Today's Day in Rock News!

Today's Day in Rock


Jeff Beck Cancels Tour For 'Emergency Medical' Reasons
(hennemusic) Jeff Beck has cancelled his European summer tour dates after seeking immediate medical attention which will see the guitarist undergo an unidentified hospital procedure requiring six weeks of rest.

"It is with the greatest regret that Jeff Beck has been forced to cancel the forthcoming European dates of his worldwide tour, set to begin in Austria on 27 June," posted the rocker's team on his social media sites.

"Following many months of international touring and after seeking emergency medical attention, Jeff will now undertake a short hospital procedure and his doctors have instructed a complete break from performance for a total of six weeks. Following the treatment, Jeff will fulfill his US tour commitments beginning in Missoula MT on 8th August."

"He sends his profound apologies to those fans who had bought tickets for the European concerts," continued the statement, "and very much looks forward to playing for his American audiences after he has completed his treatment." more on this story




Judas Priest Announce American Tour
Forget the previous claims that Judas Priest were heading into retirement. The band announced on Thursday that they are launching a North American tour in support of their new studio album.

The veteran UK metal band will be launching the Redeemer of Souls Tour on October 1st in Rochester, NY at Main Street Armory and wrapping up on November 18th in Salt Lake City, UT at the Maverik Center. They have tapped comedy metal band Steel Panther as support for the entire trek.

The tour takes its name from the band's new studio album, "Redeemer of Souls", which has a new release date and is now scheduled to arrive in North America on July 8th.
The album and tour come after Judas Priest embarked on their farewell tour and Full Metal Jackie recently spoke with frontman Rob Halford about the band's change in status.

Halford was asked why they changed their minds and he responded, "It's got to be the fans. We went out there in all genuine honesty, saying that this was a farewell tour but if we could have picked a better word than 'farewell,' I wish we could have found one. That should have been my job, being the lyricist. I suppose 'farewell' isn't really goodbye, it's like, 'see you next time.'

"What we were trying to explain as we moved along was, that we will be going out again but it won't be these two-year treks around the world that naturally become a little bit more challenging when you get to a certain stage in your life. We never want to compromise ourselves, we want to be able to go out onstage, wherever it might be on the planet and give you everything we've got. If there's a way of kind of readjusting the touring scheduling where we can do that, and go in the ring and give you everything, then that's what we intend to do.

"We've just been discussing, while we've been together in New York, the first time we've been together as a band in three years, ironically enough. We saw each other in and out of the studio, but we were never all there at the same time. So, for the first time we were together recently, and we discussed about the touring. We started to put down setlist ideas. It looks like we'll be going out in the fall, in America. So you'll be getting us towards that time of the year. We'll be kicking the tires, as they say, getting the engine reved up and play live to our fans again." more on this story





Led Zeppelin Returned To Scene Of Shark Episode
(Classic Rock) The former boss of a Seattle hotel has told how Led Zeppelin sneaked back in - eight years after they'd been banned for life as a result of the notorious "shark episode."

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and co had been kicked out in 1969 after an incident in which a fish was used in a sex act at the Edgewater Hotel on the bank of the Puget Sound.

But former premises manager James Blum has revealed the band returned in 1977 - and although they didn't cause problems on the same scale, they were still enough of a handful.

He tells his story in retired radio boss Beau Phillips' book I Killed Pink Floyd's Pig. Blum says: "Somehow Led Zeppelin reserved rooms in the Edgewater and we didn't catch it. There were no computer systems back then, and the band didn't use real names when booking, so it got past us."

He decided he couldn't throw them out once they'd checked in, but also wanted to make sure they knew they were being watched. Find out what happened next.




Duff McKagan, Rob Zombie, Steve Jones Lead Johnny Ramone Event
The details for the 10th Annual Johnny Ramone Tribute event have been revealed by Johnny's wife Linda Ramone, who organized the August 24th event at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Rob Zombie will be pulling double duty for the event. He has signed as the host and will also be leading the all-star jam that will also feature Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver and Loaded star Duff McKagan, Sex Pistols Steve Jones and other surprise special guests who will play tribute to the Ramones star.

Zombie will be present a special outdoor screening of the film "The Devil's Rejects" along with an autograph signing session with stars from the film, and Metallica guitarist Kirk "Von" Hammett's special collection of horror movie memorabilia will also be displayed.

