California’s Rival Sons play straightforward, unpretentious rock & roll informed by the greats of classic rock. Since forming sometime in the late 2000s, the band has risen to critical and commercial acclaim, hitting a new level with their Grammy-nominated 2019 album Feral Roots. The band has made several appearances on late-night television and ended up sharing stages with many of their heroes like AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Guns N’ Roses. They continued to elevate their sound while working on seventh studio full-length, 2023’s Darkfighter.

Rival Sons formed in Long Beach in 2008 around the quartet of guitarist Scott Holiday, bassist Robin Everhart, drummer Mike Miley, and vocalist Jay Buchanan. All were veteran musicians who had found some small measure of success with previous projects. The band established their creative relationship with producer Dave Cobb from the very beginning, resulting in their self-released 2009 debut album Before the Fire. They received some exposure when their song “Tell Me Something” was used in an ad campaign for Indy car racing, and the following year, they opened for some high-profile acts, including hard rock legends Alice Cooper and AC/DC. In 2010 Rival Sons made the unlikely jump to extreme metal label Earache, which quickly issued a self-titled EP that the band had recorded in 2010.