Van Halen Returned Thanks To Wolfgang

"This brings joy to Ed," continued Bertinelli. "That's what he wants to do now — just have fun playing. As great as Mike is, this wouldn't be happening if Mike was still in the band. There would be no tour, there would be no album, there would be no nothing." more on this story

John Mayer Throat Issues Return Forcing Him To Cancel Tour

John Mayer has been forced to scrap his upcoming spring tour in support of his album Born And Raised and go on an "indefinite hiatus from live performing" after a recurrence of granuloma on his throat.

Mayer broke the bad news to fans in a blog post on Friday: "During rehearsal on Tuesday, it came to mind that I should see my throat doctor because something didn't feel/sound right. I went in for a visit on Wednesday and a scope of my vocal cords revealed that the granuloma has grown back where it had mostly healed. This is bad news. Because of this, I have no choice but to take an indefinite break from live performing. Though there will be a day when all of this will be behind me, it will sideline me for a longer period of time than I care to have you count down."

"I want to explain this a bit more in depth than I have in the past, because I know there's some confusion as to what this condition is; a granuloma forms and continues to snowball because it's in a spot where the vocal cords hit together and there's no way to really give it a chance to heal without a good stretch of time and some pretty intensive treatment. In short, it's one giant pain in the ass." more on this story

Def Leppard, Poison and Lita Ford Tour

Def Leppard tours have become a right of summer with the band teaming up with fellow hard rock hitmakers for the past several years and 2012 will be no different with Def Leppard once again teaming up with Poison for a summer trek with Lita Ford opening.

The first leg of the North American tour is set to kick off on June 20th in Salt Lake City and 18 dates have been announced which will wrap up on July 22 in Cadott, Wisconsin. Def Leppard is billing this as the first leg of the tour, so more dates are expected.

"We had such a good time going out with Poison in 2009 that we thought it only right to do it again," said Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott. more on this story

Duff Discusses Possibility of Guns N' Roses Rock Hall Jam

(hennemusic) Former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan spoke to Rolling Stone about the March 20th release of the paperback edition of his autobiography "It's So Easy: and Other Lies," and the conversation turned to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony next month in Cleveland.

As for GNR reuniting to perform, "I think it would be killer," begins Duff. "Do I hope to? That's a tricky question. It would be awesome. You have those day dreams like, "We'll go up and play 'Nightrain' and 'Brownstone' and throw down the microphone and drop off! That'll be killer!' But I doubt that'll happen."

"There's been no communication about anyone playing," he says. "There was probably a day in the mid-1990s where I would have tried to gather the troops, but I'm just not that guy anymore. It's too frustrating to change anyone else…I'm not even sure I'd want to change how anyone else sees a situation. But I'm going." What does he think about the Rock Hall?

American Idol Appearing on Aerosmith Album

(hennemusic) The Aerosmith/American Idol connection has moved to another level with a former contestant appearing on the band's forthcoming album.

Following her appearance on Thursday night's episode, last year's Idol runner-up Lauren Alaina revealed that she will be a guest on Aerosmith's new album, due for release later this spring.

On Friday, Alaina tweeted: "Yesterday: returned to idol & then went to the studio to record background vocals for the new Aerosmith record. #ISTHISREAL?Thank u Steven!" more on this story

Homme And Reeder Vs Kyuss Lives!

Former members of Kyuss have been touring under the moniker of Kyuss Lives! but that group is now facing legal problems from their former bandmates who put out the following statement:

Kyuss members Scott Reeder and Joshua Homme have been forced to file a federal lawsuit against John Garcia and Brant Bjork a/k/a Kyuss Lives! The suit alleges trademark infringement and consumer fraud by Kyuss Lives!

Quote from Reeder and Homme: "It sucks. To think we went to a meeting in January solely to help them with their request to continue Kyuss Lives! With open arms, we made every attempt to help them continue Kyuss Lives! respectfully. Only to discover while they looked us in the eye, Kyuss Lives! management and band had filed federal documents in 2011 in an attempt to steal the name Kyuss. more on this story

Guns N' Roses Star Challenges Hulk Hogan

(hennemusic) Wrestler Hulk Hogan is taking on all challengers these days as he promotes his latest product endorsement.

Guns N' Roses guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal stepped up to appear in the latest webisode of "Challenge Hulk Hogan."

Bumblefoot challenges the wrestling legend to make up a song on the spot, and the Hulkster obliges. watch it here.

Bob Marley Is This Love Church Burns Down

(Gibson) The building in London where Bob Marley filmed the video for his 1978 single, "Is This Love," has been destroyed by fire. As reported by BBC News, 40 firefighters tackled the blaze at the Christ Apostolic Church in King's Cross Thursday night (March 8).

The fire started on the ground floor of the three-story building and spread quickly to the roof. The building was previously home to the Keskidee Center, thought to be the U.K.'s first cultural center for the black community.

Marley chose the center as the setting for the video, which featured a young Naomi Campbell, then just seven years old. The center closed in 1991 due to funding problems, and the building was subsequently purchased by the Christ Apostolic Church. more on this story

King's X Raising Medical Funds For Jerry Gaskill With Live Album

Sleaze Roxx Reports fans can get their hands on a new King's X live album while helping raise medical funs for the band's drummer Jerry Gaskill who remains in ICU, recovering slowly from a heart attack he suffered on February 25th.

