Rolling Stones Confirm North American and UK Tour Dates

"From day one at rehearsals it sounded so fresh. You could tell that everybody was dying to get their teeth into it. It was like...open the gates...let us out!" said Richards. "Cause man, it is the life and blood of us to play in front of people." Grab the dates and watch the tour announcement video.

Richie Sambora Drops Off Bon Jovi Tour

Bon Jovi just kicked off a new leg of their North American "Because We Can Tour," but Richie Sambora will not be playing with the band on the leg.

The band made a vague announcement on their website on Tuesday that reads "Due to personal issues, Richie Sambora will not be performing on this upcoming leg. All shows will go on as scheduled."

The leg is currently making its way across Canada and will play a number of shows in the U.S. before concluding on April 25th in San Jose, CA.

This isn't the first time Sambora has missed a tour with the band. In April of 2011 the guitarist checked into rehab for exhaustion and alcohol issues and was forced to miss that year's North American tour.

The next leg of the world tour will kick off on May 7th in Cape Town, South Africa and will travel across Europe before concluding on July 05th at London's Hyde Park. more on this story

Skillet Releasing New Song Next Week, New Album in June

The wait is almost over for Skillet fans. The band will be releasing a new song next week and have set a released date for their new studio album.

The band have set a June 25th release date for the new album, which they have entitled "Rise." The first single from the album, "Sick Of It," is set to be released digitally at iTunes and premiere at rock radio next Tuesday, April 9th.

The new album is the follow-up to the band's 2009 platinum release, "Awake." The band sent over word that the new album tells the story of a typical American teen coming into adulthood and trying to figure out who he is in a world riddled with problems both within and outside his control.

"The narrative idea happened after we had 10 or 11 of the songs chosen," says lead singer/bassist John Cooper. "As we recorded them, we started to realize that there was something going on—that the album was really telling a story. Realizing that, I knew we needed to make it as powerful as we could."

Judas Priest Reveal Epitaph Details and Release Date

Judas Priest have revealed the details and release date for their Epitaph DVD and Blu-Ray releases as the band continues to work on their next studio album.

Epitaph will be released in Blu-Ray and DVD formats on May 28th. The concert film was recorded during the band's Epitaph World Tour, which they billed as their final world tour and is now described as their "final large-scale world tour."

The band recorded the May 26th, 2012 stop of the tour at London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo and the setlist featured at least one song from each of the band's studio albums.

The lineup featured in the film includes frontman Rob Halford, lead guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. more on this story

Motley Crue Going Vegas Again

Motley Crue have formally announced that they will be launching a new residency at the The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino this fall.

The band's debut residency last February proved a big success with 12 sold-out performances. This time they will return for 12 new concerts that will take place from September 18th and October 6th.

The new residency will not be a rehash of the previous one as the band announced the new shows will feature a new production will be designed exclusively for The Joint.

The band's ringleader Nikki Sixx, the VP of entertainment for the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and VP of Booking for AEG Live Las Vegas had the following comments about the new residency:

"We are proud to have pioneered the Las Vegas rock residency last year and can't wait to come back this year to take it over the top with a brand new show that will be unlike anything you've ever seen Mötley Crüe do before," said Nikki Sixx.

"The guys had such a wild and successful run the first time around, I'm sure they will want to do everything bigger and better this time. We are extremely excited to see what the band brings to The Joint and Vegas during their second residency," said Paul Davis, vice president of entertainment at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino more on this story

KISS Announce Summer Tour Plans

KISS have expanded their world tour plans by adding a month long Canadian tour this summer in support of their 2012 album, "Monster."

The tour is set to kick off on July 5 in Victoria, BC and will conclude on August 4th in Newfoundland. The tour will feature support from Shinedown.

The tour is part of the band's global tour that not only supports their latest album, but also celebrates the band's 40th anniversary. They originally formed in early 1973 in New York City.

Prior to this newly announced Canadian tour, the band will be launching an early summer tour of Europe in June. more on this story

Alice Cooper Recovers Stolen Wayne's World Jacket

(hennemusic) The leather jacket worn by Alice Cooper in Wayne's World, among many items stolen last year from his archives, has been recovered and return to the rocker.

Alice posted the news on Tuesday: "Around this time last year, the Alice Cooper Archives in Los Angeles were broken into. Most of the Archives collection was spared, though we did lose some important pieces from Alice's career. Among the stolen items were the sculpture used for the "Hey Stoopid" album cover, and a John Richmond jacket worn by Alice in the movie Wayne's World! We did a post about the stolen items, and the break-in received quite a bit of attention.

