Stone Temple Pilots and Chester Bennington Plan Tour and Album

"We did some touring together on a Family Values tour around 94' I think, and you know, we hit it off. We spent a lot of time together. And when the time came to think about a singer, we simply reached out to him…when we spoke, he was actually on a European tour, and I was home, and he said 'you know what, man? When I was dating my wife, I said one day, they're going to call me to be in the band.'" More from the show here.

Nazareth Frontman Collapses On Stage

(Classic Rock) Nazareth have cancelled their tour of Canada after their lead singer Dan McCafferty collapsed on stage after half a song on Tuesday, it's been confirmed.

The veteran outfit had started their show in Cranbrook, Canada, 90 minutes late after McCafferty had complained of breathing problems. But just 30 seconds into the show he fell to the ground, and the concert was immediately called off. Now the remaining dates have also been cancelled.

Cranbook promoters HM Productions said this week: "We want to apologise to everybody who came out to support us. You can get your money back.

"We've got to remember we're talking about a person here. Number one is his safety."

They said of the 66-year-old's condition: "He is stable. We're not sure what's going on with the rest of the tour." more on this story

Slash Joins All-Star Mega-Jam On Megadeth's Gigantour

The Gigantour stop in Dallas on Friday featured an all-star jam with Megadeth being joined by Slash, Zakk Wylde, Jason Newsted, David Draiman (Disturbed, Device) and Vinnie Paul Abbott (Hellyeah, Pantera) on the Thin Lizzy classic, "Cold Sweat."

The mega-jam took place at the Gexa Energy Pavilion in Dallas, Texas during Friday night's stop of the Megadeth led festival tour. Slash reacted to the jam after the show on Twitter by posting "Great night in Dallas tonight!"

Megadeth covers the classic 1983 Thin Lizzy song on their latest studio album 'Super Collider' and have been performing it during the current Gigantour run.

You can watch video of the all-star jam here.

Motley Crue's Tommy Lee Goes On A Rant

(hennemusic) Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee took to Facebook Friday to issue a full-on rant about the definition of celebrity in 2013. The blurb began with a critique of reality tv, something Lee participated in on "Tommy Lee Goes To College" (2004) and "Rockstar Supernova" (2006).

"I'm a celebrity….really?," begins Lee. "I think that means being famous, having pissed on the world's fire hydrant, leaving your mark for years to come and making a dent in the globe the size of the hole in the ozone?

The world's view of a celeb today is the most f**ked up, watered down bullsh*t I've ever seen. I've been in this game for many years now and the abundance of lame TV shows really sets a gruesome standard. Stupid shows about finding love on national TV? Partying in Jersey? Trapped on some island? Celebrity Rehab? The B-C crew that weren't celebs in the 1st place!! Celebrity Apprentice? If you are a celeb why are you looking for an internship?"

"People wonder 'where the hell did the rock star go?' THE BOWIE's, PRINCE's, MICK JAGGER's, They're STILL here people!," Tommy continued. "There's nobody to blame but our own silly ass! We watch the sh*t like fans at an Indianapolis 500 race where folks only go just to wait for a fiery crash and burn! Ok I admit I do it too…but for the love of Jesus, I know it's not right. Do you? Really? And these people who have their few episodes of airtime go on to host parties, sell perfumes, wonder why they're not bigger than they are? They wonder why their "stars" don't continue to "rise." WOW!"

"Do you guys remember the days of talent?," writes the drummer. "Something God gave you, or YOU crafted it into something special that people wanted to go see again and again! And if you were lucky and you made it, you found a way to showcase what you could do? And get paid? Getting paid for your God-given talent…that rules. I am lucky." Read the rest here.

Mick Brown Explains Golf Cart Police Chase

(Classic Rock) 'Wild' Mick Brown says last year's golf cart cop chase drama was the most trouble he's ever been in. The drummer was touring as part of Ted Nugent's band last July when he was arrested for operating under the influence of alcohol, driving to endanger, theft and assault.

He was later fined $1000 after a plea-bargain. But he says it was a daily occurrence that just happened to get out of control. Brown – who co-founded Dokken and plays with offshoot band T&N – tells BackstageAxxess:

"We're playing these big venues which all have golf carts to get around. I love riding around on these things. The bass player and I do it a lot – we get drunk and we drive around. It's a lot of fun. Whenever I see a key in one we hop in and go. It was nothing out of the ordinary.

