The year 1980 saw the United States hockey team beat the Soviets for Olympic gold, the tragic death of John Lennon, the release of AC/DC's epic Back in Black album and the launch of a relatively small New York publisher's guitar-enthusiast magazine called Guitar World.
Although the magazine -- which, back then, was published every other month -- focused primarily on jazz, country, fusion and blues, it didn't take very long to attract a multitude of followers from all different styles who had few other literary resources to turn to.
Our first cover star? Johnny Winter -- "Rockin' Better Than Ever!"
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