylou Harris' Fourth LP Is a Grand and Seedy Selection ...

Elton John, The Ramones, Sex Pistols: Mr. Ramone, Meet Mr. Rotten

Report by Fred Schruers, Circus, 16 March 1978

CIRCUS Invades Britain for a Classic Punk Clash ...

The Outlaws: Outlaws Brought Back Live

Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 11 May 1978

Southern Renegades Captured at Last on Vinyl ...

The Tubes: What Do You Want from the Tubes?

Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 11 May 1978

Double "Live" Package Delivers Best of Bay Area Bonzos ...

Nick Lowe: Pure Pop for Now People (Columbia JC 35329)

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1978

NICK LOWE, the man who produces Elvis Costello and Graham Parker, is a rising deity on the English pop front. But as you might guess ...

Jimmy Buffett: Red-Eyed Sails in the Sunset

Profile by Fred Schruers, Circus, 8 June 1978

Jimmy Buffett Floats Home Another Relaxing Rock Monster ...

Ian Dury: Tales of sex & drugs & rock & roll

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 15 June 1978

IAN DURY, between sets at the Bottom Line, is lolling on a chair in the just-cleared club. "With, with, wiv, with," he says. "Not for ...

Elvis Costello is Angry and Convincing: This Year's Model Fulfils Every New Wave Expectation

Profile by Fred Schruers, Circus, 22 June 1978

IT'S 1:30AM IN the Bootlegger Lounge in Syracuse, NY. Elvis Costello, the one with the owlish stare and the spitting mad vocals, the man whose ...

Patti Smith Riding Crest of New Wave

Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 22 June 1978

Easter, Her Third LP Is Commercial and Artistic Success ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: A Puff Away from Huge

Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 6 July 1978

Bob Marley and the Wailers Gain Fans Near and Far with Kaya ...

Patti Smith: The Patti Smith Group: The Palladium, New York NY

Live Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978

Patti comes home a hero ...

The Kinks: The Once and Future Kinks

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1978

Untangling fourteen years of rock & roll fantasy ...

Blondie: What Deborah Harry won't do

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 14 December 1978

Blondie's punk Garbo ...

Chaka Khan, Earth Mother

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 April 1979

NEW YORK — "I can read your thoughts right now, every one from A to Z," sings Chaka Khan in her current hit, 'I'm Every ...

Elvis Costello: What'd I Say?

Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1979

Elvis Costello puts his foot in his mouth ...

Robert Fripp's Public Exposure

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1979

The return to 'an intelligent way of living' ...

Rachel Sweet: Sixteen and Nobody's Fool

Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1979

AKRON, OHIO ...

Delbert McClinton: Keeper of the Flame (Capricorn)

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 December 1979

DELBERT McCLINTON'S virtues are plain, but they're hardly simple. He's too much of a hybrid and vocal wizard ever to be simple. His is the ...

Aretha Franklin: La Diva (Atlantic)

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1980

IT'S NO news that, during the last several years, Aretha Franklin has regressed from being one of our most powerful R&B performers into a mere ...

Rodney Crowell: A Songwriter Surfaces

Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 21 August 1980

'Ashes by Now': his first hit ...

Talking Heads: Dr Pepper Music Festival, Wollman Skating Rink, Central Park NY

Live Review by Fred Schruers, Musician, November 1980

THE TALKING Heads' avowed inspiration, when they began as a trio in 1976, was boredom with the contemporary art scene. The homemade music they began ...

Carlene Carter: Musical Shapes (Warner Bros.)

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1980

IT'S ALWAYS embarrassed Englishmen like Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton that they got rich by showing Americans how palatable their native R&B and blues were. ...

Dave Davies, The Kinks: Dave Davies Forgets About The Past

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1980

NEW YORK CITY — "Eyes can lie," warns Dave Davies in his song 'Visionary Dreamer'. "And sometimes words are oh so useless..." ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Boss is Back

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 27 November 1980

Bruce Springsteen hits the road for his first tour in two years, and along the way gives ample life to his performing legend. ...

Bruce Springsteen and the Secret of the World

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 February 1981

FAME GRIPS A JERSEY BOY... BUT HE GETS OUT UNSCATHED ...

Garland Jeffreys: Escape from the Demons

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 14 May 1981

NEW YORK CITY ...

Joe Ely: Bottom Line, New York NY

Live Review by Fred Schruers, Musician, August 1981

SINCE HIS recent notices have offered us a new-and-improved Joe Ely, I have to begin by swearing on a stack of ticket stubs: I've been ...

G.E. Smith: An Ace Axeman Steps Out Front

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 6 August 1981

NEW YORK CITY — "All I've ever wanted to call myself is a player," says unsung guitar legend G.E. Smith as we sit down to ...

Crazy Horse, Neil Young: Neil Young/Crazy Horse: Re•ac•tor (Reprise)

Review by Fred Schruers, Musician, February 1982

WE'RE TALKING dirty guitars in excelsis here; under the headphones, this record sounds like an automatic weapons fire-fight in a sawmill — or better yet, ...

