GUNS N’ ROSES ROCK DETROIT ROCK CITY!
Guns N’ Rosestook more than 40,000 fans to Paradise City last night as the legendary band rocked Ford Field in Detroit, MI during their 2.5 hour show that kicked off their historic Not In This Lifetime Tour. Following a blistering rock performance from the acclaimed Alice In Chains, Guns N’ Roses took the stage to perform two dozen songs spanning their multi-platinum selling career including “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Chinese Democracy” and “Civil War.” A full set list is below.
The tour continues on Sunday, Jun 26 in Washington, DC at FedExField and then moves on to another 19 cities throughout North America. Alice In Chains will also perform on the tour on shows scheduled from Jun 26 thru July 3 while Lenny Kravitz will join the line-up from Jul 19 thru Jul 24. Grammy Award®-winner Chris Stapleton will join the tour for the Nashville show on Saturday, Jul 9, acclaimed Canadian rock band, Billy Talent, will perform in Toronto on Saturday, Jul 16, The Cult, one of the most influential and controversial rock bands of the late 20th century will join the tour on Jul 27 (Atlanta), 29 (Orlando) & 31 (New Orleans) and Tuesday, Aug 3 in Dallas while multiple-Grammy Award winner, Skrillex, is set to join the tour on Aug 5 in Houston. Demand for tickets to the Not In This Lifetime Tour continue at an unprecedented pace as additional shows were recently announced including Chicago (Jul 3), Boston (Jul 20), New York City (Jul 24) and two brand new dates in Los Angeles (Aug 18 & 19). A full list of tour dates is in Road Rage.
Set list:
It’s So Easy
Mr. Brownstone
Chinese Democracy
Welcome to the Jungle
Double Talkin’ Jive
Estranged
Live and Let Die (Wings)
Rocket Queen
You Could Be Mine
You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory (Johnny Thunders)
Raw Power (Iggy and The Stooges)
This I Love
Civil War
Coma
Band intros into Slash solo – Speak Softly Love (Love Theme from the Godfather/Andy Williams)
Sweet Child O’ Mine
Better
Out Ta Get Me
Jam (Wish You Were Here/Pink Floyd)
November Rain
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan)
Nightrain
Encore:
Don’t Cry
The Seeker (The Who)
Paradise City
When will it end?
The Pulse Of Radio reporting members of Pearl Jam, Linkin Park, Radiohead, Fun., Nine Inch Nails and more than 150 other artists have signed an open letter to Congress asking the government to take steps to end gun violence. According to Consequence Of Sound, the letter comes following the murder of Voice contestant Christina Grimmie and the slaughter of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
Penned and organized by the editors of Billboard magazine, the letter is signed by Paul McCartney, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, all five members of Pearl Jam, Fun. members Nate Reuss and Jack Antonoff, all five members of Linkin Park, Stevie Nicks, Beck, Iggy Pop, Trent Reznor, Michael Stipe, Courtney Love, Panic! At The Disco‘s Brendan Urie, Elle King, Casey and Sam Harris of X Ambassadors and dozens more.
The letter published in next week’s Billboard magazine reads in part, “As leading artists and executives in the music industry, we are adding our voices to the chorus of Americans demanding change. Music always has been celebrated communally, on dance floors and at concert halls. But this life-affirming ritual, like so many other daily experiences — going to school or church or work — now is threatened, because of gun violence in this country.”
The letter asks Congress to require a background check for every gun sale, as well as block suspected terrorists from buying guns. The letter closes by saying, “Billboard and the undersigned implore you — the people who are elected to represent us — to close the deadly loopholes that put the lives of so many music fans, and all of us, at risk.”
Congressional Republicans, the current majority party, have refused to allow votes on a series of four gun control proposals, both last December and in the wake of the two Orlando tragedies. That led House Democrats to stage a 24-hour sit-in on the House floor on Wednesday and Thursday (Jun 22nd and 23rd).
Look, this is intended NOT TO TAKE AWAY ANYONE’S GUNS! It is intended to set up restrictions. And ban assault rifles. It’s common sense, isn’t it? Come on officials, WAKE UP! It’s not about politics, it’s about PEOPLE! (ok, I will get off my soapbox now.)
It’s funny. Three years ago, I was traveling in France, was in Cannes, and walked by the convention hall where this annual event takes place. Ah, if I was only there again THIS year to see DAVE GROHL! LOL The Pulse Of Radio reports the Foo Fighters frontman emerged from hiatus on Wednesday night (Jun 22nd) to play a special invite-only acoustic set at the Cannes Lion International Festival Of Creativity in Cannes. In addition to playing several staple Foo Fighters cuts, Grohl shared a story about getting high at a party a while back and unexpectedly performing a duet with Taylor Swift while Paul McCartney watched from the sidelines.