"Though most of the items have never been seen again, we were contacted in early March of this year by the LAPD indicating that the John Richmond jacket was found and turned in! The story we got was that an anonymous gentleman claimed to have found it in good condition behind a dumpster in Culver City, CA. The man seemed to know what he had found and immediately took it to the LAPD in Culver City. Apparently he wanted to remain anonymous and was not interested in any reward.

"The LAPD contacted us, arrangements were made to have it picked up and it was finally sent home to Alice in Phoenix. Alice is thrilled to have it back, so much so that he took it out of its glass case and is now wearing it regularly!" more on this story

Gary Holt Won't Quit Exodus To Join Slayer Full Time

(Classic Rock) Gary Holt has stated he'd never join Slayer full-time if it meant he had to quit Exodus. He was hired by the thrash giants after Jeff Hanneman sustained a near-fatal spider bite in 2011, and has been standing in ever since.

And while Holt won't rule out taking the position on a permanent basis, he says it'll only happen if he can stay with the band he's been part of since 1980.

"Not if it meant the end of what I've been doing all my life," He tells Metal Titans. "I've been filling in for just over two years now and I'm booked all year with them. But I'm keeping the work going with Exodus – I've been doing a lot of riff-writing on tour.

"In the summer with Slayer I'm taking a little digital recording rig with me, so I can continue to working on stuff in hotel rooms." more on this story

Queens of the Stone Age Reveal All-Star Guest List For New Album

(Gibson) Queens of the Stone Age have has unveiled the title and a list of high-profile collaborations for their sixth studio album which will be released this June.

The album, titled ...Like Clockwork, will offer guest appearances by such heavy-hitters as Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, Scissor Sisters vocalist Jake Shears, former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan, Elton John, former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner.

The album will also feature two former Queens of the Stone Age members: bassist Nick Oliveri and drummer Joey Castillo. more on this story

Stone Sour Streaming New Album In Full Ahead of Next Week's Release

Stone Sour fans will not wait until next week to hear the band's forthcoming album in full as the group is now streaming the entire effort online on their official website.

The new album, House Of Gold & Bones Part 2, is set to be released next Tuesday (April 9th) but yesterday the band posted an entire album stream here.

The album is conclusion of the Stone Sour's House of Gold & Bones two part concept album, following the story written by frontman Corey Taylor.

"Part 2 is the exciting conclusion. You will hear darkness. You will hear reflections of Part 1. You will see what's next. Most importantly, you will join the characters as they finally decide," says Taylor.

Fans can also catch the band on the road as their North American tour featuring support from In This Moment & Hell or Highwater is currently underway. more on this story

Original Foreigner Frontman Lou Gramm Releasing His Autobiography

Lou Gramm, the original voice of Foreigner, has set a May 1st release date for his autobiography, "Juke Box Hero: My Five Decades In Rock 'N' Roll"

Gramm teamed up with newspaper columnist and author Scott Pitoniak to tell his journey from the working class Rochester, New York to becoming the frontman of one of the best selling bands of the 70s and 80s, to his battle with cancer.

We were sent these details: Gramm's recounting of his life is also is a story of redemption. In the early 1990's, he finally confronted his demons and checked into a drug rehabilitation center for a month. He came out a changed man and has remained sober ever since.

Several years later, Gramm faced an even bigger challenge when diagnosed with an egg-sized brain tumor. After being given a death sentence by several physicians, he learned of a then-revolutionary laser surgery being done by a doctor in Boston. Gramm underwent a life-saving operation to remove the tumor and then courageously battled through radiation treatments and several harrowing years of rehab.

You can pre-order the book with a 40% discount* off the cover price here.

(This was the discount listed at press time).

Final Blue Cheer Concert Being Released With Two New Songs

Blue Cheer fans will soon be able to hear the pioneering band's final concert and Dickie Peterson's last performance before his death as well as two previously unreleased songs.

The band will be releasing "Blue Cheer Rocks Europe" on May 28th. The 2-disc set features the band's performance on Rockpalast television show in Bonn, Germany on April 11, 2008.

The band held their final tour that year and the group featured original members Dickie Peterson and Paul Whaley, who had kept Blue Cheer active for over four decades.

Sadly, Peterson died in October of 2009, so this show became their final performance together according to conqueroo. The new live album also features the previously unreleased studio tracks "Alligator Boots" and "She's Something Else." more on this story

Gene Simmons and Vince Neil Speak At Kids Benefit

(Gibson) KISS bassist Gene Simmons appeared in an unusual venue this past Saturday. Gene's fans are used to see the monster rocker in full makeup spitting blood and fire on stage with KISS, but this past weekend Simmons made a surprise appearance at a Sioux Falls benefit concert for Sioux Falls Boys & Girls Clubs members.