According to the announcement, Fred Armisen (Portlandia, Saturday Night Live) will also be appearing at the tribute and will bring along his punk rock alter ego, Ian Rubbish, to the festivities.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Johnny Ramone Foundation and Dr. David Agus, USC. Check out the event poster here.






Megadeth, Stryper, Dokken, Whitesnake Supergroup Gets A Name
(Classic Rock) Michael Sweet has revealed the likely name of his new supergroup featuring George Lynch. The Stryper frontman is teaming up with Lynch, of Dokken and Lynch Mob, as well as former Megadeth bass player James Lomenzo and one time Whitesnake drummer Brian Tichy on the project, to be known as Sweet Lynch.

An album will be released in the coming months. Sweet tells Guitar International: "It looks like we are going to go with the name Sweet Lynch. We were debating that for a while and the label was pushing it for it.

"I co-wrote the songs with George. I called Brian Tichy and James Lomenzo to put the band together. You'll start to hear about it in September with the first single and video. It's an incredible combination of classic 70s and 80s. You will hear some flavours of Journey, Bad Company, Dokken, Van Halen, and Stryper. more on this story





KISS and Def Leppard Pick Veterans For Roadies of Summer Tour
(PMKBNC) As previously announced, KISS and Def Leppard recruited two military veterans to act as roadies on their North American coheadlining tour and the bands revealed who those veterans were during the kick off of the tour in Salt Lake City on Monday night. We were sent these details:

Kayla Kelly and Bill Jones were chosen by the bands after submitting their resume through Military.com. Thousands of applicants applied for the position and Military.com assisted the band in narrowing the field to the final candidates. The winners of the two coveted roadie spots were announced between the bands' performances by Sterling Poulson, Chief Meteorologist for CBS in SLC and a veteran of the United States Air Force, after 27 years of service.

The bands will be donating to two local charities in honor of each roadie being hired. Def Leppard will be donating to the Utah Guard Charitable Trust and KISS will be donating to Veterans Mothers.

"It is our privilege to draw attention to the obligation we all have to the brave men and women who volunteer to risk their own lives to protect the liberties and freedom that we all take for granted. We should all jump at any opportunity to provide any assistance needed by our warriors. Heroes deserve jobs!" said Paul Stanley, lead vocalist/guitarist of KISS.

"Having our own wounded warrior in Rick Allen, we've always had a close tie with the military," said Joe Elliott, lead vocalist of Def Leppard. "To carry on and further our contribution by giving a little back, and hopefully helping fulfill a dream or two, we're more than happy to show our support."

T McCreary, President of Military.com and a retired Navy admiral said, "We were proud to take part in helping these two great bands choose their roadies for the 2014 summer tour. Our veterans have diverse skill sets that virtually any organization can use and this is proof of that. I think these two veterans may have the coolest post-military job ever. "

Throughout the course of their tour, the bands will be donating to charities including the USO, Project Resiliency/The Raven Drum Foundation, Augusta Warrior Project, Hiring Our Heroes, and Wounded Warrior Project.





Why Pearl Jam Covered Frozen Hit 'Let It Go'
(hennemusic) Pearl Jam turned some heads last Friday in Milan, Italy when they performed a snippet from "Let It Go", the smash hit from the animated Disney movie Frozen, and now frontman Eddie Vedder is sharing the story behind the band's cover.

A close friend of Vedder's, cartoonist Tom Tomorrow, tweeted the details on the rocker's behalf, writing, "So that clip of Pearl Jam doing the song from Frozen? That was a request -- from Eddie Vedder's five year old daughter."

"Just got off the phone with Ed and he told me I should tweet that," he added, with a final follow-up, "He also wants everyone to know that his daughter sings it better."

More including video of the performance here.





Iron Maiden Singer Sparks Controversy With Punk Comments
(Classic Rock) Punk icons of the Dead Kennedys and the Damned have bitten back at Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson's recent dismissal of their genre as "rubbish."

Earlier this week the vocalist argued there was a world of difference between heavy metal and punk, telling the Guardian: "The closest the art establishment ever came to embracing metal was punk. The reason they embraced punk was because it was rubbish.

"The reason they embraced rubbish was because they could control it. They could say: 'Oh yeah, we're punk, so we can sneer at everybody. We can't play our f***ing instruments - but that means we can make out this whole thing is some enormous performance art.'

