We’re saddened to report the death of Survivor frontman Jimi Jamison, who suffered a heart attack at his home in Memphis, TN, on Sunday evening (8/31). He was 63. Although he didn’t sing one of Survivor’s biggest hits, “Eye of the Tiger”, he did co-write and sing the Baywatch theme (“I’m Always Here”) as well as Survivor’s “The Moment of Truth” and “Burning Heart” from 1984’s The Karate Kid and 1985’s Rocky IV, respectively, and the singles “I Can’t Hold Back” and “The Search Is Over.”
He also fronted hard rockers Cobra, and sang backup with bands including Krokus, ZZ Top and more. The family has requested that memorial donations be made to Jimi’s favorite charity, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil has been awarded an Arena Football League expansion team. Neil and his partners have named their brand-new AFL team the Las Vegas Outlaws. Vince and his partners were previously minority owners of established AFL team the Jacksonville Sharks; they are required to divest their ownership stakes in order to go forward with the Outlaws.
“Arena Football and rock and roll are very similar; it’s fast, exciting and great entertainment,” says Vince. “I have been fortunate to achieve my dreams and goals in the music industry… now I am able to pursue my passion and dreams in professional football right here in my own town, Las Vegas.”
What’s next for Aerosmith? Unknown. Guitarist Joe Perry recently told Boston magazine that another full-length studio album probably isn’t happening anytime soon. “I really don’t know what the path is going to be or the one we’ll follow,” he said. “I know that we’ll be on the road at some point again God willing and I’m not sure what we’ll do as far as the studio goes. Who knows? When we go out there and play live, people don’t really want to hear a thing unless they know it. We’ve played a couple of songs off the new record and gotten some polite applause. Before the tour and after the record came out, I tweeted, ‘What song off the new record would you like to hear?’ The first tweet I got back was, ‘It depends on what song you have to take out of the set.’ That really put things in perspective.”
From the “why not Aerosmith?!” department, Led Zeppelin has partnered with British fashion designer Paul Smith for a line of scarves that will hit the shelves (and online) on October 23. Each one will be limited to a run of 50 scarves; three of them will feature reinterpretations of images from Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin III, as well as images from the upcoming reissues of albums Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of Holy and a new design for a sixth scarf. No prices or images yet. PaulSmith.co.uk will be the place to get ‘em.
Matt Starr, drummer for ex-Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley’s solo band, will be taking over as the touring drummer for Mr. Big. Starr picks up the sticks from Pat Torpey, who, due to his recent Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, will not be touring with the band (he did, however, play on Mr. Big’s recent studio album, …The Stories We Could Tell).
Looks like Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee wasn’t too impressed with the crowd’s lackluster reaction during his band’s August 27 concert stop in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Thieves broke into a German recording studio last weekend and made off with instruments, recording equipment and computers which held new recordings by guitar maestro Michael Schenker’s band, Temple of Rock.
Singer Doogie White said, “We’re a bit f*cked and a bit pissed off. The thieves broke in through skylights and stole a bunch of guitars, and also the computers containing the tracks. Then we found they’d also taken the backups. There’s still some confusion over whether we even have rough mixes of the songs. It remains to be seen what, if anything, we have left to listen to and work from.”