Simmons spoke on the importance of music as a way to boost self-esteem in kids, as reported by Billboard: "It doesn't matter if you become a star. If you don't believe in yourself and get up on stage, everybody is watching. You can feel the power ... and it helps you get through life, especially when you're impressionable."

Motley Crüe singer Vince Neil was also at the event, speaking on the same issues as Simmons: "Say you finish your first song, it could be `Mary Had a Little Lamb,' it doesn't matter, but at least it's something you've played, and I think for kids, they could go into a whole other direction because they accomplished something." more on this story

Roger Waters Recalls Birth of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon

In The Studio celebrates the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd's landmark album "Dark Side of the Moon," in their latest episode where we learn about the origins of the epic album.

In the new special, Roger Waters tells the show's host Redbeard about the original meeting in Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason's kitchen in which Waters laid out the concept for the album.

"My idea for what the record should be about...(was)... our lives could really be seen as a microcosm of the lives of Every Man, all the different things, like fear and love and hope and anxiety and hatred and pain and religion and authority, that impinged upon our lives at the time and had done throughout our childhoods.

"And somehow that could be turned into a record that was about the potential we have for being human, and humane, and fulfilling our potential as human beings; but how that potential is eclipsed often by negativity."

"Dark Side of the Moon" became a global sensation that spent a record 741 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 chart between 1973 and 1988 and sold an estimated 45 million records worldwide. Listen to the special here.

Perry Farrell Upset About Lollapalooza Lineup Leak

(Radio.com) With this week's official announcement of this year's Lollapalooza lineup, the festival's founder Perry Farrell called in to Chicago radio station WXRT from Lollapalooza Brazil to discuss the lineup, as well as frustrations with it being leaked a week early. Weeks and months before that, 2013′s lineup rumors were disseminated online via leakers on Twitter and fake posters, as they have in the past.

"It's a pain in the butt," Farrell said of Lolla lineup leaks. "It's like you want to ask someone to marry you, and your friend jumps in and says, 'Hey, he's going to ask you to marry him.' You don't want to hear it from that person," adding, "It's been a thorn in our side."

Farrell was far more effusive when talking about this year's headliners, including New Order and the Cure. "Yeah, everyone is super excited for The Cure; they are like a fine wine, their songs have grown graceful and better with age," he said. "If you would have told me in the early '90s that New Order and The Cure would both be playing, I would freak out."

The Jane's Addiction frontman was equally excited about Mumford & Sons, who exceeded expectations with their latest album, Babel, both in terms of sales and walking away with this year's Grammy for Album of the Year.

"We have a knack of finding them early, but also catching them in their stride. We afford groups a victory lap. We did it with Gaga," Farrell explained in reference to Lady Gaga's 2007 performance on a Lollapalooza side-stage before returning as a headliner in 2010. "We'd obviously been tracking the Mumford & Sons record. These days, it's tough to sell records. They came out of the box with Babel and it was quite extraordinary. A million-seller today is the equivalent of 7 million in the past. more on this story

Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson Lead Saint Laurent Campaign

(Radio.com) Controversial designer Hedi Slimane continues to make waves as the creative director for the Saint Laurent fashion house (aka, YSL), selecting a cast of rock stars to star in their new campaign.

Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson, Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Ariel Pink of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti are all part of Saint Laurent's current "music project," where the designer allows the musicians to "style themselves in its seasonal and permanent collections to create an image of their own expression."

The resulting images (shot by Slimane himself) are intimate, black and white portraits, with Love showing off a "Let It Bleed" tattoo on her right arm in a black evening dress, while Manson and Pink both sport leather biker jackets.

Gordon wears a classic Saint Laurent Le Smoking tuxedo, as well as the designer's personal scarf. Get a taste here.

E.coli Turned Carl Palmer Vegan

(Classic Rock) Carl Palmer has gone vegan after the attack of E.coli that forced him to call off Asia's 30th anniversary UK tour and he admits the illness brought him closer to death than he'd ever been.

His illness has changed his life for good. "I have become a Vegan," he reveals. "I don't eat any dairy, cheese, milk, meat or whatever. My tastes have changed – fish and meat taste wrong to me. I don't know why that is; it's not a moral thing to me. I would have eaten all the cows you could send down the hallway to me. I just no longer like the taste; that's the problem."

While the infection will never fully leave his system, he's determined never to fall so ill again. "I can really see why old people die," he reflects. "I don't know if I would be this strong a second time around."

On the other hand, he considers: "I actually feel more energised now. It could have all been a bit of luck – it could have been that God said to me, 'Hey, you need to smarten up and change your diet.' more on this story

Singled Out: Co-Pilgrim

Today former Black Nielson frontman Mike Gale tells us about a new song from his new group Co-Pilgrim. The song is called "22" and comes from their brand new album "A Fairer Sea". Here is the story:

22 was the first song of a new batch that I wrote for the Fairer Sea album. I'd done some recording in Belgium with some friends there and liked a few of the songs that resulted but decided I wanted to go for a more poppy, upbeat feel, so I set on writing some new stuff.