As medical bills mount up, many King's X fans have asked how they can help. Now you can give Jerry $20 toward his uncovered medical expenses by going to www.molkenmusic.com or www.kingsxrocks.com and receive a free download of the new King's X live album 'Burning Down Boston'. 100% of all gifts collected go directly to Jerry Gaskill.

Recorded live in Boston on June 12, 1991 at The Channel, the digital album contains 14 tracks including "It's Love", "I'll Never Get Tired Of You", "Visions" and much more. more on this story

Unaired Aerosmith 60 Minutes Footage Posted Online

(hennemusic) 60 Minutes has offered up some bonus footage of Aerosmith that the producers weren't able to fit into the regular broadcast this weekend.

Among the exclusive web clips is a look at host Laura Logan's backstage tour with Steven Tyler, a lot of discussion with band members about group dynamics and personality issues, the group's history with drugs and self-implosion, and how they create new music in the studio.

The Boston band has teamed up with long time producer Jack Douglas for their first album of new material since 2001's "Just Push Play"; the project is expected to be released this spring. Check out the bonus footage here.

Slash Releases New Webisode

(hennemusic) Slash has issued the 6th webisode in his series about his forthcoming new album, "Apocalyptic Love." Slash's new album will be released on May 22; the first single, "You're A Lie," is out now.

This time out, the footage shows Slash and the band working with photographer Travis Shinn.

"He's an exceptional photographer," says Slash, "which is why I wanted to do this session with him." Watch it here.

Pearl Jam Recording Experimental Album

(Gibson) Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard says the band's new record is coming along well. The guitarist suggests that the forthcoming release is an experimental album.

"The most important thing is that we put something out that continues to expand our boundaries rather than trying to follow what we've done in the past," he told Rolling Stone. "I think it's a good time to hopefully continue to experiment, and continue to shake it up. So that people can go 'Wow, that's kind of weird for Pearl Jam,' and then 10 years later they can go, 'Oh, that's my favorite period.' Which is always kind of what happens. You try something and at first everybody doesn't necessarily understand it, and then you look back and you go, thank God we tried something new, because it really opened a door up for us to be able to do this and this and this beyond that."

Gossard added that he likes the imperfect feel of the tracks the band has recorded so far. "This record is refreshingly cool because it's just us in the studio screwing around, not taking it too seriously. I think that's one of the biggest problems in rock is people thinking too much, putting too much emphasis on getting things perfect or completely sorted out. Sometimes that sound of not having everything sorted out is kind of cool." more on this story

Steve Lukather Talks Tours With Satriani, Vai and Ringo

(Gibson) In two weeks, Steve Lukather will join Joe Satriani and Steve Vai for the first series of G3 dates in five years. In a wide-ranging interview with Music Radar, Lukather says he's honored by the chance to share the stage with two "genius-level players."

"I'm not like those guys," Lukather humbly asserts, although his fans would surely disagree. "Joe and Steve, they're killers. I sing and I play, I do whatever, but I don't do that level of guitar thing that they do. Thank goodness G3 isn't a competition. I would surely lose that fight if that were the case."

Lukather says he's similarly honored to have been asked to play with Ringo Starr on the All Starr Band tour, set to kick off on June 14. "He's my third Beatle," Lukather said. "I've played with both Paul and George. The Beatles were my arm-twist to life, so to come full circle like this is surreal. When I was a kid, thinking of just being near a Beatle was an unattainable dream." more on this story

The Raconteurs Live Blu-Ray and DVD Coming

Eagle Rock have set a June 19th DVD and Blu-Ray release of The Raconteurs' Live At Montreux 2008.

This is the first ever video release by The Raconteurs and features tracks from both their top 10 albums including the singles "Steady, As She Goes", "Many Shades Of Black", "Broken Boy Soldier", "Salute Your Solution" and more.

The Raconteurs were formed in 2005 by Jack White of The White Stripes, acclaimed solo artist Brendan Benson and drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence from The Greenhornes. Their debut album Broken Boy Soldiers charted at No.2 in the UK and follow up Consolers Of The Lonely went in at No.8. Both albums were also Top 10 in the USA. This performance from Montreux in 2008 was part of the tour in support of their second album. The setlist is split between songs from the two albums and includes covers of Terry Reid's "Rich Kid Blues" and the old Charley Jordan track "Keep It Clean". more on this story

Chris Robinson Brotherhood Set Album Release

Chris Robinson Brotherhood will release their debut album Big Moon Ritual, on June 5th and companion album The Magic Door will follow in September. A CRB tour will be announced shortly.

Here is the background: In 2011, after more than 20 years of intense gigging and recording, Chris Robinson set off to shape something new, a fresh rock mythology, a breathing kaleidoscopic thing stuffed with chooglin' soul, bedrock boogie and shuffling wisdom birthed in intimate clubs and amongst the tall trees of the Golden State and eventually taken nationwide as the Chris Robinson Brotherhood evolved.

What began as an experiment without expectations turned into a 118-show journey for Robinson (lead vocals, guitar), Neal Casal (guitar, vocals), Adam MacDougall (keys, vocals), George Sluppick (drums) and Mark Dutton (bass, vocals) that surprised these seasoned pros as music of unshakeable solidity and exuberant reach poured out of them, a New Cosmic California sound with tendrils reaching to the original Fillmore West, Topanga Canyon and outwards towards far horizons. more on this story