Joe Bonamassa On Letterman
Six string master to team with Paul Schaffer. Fresh off a smokin' concert at the Landmark Theatre for Central New York
fans that knew what a great player he was before the rest of the world
caught on, Joe Bonamassa will sit in with Paul Schaffer and
the CBS Orchestra on the Monday
(5/21)
edition of the Late Show With David Letterman. The appearance
takes place just hours before Joe's latest studio album,
Driving Towards The Daylight, drops. Bonamassa, who was
impressing legends like BB King when he was a schoolboy, says the
chance to guest with the CBS late night show's director and band leader is
something he is really looking forward to, adding, 'I am huge Letterman
fan since I was 6 years old and I can't wait to sit in with Paul Schaffer
and his band.'
Mystery Drummer Announced By Sabbath
Fill-In for Bill Ward not identified by band. The latest wrinkle in the wrinkled reunion of Black Sabbath comes
in the form of and announcement that the group has recruited a drummer to
replace Bill Ward but is not revealing who he is. Responding to
Ward's official statement that he would not be joining the band under
the terms offered him, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and
Tommy Iommi declined to address their apparently former drummer's
comments directly but said, 'There are two sides to every story. We have
been working hard at rehearsals and making excellent progress after Tony's
(cancer) treatments and we have engaged a substitute drummer for the
forthcoming shows.' We will find out who the mystery drummer is
Saturday
(5/19) when the group stages its first reunion tour show in
Birmingham, UK. HenneMusic.com
Van Halen Tour Hits The Wall
Band pulls 30 dates from their schedule. Within days of announcing a series of new dates, Van Halen
suddenly announced that 30 of the concerts that had been on the schedule
were being postponed. Attempts to learn why all of the dates after dates
after June 26 were being yanked were met with refusals to comment from tour
promoter Live Nation and a representative of the group. Rolling Stone
magazine quoted an unidentified source as saying VH members '...hate
each other', and are '...arguing like mad'. The tour, which had
been doing decent numbers, was out performing the band's comeback album, A Different Kind Of Truth' which has seen plummeting sales since
selling close to 200,000 copies the week it was released. The announcement
of the postponements seems to have blindsided venue operators, who were also
left in the dark about whether to offer ticket holders refunds. Somewhere
tonight, Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony are exchanging high
fives.
Stones Could Open Tour In Fall
Ron Wood drops another hint about live plans.
Guitarist Ron Wood has a suggestion for Rolling Stones fans;
keep October and November free. The hint comes as reports have emerged that
he and the other members of the Stones have been holding rehearsals
in the New York City area. The stories fueled speculation that the rest of
the band could perform with Mick Jagger when he hosts and is the musical
guest on Saturday Night Live (5/17). That was refuted with an announcement
that Jagger will be backed by Arcade Fire, Foo Fighter Dave
Grohl and guitarist Jeff Beck
(story).
But it does leave open the possibility that the band will use the appearance
as a platform for announcing tour plans.
NME.com
Eagles Earn Degree Honors
Berklee School of Music hands out awards. Don Henley, Timothy B Schmit, Glenn Frey and Joe
Walsh picked up honorary music degrees during a ceremony Saturday
(5/12)
in Boston. The Berklee School Of Music doctorates recognizing outstanding
achievement in popular culture that have had a positive influence on its
students were given out at Agganis Arena. The ceremony came a day after a
student recital attended by the honor recipients. In accepting his award,
Don Henley said, 'Sometimes I worry about the future of music and
culture. But, after what we all witnessed here last night, I have renewed
hope and faith in the future of music. It was truly inspiring'.
Alison Krauss and Malatu Astatke were also honored with degrees.
Noise11.com
Hendrix Estate Not Backing Movie
Movie not endorsed or approved by guitarist's estate.
If the recently announced Jimi Hendrix biopic, All By My Side
(story),
makes it to the silver screen it may have to get there without the
cooperation of or rights to Hendrix material that the late
guitarist's estate has control over. A release from Experience Hendrix, LLC
addressing the film says, '...the family owned company entrusted with
safeguarding the legacy of Jimi Hendrix and administrator of the Jimi
Hendrix music and publishing catalog, has made it known many times in the
past that no such film, were it to include original music or copyrights
created by Jimi Hendrix, can be undertaken without its full participation.'