"Half the kids that were in punk bands were laughing at the art establishment, going, 'What a f***ing bunch of tosspots. Thanks very much - give us the money and we'll f*** off and stick it up our nose and shag birds.'

"What they'd really love to be doing was being in a heavy metal band surrounded by porn stars."

Read some of the punkers reaction to Bruce's criticism here.




Eric Clapton Releases First Video From J.J. Cale Tribute Album
(hennemusic) Eric Clapton has released a video for "Call Me The Breeze", from an upcoming tribute album of the same name the guitarist has organized to honor one of his musical mentors, J.J. Cale.

Due July 29, "Eric Clapton & Friends: The Breeze, An Appreciation of JJ Cale" features a collection of 16 Cale tunes revisited by Clapton, Mark Knopfler, John Mayer, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, Derek Trucks and Don White.

"I would like people to tap into what JJ Cale did - that's the point," said Clapton. "I'm just the messenger; I've always felt that that's my job. I try to interpret things so that the public at large, or at least the people who listen to what I do, will become intrigued about where I got it from."

Cale passed away from a heart attack in La Jolla, California on July 26, 2013 at the age of 74. Watch Clapton's new video here.





Quiet Riot Releasing Album With Jizzy Pearl and Kevin DuBrow Vocals
(Classic Rock) Quiet Riot are digitally releasing an album called 10 today, June 27, featuring six tracks with new frontman Jizzy Pearl and four with late singer Kevin DuBrow. The live DuBrow songs are the last pieces of professionally-recorded music he made before dying of an accidental drug overdose in 2007.

Drummer Frankie Banali recently told Loudwire that DuBrow would have approved of the band continuing, saying: "He knows why I do things and how I do things. The choices I made for the four live songs would be the ones he agreed with.

"With the new songs, I know he would get it. There's one song in particular which is my personal farewell to Kevin, and very tongue-in-cheek - and don't expect it to be a ballad."

More including a trailer here.




Motley Crue Preview Country Cover of 'Girls, Girls, Girls'
(hennemusic) Motley Crue are previewing country rocker Brantley Gilbert's version of "Girls, Girls, Girls" from the forthcoming album, "Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute To Motley Crue."

"He played this one pretty close to the original," says singer Vince Neil. "Sometimes you want to stay close to it; you don't want to screw with something like 'Girls, Girls, Girls' that much."

Due August 19, the project sees a variety of country artists covering Motley Crue tracks as the rockers prepare to launch their farewell tour this summer. "Nashville Outlaws" features performances by Rascal Fatts, LeAnne Rimes, Florida Georgia Line, Darius Rucker, Gretchen Wilson and more.

Check out the preview here.




Joe Perry Reacts To Aerosmith Canceling Show Over Politics
(Radio.com) Aerosmith are just about finished with their European tour, which has seen them playing in front of huge audiences in Russia, Germany, Finland, Denmark and Italy, among other countries. But, unfortunately, they weren't able to play all of their scheduled concerts.

The band had to cancel their May concert in Turkey after a mining disaster that killed over 300 people, and their upcoming July 2 show in Kiev has also been called off due to civil unrest.

Kiev's National Corporation of Entertainment released a statement confirming the cancellation, saying, "With much regret we have decided to cancel the Aerosmith show in Kiev on July 2nd. It is impossible to produce this show in Ukraine while there is civil war. We can't ensure safety to the artists, crew and the audience. We can't ensure safety of the equipment."

Aerosmith's Joe Perry called into Boston classic rock station WZLX's host Carter Alan, to discuss the tour. He said that, cancellation notwithstanding, he enjoyed being in Turkey, and noted that Istanbul is his favorite European city.

"It was a drag we couldn't play because of the mining disaster, it was a national day of mourning," Perry said. "But it was a really amazing experience."

As for the Kiev show, Perry notes that, "It was the first time we've had to cancel because of politics." more on this story




Lenny Kravitz Announces New Album And Tour
(hennemusic) Lenny Kravitz has unveiled the tracklisting for his forthcoming album, "Strut", and announced an extensive fall tour through Europe, the UK and Russia.

Due September 23, "Strut" is Lenny's tenth studio album and first since 2011's "Black And White America." As always, Kravitz plays guitar, bass, keyboards and drums and percussion on the album, and produced and arranged it as well.

