AC/DC Singer Brian Johnson Ordered to Stop Touring
AC/DC have been forced to reschedule the 10 upcoming dates on the U.S. leg of their “Rock or Bust” World Tour. AC/DC’s lead singer, Brian Johnson, 68, has been advised by doctors to stop touring immediately or risk total hearing loss.
The band have called off the remaining 10 US dates of their Rock Or Bust world tour saying they will be made up later in the year, likely with a guest vocalist. AC/DC’s website says that information regarding these rescheduled shows is to come. Current ticket holders can hold on to their tickets for the rescheduled dates or receive a refund at point of purchase.
If a guest vocalist fronts the rescheduled shows, guitarist Angus Young will be the only original band member on stage. Is it just us…or does this whole story sound a little weird?? What’s not being said here?
AC/DC’s Brian Johnson Says Hearing Loss Caused By Race-Car Driving
AC/DC reported that they are shutting down their touring for a period to avoid singer Brian Johnson suffering total hearing loss. In a 2014 interview with radio host Howard Stern, Johnson said his hearing issues were not caused by years of rocking stadiums with high energy rock and cannon blasts.
“I didn’t get it from music. I got it from sitting in a race car too long without earplugs,” explained Johnson. “I heard me eardrum burst, because I forgot to put me plugs in under my helmet. That’s how it happened. Music had nothing to do with it.”
He elaborated about the incident, revealing that he felt dizzy after it happened and that blood was emerging from under his helmet. The vocalist went on to say that he could actually hear very little out of one ear, likening it to tinnitus. When asked about the ringing, he told Stern, “Ah, you know, you forget about it after a week.”
Stern asked the rocker if the use of cannons as stage props had affected his hearing and he initially stated, “Well, I’ve obviously had some hearing loss, but that [the cannons] didn’t help.”
Original AC/DC Singer Dave Evans Is Ready To Help Out and Return To The Band
Dave Evans has told The Sydney Morning Herald that his fans would want him step in for the band’s current frontman Brian Johnson. “When I perform around the world the fans love my music and my performances and I hear what they tell me,” Evans said. “That’s what they all tell me. They’re pretty appreciative of my vocals and performances.” And we add, his humility! DOH!
Fans Petition AC/DC To NOT Continue On Tour Without Brian Johnson
Despite what Dave Evans thinks, an AC/DC fan is circulating a Change.org petition asking AC/DC to not continue their tour with a guest vocalist replacing Brian Johnson, who has been ordered by his doctors to quit the tour or face “total hearing loss”.
The petition reads:
As many already know Brian Johnson who has been the frontman of AC/DC for the past 36 years has been advised by doctors to stop touring immediately due to hearing loss. AC/DC has since made a statement that they will continue the remaining tour dates with a guest vocalist. Most fans do not agree with this decision and feel they should retire with dignity and respect to their lineup. Angus Young is their only original member left at this point and they are becoming more of a tribute act. Please sign and help convince the band to call it a day and not tarnish the AC/DC legacy.
Do you agree? Check out the petition, here.
Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson invested £250,000 in world’s largest aircraft
Bruce seems to have invested some of his ginormous profits from his Maiden gigs into yet another ginormous aircraft. As if Maiden’s “Ed Force One” 757 isn’t big enough, the Iron Maiden frontman announced that he was investing £250,000 in the manufacture of the world’s largest aircraft in Bedford, England – the Airlander 10 – which stands at 302-feet long and can stay airborne for up to three weeks.
Dickinson tells the New Yorker: “You want to put a hospital into Africa? You put the whole hospital in the inside of this – whoosh. Start the generator. ‘Here’s your hospital, buddy!’ Job done. You can just plunk the vehicle straight down on the farm, load it with 50 tons of green beans or whatever, and 24-hours later you land right next door to the processing plant. It’s a global conveyor belt.”
“With these vehicles, you could drop off a 20-ton slab of water that is clean, drinkable, to an African village. It’s astonishing what you can do that you just can’t do with anything else. Shit, you can do that with it? Wow, you can do that with it? Seriously fantastic.”
Sharon Osbourne Shares Nude Photo in Support of Kim Kardashian
“Inspired” by the NSFW Kim Kardashian selfie that is making the rounds on the Internet this week, Sharon Osbourne posted a nude photo on her own Twitter with the same censor bars Kardashian used in her viral pic.