The production company involved in the film casting rapper Andre 3000
in the title role has declined to respond directly to the verbal warning
shot, other than to remark that the issue of whether Hendrix music will be
featured in the movie is a, '...valid question, but we're not getting
into specifics of what we've shared so far.'
PressHerald.com
Donald 'Duck' Dunn Dies In Tokyo
Bass player passes away in sleep after performance. Donald "Duck" Dunn, the bass player in the great Memphis
R&B band Booker T & The MGs and a man whose signature style added
oomph to hundreds of sessions for other stars, passed away in his sleep
following a concert in Tokyo Sunday
(5/13)
at the age of 70, according to the Associated Press. Inducted into the Rock
Hall Of Fame with Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper and
Alan Jackson in 2007, the MGs were the driving force behind a
lot of the hits emerging from the Stax Studios in Memphis back in the day,
including songs by Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Sam &
Dave. In later years, Dunn was part of the band that backed John
Belushi and Dan Ackroyd as the Blues Borthers. He also recorded with Bob
Dylan (Shot Of Love), Eric Clapton (Behind
The Sun), John Fogerty (Blue Moon Swamp),
Neil Young (Silver & Gold), Rod Stewart (Atlantic
Crossing), Tom Petty (Damn The Torpedoes/Hard
Promises) and dozens of others.
AllMusic.com
Foo Fighter Backing Jagger On SNL
Dave Grohl and Arcade Fire slated to back Stone.
Anticipation that other members of the Rolling Stones were likely to
appear with Mick Jagger on the May 19 season ending episode of
Saturday Night Live got dialed down by an Inside TV report that
claims the Stones front man will actually be backed by Arcade Fire
and joined by Foo Fighters & Them Crooked Vultures drummer
Dave Grohl. Earlier reports claim that Jagger, Ron Wood, Keith
Richards and Charlie Watts have been rehearsing in the NYC area (story)
triggered immediate speculation that the Stones would all perform together,
would make a 2013 tour announcement, or do both. While anything is still
possible, prospects that the Stones will perform on the intimate SNL stage
with Mick seem as slim as the man himself. Grohl has the distinction
of having been a musical guest on the show 4x more frequently than Jagger.
He has appeared with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers as well as his
own groups, Nirvana, Foo Fighters and the Vultures. The
May 19 appearance will be Grohl's 12th on the late night NBC comedy
show and just Jagger's 3rd.
InsideTV.ew.com
Grateful Dead Drummer Plans Book
Bill Kreutzmann to chronicle long, strange trip.
One of the drummers of the Grateful Dead is working on an
autobiography that will also chronicle the decades he spent traveling the
world and recording with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh,
fellow stick man Mickey Hart and the other former members of the
seminal San Francisco band. Bill Kreutzmann says the aims to have
the book ready for publication in 2015 and tells AP it will include accounts
of behind the scenes encounters he and the band had with the Rolling
Stones, Bob Dylan and the Allman Brothers Band.
A book marking the 50th anniversary book about the Dead is also being
authored by David Browne.
JamBands.com
Aerosmith Doing New Song On Idol
Band will premier album track during final episode.
Guitarist Joe Perry has gotten the word out that he and his band
mates will debut a song from the as yet untitled Aerosmith album on
the season finale of American Idol. We think the appearance on the May 23
telecast of the show the Boston band's Steven Tyler is a judge on
should be open to viewer ratings on the quality of the song and
performance... but then we'd actually have to watch the show instead of just
calling the track up on YouTube.
ZZ Top Premiers Song In Beer Ad
Song from new release backs Texas brew. ZZ Top fans can get a look at the band and a listen to a new song
titled I've Got To Get Paid via a video of an ad produced for
Jeremiah Weed Beer. The tune gets played by the band inside a cooler at
Bubba's Country Store as unsuspecting customers pop open the door to help
themselves to cold beverages. The surprised reactions are reportedly
genuine - the commercial was shot live with regular customers at the Austin,
Texas store.
The as yet untitled release is still getting the final mixes done by Rick
Rubin. If this song is any indication, it sounds like Rubin and
the band will deliver on the promise of an album that will capture the less
polished sound early fans of the Texas trio loved. (video).