"This record brought me back to a place of what I love so much about music, back to the feelings I had when I was in high school," he explains. "It's a real rock & roll record - it's raw, it's got soul and it came together really quickly."

In the past week, Kravitz has revealed the album's cover as well as issued a lyric video for the project's lead single, "The Chamber." The rocker will kick off his Strut World Tour on October 22 in Moscow, Russia. Grab the dates and the album track details here.





Slade's Noddy Holder Receives Home Town Honor
(Classic Rock) Slade icon Noddy Holder has been awarded the freedom of his home town of Walsall, making him honorary freeman of the borough - and he hopes it raises the profile of arts in the Black Country.

Holder, 68, who retired from the band in 1992, was told by Mayor Peter Smith that he'd been granted the honour "in grateful recognition of service to the entertainment and music industry of the last 50 years."

Smith told the BBC: "Noddy is a down-to-earth guy and proud of his Walsall roots." Holder himself said: "I think I've flown the flag for the West Midland and the Black Country. It has some of the best artists, produced great bands, comedians and dancers - but people outside don't recognise them." more on this story





Fearless Vampire Killers Launching Social Network
UK rockers Fearless Vampire Killers revealed this week that they will be giving fans a special advance listen to their new studio album via their new social media network, "The Obsidian Bond".

The new album was completed earlier this month and this week the band announced that they will be launching the new social media network on July 17th, 2014. We were sent over these details:

Combining aspects of profile based sites such as Facebook and Feed based sites such as Twitter, fans of FVK will be able to interact with each other real-time, earning a series of achievements as they go. The band will also be streaming their second album track by track, exclusively to members of the service.

Singer Kier Kemp had this to say, "We're super excited about this release... I mean this kind of thing has never been done to the extent we're about to do it, apart from maybe "Insane Clown Posse" but ours is certainly more modern! This is for the fans of our band that need to know everything... and believe me when I say I don't think a stone has been left unturned!"

Lead Guitarist Barroné adds, "I don't actually think I've slept since we had this idea... I'm not even a developer but I've had to take a crash course! I think we're all really proud with what we've come up with though".

Fearless Vampire Killers will also be playing the Main Stage at new UK Festival Alt-Fest this summer, along with Amen and Marilyn Manson. Visit the band's website for more details here.





Slash Explains Why He Hired Myles Kennedy
(Classic Rock) Slash recalls being blown away by Myles Kennedy's voice, versatility and attitude the first time they met. The guitar icon releases the second album with Myles Kennedy And The Conspirators - World On Fire -in September.

The relationship started when Slash was writing his 2010 self-titled solo album and asked the Alter Bridge frontman to sing one of the tracks, called Starlight.

Slash tells Rocksverige: "I had never met him before, I had just heard about him. I didn't even know what he sang like. I asked him to sing a song on my solo record with all the different singers, and he was f***ing great. Then we met, he came to LA and we recorded the studio version of Starlight.

"I just really liked him, he's very laid back and cool. At that point I asked him if he wanted to do a tour with me to support that album. I guess it was obvious to me somehow that he could sing the bulk of the material from that solo record and it was just a gut feeling he could sing all the Guns 'N' Roses, Velvet Revolver and Snakepit stuff, which is a tall order."

More including a full interview stream here.





Mr. Big Reveal One-Off Show Plans
(Classic Rock) Mr. Big have announced that they will be staging a one-off UK show in October and the band's frontman Eric Martin has also lined up a string of British dates.

The LA supergroup will play at London's Koko on Friday, October 17 as part of a European tour, after Martin plays solo dates in Ahoghill, Northern Ireland, and Nottingham.

And Martin will be back in December for a run of solo shows starting in Edinburgh on Thursday, December 4. Mr Big's last album was 2011's What If..., which was followed up by a live release, 2012's Raw Like Sushi 100. more on this story






Extreme Release Video Of Aerosmith Jam
(hennemusic) Extreme bassist Pat Badger has posted video of the band singing backup vocals with Aerosmith's Steven Tyler on their 1993 classic, "Livin On The Edge", at Hellfest in France last weekend.

Extreme played earlier in the day and stuck around to watch Aerosmith's headlining set from sidestage, when Tyler wandered over and had them join in on the song.

