Oh. Gonna continue to be in the 80’s today. Don’t hate on me.
That’s Shifty, second on the left.
The Pulse Of Radio says Foo Fighters guitarist Chris “Shifty” Shiflett was asked about the current political climate in an interview with European publication Powerplay, and he replied he understands how the sense that the working class has been ignored could lead to certain types of leaders coming to power. Shiflett explained, “There’s a worldwide populist backlash against the power elite, heading all of us in a certain direction . . . That rears its head in the ugliness of Donald Trump and I know you guys have your own version of that and all over Europe there’s a populist, right-wing parties popping up, and it’s f**king scary.“
Shiflett continued, “I’m an old-fashioned Democrat . . . I don’t view Trump supporters as the enemy. I don’t agree with them politically but a lot of people who voted for Obama turned around and voted for Trump, so we need to find out why that is. If the left don’t reach those people, we’re in really big trouble. Working people are not our enemy.” Shiflett admitted, “The reality is that I haven’t been part of the working class in a f**king long time, but I don’t wanna shake my roots. I like my roots, I like where I came from.”
Foo Fighters in general have been staunch supporters of Democratic candidates in the past, playing fundraisers for both John Kerry and Barack Obama in past campaigns.
Band leader Dave Grohl told us a while back why he feels it’s important for the band to get involved: “Before we were ever in this band, we were American citizens, we were human beings, and there’s some things that are important to us outside of the band, like the future of the country and the future of the environment and the world that our children have to live in in 15 or 20 years. And it’s our responsibility to do what we can to try to better that.“
The Foos broke a year-plus hiatus last month with a surprise U.K. club show to celebrate their confirmation as headliners for this year’s Glastonbury Festival. The show was the first official Foo Fighters gig since Nov 2015, although Grohl has done a few low-key solo appearances and the band played at benefit events last Oct and last month.
A string of European dates in the summer have also been announced, along with one U.S. festival appearance in California, but the Foos have yet to announce plans for a new album. Read the full story at Alternative Nation.
The Pulse Of Radio also reporting Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale told Loudwire in a new interview that the band’s latest album, Black And White Rainbows, is not all about the end of his 13-year marriage to singer Gwen Stefani. Rossdale explained, “It’s about starting fresh. It’s about the dark before the light. It’s a really transitional record. I made sure it’s by no means a breakup record . . . It’s about all the positive sides of life when you’ve had everything sort of going backwards when the building’s falling down and you have the flat level of land and you build your house and your world and your life and your family back up.”
Rossdale told us that he was interested in writing less from a personal perspective on this album: “You know, I was really happy to find ways to discuss things on the record that shifted away from my own life and to sort of this sympathetic, empathetic perspective of other people, other situations, other worlds. And I think that it was really important to have a real element of hope and repair and sunshine.“
Rossdale did admit that the record drew a certain amount of inspiration from his own personal troubles, saying, “Of course! That’s all over the record. I can’t disassociate myself with someone from 20 years of my life.”
Black And White Rainbows is the seventh studio album from Bush and features the single “Mad Love.” The disc follows up 2014’s Man On The Run. Bush’s headlining tour of North America kicks off May 4th in Dallas.
Whoopsie! Saw this over on Blabbermouth. Ghost’s Papa Emeritus III slipped off the stage. But it seems like he landed on his soft cat paws without any injury. Luckily the drop was short or he could’ve hurt himself. He lost his balance while singing the song “Mummy Dust” during the band’s concert Tuesday night (Mar 28) at O2 Academy Leeds in Leeds, causing him to fall into the space between the barrier and the stage. Naturally, the incident was captured on video by a fan and was posted on YouTube for everyone to see.
The new lineup of Ghost gave its first live performance on Friday night (Mar 24) as the Swedish-based band kicked off its 2017 “Popestar” European tour in Norwich, England. As previously reported, rumors have circulated for several months that Forge fired the entire previous lineup at the end of the band‘s fall 2016 North American tour. I have to say, sounds like new energy is in the live performance. Excited to see them this year!
Since the musicians wear masks and are only identified as Nameless Ghouls, personnel changes in the group over its eight-year existence have gone unannounced. BTW: Ghost added some new headline dates and they are in Road Rage!
BTW: some of you have been wondering what has happened to the streams of hardDrive and hardDrive XL on this site and on the hardDriveRadio app. WELL….the company we have been using has had some licensing issues with the record companies and can’t continue to stream until all that has been resolved. Just know we are doing everything we can to find a solution. So please be patient. We hope to be back online very soon!
Guitar God Eric Clapton is 72 today!