The song, like the rest of the album, focuses on a long distance relationship I was once in with a girl from New York. Even though it was long after the event, I'd never written about the situation we found ourselves in before so it was quite therapeutic and kinda lifted the curtain on a lot of stuff I'd kept hidden.

22 is about the way a long distance relationship heightens everything and causes you to make decisions that no couple who live just down the road from each other have to make, such as getting married after only 3 months of living together just to be able to stay in the same country.
Everything happens at triple the speed of most other romances and you end up sucking the romance out of the room by spending every second together because you don't know when you'll see other again.

My favourite line of the song and possibly on the album is " I'm never gonna fill this you shaped hole in my heart", kinda sums it all up for me and I wasn't kidding either! I'm good friends with the girl in question now ( she'll be embarrassed if she reads this ) but despite coming close a couple of times and trying really hard to force that same feeling I had with her into new romances, that hole is still empty.
If there are any ladies out there reading this who fancy trying to help me out with this in any way, that'd be great, thanks, just give me an email.

As for recording the song, I knew as soon as I'd written it that it would be an upbeat pop hit ( upbeat and pop anyway ) but it didn't really come together in the studio until our bass player Andy added a really cool bass part. This set in motion 'Hurricane' Joe Bennett to fly around the studio adding parts all over the shop, it was a sight to behold.

The title "22" isn't really related to the rest of the song, it just comes from a weird thing I have with seeing the number 22 quite a lot. I haven't figured out yet whether it's a good or bad number so I thought I'd cover my back and pay tribute by naming a song after it. At one point the album was going to be called "22" but then I thought, what if it's a bad number and I curse the whole thing?! so I just settled for a song instead. See, this is what you're missing out on ladies.....email me yeah?

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and check out the video here learn more about the album and the band right here!

Rush's Geddy Lee Throws Out First Pitch At Blue Jays Home Opener

(hennemusic) Rush bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee was on hand Tuesday night to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Toronto Blue Jays home opener against the Cleveland Indians.

Lee has been a longtime Blue Jays season ticket holder and baseball fan. "I would like to see the Blue Jays win the World Series this year," Geddy told New York's Q104.3 recently.

"I don't want to jinx them by saying they are going to, but I think it's going to be a fun season. I think there are three or four teams that have a good shot at being in the playoffs: California Angels, Los Angles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals and the Toronto Blue Jays have a shot, too." Watch the pitch here.

The Doors Legend Jim Morrison Explained Why Fat Is Beautiful

(Classic Rock) The Doors frontman Jim Morrison once weighed 185lb and loved it. In a 1969 interview, recently rediscovered and animated for a PBS TV series, he discusses how he planned his college days around visits to the campus cafeteria.

Morrison tells journalist Howard Smith: "I felt so great. I felt like a tank, like a large mammal – a big beast. When I moved through the corridors I'd just feel like I could knock anybody out of my way.

"It's terrible to be thin and wispy because you could get knocked over by a strong wind or something. fat is beautiful." Watch the video here.

Monster Truck Premiere New Song Online

(Classic Rock) Classic Rock have premiered the song "Sweet Mountain River" by award-nominated Canadian outfit Monster Truck. It's taken from the four-year-old band's debut album Furiosity, due out on May 27.

Monster Truck aim to fuse vintage rock sounds with more modern punk and grunge vibes, behind the powerhouse vocals of frontman Jon Harvey.

Guitarist Jeremy Widerman says: "Sweet Mountain River came together really quickly – however, we spent more time than usual fine-tuning the transitions. We wanted to make sure it would take the listener on a fun ride. In the end, it's really a song about longing for nature and the love of a good woman, with some fun riffs and a huge chorus."

The band have been shortlisted for breakthrough act of the year at Canada's annual Juno Awards. The ceremony takes place on April 21. Check out the song here.

Soundgarden Ink New Publishing Deal

(hennemusic) Soundgarden have signed a new worldwide publishing agreement with BMG Chrysalis U.S. The deal includes song like "Spoonman", "Black Hole Sun" and "Blow Up the Outside World".

"Soundgarden have earned their place in music history as innovators of the rock genre," said Jill Pedone, Creative Director at BMG Chrysalis U.S. "We are thrilled to be working with the band during their pivotal reemergence and their catalog that has changed the face of rock music."

"We are so very proud to be representing the entire body of work from this seminal band," added Richard Blackstone, Executive Vice President, Creative & Business Development at BMG Chrysalis U.S. "We are honored that they have chosen BMG to be the new home for their music, both old and new." more on this story