"So this day I happened to do it and there were some girls I knew in the audience. I went and got them. We were riding around, everyone was having a fun time, then I came to an area where the security guy didn't really want me to go. I told him to [explicit], and that didn't fly really well. He called the police and said, 'This guy stole a golf cart.'"

"The police show up, and at this point I happen to be on a public road, trying to get back into the venue. I got tackled, shackled, the whole thing, and went to jail." more.

Bon Jovi Gave Highest Earning Tour Of The Year

(Classic Rock) Despite the absence of guitarist Richie Sambora Bon Jovi has made more money than any other band on the road in the world right now, according to industry magazine Pollstar.

After raking in $142.1m over six months on the road, Bon Jovi has generated nearly $40 million more than the second-place artist Bruce Springsteen.

At first glance that lets number-three band the Rolling Stones, with their notorious ticket pricing, off the hook – but Mick Jagger's outfit lead the pack when it comes to income per show.

The Stones made an average of $7.96m at each concert, compared with $4.95 for Springsteen and $2.45m for Bon Jovi. And while Paul McCartney is further down the top ten at number five in sales, he's at number two in terms of gross per show at $3.95m. more on this story

Arcade Fire Announce New Album Release Date

(Radio.com) The last time the music world heard from the Arcade Fire in a full-length fashion, it was in the form of 2010 release The Suburbs, which would go on to snag the coveted Album of the Year award at the 2011 Grammys.

Friday (July 12), the band unexpectedly announced October 29 release date for their as-yet-untitled fourth studio releasing while casually responding to a fan's praises.

They tweeted, "@fifferwright Thanks. Our new album will be out October 29th. pic.twitter.com/CAgYucvimo" — Arcade Fire (@arcadefire) July 12, 2013

The Twitter reply also came with two new images from the band: a shot of the Montreal Biosphere covered in flames (it caught fire in May 1976), and a picture of the Montreal indie rockers swathed in a reddish glow akin to the Biosphere picture.

Rather, it's a picture of three band members (Win Butler, Regine Chassgne and Richard Reed Parry) with rough cut-outs of three other members (Will Butler, Jeremy Gara and Tim Kingsbury) added on.

However, there's one glaring detail in the group shot: violinist Sarah Neufeld is not depicted. Though the band has not made any announcements regarding a departure of Neufeld, it wouldn't be too hard to fathom an exit on her part, seeing as she's releasing a solo album next month and is also a member of Bell Orchestre. However, her tour itinerary ends August 28, leaving her schedule leading up to the Arcade Fire album free for the inevitable promo blitz. (For what it's worth, leading fan site Arcade Fire Tube is confident in its claim that Neufeld still is in the group.) Read more and see the photo here.

Rolling Stones Play Final 50 & Counting Show

(hennemusic) The Rolling Stones wrapped up their "50 & Counting" tour in London's Hyde Park on Saturday. The band's 19-song set on the hottest day of the year in London marked their second appearance at the Park in a week

In front of 65,000 fans, the Stones kicking Saturday's show off with "Start Me Up" and "It's Only Rock And Roll" before going on to play a catalogue of their greatest hits, finishing with "Brown Sugar," "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."

Both of the Stones' Hyde Park shows were filmed and a DVD is expected to be released in the near future, with an audio recording also expected to go on sale. Check out videos from the show here.

Rush To Perform Alberta Flood Relief Benefit Concert

(hennemusic) Rush's July 24 show in Calgary was cancelled due to heavy flooding and damage in the Canadian city, and now the band have rescheduled a concert on the same day in nearby Red Deer that will benefit Alberta Flood Relief.

All proceeds from Rush's show at the Enmax Centrium in Red Deer will go to Alberta Flood Relief. For the Clockwork Angels tour date, Rush will be donating their fee and paying for all their expenses; promoter Live Nation will also be donating their time and fees towards this cause. The venue, Enmax Centrium, will be donating goods and services to the event, as well.

"After seeing the devastation from the recent floods, we felt compelled to do what we could," said bassist Geddy Lee. "While we had hoped to avoid cancelling the Calgary show, venue safety concerns have closed the venue. Our apologies to all of the fans that bought tickets to the Calgary show for any inconvenience.

