Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx and ex-Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach were in a war of words this week after Sebastian’s recent tweet that he was asked to join the Crue around the time when singer Vince Neil was booted in 1992. Sixx denied it, saying that Bas’s admission was “Absolutely not true..”
Nikki added, “I don’t know where Sebastian got this. I think maybe Sebastian wanted to be in Motley Crue and just forgot to tell us that he wanted to be in Motley Crue when we were looking for a singer. Which I don’t think we would have taken him anyway, just because of our [friendship with] Skid Row.” Sebastian fired back on his Facebook page posting, “Well, it’s not every day you wake up to one of your childhood heroes calling you a liar. Either that, or Nikki Sixx’s memory needs some serious ‘refreshing’” (see Sebastian’s long post dated September 12). Sebastian added, “The fact of the matter is I was not only asked to join Motley Crue… I actually REHEARSED with the band Motley Crue. I was driven to rehearsal by [Crue drummer] Tommy Lee, and I spent a full day singing the Motley Crue set with the band Motley Crue. In front of their whole road crew…I remember the songs that Nikki asked me to sing that day. I remember the whole road crew’s ecstatic reaction to us jamming together all day. And I remember Nikki’s very generous, kind offer, at the end of our rehearsal, for me to join the band Motley Crue…I am not simply ‘making this up’…I am not a liar. I am working on my book right now and I look forward to you all reading it. I plan on my book having even more information in it than one of my tweets does.”
Said Nikki in a Tweet after Sebastian posted the above, “Someone needs attention to try and sell some books.” He added, “I always liked the term ‘washed up.’” The next day, Sebastian posted a link (forward to 3:50) on his FB page to a 1994 interview with Nikki and said, “Here is a fascinating interview with @nikkisixx where he describes the band Motley rehearsing with Sebastian Bach. Enjoy!” Added Sebastian, “ABSOLUTLEY TRUE. @nikkisixx tells it like it is! Sebastian Bach Book on Book Shelves Soon… #ForTheWin #NoBullshit #Oops #YouCantMakeThisStuffUp #IAintMadAtYa #NotLying #ItsOK #SomeoneOwesSomeoneAnApology #ThanksForTheHype #IRememberYou”
Guitarist George Lynch (Lynch Mob, ex-Dokken), Korn drummer Ray Luzier and King’s X bassist/frontman Doug Pinnick have joined forces to form a new band called KXM (here’s a look at how the band got together). “I wanted to always do this–play with guys that have compelling ideas,” says Lynch. “It’s better when we all contribute and then we have this interesting chemistry which is different than what I normally do. That’s why this record, when I listen to it, is so special to me.” KXM plans to release its debut sometime next year.
Alice Cooper and LED guitar learning system Fretlight Guitar have teamed up to launch Quitters Anonymous, an online community for “tried but quit” guitar players. Eighty percent of people who start to play the guitar give up within 90 days. Fretlight and Alice Cooper want to reverse the trend, making it possible for anyone to learn to play the guitar, even if someone has tried and quit in the past.
Alice takes center stage in a satirical video playing a therapist helping recovering guitar quitters face their fears and embrace the guitar. “The first step to overcoming quitting is admitting you have a problem,” deadpans Alice. “You aren’t alone. Millions of us have struggled to learn to play guitar, clumsily looking back and forth between chord and scale books, our fingers and the neck of the guitar. It can become a house of horrors.”
Check out the teaser trailer for Black Sabbath’s upcoming DVD, Live… Gathered In Their Masses, due out on November 26. The DVD will feature footage of Sabbath’s April 29 & May 1 performances in Melbourne, Australia, on its recent tour in support of their latest, 13.
Sabbath has wrapped up its North American tour…and guitarist Tony Iommi admits he had to go right back to the hospital for more cancer treatments (he was diagnosed with lymphoma early last year). “Well, we’ve finished the U.S. leg of our world tour,” wrote Tony on his website. “It was a bit longer than I would have liked as I’ve already been in hospital having another infusion. The tour was amazing though, you always hope it’s going to go well but you never know, it’s great to look out and see so many people of all ages.”
Tony talked about what his infusions entail with Birmingham Mail earlier this year: “I have to have an antibody administered by drip every six weeks or so to keep the lymphoma in check. It sort of coats the cancer cells, stops it from going anywhere else. I have to come back home no matter where I might be in the world…The tour dates are arranged so that I can always get back for treatment. It’s the only way I can manage my illness and keep on the road. I’d love to play more shows . . . but my health has to be sorted out first.”
DigitalTourBus.com did a segment with Megadeth, climbing on the band’s tour bus for a look behind the scenes. Says drummer Shawn Drover in the video, “We’re probably the cleanest band in the history of heavy metal; I’ll go on record as saying that. We’re a well-kept band. We don’t make a big mess. It’s like having six people in your bedroom making a huge mess. After a while, it would accumulate and stink, and it probably wouldn’t be real cool.” See the entire piece here.
The “citizen blog” Dorset Eye has published an article titled “Bruce Dickinson: Rock ‘n’ ‘Roll Warmonger”, coming down on the Iron Maiden singer for his alleged “acceptance from the U.S. military of a contract to manufacture ‘lighter-than-air’ drones.” A spokesperson for Iron Maiden was quick to refute the “spurious” allegation, telling NME.com, “This is a totally inaccurate and malicious piece of writing that seems to have stemmed from an unfortunate mistake in terminology on a South African website that the writer of said blog has since used as a starting point and catalyst to go off on a flight of sheer fantasy.
Both Bruce Dickinson and Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood were early investors in, and remain great supporters of, Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a company that has nothing whatsoever to do with drones, ‘lighter than air’ or otherwise! As with many far-sighted technological advances, early adopters and financial supporters tend to be military-based as they have the resources to invest and develop, be that everything from space-travel to medicine. Possible military use of HAVs in future could be for heavy-lifting, transportation or high altitude detection of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), or similar, thus saving lives, both military and civilian. Rather than being involved in attacks in the Third World, as this writer has claimed in such an erroneously dramatic and defamatory manner, HAVs are designed to offer much needed assistance to civilians, businesses and governments that would be unavailable otherwise, due to the unique nature of these incredible vehicles.”
Here’s your first look at the cover art for Motorhead’s upcoming studio album, Aftershock, due out on October 22.
Classic Rock Revisited recently asked guitar maestro Yngwie Malmsteen if piracy might be beneficial to bands just getting their start. “How could it possibly be positive?” fired back Yngwie. “If you go into a store and you see a car that you like, you can’t just drive off with it. The cost and the blood and sweat and tears that go into making music is the same thing, it’s not free. Try telling the engineer and the producer that they have to work for free. It’s utterly bizarre. It’s like just going into a store and taking things off the shelves. It’s stealing.
The reason there are no bands coming out now is that the money that was once there is not there anymore. So what happened was, in essence, by pirating music, you kill the music industry. The music industry died because of the piracy, and now all the fans will have no new music. Isn’t that wonderful? It’s a direct consequence of that.”