Mötley Crüe Manager Allen Kovac Compares Band’s Farewell to Led Zeppelin
Speaking with the LA Times, Mötley Crüe’s longtime manager Allen Kovac sees Led Zeppelin comparisons in how Mötley Crüe is handling their final tour.
“No one has left more money on the table than Zeppelin, and yet they have one of the highest-selling catalogs and merchandising lines in the world because they didn’t go out and diminish the brand like so many bands have,” Kovac says. “Mötley Crüe recognized that part of the puzzle.”
The most business-minded band member, and Mötley Crüe’s primary songwriter and lyricist, Nikki Sixx, 56, comments on why they are committed to making this their final tour: “Let’s be real: Rock and roll is not meant to age,” Sixx says. “We’ve worn our welcome out a few times, and we’re still here. We’re in tatters and covered in tattoos, but somehow we survived our own insanity. Eventually, though, the wheels are going to fall off the fire truck, and then no one is going to want it.”
Read the entire story at the L.A. Times.
Great White’s Jack Russell Performing in New England for First Time Since Tragedy
Jack Russell will finally return to New England to play at the Party in the Pasture Rock Fest in Mechanics Falls, Maine on August 15. It will be his first show there since the Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island that claimed the lives of 100 people, including the band’s guitarist. He says he remains emotional about the 2003 tragedy, which took place when onstage pyrotechnics ignited soundproofing foam on the ceiling of the club in West Warwick, R.I.
“There’s people that are still devastated — I’m one of them,” Russell told Vanyaland. “I’ve got a lot of friends I can’t just pick up the phone and call, and their numbers are still in my phone. And I don’t want to erase them. I still cry, you know? Like 10 times a month, just bawling. I miss my friends, you know?”
Russell’s Great White is one of two versions of the band currently on the road.
Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson Makes Emergency Landing In Private Plane
Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson was recently forced to make an emergency landing in the UK when his historic Fokker Triplane plane ran low on fuel.
“We applaud Bruce Dickinson’s decision to divert to RAF Halton rather than press to his destination with potentially low fuel,” squadron leader Gary Coleman told the Bucks Herald. “To see such a well-regarded pilot, and world-renowned rock singer, make this decision is great for our student pilots to see. It makes them realize that anyone can find themselves low on fuel due to unforeseen circumstances and that the right decision is to divert.”
Phil Rudd vows: “I’m the man” for AC/DC and “I’m going to be back”
AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd has opened up about the mess he’s made of his career – and vowed to get it back on track.
Rudd, who’s appealing his sentence of home detention after admitting to charges of threatening to kill an employee and having drugs in his home, told New Zealand’s 3TV that he didn’t expect an angry confrontation with an employee after the launch party for his solo album Head Job to be taken so seriously. “I was under a lot of stress. I got pissed,” he recalls. “I expected to get on a plane and get straight back to work. I’m getting help from the country’s most prominent psychologist. I’m getting psychiatric help, medical help. I was suffering from anxiety, a lot of insecurity, depression and stuff.”
Asked if it’s true he was using meth around the time of his arrest, he replies: “I’ve never had a drug test. You can’t prove it. I might have just been in a bad f***ing mood.”
As for AC/DC’s continuation on tour with drummer Chris Slade, Rudd said, “Slade! He’s a good drummer, mate. Chris Slade’s a good drummer but I’ve got no idea what he’s doing up there,” says Rudd. “I’m going to be back. I’ve never been fitter; I’ve never felt better; I’ve never been psychologically or physically in better shape my whole life, and I love playing. I’ve realized who I am and what I can do and I just want a chance to go out there and show everyone who the man is … I’m the man.”
Former Queensrÿche Singer Geoff Tate To Host Operation: Mindcrime Intimate Video Release Party
Former Queensrÿche vocalist Geoff Tate will host an intimate video release party at Hilliard’s Brewery in Seattle, WA on August 19, with his new band Operation: Mindcrime.
During the video release party, Geoff and other members of Operation: Mindcrime will be performing a few acoustic songs from the new album along with a few favorites from Geoff’s past as the original lead singer of Queensrÿche. Also, the first two videos from Operation: Mindcrime’s forthcoming concept album, The Key, will be presented, including the new video for “Burn” and the recently released video for “Re-Inventing The Future”. The gathering of friends, fans and family is free and open to the public.
The debut album from Operation: Mindcrime, entitled The Key, will be released on September 18th.
Former Megadeth Guitarist Would Rather Chew Glass Than Listen to Jimi Hendrix
Marty Friedman, who played guitar in Megadeth throughout the ’90s, said he would rather “chew glass” than listen to Jimi Hendrix.
“I never got Hendrix,” Friedman admitted in an interview with Ultimate Guitar.
“When I think of Hendrix, an image comes in my mind about a lot of hippies rolling around in mud tripping on acid, and it just doesn’t turn me on at all. And all that noise and feedback, and I’m like, ‘Play in tune.’ I’m a big tuning guy, and that’s probably why I don’t like [Bob] Dylan, because things go out of tune and it kills me.”
