Sitting down with CBS Sunday Morning, Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones expressed regrets over his split with Lou Gramm and revealed that he went through a dark period a few years ago after a combination of medications he was prescribed caused him to have a '...virtual nervous breakdown'. He describes the state he was in as so bleak that he lost his ability to play and became convinced he would never take the stage again. He credits his brother for snapping him out of it by appearing with a guitar, handing it to him and saying, 'You play guitar. Play it. You're a guitarist.' He says the tensions that developed between him and the group's lead vocalist related to Gramm considering himself more of a Rock singer but confesses, '...I can't have been easy to work with in those days. I knew what I wanted. I was pretty domineering.'
Expectations that Fleetwood Mac would opt to play the Glastonbury Festival went by the boards with the reunited group announcing plans to appear at the Isle of Wight. We now also know that recording sessions for the group's first album with Christine McVie back in the fold won't take place until after that concert. Lindsey Buckingham says the band has logged some studio time and settled on the tracks that will most likely be included on the album, which he thinks will '...be a beautiful way to kind of wrap up this last act.'
European AC/DC tour dates bolted from the gate with sales figures that leave little doubt that the band will draw very well despite the loss of Malcolm Young and the uncertain status of drummer Phil Rudd. It took just 20 minutes for the Aviva Stadium in Dublin to sell the 52,000 tickets available for the group's July 1 date in Dublin, Ireland. Nearly twice that number took under an an hour to sell for London's Wembley Stadium date three nights later. The 2015 Rock Or Bust world tour opens May 5th in the Netherlands and wraps-up July 25th in Warsaw, Poland. One unconfirmed North American date has surfaced. Lapressa.ca indicated AC/DC will play Quebec City on September 2.
February 20 of 2015 will bring a new album from Scorpions. Return To Forever packs 16 tracks, leading off with a title that sums up what the German Hard Rock band plans on doing; Going Out With A Bang. Recorded under the guidance of Sting In The Tail (2010) production team Mikael Nord Andersson and Martin Hansen, the new album developed slowly. The group's Matthias Jabs said the band only intended to record and release a few songs they had considered for previous albums. As that got underway, they started coming up with ideas for new songs. Matthais told LoudWire, 'We had so much fun working and suddenly we found ourselves in the middle of the songwriting process again. And in the end, it turned out to be a brand new Scorpions album after all.' The group recently announced a series of 50th anniversary tour dates in Europe.
Phil Rudd wants to pull out of the downward spiral his life has been on for the last few months. Talking with New Zealand One News, the drummer proclaimed, 'I'm going back to work with AC/DC and I don't care who likes it or who doesn't. I want my job back and I want my reputation back.' Rudd was being investigated for allegations he threatened to kill a man and his daughter in a phone call on September 26th. Authorities say a search of his Tauranga, NZ home on the 6th of November turned up methamphetamine and marijuana. An early charge that Rudd attempted to hire someone to do his Dirty Deed was dropped, but drug charges are still in place. As to whether he still has a place in the band, AC/DC's other members have remained non-committal up to this point..jpg)
2014 has been a tough year for U2. The group made foes of fans for the way it released its album, critics largely dismissed the music on it as unworthy, Bono was seriously injured while bicycling in Central Park, the group's company lost lots of money and now, as the year winds down, U2 has managed to squeeze in another problem for itself. The latest fallout is the result of the decision to reenact the sectarian violence of years past on the streets of Belfast for a music video. Staging the car bomb blast and related scenes of violence has brought a barrage of criticism against U2 from residents that resent the disruption and take issue with the band exploiting a painful period in the country's history. The production company doing the shoot issued a statement saying the criticism was '...all out of proportion. We will have no further comment to make,' Actor/Director Dan Gordon did, though. He told the Belfast Telegram, 'People rush to look at the negative. U2 aren't setting out to paint us or themselves in a poor light. They are there to expose stuff and talk about it.'
Rock Skully, the man who signed the Grateful Dead to their first management contract, passed away Tuesday 
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lou Reed, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Green Day, Bill Withers and The Five Royales will join the ranks of just over 300 musicians in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame n the spring. Ringo Starr will be given the 2015 Award For Musical Excellence. John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney have been inducted into the Hall with the Beatles and as solo artists. This year's ceremony will take place in Cleveland on April 18th. Starr called notification he would be honored '...recognition to me'. Jett called the experience '...surreal and humbling', adding that becoming a member is '...something you always dreamed about doing as a musician.'
