Black Sabbath Leaks New Riff

Outside of comeback tours and digitally re-issued albums...the world of Classic Rock has had a difficult time mastering a new waves of excitement. Until Ozzy and Tony Iommi ripped into a few guitar chords and decided Black Sabbath needed to a new album. The long-awaited ‘13‘ will hit I Heart Radio on June 11. Late last night...the first Iommi tainted guitar riff in decades became part of this generation Consequence of Sound has gotten the artwork, which is comprised of what appears to be branches engineered to form the number 13, on fire in the middle of a cloudy night, with bare trees visible in the distance. OK, so it’s not as thought-provoking as, say, ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,’ but then again it’s not ‘Master of Reality,’ either. The video that accompanies the announcement is a time-lapse camera trained on the wood as it is set ablaze. It’s hard to judge an entire album based on less than 30 seconds, but the song on the video has got us excited. It opens with a typically slammin’ Tony Iommi riff. Then, the unmistakable voice of Ozzy Osbourne sings, “Nowhere to run / Nowhere to hide,” before it fades out. ’13′ is the first studio album by Black Sabbath with Ozzy on lead vocals since 1978. Drummer Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine has taken over. Listen to the riff

Jim Morrison: What's Wrong With Being Fat?

Anyone born after the mid-70's knows of Jim Morrison only through pictures and the occasional video. Living vicariously through him via the media became a life and style fans of music penetrated during an age of music when Poet's with pens still had the ability to convince record labels that a great song isn't about how you sing it but what you sing. Jim Morrison of the Doors. Creative. Highly spirited. Loves being fat. A never before heard interview with the Classic Rock Legend has resurfaced: Exposing a side of Jim many didn't know. Rolling Stone shared the news of the four-minute clip, which is being broadcast as part of the new PBS series ‘Blank on Blank.’ Produced in conjunction with the broadcasting company’s digital studio division, it sets the audio of Morrison’s words against newly-created animation (a similar effect was used for the first installment of ‘Blank on Blank,’ which finds wizened talk show host Larry King discussing seduction.) As for the substance of Morrison’s interview, it’s a little odd, but at least you can’t say he and Smith were talking about the same old stuff. This segment finds them discussing Morrison’s fondness for his college meal plan. “I felt like a large mammal. A big beast,” he recalls, looking back on his days as a 185-pound student. “When I’d move through the corridors or across the lawn, I just felt like I could knock anybody out of my way, you know. I was solid, man. It’s terrible to be thin and wispy because, you know, you could get knocked over by a strong wind or something. Fat is beautiful.” The interview

Eddie Van Halen Hip Rocks With LL Cool J

It's not what I believe. It's those who have convinced me. The world of music couldn't and wouldn't be without the physical act of a working team. Behind every solo artist gone Idol... is a collaboration that rarely if ever gets credit. Insert your own Justin Bieber joke. Lennon without McCartney wouldn't have worked. Jagger not hooking up with Richards would've kept this nation locked up in a world of Big Band Standards with a twist of Nashville spilled milk. I'm not knockin Country Music! That shape of sound along with Hip Hop has done more for its self image than any other style presented. Writers, producers, record labels and managers have agreed to leave their egos at the door. There's more collaborating taking place than any other time in music history. Brooks and Dunn, Montgomery Gentry. How many people still think it's the name of a band? Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan pumping out the tune The Only Way I Know. The Band Perry will only be a family act until it's time for one of them to go solo. Being a club and private party DJ for twenty plus years I've seen dance floors explode when mixing the combination of Classic Rock and Hip Hop. Why more masters of the craft aren't crossing the line shocks me! Rock guitar God Eddie Van Halen and Rap Artist LL Cool Jay. Whose best known as Sam Hanna on the CBS drama NCIS Los Angeles are about to change the entire layout. Eddie says his collaboration with the rap artist was exactly what he needed as a musician. The guitar icon appears on two tracks of Authentic, due out on April 30 – and on one of those, We’re The Greatest, he managed to persuade Cool J to sing. Hear a clip from the work below. Van Halen tells GuitarWorld: “The thought of me playing guitar to hip hop was definitely left of centre – but I was intrigued and I agreed to meet and listen to what he had. “I was not only inspired by the songs I heard, but LL’s enthusiasm, his down-to-earth personality, the freedom he gave me to co-create and his willingness to, for the very first time, sing the chorus on We’re the Greatest. “It was like a breath of fresh air that I needed as an artist and an individual.” After working on We’re The Greatest, which also features Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker, Van Halen hopes he’s been involved in the start of something new. He says: “The diversity of the songs on this album and the other artists he has collaborated with is outstanding, appealing to multiple genres of music and maybe even creating a few of our own.” Cool J feels the collaborators struck the right note. “I approached this song with the upmost respect for Eddie and his fans, and became friends with him through the process,” he says. “I was humbled to watch a genius at work and collaborate with such a legendary and visionary artist as Eddie Van Halen, and to bring our two worlds together, was an exciting opportunity. I am thrilled he was up for the ride.” See the video