According to Alternative Nation, Grohl explained McCartney performed a song on piano first and the assembled partygoers began demanding Grohl play as well. He recalled, “I maybe smoked a little pot, so I was already challenged enough. I was like, ‘Oh my god, what do I do right now.’ All of a sudden Taylor Swift stands up and says, ‘I’ll play a song!’ I was like thank god, Taylor Swift is here. So she gets on the piano and I think, ‘Okay, I’ll jam with her.’” He continued, “So I pick up one of Paul’s left handed basses off the wall, I’m super high, she starts playing, and I’m just trying to figure out how to play along to what she’s doing . . . She was playing this really beautiful thing on piano, and I look at my wife like, I know this f**king song, and she was playing our song ‘Best Of You.’ As if I wasn’t high enough, that f**king blew me into outer space man.” Grohl added, “I just lost my mind, so I felt obligated to sit next to her and duet. But her voice, she’s got a good voice, she can sing man.”
Meanwhile, Foo Fighters are currently on an indefinite hiatus that began at the end of 2015, after a three-year period of activity which included the release and promotion of the Grohl-directed Sound City documentary, the filming and recording of the Sonic Highways HBO series and album, and the year-long world tour in support of the latter.
According to a press release, Cannes Lions is “an eight-day program of creative inspiration, celebration, education and networking. Over 15,000 delegates from around 100 countries attend the Festival, making it the only truly global meeting-place for branded communications professionals to connect, share and discover.” Sure, it’s on the Cote D’Azur in Provence. Minutes from some of the best wine in the world. It’s like heaven. And the convention center is surrounded by a pier with huge, I’m talking like 5 stories tall, yachts, like the size of dinosaurs. It’s insane the money that is around there. The weird thing about Cannes is, along the water where this convention center and the beach is, are Beverly Hills-style old hotels and restaurants. Then a few blocks into town, it’s like a freakin’ war zone! You are afraid someone is about to mug you any second. Thankfully we found a British-style pub to take refuge on our way to the parking garage. Crazy.
You can barely see his scar! Not bad after 3 weeks!
I totally forgot to tell you how the conversation with Corey Taylor went the other day! He told us he’s feeling great, his doctor told him the replacement disc they implanted in his neck is taking hold, but don’t expect to see him doing any head-banging or jumping off speaker columns around the stage on their tour, which kicks off Tuesday in Nashville. I said leave that stuff to Sid! (You may recall, Slipknot DJ Sid Wilson years ago jumped off his riser and broke not one by BOTH of his heels. Yeah, that sucked for him!)
Corey said they shaved off part of a bone that was starting to grow into his spinal column (geez, that is not good) and is relieved of much of the pain he had been experiencing. He also said he’s doing physical therapy, but needs to take it easy.
Meanwhile, we discussed everything he’s been up to including attending the Money in the Band WWE PPV where fans spotted him in the front row, Stone Sour music (can you believe Come (What)Ever May was released 10 years ago?!, the rest of Slipknot’s schedule, Clown‘s new movie, Officer Downe, which, BTW, Corey has a small role in. And we talked about Joey Jordison. You may have read the Metal Hammer interviews he’s done, the magazine, I think, is out now with Joey on the cover. Jordison recently received the magazine’s esteemed Golden God Award, given to artists in the metal and hard rock community. Corey’s comment basically was, well, you should wait til you hear him tell Lou Brutus on hardDrive XL on Friday night, Jul 8th. (sneaky, ain’t I?) Slipknot will also be THE XL Featured Artist of the Week Jul 11-15.
Whew! Aren’t you glad THAT is over! The Pulse Of Radio says Robert Plant and Jimmy Page have prevailed in Los Angeles federal court in the copyright infringement lawsuit regarding their authorship of “Stairway To Heaven.” The pair was sued by Michael Skidmore, the trustee of the Randy Craig Wolfe Trust, on behalf of the late Spirit guitarist who wrote “Taurus” and performed under the name Randy California. The trust was hoping to not only win a monetary judgment, but also secure a writing credit for California on “Stairway To Heaven.”
Yesterday (Jun 24th), the seventh and final day of the trial — which saw Plant, Page, and John Paul Jones all take the witness stand — the jury asked for recordings of both song to be played — with “Stairway” being aired twice. These were not the records of each song, but new recordings based solely on the respective song’s sheet music. 20 minutes later, the jury had its verdict.
Rolling Stone reported: “The In the decisions of the questions considered by the jury, the verdict initially seemed to be leaning towards the plaintiffs. The first — whether or not the trust of late ‘Taurus’ songwriter Randy Wolfe, represented by trustee Michael Skidmore, actually owned the ‘Taurus’ copyright — ruled ‘yes’ for the plaintiffs. (Questions over who actually owned the ‘Taurus’ copyright had been a key part of Zeppelin counsel Peter Anderson‘s defense throughout the trial.) And as to whether there was a ‘preponderance of evidence’ that Page and Plant had ‘access’ to ‘Taurus’ in advance of writing ‘Stairway,’ the answer was definitively ‘yes.’”
Celebrating life this weekend: Jeff Beck is 72! (geez!), Mick Fleetwood is 69. Saturday: Mike Kroeger of Nickelback is 44, Ricky Gervais is 55 and Anthony Bourdain is 60. Sunday, Mick Jones of The Clash turns 61 and former NY Yankee Derek Jeter is 42. Enjoy your first weekend of SUMMER!