Very sad to hear about the passing of an ole friend, Bill Ham. Bill was the original manager and producer for ZZ Top. He was a one of a kind. Rest in peace, Bill. Heaven just got a little heavier.
Well, tonight the Guns N’ Roses tour kicks off! I gotta tell ya, these pictures are making me rethink my stance on stadium dates. The tour kicks off tonight in Detroit Rock City at Ford Field, and The Pulse Of Radio reports the band has released photos of the band’s stage set-up and a brief clip of the group rehearsing ahead of the launch of the “Not In This Lifetime” reunion tour. Drummer Frank Ferrer has also uploaded a photo that features a partial glimpse of the set list, which will feature 26 or 27 songs. In addition to Guns staples, the band will rotate lesser known tracks like “Nice Boys,” “Think About You,” “Perfect Crime” and the Velvet Revolver track “Slither” in and out of the show.
A short clip shared by Fender shows bassist Duff McKagan and other members of the band in their rehearsal space while the original recording of “Paradise City” plays on the soundtrack.
Meanwhile, footage was released on June 18th of former Guns drummer Steven Adler practicing “Paradise City,” leading to speculation that he will at least make a guest appearance on the band’s upcoming reunion tour. According to some reports, Adler was actually going to perform at the Troubadour with Guns N’ Roses on April 1st, but was unable to play due to a back injury.
The current tour features original members McKagan, Slash and Axl Rose backed by Ferrer, guitarist Richard Fortus, keyboardist Dizzy Reed and new second keyboardist Melissa Reese.
Rose just finished a stint as lead vocalist for AC/DC on that band’s European festival run, and is slated to play at least 10 North American shows with that group right after Guns complete their stadium run.
Five Finger Death Punch
The Pulse Of Radio also reporting Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory said in a new interview the band is doing its best to help frontman Ivan Moody battle “his demons” on tour. The vocalist has been struggling with substance abuse and Bathory confirmed the whole group has made behavioral changes to help Moody’s recovery. Bathory explained, “You have to change the habits on the road — what happens, what’s on the rider. You have to take off all the alcohol — even mouthwash. It’s about trying to eliminate all of the triggers.”
Bathory continued, “He’s been battling his demons, and when you’re in a rock band, it can be really difficult to be on the road. If you have any kind of addiction or addictive personality, everybody wants to hang out and party. People are going to come up to you and say, ‘Hey man, let me buy you a drink,’ or ‘Let’s hang out.’ For them, that’s a big thing. They don’t realize that to us, it was the same thing yesterday, and the day before that, and the past 300 days before that.”
Drummer Jeremy Spencer, who’s been sober for several years, admitted that staying clean on the road is tough: “When you get sober, at first you just think, ‘Well, I’m sober now, I’m not drinking anymore, I’m fixed, right?’ But there’s a lot of stuff that you have to learn how to deal with. It’s about living life sober and especially being in a successful band, like I woke up, you know, one day I’m sober, now I have to learn how to deal with all this stuff, which is, it’s a great problem to have living this lifestyle, but I had to learn how to do it because I honestly didn’t know how.“
Zoltan also spoke about a possible direction for Five Finger Death Punch’s seventh studio album, on which work just got underway this month. He said, “I think now is the time when technically we could do any kind of album. This is the moment where we can sort of experiment.” The guitarist added, “We have a couple of ideas floating around. One of them is to make a little bit of a retro record, just to have fun and do a thrash metal vibe, and then there are new ideas that are completely different, involving elements that we’ve never had before. Both directions are exciting, so we’ll have to make a decision.”
Moody’s addiction problems have received more attention recently after the band was forced earlier this year to cancel an Australian tour due to his hospitalization. We’ve got our 5 fingers crossed all will be good when the tour starts for Ivan. He’s a good dude and a friend of the show’s since he was in Motograter. We wish him nothing but the best!