The Kinks' Resurgence Continues

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1982

NINETY MINUTES after the Kinks' show at the Seattle Center Coliseum, Ray Davies is strolling out of a restaurant called Bob Murray's Dog House, a ...

The Police, Sting: The Police's Sting considers a new career

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1982

PHILADELPHIA — DEEP in the bright yellow innards of Philadelphia's Spectrum Arena, the reluctant rock god known as Sting eyes a dressing room crowded with ...

Marshall Crenshaw: Marshall Crenshaw (Warner Bros.)

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 May 1982

MARSHALL CRENSHAW'S rock & roll has the kind of crafty simplicity that has to be called classic. Like the Everly Brothers and the early Beatles, ...

Dave Edmunds: D.E.7th (Columbia)

Review by Fred Schruers, Musician, June 1982

THE CHORDS in the title of D.E.7th are, of course, a conspicuous pun on the fact that this is Edmunds' seventh solo record. The question ...

Black Uhuru: Tear It Up (Island) ***½

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1982

MOST OF THE songs on this live LP date back to Black Uhuru's early days and, as a result, may not be familiar to American ...

Ry Cooder: The Slide Area (Warner Bros.) **

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1982

RY COODER HAS made ten albums (excluding soundtracks) since his 1970 debut LP, and with the exception of one overly precious stiff (Jazz), each new ...

Joe Cocker's Island Renaissance

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, July 1982

THE NOONDAY sun has come and gone over the town of Nassau, the Bahamas, and Joe Cocker's afternoon boating party, which left port as proper ...

The Pretenders: James Honeyman-Scott: 1956-1982

Obituary by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 22 July 1982

JAMES HONEYMAN-Scott, the twenty-five-year-old lead guitarist for the Pretenders, died in his sleep in London sometime during the early morning hours of June 16th. The ...

Kid Creole & The Coconuts: Kid Creole and the Coconuts: Wise Guy (ZE) **

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1982

THE TITLE OF this record in the U.K. is Tropical Gangsters, in line with the album's plot, which finds Kid Creole and the Coconuts shipwrecked ...

Ace, Paul Carrack, Nick Lowe, Squeeze: Paul Carrack: "Singin' Like A Boid"

Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, October 1982

Keyboard specialist for Ace, Roxy and Squeeze, Carrack has brought his muscular, gritty voice and soulful hit tunes out of the shadows and up to ...

Donald Fagen Revisits an Era of Innocence

Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, January 1983

"LACK OF IRONY," says Donald Fagen with a wry grin, "is not exactly my specialty." It's an odd apology – more like a boast – ...

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Long After Dark

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1983

TOM PETTY and the Heartbreakers play a finely crafted band of meat-and-potatoes rock.  ...

Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Kate and Anna McGarrigle: Love Over and Over (Polydor) ***½

Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 17 March 1983

WHILE THEIR most compelling virtue is their lovely vocal interplay, Kate and Anna McGarrigle have always been careful to use classy session players. As a ...

U2: Small Victories in a Rock and Roll Struggle of Sound and Emotion

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, May 1983

STUMPY, PRINCELY Bono Vox drives along Dublin Bay, left arm grasping the wheel of his humble sedan while he uses the right – temporarily game ...

A&R Crisis: Why U.S. Acts Can't Get Record Deals

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 23 June 1983

NEW YORK CITY — "When you do A&R," says Karin Berg as she climbs the steps of Manhattan's cavernous, sparsely populated Ritz nightclub near midnight ...

T Bone Burnett, Warren Zevon: T Bone Burnett: Bottom Line, New York NY

Live Review by Fred Schruers, Musician, February 1984

America as Fallen Starlet ...

Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Goodbye Cruel World (Columbia)

Review by Fred Schruers, Musician, August 1984

BEFORE YOU sink into Elvis Costello's latest, brilliant slough of despond, make sure you keep your copy of the lyrics (printed on the album sleeve). ...

Richard Branson: Rock & Roll at 30,000 Feet

Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 25 October 1984

From Tubular Bells to Boy George, Richard Branson has made millions from music. Now he's trying to run his own airline. Is he smart enough ...

Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense (Dir. Jonathan Demme)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 25 October 1984

Heads play from heart in new film ...

Queen: Rock in Rio

Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 14 March 1985

Ten-day event comes off with few hitches ...

Madonna: Lucky Stars

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 9 May 1985

How Rosanna Arquette, Madonna and director Susan Seidelman lost tempers and found each other through Desperately Seeking Susan ...

Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul: Q&A: Little Steven

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 16 January 1986

LITTLE STEVEN Van Zandt, to his simultaneous worriment and gratification, has become the symbol of the antiapartheid movement outside of South Africa. It's not surprising ...

Madonna: Can't Stop The Girl

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986

HERE WE ARE on a nice drive down Cahuenga Boulevard — the journalist's rental wreck following Madonna's forty-plus-grand midnight-blue Mercedes sports coupe — and the ...

Simply Red: Simply Ready

Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, April 1987

Mick Hucknall Knows What He Wants and Simply Red's Going to Get It. ...