VintageVinylNews.com
Crew Member Now Drummer for Little Feat
Gabe Ford fills Richie Hayward's Role.
The loss of Richie Hayward in 2010 (story)
left Little Feat without a drummer. The search for a stick man to
fill the role Hayward had been so rock solid in for decades began and
ended close to home. The veteran group has welcomed Hayward's drum
tech as a full time member of the band. Speaking with Sam Davis of
JamBands.com, Feat's Paul Barrere says Gabe, who is a
nephew of guitar great Robben Ford, convinced group members quickly
that he had what it took to keep the beat for the band, "...we gave him
18 songs to work on. On the second day we said, 'Pack your shit and go home.
You're no longer a tech, you're our drummer.' " Little Feat is finishing up work on the group's first studio album of
new, original material in nearly a decade. Featuring some songs LF
keyboard player Billy Payne co-wrote with Jerry Garcia song
writing partner Robert Hunter, Rooster Rag is slated
for a summer release. Barrere and fellow Feat guitarist
Fred Tackett also have a side recording project in progress and
Barrere himself has his sights set on doing a new solo album.
Cooper & Aerosmith Rock Depp's Party
Dark Shadows premier after party star studded.
The after party for the premier of the latest Johnny Depp party could
prove to be a lot more memorable than the movie itself. The la screening of
Dark Shadows at Grauman's Chinese Theatre was followed-up by a
blow-out in a temporary venue set up in the parking lot behind the El
Capitan Theater that was hosted by Depp and headlined by Alice
Cooper. Depp joined Cooper during the first set and
Cooper's band was later joined by Aerosmith's Steven Tyler
and Joe Perry on versions of School's Out, Come
Together, the Abbey Road song Aerosmith covered
in 1978, Pink Floyd's Another Brick in The Wall and
Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love
(video).
AcesShowBiz.com
Will Other Stones Be On SNL?
Reports emerge that the band is rehearsing.
Word that Saturday Night Live has secured Mick Jagger to host
and perform on the NBC comedy shows final episode of the season
(story)
has been followed by reports that the other members of the Rolling Stones
are in the city and rehearsing with the front man in preparation for the
musical segments of the May 17 live telecast. Of course, rumors always
swirl around the band and this one could prove to be as empty as most, but
iorr.org added grist to the claim by supplying details that included that
Allman Brothers Band frequent Stones keyboard accompanist
Chuck Leavell and bass player/producer Don Was were also on the
scene and that the songs they worked on during the session were Fool
To Cry, Jumping Jack Flash and Miss You. Don't expect NBC to do anything but sit back and let the reports grow
legs.
VintageVinylNews.com
Nugent Loses It During CBS Interview (video)
Defends himself, then gets obscene. Ted Nugent appeared on CBS This Morning to talk about his
recent run-in with the Secret Service over remarks he made about President
Obama at a National Rifle Association meeting
(story).
After making the case for being a compassionate guy, Ted went off the
deep end, telling CBS interviewer Jeff Glor that if he could find a better
character screening process than his voluntary work with families with sick
terminally ill children he would orally gratify him. Not content to leave
it at that, Nugent then told the female producer of the segment that
he would '?...f#*k you. How's that sound?'. We're not sure how it
sounded to her, but it sure didn't sound good to Nugent's wife, who
forced her husband to apologize to the producer, according to Glor,
who also said that Nugent phoned him the following day to say that he
had gone to the hospital right after the interview to have a kidney stone
removed. They must have extracted some bile too. (video)
HenneMusic.com
Hendrix Movie Starting Production
Rapper Andre Benjamin to portray Jimi.
Talk of a Jimi Hendrix biopic has been off-and-on for years, but it
finally appears that a firm plan is in place to begin making the biopic late
this month in Ireland. Andre Benjamin, better known as Andree 3000
of the Rap duo Outkast, will have the lead role in a movie being
co-produced by three film companies. The film is said to be concentrating
on the early period of the meteoric career of the Seattle guitarist that
Chas Chandler, bass player with the Animals convinced to return
to England with him so he could have Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck
and others hear him play. That jaw dropping club appearance led immediately
to the studio sessions that produced the ground breaking debut album by the
Jimi Hendrix Experience.
