Following months of speculation, The Rolling Stones have announced plans to play a series of four 50th anniversary concerts. On Sunday @RollingStones informed fans to "Follow @grrregory, he's got something to tell you!" and this morning he delivered!
The band used the web to inform fans via Twitter and a Youtube video that that they will be playing 50th anniversary shows in London at the O2 Arena on November 25 and 29th and Stateside they will be playing at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on December 13 and 15th and end the video with the tease "maybe a few friends will be joining us."
The video carried this introduction: The most eagerly anticipated concerts of 2012 are announced today as the greatest rock 'n' roll band, The Rolling Stones, confirm their long awaited return to the stage with four spectacular arena shows in London and New York.
A feud broke out onstage between Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie at a concert last week.
During Manson's set at DTE Energy Music Theatre on Friday night Clarkston, MI, Manson complained about his coheadliner Rob Zombie telling fans "I'm going to kick his a**," over his abbreviated 80 minute set, according to Mlive.com
Zombie took the stage next and mentioned Manson several times during his set, including saying: "Some tours just don't go (expletive) together," and yelling "(Bleep) you Marilyn Manson!," and "suck it Marilyn Manson!" during his cover of Alice Cooper's "School's Out."
(hennemusic) Metallica have stepped in to replace Green Day at the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience on Saturday, October 27, the second of the three-day event at New Orleans City Park.
Green Day recently ceased all live and promotional appearances in support of their newly-released album "‘Uno!" following a recent onstage meltdown by frontman Billie Joe Armstrong in Las Vegas, which resulted in the singer currently seeking treatment for substance abuse.
"We got a message about two days ago asking us if we're able to fill in for Green Day, because Billie Joe was having some issues," guitarist Kirk Hammett tells Fuse TV. "We discussed it between the four of us and we all said, 'Yeah, it would be great thing for us to do and it would also be great to help out Billie Joe, 'cause he's a friend of ours and we love Green Day. If we can help them out in any way possible, we're always happy to do it, 'cause we love those guys. It's actually an honor for us that they approached us and asked if we can fill in. So we're doing it, and I'm really excited about it."
(hennemusic) Guitar World readers have named Eddie Van Halen the Greatest Guitarist Of All Time.
Van Halen took the honors after nearly half a million total votes were cast in the magazine's first-ever Greatest Guitarist poll.
The tournament-style readers poll began in April with 132 guitarists. In the final matchup, which took place early this week, Van Halen faced off against an unlikely opponent in Queen's Brian May, pulling a hefty 62.48 percent of the votes to claim a decisive win over the upset-happy May, who beat Jeff Beck, George Harrison, Les Paul, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix on his way to the finals.
(hennemusic) Black Sabbath will tour Australia next year, according to Ozzy Osbourne's wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne.
"[Black Sabbath] is in the studio right now with Rick Rubin recording," Sharon told Sydney's Triple on Friday. "And they are going to be touring here in the Spring of next year. Definitely."
Sharon didn't elaborate further to clarify if she meant US Spring, which starts in March, or Australian Spring, which begins in September.
(Classic Rock) Former Queensryche singer Geoff Tate claims Todd La Torre was not his former band's first choice to replace him.
In court papers the sacked singer says touring musician Jason Saunders was approached by his former colleagues over a year ago and when he refused to take Tate's job, he found himself dismissed.
In the latest round of legal battles over the Queensryche name, Tate also says bassist Eddie Jackson physically attacked him years before his violent episode in Brazil, which is thought to have led to his departure.
Classic Rock Revisited caught up with former AC/DC and Dio drummer Simon Wright to discuss last week's release of The Very Beast of Dio Vol. 2. During the interview we discover that unreleased Dio material does exist but it comes with a big caveat. Here is that portion of the exchange:
Simon: "Electra" was the last track that we recorded with Ronnie and it was going to be on Magica II and III. I think the plan was that we were going to re-record it. It is on The Very Beast of Dio Vol. 2.
