Congrats to Todd Vander Velden in Appleton, WI who listens to 105.7 WAPL and is this week’s Shazam contest winner, scoring a House of Hair t-shirt!
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METAL NEWS
AC/DC Announce Rescheduled U.S. Dates With Axl Rose
AC/DC have announced the rescheduled dates for their U.S. tour which will feature Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose on lead vocals for what the band is billing as the final leg of their Rock Or Bust World Tour.
The original dates were postponed after frontman Brian Johnson was warned that he faced hearing loss if he continued to perform live. The rescheduled dates kick off August 27 in Greensboro, NC and conclude September 20 in Philadelphia, PA.
Said Guitarist Angus Young, “This band has got a ton of energy and you’re going to see a fusion of all that terrific chemistry that we have felt ever since rehearsals in Lisbon. I want to get back out there onstage in the U.S. with these guys so our audience can see and feel it too.”
Check out all the tour dates, here.
Angus Young Says Having Axl Rose in AC/DC Means They Can “Mix Up” the Set List
Angus Young believes adding Axl Rose to the AC/DC lineup has allowed the band to take a different approach to their live setlist.
Young and AC/DC bassist Cliff Williams recently spoke with Classic Rock Magazine about Rose’s arrival, and both credited his presence behind the mic with changing the band for the better. “The band energy is really up there,” said Williams. “It’s doing really well. We’ve thrown some different songs in, which is always good. It changes it up for us and the audience, but the band is playing great. It’s a good feeling up there right now.”
Young adds that “…with Axl, we’ve been able to mix up quite a few songs – do a few older ones, put them in – which we haven’t done in a number of years. We used to get a setlist, and that would be us for a tour. So now we’ve got a lot more adding and putting in different tracks, and the fun part is when we get there on the stage, and seeing it come to life.”
Second Annual “Ride for Ronnie” Raises $50,000
After Ronnie James Dio’s death in 2010, the Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund was established with numerous benefits held around the world. The second annual “Ride for Ronnie” was held on May 22, raising $50,00.
A wealth of stars were in attendance, including Lita Ford, cast members of the television series Sons of Anarchy, Gilby Clarke and Wendy Dio.
Iron Maiden’s Ed Force One on Display at International Aerospace Exhibition in Germany
The four-day 2016 International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) at the Berlin ExpoCentre Airport in Schoenefeld, Germany, opened June 1 and visitors will be able to see some 200 aircraft of all sizes and categories, including Iron Maiden’s flying tour bus, “Ed Force One,” both on the ground and in flying displays.
Talking Headbangers
Sebastian Bach Gets Into Twitter War Of Words With William Shatner
Sebastian Bach has engaged in a Twitter war with Star Trek legend William Shatner, at one point threatening to visit the 85-year-old actor at his home so that he can “say it to my face.”
The war of words apparently started after Shatner sent the former Skid Row singer an emoji of a purple devil face in response to a tweet that Bach liked that Shatner took offense to. From there, things quickly went downhill, with Bach calling Shatner a “dickhead” and reportedly posting the actor’s Studio City address, promising him: “I will see you at your home.”
“I will run past your f***ing house every day until the day I die. Deal with me with your phaser cell phone bullsh*t,” Bach wrote in a series of tweets, some of which have since been deleted.
Shatner seemed confused by Bach’s reaction and eventually stopped responding directly to Sebastian’s tweets. “I don’t know what to think of it but hopefully he’s just having a bad day and tomorrow he’ll be fine,” Shatner wrote of the singer.
Check out the entire tweet storm, here.
Ex-Great White Singer Jack Russell Spills All in Upcoming Book
Former Great White and current Jack Russell’s Great White singer Jack Russell was interviewed by rock journalist Mitch Lafon about his upcoming book. Russell said, “I’m just dumping everything in this book. And there might be a couple of lawsuits out of it, I would imagine. I’m gonna have to have my lawyers check it out before I release it. But, I mean, I don’t really think that’s gonna happen. ‘Cause the book is about myself and what I’ve [gone through] and not so much about other people. But there are gonna be spots where somebody might raise an eyebrow and go, ‘Hmmm….’ It’s gonna make some people upset. But it’ll make more people laugh. If you’re the butt of the joke, that’s just the way it goes. [Laughs]”
Check out the interview, here.
Deep Purple Keyboardist Don Airey Says Band Finished Recordings for New Album
Deep Purple have finished recordings for their new album, the band’s keyboardist Don Airey said in a phone interview with TASS ahead of the band’s concerts in Russia.
“As far as I know, it’s all recorded and now… it’s on the tender mercies of Bob Ezrin (producer), he’s going to mix it. I haven’t been given a release date, I know nothing about that as yet. If I knew, I’d tell you but I don’t,” Airey said.