B.B. King: Mississippi Homecoming

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 30 November 1989

RILEY B. KING, a son of the Mississippi Delta and by everyone's admission but his own the King of the Blues, stands by a two-lane ...

Cowboy Junkies, Kris Kristofferson: Kris Kristofferson Meets The Cowboy Junkies: Country Music On The Morning After

Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, June 1990

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON occupies an unusual place among American songwriters. His songs have been covered by such legends as his inspiration Bob Dylan ('They Killed Him'), ...

Crazy Horse, Neil Young: Neil Young: Ragged But Right

Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, February 1991

RIGHT THIS minute out here on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, the future of gutbucket rock stands in some question. ...

The Black Crowes' Attitude

Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, January 1993

THE CORRECT ROCK 'N' ROLL ANSWER to society's "What are you rebelling against?" has always been Brando's "Whaddya got?" In this regard, Black Crowes frontman ...

Daniel Lanois: The Book of Daniel

Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, September 1993

Dan Lanois The Musician Eclipses Lanois The Producer ...

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: This Is How It Feels

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 4 May 1995

"That's all we need is another dog onstage." Tom Petty's calm drawl has just gone as thick as black smoke from a smudge pot. Petty ...

Liz Phair: Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1995

"FABULOUS... NOT so fabulous," SAID Liz Phair as she strapped on her red Fender Musicmaster guitar and faced a hall full of fans from Hollywood's ...

Sheryl Crow: She Only Wants To Be With You

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 14 November 1996

"CAN WE TALK?" Sheryl Crow plants a hand on her
 right hip and addresses what she calls a "granola crowd" 
packed tight in the Santa ...

Bruce Springsteen Finds "A Sense Of Place"

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1997

SUNRISE, FLA.; "Don't make me come out there and slaaaap that tan off ya." Bruce Springsteen's warnings to potentially restless crowds tend to have a ...

Courtney Love: Love's Labor Lost

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1997

How Courtney blew her fight for an Oscar nomination as the junkie wife of a porn king in The People vs. Larry Flynt ...

Jeff Buckley: River's Edge

Retrospective by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 7 August 1997

On May 29, just as he was to begin recording the follow-up to his acclaimed album, Grace, JEFF BUCKLEY decided to take a swim in ...

Fleetwood Mac: Back In The Chain Gang

Retrospective and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 30 October 1997

Fleetwood Mac were the lovingest, fightingest, druggingest band of the '70s. Twenty years later, the psychodrama continues… ...

Master P: Survival of the Illest

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 27 November 1997

New Orleans' MASTER P builds a hip-hop empire from the underground up ...

Tupac Shakur: Revenge Killing?

Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 9 July 1998

Suspect in TUPAC killing shot in Compton ...

Master P

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1998

MASTER P is hip-hop's man of the year, and then some. It seems hardly a week goes by without a new release from his No ...

Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Millie, Ernest Ranglin, Traffic, U2, Steve Winwood: Chris Blackwell: A Man of Wealth & Taste

Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1999

For forty years, CHRIS BLACKWELL has survived on killer instincts, killer bud and tough business tactics. Along the way, he's changed the course of pop ...

The Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, Tupac Shakur: Suge Knight Linked to Notorious B.I.G. Murder

Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 27 May 1999

LOS ANGELES homicide detectives have reportedly identified jailed Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight as a prime suspect in the murder of rap star Notorious ...

John Coltrane, Ravi Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Eric Mingus, Thelonious Monk, T.S. Monk: Coltrane, Davis, Monk, Mingus

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999

JOHN COLTRANE, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus were not just virtuoso musicians but path-breaking composers and bandleaders who shaped the sound of modern ...

Loudon Wainwright III, Rufus Wainwright: Fathers & Sons: Loudon and Rufus Wainwright

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, 53, was the folk-singing son of a famous Life magazine writer and came on the scene with several other "new Dylans" in ...

Buena Vista Social Club, Ry Cooder: Fathers & Sons: The Cooders

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999

JOACHIM COODER was four years old when he decided he wanted to be a drummer, after watching his father, Ry, and drummer Jim Keltner record ...

Elvis Costello, Ross McManus: Fathers & Sons: The Costellos

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999

DECLAN MACMANUS took to the stage in 1977, an angry young man sporting Buddy Holly glasses and a strange name: Elvis Costello. But he wasn't ...

Allman Brothers Band: Fathers and Sons: The Allmans

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999

  THE STORY of the Allman Brothers Band is one of the most glorious and the most tragic in rock. On this year's tour, celebrating the ...

The Notorious B.I.G.: New Allegations Link Suge Knight to Murder of the Notorious B.I.G.

Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 January 2000

DEATH ROW RECORDS HEAD Marion "Suge" Knight, currently serving time for a parole violation at California's Mule Creek State Prison, has again been named as ...

Warren Zevon: Crystal Zevon's Story: Warren from A to Z

Interview by Fred Schruers, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2007

Through interviews and diaries, the musician's ex-wife chronicles the hedonistic life of one of the genre's bad boys. ...

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