There were three, or four, songs that he had been working on for Magica II and III. They were just demos, unfortunately. Wendy is in charge of all that and I am not sure what will happen. At some point, maybe, they will come out. We will have to see what Wendy wants us to do with them.
CRR: It would be tough to do without Ronnie there and only having his voice on tape. Simon: You would have to be careful on how you approached it. You would not want to overstep your bounds. We would have to sit and listen to them and see how far he got with them. We would do it with totally respect and we would have to do it delicately. We will see what happens. It is up to Wendy, as she in charge of that side of things, but we will wait and see.
(hennemusic) Alice Cooper has launched a new weekly audio blog entitled "Me, Alice" via the web site of his radio show, "Nights With Alice Cooper."
"I think a blog is supposed to be written," begins Alice, "but I'm a terrible typist, so I figured I'd just spout off at you, instead. I am a techo-tard. You get a lot more me on Nights With Alice Cooper but, as I say, there's always room for more so thought I'd ramble on about what's going on in my life and head this week."
In his debut episode, Cooper goes on to share the story of how he came to play at the recent Sunflower Jam in London, plugging his Universal Studios Halloween projects, and the launch of his Rock Teen Center in Phoenix.
Seether will be broadcasting tomorrow night's concert stop on their "Triple Threat Tour" live on AXS TV.
The concert is taking place at Mill City Nights located in the warehouse district of Minneapolis, Minnesota tomorrow Tuesday, October 16 and will be aired live starting at 12:00pm ET / 9:00pm PT exclusively on AXS TV.
"We've been across the country and back on our 'Triple Threat Tour' and are amped to have our upcoming Mill City Live date broadcast on AXS," says Shaun Morgan. "Seeing as it's a live event, if you've ever been to a Seether show, you never know what will happen!"
(hennemusic) Soundgarden return November 13 with "King Animal," the reunited band's first album in 16 years.
The group recently released "Been Away Too Long," the first single from the project; earlier this year, Soundgarden issued another tune, "Live To Rise," as part of the soundtrack for the film, "Marvel's The Avengers."
Beyond the album's 13 tracks, a Deluxe Edition of "King Animal" will feature three bonus tracks: demos of "Worse Dreams," "Black Saturday" and "By Crooked Steps"- all of which will appear on the album itself.
Relapse Records will continue their Death reissue campaign with the November 20th North American release of Spiritual Healing. They sent out these details:
Originally released in 1990, Spiritual Healing marked a new turn in the Death discography, one which ushered in cleaner production, a new level of boundary pushing musicianship and songwriting skills that were previously unimaginable from a metal band. Spiritual Healing sets the standard for riffs, insane time changes and of course mainman Chuck Schuldiner's masterful guitar solos.
Now reissued as a double CD housed in super deluxe packaging featuring brand new liner notes from Death players James Murphy and Terry Butler, Chuck's sister Beth Schuldiner and Volbeat frontman Michael Poulsen, Disc 1 features a completely new remaster of the original album and Disc 2 contains 16 previously unreleased rehearsal, outtakes and studio instrumentals.
(hennemusic) On Friday, Steel Panther announced new release dates for their upcoming "British Invasion" live DVD.
"Heads up world," posted the band. "On the heels of the unprecedented demand in Australia, where the DVD entered the charts at #1, the US, Canada, UK and Europe are increasing their initial expectations for the DVD and as such the release date is being pushed back to allow for manufacturing needs to meet the demand."
New release dates: Oct 26 Germany, Oct 29 UK & Europe, and Oct 30 North America.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be celebrating Chuck Berry's birthday and his legacy with two special exhibits this week. We were sent these details:
The exhibits will open to the public on Thursday, October 18 to coincide with Berry's 86th birthday and kick-off the 17th annual American Music Masters series, Roll Over Beethoven: The Life and Music of Chuck Berry, beginning Monday, October 22 through Saturday, October 27.