IFTN.ie
SNL Lands Jagger For Finale
Stones front man closes out Saturday Night Live season. Lorne Michaels has managed to do what London Olympics organizers have
come up empty on - getting a member of the Rolling Stones to commit
to an appearance. Mick Jagger will both host and perform on the May
19 season ending episode of Saturday Night Live on NBC. The appearance will
be the third time the Rolling Stones front man has performed on SNL,
but his first time hosting the iconic late night comedy show. He turned in
one of the best non-musical performances in the show's storied history when
he appeared as band mate Keith Richards in a skit with Mike Myers in
Jagger's role. (video)
NBC.com
Bruce Pays Tribute To Levon Helm
Performs The Weight during NJ concert.
More than 20,000 Springsteen fans joined in singing The Weight(video)in tribute to Levon Helm during the Boss' Wednesday
(5/2)
concert at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. The heartfelt
tribute to the late Band drummer was the first of six song encore
capping off a 26 song evening. Calling Helm, 'One of the greatest
voices in Country, Rockabilly and Rock' Bruce introduced the fan
request by adding that both his singing and style of drumming were 'incredibly
personal' and came'...out of a certain place in the past' and
could 'never be replicated.' The Weight was one of several special moments during the
marathon home-turf concert. The set also a scorching version of It's
Hard To Be A Saint In The City - marking the first time the song has
been done during the current tour. Rarer still, the E Street Band
(minus Patti Scialfa for the night, who Bruce quipped was '...home
keeping the kids out of the drug stash') also broke out the hardly ever
performed Bishop Danced.
NJ.com
Guinness Guitar Record Broken
More than 7,000 play Hey Joe in Poland.
Organizers of the Thanks Jimi Festival have submitted documentation
to the Guinness World Record folks claiming that 7,273 guitarists played the
Jimi Hendrix classic Hey Joe Tuesday
(5/1)
at the annual event in Wroclaw, Poland. If the official count
stands, it will top the same event's 2009 record for the world's Largest
Guitar Ensemble by nearly 1,000. (video) MusicRadar.com
New Album, Tour & Bass Player For Skynyrd
Southern Rockers add former Black Crowes member.
Southern Rock institution Lynyrd Skynyrd will release a new studio
album titled Last Of A Dying Breed on August 21. The new
album arrives as the band hits the road for dates in the US and Europe and
announces the addition of founding Black Crowes bass player Johnny
Colt. Gary Rossington says the new album is the first effort in some time
that the group took a real live approach to as opposed to having members lay
down separate tracks during different studio sessions. Going old school
resulted in the process being '...a lot of fun and the music really
flowed for us', according to Rossington, who adds, 'We can't
wait to let the fans hear these songs and play 'em live.' Colt is charged up about the opportunity to join the legendary
outfit. He says that when the band's Rickey Medlocke phoned him to
see if he was interested, his only question was 'when and where!'
PRNewswire
Dave Grohl Producing Studio Film
Rockumentary on SoCal Studio in the works.
Sound City, the San Fernando Valley, CA studio where albums from Nirvana,
Neil Young, Metallica, Elton John and Guns N' Roses came to life,
is getting the Rockumentary treatment with former Nirvana drummer
Dave Grohl directing and producing. The drummer calls Sound City, which
is the home studio for Grohl's Foo Fighters, 'Rock n Roll
hallowed ground' and the '...best kept secret' of musicians lucky
enough to record at the off the beaten path analog studio. It was there
that Nirvana recorded its groundbreaking Nevermind
album. Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, and Lindsay Buckingham
will join the ranks of musicians sharing insights into wht made the place so
special.
HollywoodReporter.com
Deep Purple Prepares To Record
Veteran producer Bob Ezrin will oversee project.
Guitarist Steve Morse says members of Deep Purple are getting
ready to start work on the legendary band's first new studio record in seven
years and will do it with one of Rock's best producers. Morse says
they have secured the services of Bob Ezrin, who has produced
projects for Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and Kansas, a
band Morse was in at the time. He says getting Ezrin to
head-up the recording makes him confident that the album, which he calls a
'...really important one' for the band, will meet the expectations of
group members and fans.
HenneMusic.com