A thief in Vancouver made off with one of the rarest guitars in existance when he broke into a music store and grabbed a framed Peavy guitar autographed by a dozen major stars. The break-in at Uniquely Yours, a memorabilia stor in the British Columbia city known for carrying exceptional collectibles, took place in the early morning hours on December 4. The instrument features the signatures of Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Ron Wood, Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck, Brian Johnson, John Densmore, Lars Ulrich, Duff McKagan, Joe Cocker and Vince Neil. The guitar was apparently the sole reason for the burglary as the thief could easily have taken a number of other valuable items, including a sheet of mathematical equations valued at $23,000 that was next to the guitar.
Guitarist Jake E. Lee says he played a significant role in writing Bark At The Moon. Talking with Eddie Trunk, Lee claimed he was told that he would receive a writing credit on the song. When that proved wrong, Lee says Ozzy's wife and manager informed him that his guitar parts would be replaced in the recording if he made an issue of being left out of the credits and royyalties. When presented a contract to sign that included his acknowledgement that Osbourne had written all of the songs he claimes he was was told by Sharon Osbourne that if he failed to sign it, '...we'll give you a plane ticket' you go back home and you stand in line and you sue us. In the meantime, we have all your tracks.'
Sting visited the White House Sunday
A $3.85 million price tag for a very well appointed home in Colorado ski country is not unusual. While the Shoot N'Starr Ranch might lack some of the over-the-top amenities found in similarly priced homes on the market near Snowmass, the buyers of those other places will not be getting a house owned by a member of the Beatles and a James Bond movie actress. Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach bought the 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath 3.200 square foot log home in 1991 for $1.164 million. The Colorado property was listed last year but was taken off the market in the spring. With slopes sporting Colorado's legendary powder beckoning, the drummer decided the time was right for an encore listing. The couple has also listed a 200 acre estate in Cranleigh, UK. Starr and Bach will retain their residence in Beverly Hills to use while in the states..jpg)
The 10th album by Def Leppard should please early fans of the band. Shedding some of the slick, heavily produced style of recent releases, DL plans to record a 'basic & raw' sounding album, according to front man Joe Elliott. The singer told the Belfast Telegram the project's recording sessions should wrap-up in time to get the recording release-ready by the Spring. Vivian Campbell, who has undergone stem-cell treatment to counter Hodgkin's lymphoma, is out of the hospital and engaged in a side project with Dio veterans Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain and Claude Schnell under the group name Last In Line..jpg)
Brian May may not be as qualified to evaluate astronomical probability factors as the scientists that make careers of doing it but he knows a lot more about them than any other musician we know of, so when the Queen guitarist sounds an alarm about asteroids, it could well prove well founded. May, who earned a doctorate in astronomy, recently told the Financial Times that humans are '..living on borrowed time' and is convinced a catastrophic asteroid impacting the planet is inevitable. May considers the threat demands action and backs a plan to call on governments to organize and fund more asteroid tracking programs.
Count on Joe Perry to cook-up a cleaver marketing ploy. The Aerosmith guitar great will grant a fan a personal phone call with him. The hitch? To be in the running, Perry wants fans to post a photo that includes his book ROCKS: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith in the frame to either his Instagram (@Joe Perry Official) or Twitter (@Joe Perry) account. Do it between Nov. 25 and midnight Dec. 5 and Joe could select you to make a call to. Some other swag is up for grabs, too. Up for it? Don't forget the all important hash tag: #JoePerryROCKS. Any scene or setting that's not deemed obscene is cool.
The enthusiastic reception Pink Floyd's final album has gotten is not likely to lead to future band projects, but drummer Nick Mason and David Gilmour will collaborate on the guitarist's new solo album. Mason confirmed that he accepted Gilmour's invitation when speaking with Q Magazine. Mason also says he holds out hope that additional archive Floyd material could qualify for release. He says his determination to not let The Endless River be the last that fans hear from the group will probably lead to his head stone being engraved with the words, 'Surely there could be just one more.'
A strong selection of limited edition releases for Record Store Day on Friday 
