Rihanna and Chris Brown Sex Tape?

Guns N' Roses Replace Robin Finck

Band Statement reports: Guns N' Roses is proud to announce that guitarist n' songwriter Dj Ashba has joined the band for an upcoming tour. Ashba, who officially replaces current NIN guitarist Robin Finck, is best known as co-founder of hard rock bands Sixx AM and Beautiful Creatures. "Dj's a gifted, energetic guitarist that Guns N' Roses is proud to have on board!!"

exclaims Axl Rose. "We're very excited to have the opportunity to work together. Guns' radar has silently been aware of Dj's presence for quite some time! He brings a fresh approach to our particular brand of mayhem expanding the tapestry of Guns N' Roses live. Once Dj's name was in the hat, the hat disappeared!!"

"It's an honor to have the opportunity to be a part of a band that I have always loved and respected," said Dj Ashba. "I'm looking forward to working with Axl, who is not only one of the few great front men of our generation, but a true artist." - more on this story

Jimmy Page and Eminem To Be Rock Hall Presenters

AP reports: Rapper Eminem, guitar legend Jimmy Page and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones are among the presenters for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Run-DMC will be inducted by Eminem, Jeff Beck will be inducted by Page, and Wood will induct Bobby Womack.

Metallica will be inducted by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Little Anthony & the Imperials will be inducted by Smokey Robinson. - more on this story

Metallica's Worst Kept Secret Show

AP reports: Invading South By Southwest, Metallica attempted to pose as one of the hundreds of smaller bands there just hoping to get a record deal.

"We're a young band from Norway and we want to get signed," Metallica frontman James Hetfield told the audience at the heavy metal band's SXSW performance Friday night.

It was a widely expected but not officially announced show at a venue (Stubb's) that for a band like Metallica is downright minuscule, holding about 2,100 people. The band played for slightly more than an hour, performing both classics and, as Hetfield called it, "new stuff" off their 2008 album "Death Magnetic" — a disc widely considered a return to form for the 28-year-old group. - more on this story

Corgan Pulls An Axl: To Carry on Solo As Smashing Pumpkins

Reuters reports: Billy Corgan announced Friday (March 20) that he is heading into the studio to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album without any of his original bandmates.

Jimmy Chamberlin, the group's original drummer and the only original Pumpkin to play with the band on its recent 20th anniversary "reunion" tour, "has left the group" according to a terse statement released on the band's website.

The statement said, "The Smashing Pumpkins' guitarist, singer, songwriter and founding member Billy Corgan has announced that drummer Jimmy Chamberlin has left the group. Chamberlin joined the band Corgan founded in Chicago in 1988 and played on all their albums except Adore (1998). Corgan will continue to write and record as Smashing Pumpkins with plans to head into the studio this spring." - more on this story

Parents Fear Emo

Punknews.org reports: According to a recent Guardian report, the fourth scariest word for parents right now is "emo."

The word is among the ten most common words that parents are blocking their children from searching for. Other words include "suicide" and "depressed" and "skinny."

The source of the paranoia about the otherwise innocuous word likely stems from media coverage of a recent suicide and similar incidents. - more on this story

Red Hot Van Hagar Supergroup Preview- Jane's Addiction Releases Free Tracks- South By Kanye West- Slash N' Ozzy- Boss Hired Temp- Limp Bullied and more

antiMusic reports: Chickenfoot - the much-talked-about band featuring Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith - are streaming two songs from their upcoming debut album. Available on both the official Chickenfoot website and the band's MySpace page, the songs are called Soap On A Rope and Down The Drain. more

Jane's Addiction released two new studio tracks online Friday (March 20) via Ninja2009.com (http://Ninja2009.com), the tour site for the forthcoming co-headlining tour with Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor and Alan Moulder were acting as producers for the new cuts. But can fans expect a new record? "I don't think so," Farrell says.more

South By Kanye West. The rapper performed twice Saturday at the annual South By Southwest music conference and festival, dominating the final night of the live music event mostly populated by lesser known acts.more

Jurors in Phil Spector's retrial can consider the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter instead of second-degree murder in the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson, a judge ruled Friday.more

Universal Music Publishing Group has become the exclusive administrator of the Jimi Hendrix catalog throughout the world outside the United States.more

U.S. glam diva Lady Gaga took top spot in Britain's singles pop charts Sunday, emulating the success of her debut release.more

Boss Hires Temp: Following in your father's footsteps doesn't get cooler than this: 19-year-old Jay Weinberg will be subbing for his dad, Max Weinberg, as drummer for Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band. The younger Weinberg will play "a small number" of gigs with the band this summer, most likely in Europe more

Slash N' Ozzy: According to Quart.no, former Guns N' Roses and current Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash will be joined by Black Sabbath legend Ozzy Osbourne for the axeman's headlining appearance at this year's edition of the Quart festival more

Fred Durst says bullying was actually one of the reasons that Limp Bizkit split up. "The irony is, Limp Bizkit, for a while, [was] the fuel for bullies to beat up a lot of these underdogs," Durst explained. "That's when I decided to stop. I was like, 'You know, that's me they're beating up, and my music is fueling them.' So I held back for a while." more

Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins meant it when he told the crowd at Stubbs for the group's official South By Southwest showcase on Saturday that "we're gonna play some brand new songs for you." Those new songs, from the San Francisco quartet's forthcoming fourth studio album, "Ursa Major," due in stores June 23, comprised the bulk of the group's 15-song set. more

Neil Young's oft-delayed "Archives" collection will finally be released on June 2, Young's manager Elliot Roberts announced at South by Southwest in Austin, TX today (March 21).more

John Mellencamp posted on his website that a "special tour is in the works," fueling the rumor that he and Bob Dylan will be hitting the road together.more