KISS’ Gene Simmons wife, Shannon Tweed Simmons, tweeted her support:
But what about Ozzy? As of press time, so far Ozzy hasn’t weighed in on his twitter account. Okay then. Is it just us or are the black bars used for Sharon A LOT bigger than Kim’s??
Mötley Crüe’s Vintage Memorabilia on Auction
A large collection of vintage Mötley Crüe items are now available from rock memorabilia auctioneers EliteWorks on eBay.com.
The latest group of 43 auctions end this Sunday, March 13, just as another round of new Mötley Crüe auctions begin that same day.
This unique collection includes over 200 lots, including autographed items, factory sealed posters, LaserDiscs, the long lost Uncensored documentary, the mega rare official 1985 biography book, tour books, head bands, promo and foreign LPs, 7” and 12” singles, rare US 1980s merchandise including the 1985 birthday cards, hats, jewelry and the mega-rare metal pencil case from Theatre Of Pain, unused 1987 balloons from the Girls, Girls, Girls tour, rare magazine cover stories, scrapbooks, vintage paperwork and much more.
Dee Snider Doesn’t Feel Twisted Sister Has Gotten Its Due
In a new interview, Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider was asked if he feels the band has finally gotten its due and the respect it deserves, more than forty years after its inception. He responded: “I’ve often taken personal responsibility for wherever I went in my head, making the wrong decisions. All of the right decisions that I made to get us there, I started to make wrong decisions to crash and burn too early. And the band is dismissed as being a flash in the pan, one-hit wonders — actually, two hits. That’s troublesome.
“The thing that bothers me more than anything is that Twisted Sister is one of the best live bands. We really didn’t tour in the scheme of things on an international scale for that long of a time. There was a couple of years where we were out there in the thick of things. A few years, but we aren’t known as that and it’s a shock to people when we do these festivals and we annihilate everybody. And we do and people are going, ‘Holy shit! I didn’t know!’ So, it’s still one of the best-kept secrets.”
“You go look online at Heavy Montreal Festival [August 2014], it was like, holy shit! Twisted Sister, a bunch of old men, came up there and just melted every fucking bit and destroyed every band, and nobody saw it coming. So, that’s frustrating to me and so no, I don’t feel like really the band has gotten its due.”
Dave Mustaine Thinks Millennials Are Pissed Right Now Because They’ve Got No Future
In a brand new interview with Paste magazine, Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine was asked how much has changed since he was in his 20s. “Millennials are pissed right now because they’ve got no future. I’m hearing that there’s even a name for kids called the ‘Throwaway Generation.’ What the hell is that? I was just thinking about a lyric Sting had where he says, ‘The Russians love their children, too,’ and I was thinking about how poignant it would be to do that and say something about who our current political or foreign adversaries are, because that’s such a brilliant lyric. If you really love your kids, you’re not gonna push the button because the balance of something like the nuclear armament is mutually assured destruction. At some point, you just have to ask yourself, ‘How much of this is fiction and how much of it is reality?’”
Glenn Hughes Still Hoping To Perform With Deep Purple At Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction
Former Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes still hopes to be able to perform when the group is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 8 in Brooklyn, NY.
“All I know is I’m getting the award,” Glenn Hughes, who played with the band for three studio albums between 1973-76, tells Billboard. “There’s a lot of gossip and innuendo about who’s saying what. I’d love to play. I’d love to sing. And so would David,” referring to David Coverdale, who was part of Deep Purple’s third and fourth iteration lineups.
Deep Purple have been eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for more than 20 years now. The complete list of current and former Deep Purple members who are being inducted includes: Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Rod Evans, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Glenn Hughes, Ian Paice and the late Jon Lord.
Ozzy Osbourne Says He Would Record But Doesn’t Want To Tour With Black Sabbath Again
In an interview with Rolling Stone Australia, Black Sabbath legends Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler talked about their final tour. “I don’t want to drag it into the dirt,” Osbourne said. “The best thing that happened to Sabbath the first time was we went our own ways for a while (in 1979). It was good for them and good for me. The decision is final. You could put money on it.”