"That was the ultimate Aerosmith experience," said drummer Kevin Figueiredo after the show. The Hellfest show was one stop on Aerosmith's Let Rock Rule European tour, which will wrap up at the Heineken Festival in CVenice, Italy on July 3.

Watch the video here.






Alice Cooper Shares Motley Crue Farewell Tour Rehearsal Photos
(hennemusic) Alice Cooper is sharing photos from his rehearsals for the upcoming farewell tour by Motley Crue. Alice has posted images of the band in rehearsal, including shots of guitarists Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henriksen and new addition Nita Strauss, formerly of the all-girl tribute band The Iron Maidens.

Strauss recently replaced Orianthi in Cooper's band and the Crue trek will be her first with the group. Motley Crue's "The Final Tour" will kick off on July 2 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Earlier this month, the shock rocker released the new documentary film, "Super Duper Alice Cooper". Available on DVD, Blu-ray and Deluxe Limited Edition box, the project tells the tale of how preacher's son Vincent Furnier went on to strike fear into the hearts of parents as Alice Cooper. See the photos here.






Singled Out: Lords of Ruin
Today Lords of Ruin vocalist Lauren Boquette tells us the story behind their new single "Ghost Of Finneran" as well as the story behind the previous single "The Darker Side of Life". Here is the story:

Ghost Of Finneran: Back in 2009 my longtime friend/ singer songwriter Gary Finneran (Ex-Idools, She Died, Tuscarora) killed himself in a motel room in Santa Monica CA. The news shocked all of us in the Southern California music scene that knew him but knowing him as we did, none of us were surprised that it finally happened. As one of the greatest songwriters any of us ever knew, many of Gary's songs were about dying or wanting to die. The theme resonated so deep within his music that a collection of death related songs titled "Goodbye" was given out at his service. It was a horrible situation and this world lost yet another incredible artist.

A few years later my wife and I were in a bar in Huntington Beach CA and I saw Gary clear as day sitting on a bar stool. It was insane! There his was in all his glory holding his guitar as he had done many many times before. I immediately grabbed my phone, found a quiet section of the bar and sang into its recorder "I don't know where you are tonight, I'm out here at it again...somewhere in the bar tonight I swear i saw the Ghost of Finneran" That moment was the beginning of this song.

Shortly after, my band, Lords of Ruin were invited by producer/ keyboardist Ronnie King (Tupac, Pennywise, Mariah Carey, Rancid, Pepper) out to his place in the middle of the California desert to write and create new music.. We began to jam and this music sort of wrote itself, after a few hours of jamming, I grabbed the mic and began with the same lyrics that I had sung into my phone months prior….the song continued to develop into something powerful. Late that night after a long session of drinking and jamming an alert on my phone came on that said "R.I.P Gary" in a bizarre coincidence the song was written on the anniversary of his death! This was not planned, I showed the boys and we stood there stunned. What a night.

We eventually recorded & released the song and here it is. I do believe Gary gave it to us.

Sleep well Gary & Thank you!

The Darker Side Of Life: This song was written about the emotional transition from darkness to light.

The majority of my life was spent in a very dark place. I didn't realize I was in it but people who grew up like I did tend to stay in this broken headspace that they are completely unaware of. We gravitate towards other messed up people and find a comfort in dark music, film, and other dysfunctional situations. It's really no way to live but when you're in it, it all seems totally normal.

I look back on the things that I have written and recorded over the years and realize that I was really lost deep in it for a very long time and never even noticed that I had transitioned out of until this song was done.

One night the band and I were jamming in our guitarist Jimmy Craig's studio in Orange CA and we began to pound out this dark really heavy sort of Sabbath /Alice In Chains-ish groove and then chorus came to me "You want to know about loss? I know what lost is, I've seen the darker side of life"

It took us a few more weeks to figure out the arraignment and for me to finish the lyrics but it is a nod to the broken ones out there, those of us who have traveled through the darkness and eventually found the light. All I can tell you is that things do eventually change as long as you allow yourself to grow and truly feel what it is to be alive. This life really is a wonderful thing once you tap into the beauty in it.

"You want to know about loss? I know what lost is, I've seen the darker side of life, the darker side of life, You want to talk about life? I've learned what love is and I've never felt so alive, never felt so alive than right now"

This band understands the hurt and pain that this life can bring but we also see the beauty that is all around us. Keep on breathing, things do get better!