"We're hoping they – along with the great people of Red Deer – can come to the Enmax Centrium for what has now become a benefit concert. We'd like to thank everyone helping to put on this show for joining us in donating their time & services so we can raise as much money as possible to help those in need." more on this story

Alice Cooper Reveals More Covers Album Details

(hennemusic) Alice Cooper recently revealed plans to record an album of covers for release next year, and now the rocker says he's "three-quarters of the way through" the project.

"We're really happy, all of us, everyone involved in the covers because it's pretty much what we wanted to do," Cooper tells Billboard. "We specified a certain time period and said, 'Let's stay within that. Let's not move it around too much.' We don't want to be doing cover songs from the 80s and 90s when the Hollywood vampires kind of thing was more '73, '74, '75."

Alice's reference to "the time period of the Hollywood vampires" recalls the hard-partying crew of the early- and mid-70s that included the likes of John Lennon, the Who's Keith Moon, Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr and "honorary" guests such as T. Rex's Marc Bolan and Keith Allison of Paul Revere & the Raiders. More.

Sevendust Guitarist Reveals Band's Plan To Unplug

Sevendust guitarist John Connolly reveals in a new video interview that the band is planning to record an acoustic EP in early 2014 and do an acoustic tour.

Noise Blog's Anne Erickson spoke with Connolly ahead of their show in Lansing, Mich, which is part of the band's tour in support of their current album, "Black Out the Sun."

"There's a lot of talk, a lot of buzz going around about another acoustic tour," he said. "We've always wanted to do one, but we really don't want to do it without a record, so we may be hopping in at some point to do some kind of an acoustic EP."

He added, "Ideally, it would be nice if we could get it wrapped up before the end of the year, but I think realistically, it might be January, February, March, somewhere around there that we'll hop in for a few weeks. Probably revisit some older songs and then do a handful of newer songs that we can do on the acoustic thing. So that's kind of off a little ways, but it's definitely something we want to focus on." Check out the full interview here.

The Black Keys Help Hometown Little League Team

(Gibson) The Black Keys apparently love baseball, and they're offering up the funds to prove it. The duo has donated finances to a little league team in their hometown of Akron, Ohio, to help enable the team to play next season.

According to TMZ, the Black Keys have donated $300 to purchase jerseys with the band's name for a special a team in the West Akron Baseball League. Yes, just $300 was enough to cover the expenses.

Drummer Patrick Carney was once a little leaguer himself. He told TMZ that he played for the West Akron Baseball League when he was a little tyke, and one of his childhood friends actually asked him to sponsor the team. Who can refuse a request like that?

Carney added that after the season wraps, he and his band mate Dan Auerbach will autograph the kids' jerseys, if they send them the jerseys in the mail. more on this story

Foghat Release Song With Fan Written Lyrics

(Classic Rock) Foghat fan Phil Dessinger has won a contest to write lyrics for the band's all-instrumental tune 495 Boogie. The song has now been retitled The Word Of Rock'N'Roll and is being issued via Foghat's own label, Foghat Records.

The band say: "Thank you to all of you who entered the 495 Boogie contest. It was an extremely difficult choice. The votes are in and it was very, very close."

495 Boogie (the most downloaded track on Foghat's 2010 CD Last Train Home) was recorded in two takes. It came out of a jam with Foghat drummer Roger Earl's brother, Colin, who came up with the song, Jeff Howell on bass and Lefty Lefkowitz on harmonica. Eventually, just for fun, Alabama-based classic rock DJ Charlie Ocean added lyrics to 495 Boogie, renaming it Big American Blonde.

Seizing on the idea, Foghat decided to run a contest and invite fans to add their own lyrics to the tune. Sadly, Ocean passed away in July 2011, which led to the project being put on hold. But eventually, the group felt it would be a fine way to pay tribute to their fallen friend, resulting in the contest running from October 2012 through February 2013. Check out the song and read more here.

KISS Were Scared To Follow Up Destroyer

(Classic Rock) KISS began 1976 with Destroyer, the most ambitious album of their career, with a lavish production from Bob Ezrin. How could they possibly follow it? Answer: they couldn't.

Rock And Roll Over – released eight months later – was a no-frills hard rock album. This back-to-basics approach was born not only out of necessity, but also out of fear – as frontman Paul Stanley recalls in an interview in this week's new edition of Classic Rock.