“Time ain’t on our side. To be honest with you, if the new record wasn’t another Number One, we would have been pissed off, so we just left it on a high note with 13. I’m not saying I’ll never record with Tony or Geezer again. I just don’t want to tour with Black Sabbath after this.”
Geezer said, “It’ll be bittersweet. I’m glad we’re finishing on a high note but sad that it’s the end of what I’ve known for most of my life.”
New Releases
Rainbow to Release “Monsters of Rock – Live at Donington 1980” DVD/CD Combo
On April 22, Rainbow will release Monsters of Rock — Live at Donington 1980, a DVD and CD combo pack from their August 16, 1980 set.
This was recorded at the inaugural Monsters of Rock Festival, held at Castle Donington, England. Rainbow were headliners of a bill that also included Judas Priest and Scorpions. As it turned out, this was the last performance of Rainbow’s Down to Earth lineup that included star guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, his former Deep Purple band mate Roger Glover on bass, rock veterans Cozy Powell (drums) and Don Airey (keyboards) and the relatively obscure Graham Bonnet, who took over on vocals after Ronnie James Dio left to join Black Sabbath.
Rainbow Legend Joe Lynn Turner Releasing Vintage “Street Of Dreams – Boston 1985 Live” Album
Cleopatra Records is issuing the vintage unreleased live album this week. Says Joe about the concert recording, “That night at the Boston Paradise, it was outstanding. I can remember seeing the audience and I remember there was an awkward pillar – I guess it was a support column in front – not directly in front, but enough to block some of the view. But the stage was an actual concert stage. Aerosmith and all those guys used to always play there, the Paradise.
“So I can remember actually going on and playing the set, how it felt because it was absolutely exhilarating, and the audience was just crazy.”
On Tour
Sebastian Bach Announces Spring Tour Featuring Intimate Acoustic Set
Sebastian Bach plans to do something more personal as part of an upcoming U.S. tour this spring.
“We have been touring a lot in the last few years, so it’s time to do something different,” the former Skid Row singer said announcing the new shows. “You’re going to get two sets for the price of one. We’re going to open up the show with some stripped-down tunes, reset the stage and then come back with the big guns.”
The new tour, called An Evening With Sebastian Bach, begins April 27 and continues into June. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10AM. VIP packages are available on Bach’s website. You can see the complete list of tour dates, here.
Bad Company and Joe Walsh Announce ‘One Hell of a Night’ Tour
Confirming recent rumors, Bad Company and Joe Walsh have announced plans to embark on a 25-date co-headlinining tour this summer.
The “One Hell of a Night” tour begins May 12 In Dallas, and has the acts rotating the headlining slot. Walsh joked that he told Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers, “If it’s a long bus ride, I go first!”
“I had always hoped that we would do something together, and so here we are 30 years later finally touring together, said Rodgers, who referred to Walsh as “a unique person and an uber-talented singer, songwriter and musician” and quipped, “It has taken us this long so I wouldn’t miss this. Unless you want to wait 30 more years for our next tour in 2046.”
Slayer, Queensrÿche, and more added to Summer Breeze Festival 2016
The 2016 edition of the Summer Breeze Festival will take place in Dinkelsbuhl, Germany, August 17 – 20. A new slew of bands have confirmed for the event, including headliners Slayer, Queensrÿche, Conan, Grail Knight, and Bombus. The full list of confirmed bands is here.
MetalHeads Say The Damnedest Things
“In a very, very small way, metal bands like us [Anthrax], Iron Maiden, Slayer — bands that have been doing it for so long — AC/DC… and have built and maintained an audience, you can say, in a lot of ways, on a much smaller level, we have the same thing; we have our fans who will go out and buy our records. Granted, we don’t have twenty million of ’em. But our fans are very loyal and very strong, and they want that physical product, and I think that’s great. And that’s why I would say, I wish, if there was that option to have the Internet go away, I just think the experience for everybody, when it comes to music, would be that much better, because the Internet has devalued music to where people think you can just have it for free, and it shouldn’t be that way.
If I had the option to make all of the Internet go away — like, let’s say if I could go like that [snaps fingers], and it’s like it never existed and we never knew we had it — I would choose that, because it’d be much better for the music business.”
~ Scott Ian, guitarist and last remaining original founding member of Anthrax