Maynard’s autobiography is coming out!A trailer has been posted online for the authorized biography of Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer frontman Maynard James Keenan, which will be published on Nov 8th through Backbeat Books. Titled A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, the 284-page tome was written by Keenan’s longtime friend, Sarah Jensen, and Keenan himself was heavily involved in its creation.Keenan told us Jensen was actually around for many of the formative events of his life: “She met me when I was doing music, which was in high school of course. High school plays, choir, all those performances. She saw me, you know, when I was going into the military, she saw me in all the sports activities that I was involved in, a lot of the poetry that I used to write back in high school, some of the publications that I was involved in back then…so she’s seen all of that progression.”According to a press release, the book chronicles Keenan’s “journey from his Midwest childhood to his years in the Army to his time in art school, from his stint at a Boston pet shop to his place in the international spotlight and his influence on the disparate fields of contemporary music and regional winemaking.” The press release added the book “presents the outtakes, the scenes of disappointment and triumph, and the events that led him to take one step after the next, to change direction, to explore sometimes surprising opportunities. Included throughout are passages in Keenan’s own words, often humorous anecdotes that illuminate the narrative. There is also commentary by his family members, friends, instructors, and industry colleagues.”Also included are eight pages of never before seen photographs. The book’s cover art is now online. Maynard will conduct a very cool book tour. More information will be made available on that very soon!
Meanwhile, Tool will be playing a number of festivals and headlining dates this fall, although there is still no word on when the band intends to release its long-awaited fifth album.
Blabbermouth reporting Halestorm is starting to write its next album, according to a new interview with the band by Face Culture. Even though the group is still touring behind last year’s Into The Wild Life effort, drummer Arejay Hale revealed, “This time we’re trying to be a little bit more prepared so when we go in we have a little bit more songs to choose from. We’re all individually writing and we’re writing together and we’re just getting an idea of where we want to go, what direction.”
Singer Lzzy Hale added, “We’re literally writing every day. We’re starting to get a clearer idea. A couple of months ago I had no idea what I wanted to do next, and so it was just writing to write.”
Meanwhile, the band is also planning to continue its tradition of recording a covers EP between full albums, with Arejay saying, “We’re about to go into the studio and record another cover EP and every time we do that we get inspired heavily by the songs that we’ve learned. It’s kind of a great way to get an idea of different ways of songwriting.”
Lzzy Hale agreed that recording other artists’ songs helps her own writing: “There’s just nothing like singing and playing and picking apart an already proven amazing song. I think it helps you as a songwriter. I’ll write a song and be like, ‘Well, is that as good as Heart’s ‘All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You,’ and I’ll have to be like, ‘No, back to the drawing board.’” Find Halestorm next month on the Carnival of Madness tour. Meanwhile, Lzzy will be able to unpack some things in her new home in Nashville! Congrats to the new home owner!
According to Alternative Nation, seven previously unreleased Nirvana recordings from 1993 have leaked on a private Nirvana forum, including two never before heard songs. The songs leaked after a fan bought the original tape reel on eBay. The recordings, known as the “Pachyderm Sessions,’ are dated Feb 15th, 1993, and contain two instrumentals that have never been heard publicly before.
One of them, called “Lullaby,” is mainly focused on drums, bass and keyboards, with some fans speculating that Kurt Cobain might be playing drums. The other previously unreleased song features Dave Grohl playing all instruments, with a woman at the beginning saying: “The one I didn’t play him.” The fast, punk-sounding track has what Alternative Nation describes as “shades of Foo Fighters” in it.
Also included on the leak are alternate versions of “Marigold” and “Dumb.”
There has been fan speculation that Dave Grohl (WHAT?!) has leaked some of these tracks himself.
Nirvana material has trickled out online ever since the release of last year’s documentary, Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck, which featured music and art from his personal archives that had never been publicly shared before. A companion album to the film, Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings, containing previously unheard demos and other recordings by Cobain, came out last Nov.
Happy 61 today to Glenn Danzig (Danzing/Misfits)!