The Starchild says: "Quite honestly, we were chickensh*t. We were scared of where we had gone with Destroyer. We'd traded off the rawness of Kiss for something more cinematic.

"Bob Ezrin was a visionary. Without him, we were back to creating within our own boundaries. Rock And Roll Over was our 180-degree turn to get back to what the band sounded like live. It wasn't rocket science."

The idea was to recreate that primitive quality of Kiss Alive! (the live album that gave Kiss their big breakthrough in 1975) so the band recorded in a disused theatre. more on this story

Smashing Pumpkins Announce Oceania: Live In NYC Multimedia Set

(Radio.com) Smashing Pumpkins will release their elaborate Oceania performance which was captured during a concert last year (December 10) at Brooklyn's Barclay's Center.

On September 3, fans can select from various formats including DVD, 3D Blu-ray, deluxe 2 CD/DVD set and digital long form.The DVD and Blu-ray discs both feature the entire concert, along with interviews with Sean Evans, the lighting director and stage producer, plus a photo gallery from the event.

During this special presentation, production values were pumped up a few notches from the band's typical show. Corgan and crew performed their 2012 album Oceania in full, followed by classics for the second half of the show with elaborate visual effects produced by Evans, known for his work assisting Roger Waters on the newest staging of The Wall. (Setlist from the show is listed below.)

The release comes on the heels of Smashing Pumpkins re-releasing The Aeroplane Flies High Deluxe Edition featuring 7 remastered discs, which comes to a grand total of a staggering 104 tracks. more on this story

Mike Portnoy Addresses Misconceptions

(Classic Rock) Mike Portnoy thinks he might be one of most misunderstood musicians in the world especially by those who believe he suffers from lack of commitment.

That's an accusation levelled against him after he quit Dream Theater in 2010 and went on to work with Avenged Sevenfold, Adrenaline Mob, Transatlantic, Flying Colors, Bigelf, Portnoy Sheehan MacAlpine Sherinian and his latest project the Winery Dogs. But the drummer says the appearance is deceptive.

He tells IconVsIcon: "Misconceptions about me that are out there by the fans and non-fans as well. I think the biggest one is that I'm band-jumping or opportunity-jumping. That's not the case.

"I don't think you will find more dedication than I do for what I did for Dream Theater. I literally oversaw every single step, every minute of the day; I did that for 25 years. You won't find a more committed artist than me." more on this story

Heaven and Earth Singled Out Week: Victorious

Heaven and Earth recently released their new studio album, "Dig" and to celebrate we are asking the band's leader Stuart Smith to tell us about some of his favorite tracks. Today he tells us about the song "Victorious":

The Writing Process: This song originally started with just the opening eastern riff that I'd had for a few years. Again, this was one of those riffs that I didn't want to do anything with until I had the right music to go with it. I presented the idea to the band and we all started jamming on the basic motif. The rough steps to the verse I sort of had but then everyone helped refine the timing on the guitar, bass and keyboard stabs. Chuck Wright came up with the following riff. This is one of Chuck's many strong points. When I throw a riff at him he instinctively knows what part to come up with that will fit very well. Everyone joined in and put their input in and it started to come together. When we were in the writing sessions for "Dig" Joe, (Retta), would record them on his 8 track with a couple of room mikes and send everyone MP3's of the songs when he got home. That way when we went back in to continue writing everyone would be familiar with what we'd already done and have ideas on how to improve on it.

Recording: When we were satisfied with the crafting of the song we went into Ocean Studios in Burbank to cut the backing tracks. We were using the CLASP Recording System which allowed us to cut to 24 track 2 inch tape but also utilizing the convenience of Pro Tools. Using this method gave us the tape saturation and warmth with the ability to drop the whole band in on the fly. The backing tracks done, we returned to our own Wine Cellar Studios to record the overdubs, again using the CLASP System and tape.

Lyrics: This is a song that had Joe stumped a bit as far as inspiration for the lyrics went until one night he saw me watching "Lawrence of Arabia" on television. That gave him the impetus to write lyrics for the song, which was going to be called "Arabia". He went in and sang it and did an amazing job but at the end of the day we wanted to keep this album very "real" and all felt that no-one could connect with "Arabia". As a country the name doesn't even exist anymore. We both have an interest in martial arts and Joe watches a lot of MMA fights so when he was watching this one night I suggested that he make the song about fighting which I felt he could better connect with and "Victorious" is the result.

