sting win 4-1

The reunion was dealt it’s first blow when guitarist Tony Iommi was diagnosed with cancer but he has vowed to carry on.  Now the reunion is facing another problem with drummer Bill Ward threatening to pull out unless he is given a “signable” contract.
Ward took to his official website to issue a statement about where things are at for him. He wrote: Dear Sabbath Fans, Fellow Musicians and Interested Parties, At this time, I would love nothing more than to be able to proceed with the Black Sabbath album and tour. However, I am unable to continue unless a “signable” contract is drawn up; a contract that reflects some dignity and respect toward me as an original member of the band.

To mark today’s launch of Las Vegas’ first hard rock residency, “Motley Crue In Sin City,” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman has proclaimed today Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 as “Motley Crue” Day.  The Motley Crue In Sin City residency will run from February 3 through 19–at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.  The band will perform four shows a week. Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day and President’s Day fall within these dates.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have been added to the list of performers appearing on the 2012 Grammy telecast.  Springsteen will join other scheduled performers at the Staples Center (airing February 12 on CBS), including Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, Adele, Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry.  The show also will feature special collaborations between Coldplay and Rihanna.

Nirvana drummer/Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl is about to add sitcom co-creator to his resume.  Dave will executive produce a new series for the FX cable network, according to Deadline.  Comedian Dana Gould (a former writer on The Simpsons) is working with Grohl on the comedy show, which will focus on a superstar band that, as a final attempt to stay together, go into therapy together. Gould will write and star in the series.  Gould is a fan of Grohl’s music and approached him about collaborating on the project. Of course, Grohl has made his views on band therapy well-known: “I believe one of the reasons we’ve managed to stay together [is] because we just don’t tell each other everything,” he once told the NME.

Slash tells fans that he will complete the recording of his second solo album next week.  Slash and his touring band – Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge), rhythm guitarist Bobby Schneck, bassist Todd Kerns (Sin City Sinners, formerly of Age Of Electric), and drummer Brent Fitz (formerly of Theory Of A Deadman) – have been holed up at Barefoot Studios in LA with producer Eric Valentine getting the project together.  There’s now light at the end of the tunnel, according to Slash. “[It] looks like we’ll be finished recording next week. Then mixing begins. It’s all going on,” he posted.  Naturally, there will be a tour, with Slash confirming that he’ll be one of the headliners at the Download Festival in June.

Supertramp’s Roger Hodgson is hitting the road later this month for his Breakfast in America Tour.  The tour will be kicking off with two sold out shows at the Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, CA on February 24 and 25.  Hodgson and his band will perform Supertramp classics on the tour like “Breakfast in America,” “The Logical Song,” “Dreamer,” “Give a Little Bit,” “Take the Long Way Home,” and “School.”

Dave Grohl hasn’t volunteered much information about his upcoming documentary involving the studio where ‘Nevermind’ was recorded –the now closed Sound City Studios. The one thing Dave has hinted at is that we can “expect some epic jam sessions.” Those “epic jam sessions” will presumably involve the artists he has recently been working with — members of Ratt, Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon and — the most recently revealed co-conspirator — Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor.  Most of the information we have on the upcoming documentary has come from the other parties involved with the project, not Grohl. The most detailed description to date came from Corey Taylor’s recent conversation with Artisan News: “[Dave is] doing a documentary about the legendary board from Sound City that everybody and their mom recorded on — everybody from [Nirvana's] ‘Nevermind’ to, actually, [Slipknot's] ‘Iowa’,” Corey said.

Van Halen warmed up for their world tour with a secret show in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.  The event – at Henson Studios – was in front of 250 media types as the group replicated the east coast Café Wha? show in New York last month.  The setlist was a mix of VH classics and some tracks from the new album, “A Different Kind Of Truth,” in stores next Tuesday, February 7.

Rock On The Range 2012 lineup will be led by Incubus, Rob Zombie, Shinedown, Marilyn Manson, Five Finger Death Punch, Slash, Megadeth, Chevelle, Cypress Hill and Mastodon.  This year’s installment of the annual music festival will be held May 18-20 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, OH  The current lineup for Rock On The Range 2012 also includes: Theory of a Deadman, Volbeat, Down, The Darkness, Halestorm, Escape The Fate, P.O.D., Lacuna Coil, Adelitas Way, Black Stone Cherry, Cavo, Attack Attack!, Trivium, Bobaflex, Falling In Reverse, Redlight King, Aranda, Emphatic, Otherwise, James Durbin, Black Tide, Kyng, 12 Stones, SOiL, Rival Sons, Eve To Adam, and Ghosts of August.