Overlorde are happy to announce the return of none other than Bobby 'Leather Lungs' Lucas as their new vocalist!more

My Hero Is Me has called it quits. Formed in 2004, the band put out two releases with Tragic Hero Records. Their final show will take place on May 9th at Club Oasis in Winston-Salem, NC.more

Early Graves has added bassist Matt O'Brien (ex-Grace Alley) to their line-up. O'Brien replaces bassist Tyler Jensen, who has moved to guitar in the band.more

Rapper Big Boi, one half of the musical duo Outkast, told Rolling Stone that his upcoming solo album, Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty, will feature 16 tracks that will cover "electro, funk, blues, some of everything. It's all over the place."more

Iglu & Hartly's Michael Anderson Jarvis was arrested in Austin in the early hours of Thursday (March 19) after allegedly assaulting a hotel security guard while half naked. more

Swedish rock heavyweights Raised Fist will enter Dugout Productions in Uppsala, Sweden in April with producer Daniel Bergstrand (In Flames, Meshuggah) to begin recording their fifth album for a late 2009 releasemore

Finnish metallers Gloria Morti have issued the following update: "After 10 years as the band's drummer, Jarmo [Juurikka] has decided to leave the group due to personal reasons. There is no grudge between him and the other members. Gloria Morti is now in progress of finding a new drummer.more

Norway's Imhotep webzine recently conducted an interview with Gorgoroth guitarist Infernus (real name: Roger Tiegs) about his court battle against vocalist Gaahl and bassist King ov Hell over the rights to the Gorgoroth band name. more

Will Haven has been forced to cancel their upcoming European run and will instead focus on writing and recording the follow up to 'The Hierophant' - more on this story

Metal Guitarist Dead At 38

Blabbermouth reports: Guitarist Philip C. Newbaker V, who played in the Pennsylvania death metal bands Mausoleum and Necrotomie, died Friday (March 20) at Memorial Medical Center. He was 38 years old. [No cause of death was mentioned]

An excerpt from his obituary, which was published in The Tribune-Democrat, reads as follows: "Newbaker was employed by the family business at the Johnstown Planing Mill and was employed as an instructor at the Hiram G. Andrews Center and also Penn Highlands Community College, where he was well-liked and admired by his colleagues and students, and his talents did not go unnoticed.

"Friends [will be] received from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday (March 22) at John Henderson Co. Funeral Home, 215 Central Ave., where funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Monday, the Rev. Donna Hess. In lieu of flowers, family suggest memorial contributions to the scholarship fund being established for Philip's children." - more on this story

Prince of Los Angeles for a Week

Reuters reports: Prince has a busy schedule next week. In addition to performing three nights in a row (March 25-27) on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno," the Purple One is scheduled to play three back-to-back concerts at separate venues in Los Angeles on March 28.

On March 28, Prince is scheduled to perform three full-length concerts at Los Angeles' $2.5 billion L.A. Live sports and entertainment complex.

Doors for the first show, at Nokia Theater L.A. Live will open at 5:30 p.m.; doors at the Conga Room open at 8 p.m.; and doors at Club Nokia will open at 11:30 p.m.
- more on this story

Vinyl Nirvana

Reuters reports: The bulk of Nirvana's catalog is set for a high-fidelity do-over this year. Original Recordings Group (ORG) prepares to release "Nevermind," "In Utero," and "MTV Unplugged" on 180-gram, audiophile-quality vinyl for the first time.

All three records will be released in 2009, with "Nevermind" out first, said Monti Olson, a senior vice president of Universal Music Publishing Group/Interscope Records and founder of ORG, which produces and markets high-quality vinyl records. He will announce the deal at the South by Southwest music conference Saturday (March 21).

Noting that the recordings have been remastered specifically for ORG, Olson added, "To our knowledge this is the first time 'Unplugged" has ever come out on vinyl. - more on this story

Clapton Allman Brothers Jam

Nightwatcher reports: It's not every day that you have the opportunity to have 3 guitarists considered to be among the best in the world share the stage.

But that's just what happened last night when Eric Clapton sat in during the Allman Brothers' show at the Beacon Theatre, 03-19-2009.

Grab a taste, in the form of some fan produced footage of Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks and EC performing the Derek and The Dominos classic "Layla" - here

Crowd Turns on Peter Bjorn and John

AP reports: At South By Southwest, disastrous shows can happen easily. This year, the Swedish pop trio Peter Bjorn and John was one of the unfortunate bands led to SXSW slaughter.

The hundreds of bands are rushed on stage rapidly at the annual Austin music conference and festival, and they rarely get enough time to properly set up or tune.

The start of the first show by the acclaimed Peter Bjorn and John on Wednesday night was delayed and, when they finally started playing, equipment problems caused long interruptions and ruined the set. The unsympathetic crowd heckled and booed. - more on this story

Idol Goes Motown with Smokey, Studdard and Gordy

PR reports: On a special Wednesday, March 25 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) performance show of American Idol, the Top 10 finalists (Kris Allen, Anoop Desai, Matt Giraud, Danny Gokey, Allison Iraheta, Megan Joy, Adam Lambert, Scott MacIntyre, Lil Rounds and Michael Sarver) will return to the IDOL stage to celebrate and pay tribute to "50 Years of Motown" as well as perform classic Motown songs.

Tune in the following night Thursday, March 26 (8:00-9:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) to find out if the judges use their save or if America sends another finalist home. Also, Smokey Robinson will perform, and AMERICAN IDOL winner Ruben Studdard will return to the IDOL stage to perform his new single, "Together." - more on this story

Wait there is more!

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Subscribe to Day in Rock Report by Email

Add the Day in Rock to your site/blog/Myspace

Read Day In Rock Reports From Other Days

Submit news or a press release to the Day In Rock report