Good morning Radicals! It’s a cold and rainy day over here at the New York studios, but we’ve got the tubes in our amps to keep us warm!
AC/DC singer Brian Johnson told ABC Australia that he wasn’t sure if the band would continue without founding guitarist Malcolm Young. Johnson explained that he knew the decision would be made by guitarist Angus Young alone, saying, “To me it was always up to Angus. He’s one of these two men who made riffs that nobody else made, since they were in school. I really thought it might not happen. If Angus turned round and said, ‘I can’t do it without Malcolm,’ I would have understood.” The band is also down one drummer, as Phil Rudd continues to battle his legal issues. A tumultuous time in the AC/DC camp, hopefully all can be resolved soon, and with a happy ending.
Five Finger Death Punch drummer Jeremy Spencer was asked in a new interview with JoeDaly.net what direction he thinks the band’s sound will take on their next studio effort. Spencer replied, “I’m not sure. We always try to do things a little differently than the time before, but without being drastically different. We are who we are and I don’t see us doing something so left turn that people are going, What is that? I just don’t see that. We sound like what we sound like and I’m excited to see where it goes, honestly.” Spencer added that the band has already begun writing songs for the follow-up to last year’s double album, The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell, saying, “I’m digging it, man. It’s actually more brutal, with more extreme dynamics. There are some really mellow parts and then some really brutal parts. So we’re running the whole gamut of sounds.” Guitarist Zoltan Bathory told Pulse of Radio that Five Finger Death Punch is not afraid to take risks with its music sometimes: “We are here to step forward and take as much development in anything we do as it is possible, and that’s the mentality and that’s gonna be in every aspect. We’re gonna kind of push the envelope, maybe go overboard here and there, but, you know, that’s the idea.”
Green Day has revealed that guitarist Jason White is battling tonsil cancer, according to Consequence Of Sound. The band announced the news in a post at its website, but added that the disease was detected fairly early and is treatable, so doctors expect White to make a full and relatively fast recovery. The band wrote, “We have some news to report regarding our brother Jason White, and wanted you to hear it from us before word spread. Jason recently underwent a routine tonsillectomy, and his doctors discovered a treatable form of tonsil cancer. Thankfully they caught it early and he should make a full and speedy recovery.” I wonder if he gets to eat lots of ice cream?
Meanwhile, the ninth Smashing Pumpkins studio effort, Monuments To An Elegy, comes out today and follows up 2012’s Oceania. The disc features founding and sole original member Billy Corgan, guitarist Jeff Schroeder — the only other current “permanent” member of the Pumpkins — and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, who played on all nine of the set’s songs.
Happy Birthday to Tre Cool of Green Day, he’s 42, Weezer’s Brian Bell turns 46, Wallflowers lead man Jakob Dylan, son of Bob Dylan, is 45 today, and John Malkovich, Judi Dench, and Michael Dorn are 61, 80 and 62! Stay warm out there!