NEW RELEASES
World’s First Kiss Encyclopedia Now Available
The “Encyclopedia Of Kiss: Music, Personnel, Events And Related Subjects” written by pop culture authority Brett Weiss is the world’s first encyclopedia on the self-proclaimed “Hottest Band In The World.”
“Encyclopedia Of Kiss” is a comprehensive reference guide to virtually everything in the Kiss universe, featuring detailed information on the band’s songs, albums, games, toys, tours, television and movie appearances, family members, girlfriends, collectibles, comic books, solo work and much more, including replacement members Eric Carr, Vinnie Vincent, Bruce Kulick, Mark St. John, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer.
You can read the first few pages of the book, here.
Ronnie James Dio – “A Decade Of Dio: 1983-1993” Boxed Set Due In July
Rhino will release two versions of “A Decade Of Dio: 1983-1993,” first on CD and then on vinyl. Both versions come housed in boxes featuring new artwork by Marc Sasso, who was responsible for many of the band’s iconic covers. The CD set will debut on July 22 and the vinyl incarnation of the set will be available on October 4. That package comes with a bonus seven-inch single.
“A Decade Of Dio: 1983-1993” includes the group’s first six studio albums:
• Holy Diver (1983)
• The Last In Line (1984)
• Sacred Heart (1985)
• Dream Evil (1987)
• Lock Up The Wolves (1990)
• Strange Highways (1993)
Whitford/St. Holmes Reunite
Last year, after both Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford and Ted Nugent’s sometimes-singer Derek St. Holmes moved to Nashville, the duo resurrected their Whitford/St. Holmes band, which released a self-titled album during the summer of 1981. Their sophomore album, the aptly titled Reunion, drops on June 3 — check out a premiere of the track “Hot For You” here.
“It’s been an unexpected pleasure,” Whitford tells Billboard with a laugh. “Derek and I ended up practically being neighbors in Tennessee, so we just started doing what we do, just playing, and we started writing a lot of songs and it was very organic and it’s been a lot of fun. We have a real good musical connection, so it’s very easy for us to work and play together, and the songs just came.”
St. Holmes adds that, “I almost forgot how cool our partnership was. It’s been, what — 34, 35 years? But it’s as easy and natural now as it was then. There was absolutely no sitting around thinking, ‘Gosh, what’s cool these days?’ We just wanted to play rock n’ roll, the stuff that we wanted to do when we played with Aerosmith and Ted Nugent.”
Whitford/St. Holmes hits the road opening for Whitesnake this June.
Babymetal Recruit Rob Halford for Awards Show Performance
Babymetal announced they will be joined on stage by Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford at the 2016 Alternative Press Music Awards.
The Japanese group will perform live at the annual event, set to take place on July 18 at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.
In a Twitter post, Babymetal said: “Metal God and Fox God will join in July. Babymetal announces AP Music Awards performance with Rob Halford.”
Babymetal are also confirmed to perform at the Main Stage at DownloadFest UK 2016 on June 10.
Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons to Open New Rock & Brews Location
This fall, Kiss frontmen Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons will open a Rock & Brews restaurant in Chesterfield, Missouri.
“This is more a lifestyle than a restaurant,” Stanley said in an interview. “People who come here pretty much make it their home – their hang out.” In fact, finding a place where Stanley could hang out with his own family helped shape the Rock & Brews concept. “As I got older, I found that to go out with my kids and spend time during the day meant I’d have to eat cardboard mac and cheese with a waiter dressed like a giant rat,” Stanley said. “So the idea (behind Rock & Brews) was in one sense to address a need I had. If you address your own needs, you address the needs of others.”
Stanley described the Rock & Brews menu as high-quality but unpretentious fare – burgers, wings, pizzas, pretzels – that the entire family can enjoy. “Our pretzel dough is flown in from Germany,” he said. “We don’t compromise.”
Metalheads Say The Damnedest Things
“When Donald started running for office, he asked me, he called me. He says, ‘Can I use the song?’ And he’s a buddy. And I said, ‘Yeah. Go ahead.’ But as the months went on, I heard a litany of his beliefs that I’d never discussed with him.
“I finally called him and I said, ‘Man, you’ve gotta stop using the song. People think I’m endorsing you here. I can’t get behind a lot of what you’re saying.’ And that night… He has not used it since. He said, ‘Dee, fair enough.’ He’s a friend. As a friend, he called me. As a friend, I called him, and he stopped using it. I still like him, but, man, I did not know some of the things that he believe in and stood for.”
Dee continued, “The biggest thing about that song is it’s about the right for people to choose for themselves. When it crosses that line, like Paul Ryan a number of years ago, who’s as anti-pro-choice as you can get, I had to step up and say, ‘Wait a minute. Didn’t you vet the song? You’re singing the song, ‘We’ve got the right to choose’,’ and then railing against women’s right to choose. So I can’t endorse you using it.’ And that’s where I draw the line.”
~ Dee Snider explains why he asked Donald Trump to stop using “We’re Not Gonna Take It”