Former Mountain guitarist Leslie West made an emotional return to the stage for his first public performance since his lower right leg was amputated as a result of complications from diabetes.  Ultimate Classic Rock reports that West heroically rolled onto the stage of New York’s BB King Blues Club Tuesday night (Jan. 31)  West, who performed while sitting in a wheelchair, opened the show with ‘People Get Ready’ — but was forced to pause halfway through after being overwhelmed with emotion, as the crowd responded with a standing ovation.

Big news for fans of Ronnie James Dio. The first three seminal Dio albums, Holy Diver, Last in Line, and Sacred Heart are getting the deluxe reissue treatment.  That’s the good news, the bad news is North American fans apparently will have to order the reissues as imports as these deluxe reissues are coming from Universal, not Warner Bros Records who hold the rights in North America, according the leading Black Sabbath fansite  Black-Sabbath.com.   The site posted the official announcement with all the details, the tracklisting, plus some additional notes of their own. Of note in the announcement: As well as the original CD being re-mastered, these reissues each feature a bonus CD containing an expanded booklet with notes from Malcolm Dome and has been endorsed by Ronnie’s widow Wendy Dio.

Catch Big Red’s Retro Rock, Sunday mornings from 8am-noon, and join/“like” our Facebook Page:

Big Red’s Retro Rock with Jeff Teolis on K106.3

twitter: @jeffteolis

A Different Kind of Truth, released next week, marks Van Halen’s first release since 1998 and the first with founding member Roth since 1984.  Roth tells the LA Times: “It’s material that Eddie and I generated in 1975, 1976 and 1977. Usually fellas in our weight division will kind of gamely – or ironically, wink-wink – try to hail back to it, but keep a safe, mature distance from it.”  The band’s reasoning, says the singer, is they know they’re not the men they used to be. “Are there second chances?” he asks. “I’m tending to ‘no.’ We’ve managed to stretch our adolescence like a chiclet to the moon, and maintained the respectful dignities along the way that got us on that turnpike up in the first place.”

The Cult are giving fans an early taste of their new album by offering a free download of the new track “Lucifer”.  The Cult has wrapped up recording their first studio album in five years, Choice of Weapon. The album is set for a May 22, 2012 U.S. release on the band’s new label Cooking Vinyl. The free song download is available http://www.thecult.us/

After revealing that he has plans for not one, but two collaborations with Crazy Horse, Neil Young has posted the first sounds of their new work together. The rock legend unveiled a 37-minute track, now streaming on his official website.  The recording is titled “Horse Back” and was recorded on January 6 at Audio Casa Blanca studios, according to NME. In the video that accompanies the recording, fans have spotted various lyrics sheets, including ones marked “Gallows Pole,” “Clementine,” “This Land,” “Oh Susanna!,” “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” and “Gotta Travel On (Done Laid Around).”  Could Young and Crazy Horse be planning some sort of campfire, folk song, sing-along record – with extreme distortion? Only time will tell.

The Darkness kick off their North American tour today (February 1st) and will debut their first new song in six years.  The song and video for “Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us,” will be available on the band’s official site www.theactualdarkness.com.  Fans have waited patiently since The Darkness last released material in 2006, and “Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us” will be available for free as a “Thank you” for all who’ve supported the band with sold-out tours on both sides of the Atlantic.

Catch Big Red’s Retro Rock, Sunday mornings from 8am-noon, and join/“like” our Facebook Page:

Big Red’s Retro Rock with Jeff Teolis on K106.3

twitter: @jeffteolis

The solo was discovered by Harrison’s son Dhani, Beatles’ producer George Martin and his son Giles during a visit to Abbey Road Studios, according to NME.  The solo track was discovered while the three were listening to the Abbey Road classic when a chance move of a fader on the mixing board uncovered the lost guitar solo.