See Chuck Berry's stage clothes, a guitar and more at the museum at 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd. Highlights include: Vest worn at the Toronto Rock and Roll Festival in 1969 An original photograph of three-year-old Chuck Berry in his St. Louis neighborhood called "The Ville" (c. 1929) Chuck Berry/Chess Records recording contract (1958) Handbill from a performance in Jamaica in 1961
Intronaut are currently working on their fourth full length album, which is tentatively set to be released next spring, and Century Media sent out an update and rehearsal video:
Drums will be recorded by producer John Haddad [Exhumed, Phobia] at Trench Studios, while Derek Donley [Bereft] will be handling recording duties for all other elements. Andrew Schneider [Unsane, Cave In] will be mixing the album and David D'Andrea will be working with the band again on artwork and layout.
Vocalist and guitarist Sacha Dunable comments: "After a year of intense, full-time writing mode, we are elated to begin recording our fourth full length this week. It's a little early to have perspective on how it compares to our past records, but it should be a banger. Expect a wildly technical, emotionally charged, organic sounding record."
Intronaut recently posted a video of a rehearsal, where they're practicing a new song
Today Sara Villard from Bezoar tells us about the song "Nikola" from their latest album "Wyt Deth". Here is the story:
This song came into being after Tyler [Villard, guitar] had been reading a bunch of conspiracy theory books, most notable Behold A Pale Horse by William Cooper and a few others about Nikola Tesla.
We had let go of our previous drummer and had some down time to write new material. This spooky song was the best of that period. We used to play it electric with a long psych-jam at the end but that version never blew us away.
(hennemusic) Led Zeppelin are sharing a preview of "Rock & Roll" from their forthcoming "Celebration Day" package.
The track is the third one to be offered up from the set, which documents the band's 2007 reunion at London's 02 Arena.
Following a week of premiere events, "Celebration Day" will see a worldwide theatrical release on 1,500 screens in over 40 territories on October 17 before it goes on sale November 19.
(hennemusic) Sammy Hagar turned 65 last week and celebrated with his annual series of birthday shows in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and video from the bash is now online.
Sammy rocked four shows at his Cabo Wabo Cantina, performing a different set each night that included guests like Chickenfoot bandmates Michael Anthony and Joe Satriani, Matt Sorum, Kenny Chesney, Billy Duffy of The Cult, Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains, and Denny Carmassi of Montrose.
"Man, this is hand's down the best birthday bash yet!" wrote Hagar. "Hangin' at the beach with my family and friends, then my buddy [chef] Emeril [Legasse] cooked us an amazing dinner and we all headed to the Cabo Wabo where Kenny Chesney brought the whole band down and tore it up for 3 hours! The fans were so off the hook I just had to hit the stage and jam on a couple songs with Kenny -- and we even got Emeril on stage with us to sing back up on "I Can't Drive 55".
"I'm 65 today and RIGHT NOW - it doesn't get much better than this! Gettin' old ain't so bad but growin up's a bitch - ha!"
(hennemusic) KISS released their 20th studio album, "Monster," last Tuesday and to help launch the new record, the band appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman Wednesday night.
The band did some Letterman doubly-duty: they played the new single, "Hell Or Hallelujah," on the regular program, while also performing a 10-song set on the 50th Live On Letterman concert webcast.
Produced by Paul Stanley with Greg Collins at Conway Studios in Hollywood and The Nook in Studio City, California, "Monster" is the group's first new release since 2009's "Sonic Boom."
(hennemusic) Black Country Communion have released the fifth webisode in their self-produced series entitled "The Making Of Afterglow."
The series chronicles the making of the band's third studio album, "Afterglow," which will be released on October 30.
The supergroup is made up of bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Trapeze, Black Sabbath), blues rock guitarist/vocalist Joe Bonamassa, drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin), and keyboardist Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater).
