After months of competition and over 1.5 million votes cast online, the wait is over: The Sheepdogs have become the first unsigned band ever to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. The Canadian boogie rock revivalists, who have been touring relentlessly throughout North America for six years, beat out 15 other bands for the grand prize, which includes a contract with Atlantic Records along with their faces on the cover of the August 18th issue of the magazine.

Though the Sheepdogs' groovy, harmonic, neo-psychedelic sound is easy-going and relaxed, the guys have struggled in their quest to break out of their native Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and into the big time. "Shit was bleak," frontman Ewan Currie tells Austin Scaggs in the issue of Rolling Stone that hits newsstands this Friday, August 5th. "I saw high school friends get jobs and get married and become adults, and I'm still pursuing this artistic dream where I have no money, no assets and a shitty car I can't even afford to register." READ MORE