Guitar Solos: When I record a guitar solo I'll warm up at home before I go to the studio, which is only 5 minutes from my house. When I get there I generally do about 6 passes and go with a comp of all six but nine times out of ten the first solo pass being the first thing out of my head, is the best and if there's nothing interesting on the other five takes to add to it our producer Dave Jenkins will have me just fix certain parts of it. With this solo what you hear is actually my first pass. I was very lucky in this instance, as I couldn't duplicate it again if I tried. It took me ages to work out what I'd done to play it live.

What did take quite a while to get is the guitar intro piece to "Victorious." The Wine Cellar Studio is in our drummer Richie Onori's house and the noise room, which is where the speakers are miked up, is in the basement and is heavily soundproofed. I have my amps in the control room so we can adjust the sound without going all the way into the studio and I was using my 200 watt Marshall Major in conjunction with my 50 watt "Lee Jackson" mod Marshall. To get the right sound to make this intro happen I had to have the amps cranked and bordering on the edge of feedback and the only way to do this was for me to be in the noise room next to the speakers. We tried this for all of 5 minutes but it was physically too painful to stand anymore than that so we set up a small speaker in the corridor just outside the control room and plugged it into the 50 watt and I stood next to that so it was kind of bearable. It was still incredibly loud and this was late at night. Poor Richie and his wife were trying to sleep and the neighbors were freaking out but he was a trooper and didn't shut me down for the night as he thought what I was doing was inspired.

Ancillary Instruments: On this track we wanted an original, organic eastern sound so we brought in a guy called Max Sadeghi with a Santur which is an eastern instrument like a Zither Harp that is hit with mallets. Dave Jenkins added the monks voices and heavy synth underneath the intro and our keyboard player Arlan Schierbaum, who has an amazing collection of vintage instruments, used a Clavioline and a Mellotron during the verse and choruses.

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

Derek Trucks Talks New Tedeschi Trucks Band album

(Gibson) Derek Trucks is gearing up for the release of Made Up Mind, the new Tedeschi Trucks Band album slated to hit stores next month. Speaking to Rolling Stone, he and wife Susan Tedeschi say recording at the couple's Swamp Raga studios in Florida fostered a casually productive atmosphere.

"There's something nice about having a studio where it doesn't feel like work," says Trucks. "Everyone just shows up and it's a hang. You're rehearsing in a place where you just turn the knob and now you're recording."

Made Up Mind is said to feature the same sizzling blend of blues, rock and R&B that made the group's debut, Revelator, a sensation. The band has been road-testing most of the songs on their current tour.

"You want to play it when you have new tunes that you feel good about," says Trucks. "But you want the record … to still feel fresh and like new music."

Trucks points out that the 11-piece band gelled early on, building a special chemistry that carried over into the making of the new album. "From the first moments of [the 11 of us] playing in the studio together, there were elements of it that were magic," he explains. "It took a long time for everybody to find their place. But I remember about six months in … it just started flying." more on this story

Metallica Release Roskilde Festival Video Footage

(hennemusic) Metallica have released footage of their July 6th appearance at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. The band has issued video of the pre-show meet and greet, the tuning room, as well as "Blackened" from the show.

Metallica first played the iconic Danish festival in 1986 on their "Master Of Puppets" tour; fans can check out some of that performance on the "Cliff 'Em All" video package.

The concert marked their first appearance at the festival in 10 years, and the performance marked the band's only European show of the year. Check out the video here.

Mojo Fury Release The Difference Between Video

(Classic Rock) Mojo Fury have released a video for The Difference Between, the title track from their upcoming second album. Classic Rock liked the Irish band's previous outing Visiting Hours Of A Travelling Circus. And if you like their latest material, you can help bring it to the rest of the world.

Frontman Michael Mormecha explains: "Do you remember when you were a kid finishing a picture or making a model and you ran in to show it to your to your ma, da or friend?

"In my head I'm running towards the world holding Mojo Fury's second album shouting, 'Look what we made!' Unfortunately the world can't just stick it on the fridge door. There's recording, mixing, mastering, duplication, marketing and touring involved – and that's where we need your help."

Check out the song and find out how you can help here.