Although Velvet Revolver fans still are buzzing from the band’s reunion with vocalist Scott Weiland for a performance on January 12, the band’s drummer Matt Sorum says there has been no talk yet of the singer returning to the band full-time.  Sorum said Slash was booked for the next year to support his upcoming solo album, and that a reunion with Weiland hasn’t yet been discussed. The concert was organized to raise funds to support the family of late award-winning composer John O’Brien. “Everyone had a good time and we raised some money for a really sad situation,” Sorum said. “John O’Brien passed away and left a pregnant wife and another child. And a lot of people turned out for the show… Amazing turnout.”

Seether recently held a contest asking musicians to remix the hit single ‘Tonight’ from their recent studio album ‘Holding On To Strings Better Left To Fray’ and were so impressed with the results they will be releasing an entire EP of fan-submitted remixes of their tunes.  Seether has announced that they will be releasing an EP — featuring ‘Holding On To Strings…’ songs culled from their remix contest hosted by IndabaMusic.com — on February 7th.  The band is currently preparing for some overseas gigs ahead of their North American tour with Nickelback, Bush, and My Darkest Days which kicks off in April.

The Cult return this spring with “Choice Of Weapon,” their first full-length album in 5 years on May 22. Co-produced by Chris Goss (Queens of the Stone Age, U.N.K.L.E.) and longtime collaborator Bob Rock (Metallica, Aerosmith), “Choice of Weapon” was made in several studios, including the band’s own Witch Mountain as well as spots in New York City, Los Angeles and the California desert.

Garbage has set the release date for their first new album in seven years and they have announced the initial tour dates in support of the effort.  The group’s fifth studio album, Not Your Kind Of People, will be released in the North America on May 15, 2012.

Big news for Staind frontman Aaron Lewis as his solo venture into country music has earned him some big nominations.  Aaron’s debut country single “Country Boy,” has received two Academy Of Country Music nominations.  Lewis was nominated in the “Vocal Event of the Year” category for the song–which features George Jones and Charlie Daniels–as both the artist and co-producer, along with co-producer James Stroud.

“It’s material that Eddie and I generated, literally, in 1975, 1976 and 1977,” Roth tells the Los Angeles Times. “Usually fellas in our weight division will kind of gamely — or ironically, wink, wink — try to hail back to it [but] keep a safe, mature distance from it.”  Instead, Roth said, he and the band have tried to do a sort of collaboration with their past. They can’t be the same people — too much has changed — but Roth said there’s interesting experimentation in the era-spanning synthesis of self.

Aerosmith are putting the finishing touches on their first studio album in 8 years, and preparing to return to the road this summer, says guitarist Joe Perry.  “We’re in the middle of a bunch of stuff,” says Perry. ”I’m out here [Hollywood] finishing up the Aerosmith record that we started last summer. Hopefully we’ll have it done in the next month or so.”  “And we’re definitely touring this summer. We’re gonna put tickets on sale in February or March and we’re going on the road in June. Everybody’s lined up. We’re ready.”

There is some good news for Iron Maiden fans. The band is planning to tour at some point this year. Though the plans are not yet firm.   In a recent interview at the 2012 NAMM convention in Anaheim, Calif., Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain told 96.7 KCAL Rocks that the band has a tour in their sights.  When asked what’s going on with the band, McBrain said, “Well, we’re taking some time off and we’re gonna go back out on tour sometime this year. We’re not sure yet when.” He went on to say that it probably won’t be a world tour this time around, only a “little tour” and a “short run.” “We’re not sure yet when,” reiterated McBrain.

Last year, we were able to ring in “National Metal Day” on 11-11-11. Just a few months later, it’s already time for another music holiday – “Intergalactic Prog Metal Day” or “Rush Day” on 2-1-12, according to BraveWords.  In celebration of Rush, their landmark album 2112 and all of the bands that have been influenced by Rush ever since, various radio stations, music stores and websites have special events planned.  “Rush’s 2112 is probably the first album that can rightfully be called progressive metal, so it’s only appropriate we blast the album from the rooftops, from our cars, from our iPods, from everywhere, to celebrate this landmark album and Rush’s incredible longevity and lasting influence,” said Jeff Wagner, author of Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal.

Catch Big Red’s Retro Rock, Sunday mornings from 8am-noon, and join/“like” our Facebook Page:

Big Red’s Retro Rock with Jeff Teolis on K106.3

twitter: @jeffteolis