Friedman joined Megadeth in 1990 and first played on their Rust in Peace album. He left the band in 1999, citing a growing distaste for the group’s more commercial direction at the time. Friedman has been living in Japan since 2003, where he enjoys a career as a TV host.
He’ll be launching his first U.S. tour in more than a decade on September 9, to promote of his first solo album also in more than ten years, Inferno. He’ll have to answer a few questions from fans about his Hendrix comment, which he’s already addressed on his Facebook page.
Curmudgeon much?
Odds N’ Sods
Iron Maiden will debut their single “Speed Of Light” from the upcoming album The Book Of Souls Friday, August 14 at 8 AM.
Check out a teaser for the track, below:
Bon Jovi have released a lyric video for “A Teardrop to the Sea,” which comes from their upcoming album, Burning Bridges, out next week.
This is the third lyric video – following “Saturday Night Gave Me Sunday Morning,” “We Don’t Run” and “Blind Love” – released from Burning Bridges, Bon Jovi’s first project since splitting with Richie Sambora. Catch the video here.
Yes’ third annual Cruise to the Edge in November will see an all-star tribute to founding bassist and sole constant member Chris Squire, who passed away in June after a bout with acute erythroid leukemia.
Mike Portnoy, the former drummer for Dream Theater and current Twisted Sister drummer, will serve as the “official music director” for the concert, which will see Squire’s friends provide what they’re calling a “musical farewell.” In addition to Portnoy, the Neal Morse Band and Haken were added to the lineup, which includes Marillion, Martin Barre of Jethro Tull, Caravan and Allan Holdsworth.
Is Ozzy Osbourne going to have a star turn in the upcoming all-female Ghostbusters reboot as a heavy-metal frontman?
The rumor mill is buzzing after the film’s director, Paul Feig, shot a concert scene at Boston’s Citi Wang Theatre with mock-up posters featuring Osbourne. The Boston Herald also reports that crew members outside the venue mentioned the Black Sabbath frontman. Posters around the Citi Wang Theatre, which was renamed Stonebrook Theatre for the shoot, apparently advertised “Rock Revenge Fest Featuring Ozzy Osbourne” and promised a “12-hour marathon of metal.”
Megadeth‘s Dave Mustaine indulged his racing passion by getting to drive the pace car at the 2015 Sprint Cup Cheez-It 355.
The rocker has been tweeting about his involvement with the race at the historic Watkins Glen International raceway at Watkins Glen, N.Y., for a good portion of last week. His latest post indicates that his “need for speed” may next take to the air!
A new perk has been added to Anvil’s PledgeMusic campaign as Anvil drummer Robb Reiner is offering up one of his original oil paintings for sale, titled “Steve’s Restaurant,” for a mere $122,000.
Ummm, don’t quit your day job, Robb!
This is the first time that Canadian rockers Anvil have used a crowd-funding approach to create an next album. They are currently at 39% of their desired goal, with 40 days remaining.
Rikki Rockett, in an interview with Sleaze Roxx this week said, “We [Devil City Angels – his band with Poison bandmates Bobby Dall and C.C DeVille and singer Brandon Gibbs], got offered some shows that Bret [Michaels] either really wasn’t interested in doing or if he had shows of his own scheduled – I can’t recall exactly. In any event, Bobby and I looked at each other and said ‘Why don’t we just get Brandon to do them?’”
“If we’re going to continue with Poison, we have to look at other ways that we can do this. Brandon isn’t a bad choice. It’s all I can say.”
As for a possible Poison album with Gibbs, Rockett says: “Oh absolutely! I know that with Brandon we could do a great job. It’s not like I’ve written Bret off but I don’t think he’s got a lot of desire to work with us. That’s just my feeling at this time.”
What if Metallica frontman James Hetfield was an overweight feline who lived with a man who looked a lot like drummer Lars Ulrich?
That’s the premise of the comic strip Hetfield, which uses the long-running Garfield strip as the basis for a series of gags that mash up Metallica lyrics with jokes about hating Mondays and loving lasagna. The band’s fans should get a kick out of just how little Garfield‘s iconic cartoon characters needed to change in order to accommodate the parody.
Hetfield is the work of musician and graphic artist Jimmy Two Hands, whose previous work includes another comic/rock hybrid, Danziggy, which puts goth metal icon Glenn Danzig inside the classic Ziggy strip in order to present the travails of “a punk/metal star struggling against the banal perils of modern life.”
A new photography book, “Headbangers”, due out September 29, captures metal fans in full-on headbanging action. The 128-page book by Danish photographer Jacob Ehrbahn, captures portraits of fans taken at European metal festivals in 2012 including Denmark’s Copenhell, Germany’s Wacken Open Air and Sweden’s Metaltown. Check out some of the photos at Ehrbahn’s website.
Metal Videos O’ The Week
Previously unseen Alice in Chains and Layne Staley video from the 1980s surfaced this week, thanks to the power of YouTube and a few enterprising fans who realized what they had in their old home movie archives.
The first is a full Alice In Chains performance from 1989, filmed at the Washington State University CUB Ballroom in Pullman, a full eight months before they released their debut album, Facelift, on Columbia Records.
The second is video of a teenage Layne Staley rocking out with his band Sleze as a high schooler in the ’80s.