Hey Foo Fighters!
Love starting out the day talking about this band! The Pulse Of Radio and Blabbermouth say Foo Fighters has booked a series of live shows for 2017, but that doesn’t mean there will be a new album to accompany them. In an interview with NME, drummer Taylor Hawkins said the Dave Grohl-led band is a “hunker down period” at the moment, explaining, “We know we have those shows next year, and we did a charity event for Dave’s kid’s school a couple of weeks ago that got a little bit of press. We’re fine, we love each other we’re all good. We’re just figuring out when the world’s ready for more Foo Fighters.”
The drummer added, “We will make a new record at some point. We won’t really be ready until Dave’s ready to go. It’s on the books, so we’ll definitely be playing. We never really know, we just wait for a text from Dave saying, ‘Hey, let’s go down to the studio.’”
Hawkins told me a while back that the Foos are always ready for whatever idea Grohl throws at them next: “The reaction when Dave comes to us with any idea is like, ‘Okay.’ You know, I know Dave and he has a lot of ideas. He’s always thinking and he’s always coming up with ideas, whether it’s a funny T-shirt or an HBO series. He’s creative and he likes to do stuff. He likes projects. He likes to work. And so whenever he says something that he wants to do, I say ‘Hell, yeah.’”
Hawkins himself has just released a new EP titled KOTA and issued a video for the first single, “Range Rover Bitch.” The six-song EP is Hawkins’ first-ever project under his own name, although in the past he has led bands like the Coattail Riders and the Birds Of Satan.
Foo Fighters have been on hiatus since November 2015, but they did perform at a private charity concert in Los Angeles last month and have confirmed a number of European festival appearances for next summer.
In a related story, Blabbermouth revealed Nirvana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is one of 25 new additions to the Grammy Hall of Fame, which inducts both singles and album recordings at least 25 years old that exhibit qualitative or historical significance. Each year recordings are reviewed by a special member committee comprised of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of the recording arts, with final approval by The Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees. Also added this year to the Hall’s more than 1,000 recordings are Deep Purple‘s “Smoke On The Water,” David Bowie‘s “Changes,” the Jackson 5‘s “ABC,” N.W.A.‘s “Straight Outta Compton,” Elvis Presley‘s “Jailhouse Rock” and several more.
Linkin Park members Joe Hahn and Mike Shinoda teamed with fashion designer and artist Blaine Halvorson of MadeWorn on a special project to benefit Music For Relief, the non-profit charity organization Linkin Park founded in 2005 to aid survivors of natural disasters and environmental conservation around the world. The trio came up with an original design based on the artwork from the band’s 2000 debut album, Hybrid Theory, which is now available on an exclusive line of white and special edition black T-shirts and hoodies.
Shinoda said in a statement, “‘The Hybrid Theory’ street soldier was a team effort between me, Joe and Frank Maddocks . . . It’s an image that’s synonymous with the band’s name at this point, and one that has become a cornerstone of our group’s visual language over the years.”
Linkin Park has been working on its seventh studio album for much of the past year. The follow-up to 2014’s The Hunting Party is expected out sometime in 2017.
Meanwhile, Beastie Boys member Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz has teamed with Los Angeles-based vegan shoe company Keep to design a new pair of sneakers, with all proceeds going to Planned Parenthood. The “Keep x Ad-Rock midtop,” as it’s called, features “a water-resistant, nylon cordura body and is lined with synthetic shearling.” It also includes “an embroidery of Adam’s name, split between left and the right shoes.”
Planned Parenthood has been under attack from the right for several years, and with both Donald Trump and Mike Pence holding strong anti-choice views, the organization has seen a spike in donations over fears that the new GOP-held Congress will defund it. Horovitz said in a statement, “Net proceeds of this shoe will be donated to Planned Parenthood because I support a woman’s right to choose and feel that women should not be punished for making decisions about their own lives and bodies. If you have similar beliefs, you might wanna grab a pair. Or, if you simply support fresh styles, then you too can be part of what peeps in Keeps are doing.”
Horovitz recently spoke at an anti-hate rally held at a part in Brooklyn named after late Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch. The park was defaced earlier this month with pro-Nazi and pro-Trump graffiti.
A hero of the music industry passed away over the Thanksgiving break. His name was Tony Martell. You may be familiar with the T.J. Martell Foundation, a music industry backed charity that has been raising money for cancer, AIDS and leukemia research for decades. Tony, a veteran music industry executive and philanthropist who died Sunday at the age of 90, passed away leaving a wake of mourners from industry folks to people with those diseases whose lives he impacted to rock stars he had a hand in forming their careers.
Blabbermouth reported Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are just some who have paid tribute to Tony Martell. Martell spent four decades as a high-ranking executive at CBS and its subsidiaries, where he worked closely with many major acts, including Osbourne, the Beach Boys, Billy Joel and Stevie Ray Vaughan, before retiring in the 1990s.
Martell created the T.J. Martell Foundation in 1975 after his son, T.J., died of leukemia at the age of 19. It would go on to become the music industry’s biggest foundation for leukemia, cancer, and AIDS research, and has raised more than $270 million for its cause, according to the organization’s web site.
Ozzy released a statement to Billboard.com, saying: “It saddened me to hear of my friend Tony Martell’s passing. Tony was the only record executive to believe in me when he signed me to Epic Records as a solo artist in 1980. He will be missed.”
Sharon Osbourne added: “Tony was always a mensch of a guy, one of the few good ones where you kind of thought, ‘Are you really in the music industry?’ [Laughs]
“I met him in 1975 because he’d signed ELO and Jet Records [to Epic] when I was working for my father [manager/Jet founder Don Arden]. When Ozzy started [his solo career in 1980] people turned him down because there hadn’t been a lead singer that had left a band and become successful at that time, but Tony believed in him and signed him — and how many years later are we, and we’re still signed to Epic and it’s all down to Tony. I must add that Ozzy is truly, truly saddened by this.
“I don’t think even Tony at the time realized what he was starting — that [the T.J. Martell Foundation] would become so hugely successful. So many people who were ill reached out to Tony for advice and help — people in the industry that he didn’t even work with would call him and he’d give advice about doctors, about treatment. He’d made a promise to his son and he wanted to see that promise through, and he went on to help probably hundreds of people. People like him are so rare.”
I did volunteer work in the 80’s and 90’s in LA for the TJ Martell Foundation. We used to hold the annual Rockers vs Rollers Celebrity Softball Games at USC’s field where my job was to round up rock stars to play against local radio stations and other celebrity teams. We had teams like Alice Cooper‘s Rockers vs Kip Winger‘s Rollers where I recall enlisting members of a new band, Alice In Chains, to be on the teams. I remember Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell hitting the balls out of the park! We even had Roseanne Barr sing the National Anthem (OY!) We also conducted a Rockin’ The Puck Celebrity Hockey events at the LA Forum, where we got professional and celebrity hockey players to play with folks like 90210‘s Luke Perry and The Hanson Brothers from the movie Slapshot. It was a grand time. I miss those days.
Celebrating life today: Disturbed’s John Moyer is 43! Billy Idol turns 61 and Deep Purple & Rainbow’s Roger Glover is 71.