Rush In No Rush Between Concert Dates
(Classic Rock) Alex Lifeson admits Rush need to take a day off after each three-hour show. He says: "we're much more conservative than we used to be – not that we were crazy party guys.
We don't work consecutive gigs any more. Those off-days are truly recovery days, especially for Geddy and Neil. Geddy tends to get up at 1pm and doesn't talk, so he can rest his voice.
"We'll go for dinner together – it's pretty subdued with a nice meal and a glass of wine. We're going to be 60 this year so we have to look after ourselves."
More rock news.
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Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson To Bike To Download
(Classic Rock) Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has joined the line-up for the Heavy Metal Truants Download Festival Charity Bike Ride. He will ride alongside the likes of Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood, Classic Rock Editor-In-Chief Scott Rowley, Metal Hammer Editor Alexander Milas and Prog Editor Jerry Ewing for an event that is set to help some excellent causes.
Dickinson will be flying in specially from Germany following two sold-out Maiden shows in Frankfurt so he can join the Heavy Metal Truants in cycling the final 25-mile leg of the bike ride into the Download Festival on Friday, June 14 – the day before Iron Maiden's headline appearance there in front of an expected 100,000 fans.
Dickinson commented: "Yes, maybe it's the first time the headliner has shown up on a bike, but I do use my bike to get around in London when l get the chance and have turned up at the BBC on a bike before, although the Commissioners were a bit surprised as they are too used to seeing limos!"
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Alice In Chains Jerry Cantrell Unusual Song Writing Experience For Stone
(Classic Rock) Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell started work on the new track "Stone" while he was unable to play guitar and composed it in an unusual way as a result.
Recording sessions for The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here was put on hold while he underwent shoulder surgery, and the idea for the song came to him while he was still recovering.
"I just started hearing something in my head," he says. "My arm's all f**ked up, so I grabbed the phone and started humming the riff into the phone, and that's where the song came from. I still have the voice recording – it's hilarious!"
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Mad Season Bittersweet For Pearl Jam's Mike McCreedy
(Classic Rock) Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready admits he found it difficult listening to his work with Mad Season – because of the bad memories it brought back. But he's also proud of the work the supergroup did in a "quick flash" of time.
They released their only album Above in 1995, then had to abandon the follow-up after the death of bassist John Baker Saunders in 1999 and frontman Layne Staley in 2002.
McCready and drummer Barrett Martin regrouped with vocalist Mark Lanegan to complete three songs that had been started at the end of 1990s, and they were released as part of a Mad Season box set earlier this year. It also featured a remastered version of Above – which was a "bittersweet" experience for the guitarist.
"I'd listened to it all the way through probably two times since it came out," McCready tells MusicRadar. "It's very sad. Baker and Layne both died, so there's a sadness that hangs over the entire record. I wasn't willing to live that again. Those couple of times I did listen to it, it was tough.
"When I went back and heard it again it was freeing and said. I cried and laughed, and felt proud. I felt a real mixture of emotions that I'd never had with any other music I'd done, because two of the guys passed away, and I miss them."
A lot more from Mike here.
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Queens Of The Stone Age Plan Letterman Webcast
(Radio.com) In celebration of the release of their sixth album, ...Like Cockwork, Queens of the Stone Age will take the stage for a Live on Letterman webcast at New York's Ed Sullivan Theater the day after the album's release.
… Like Clockwork will be released June 4 by Matador Records and the show will be streamed live on CBS's site, VEVO and on Radio.com, on June 5 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT
In addition to fan favorites from their catalog, viewers can expect to see performances of new material like "I Appear Missing," "My God Is The Sun," "If I Had A Tail," "Keep Your Eyes Peeled" and "Kalopsia," all three of which were part of an eerie series of animated videos released in succession.
On Monday (May 20), the band released a 15-minute album trailer featuring animation from the aforementioned videos.
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Black Star Riders Streaming New Full Album
(Classic Rock) Classic Rock have posted a full album stream of Black Star Riders' debut album "All Hell Breaks Loose". The Thin Lizzy offshoot record is released today in the EU, Monday (May 27) in the UK and Tuesday (May 28) in the US.
Black Star Riders were created by Lizzy men Ricky Warwick, Scott Gorham, Damon Johnson and Marco Mendoza, plus former Megadeth, Ozzy Osbourne and White Lion drummer Jimmy DeGrasso.
Frontman Warwick recently explained: "I was watching a documentary about World War II bombers and saw 'All Hell Breaks Loose' painted on the side of one of the aircraft. It just resonated with me – it seem to encapsulate the turmoil that we, as a society, are currently experiencing.
"The past few years have been such a wild ride. It sounded like a bad-ass album title that summed up what Black Star Riders is all about."
Check out the stream here!
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Steve Lilliwhite Slams Axl Rose
(Radio.com) Producer Steve Lillywhite has one of the best resumes in rock and roll: he has worked on records by Morrissey, Peter Gabriel, the Dave Matthews Band, Phish, The Rolling Stones and, most famously, U2. One band that isn't on that list: Guns N' Roses. He came rather close, though, to getting the Axl Rose experience, but as he told Los Angeles alt-rock station KROQ's Kevin & Bean Show, he pulled the plug on that.
Apparently, Lillywhite was one of many producers considered for GNR's loooooong-delayed Chinese Democracy album (finally released in 2008), and he actually took a meeting with Axl Rose to discuss it.
"I was summoned to Los Angeles to meet with Axl Rose, we went for sushi, and then we went to the studio to listen to some tracks and he played me some instrumentals," Lillywhite said. "I thought, 'I can understand why he'd want me to work on this.' And then I said, 'Do you have anything with vocals on it?' He said, 'Yeah, I've got one song.'"
It was at that point that Lillywhite remembered why working with GNR would be unpleasant (besides Axl's famously volatile personality).
"I was listening to it and I thought 'Oh my God, I'd forgotten how much I hate his voice.' I'm sorry! To some people, Axl Rose is royalty. To me, it's like fingers on a chalkboard. Now, He was a very nice guy. We finished the evening – he paid – the next morning, the manager called and said, 'Steve, you're in. He thinks your fantastic. ' I said "I'm sorry, I don't think I'm the right man for this job." And that was it and I left it at that."
Did Axl react?
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