Richie Sambora Pulls Himself Off The Bon Jovi Tour

Here we go again! Last year David Lee Roth and the Van Halen family pulled into Charlotte. A few clicks down the Rock n Roll path and the tour was done. Last month Bon Jovi bangs out a four hour Charlotte performance and now Richie Sambora has leaped from the runaway train. Jon's right wing. The super guitarist Sambora! He'll miss the next leg of the tour due to what's being described “personal issues.” The group broke the news on their website, “All shows will go on as scheduled.” The post didn’t specify what the band is defining as the “upcoming leg” of the tour, but it seems safe to assume they’re referring to their current run of North American shows, set to conclude April 25 in San Jose before Bon Jovi picks up again May 7 in South Africa. As the Newark Star-Ledger observed, the reaction from fans was swift, with more than 100 comments piling up on the band’s website during the hours immediately following the announcement — most from people concerned with Sambora’s well-being, but also joined by a number of ticket buyers who feel entitled to refunds due to Sambora’s absence. Although the band declined to respond to any of those comments, the Star-Ledger reports that “dozens of comments were deleted throughout the early morning hours,” further angering a number of fans. Sambora’s absence comes after a turbulent period during his tenure in the band, including a 2008 DUI arrest and several stints in rehab. He’s seemed to be handling his sobriety well since checking out of a treatment facility in 2011 — here’s hoping those “personal issues” aren’t substance-related.

Motley Crue Headed Back To Vegas

Ripping the roof off the house Vegas style is the new norm. Motley Crue. Def Leopard and The I Heart Music Festival. The world's biggest live entertainers taking up long term residence in Vegas...not so out of the norm. Elvis and Sinatra covered it fifty chapters ago. New norm is in. Vegas loves it loud. Vegas loves it raw. Vegas is getting Motley again. The cities first ever hard rock residency is taking another gamble on Sin City. As Vince Neil hinted last summer, the band’s new slate of shows will bring them back to the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, where they played out their 12-date residency last year. As he put it during that interview, “Every night sold out. We’d have 4,000 people every night … There’s just so much to do here if you’re a rock fan.” “We are proud to have pioneered the Las Vegas rock residency last year and can’t wait to come back this year to take it over the top with a brand new show that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen Mötley Crüe do before,” bassist Nikki Sixx said via press release. News of the new residency was broken, somewhat bizarrely, by former ‘Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous’ host Robin Leach, whose Twitter account made the announcement Monday (April 1). “Motley Crue returns for Hard Rock residency Sept 18 Oct 6 Look for trashed hotel room theme and a dangerous set. whole new show production,” Leach tweeted, adding, “#MotleyCrue show will be confirmed tomorrow with tickets going on sale this Friday. Not April 1 joke but still exclusive.” (Those were followed by a re-tweet of something Englebert Humperdinck said. Viva Las Vegas!) Attendees can presumably expect a fresh twist on the visual dazzle that the Crue applied to its first Vegas run, which Blabbermouth notes included Neil wearing an “illuminated poker-hand belt buckle” as well as “rogue carnival-styled seat ushers — and showgirl dancers, female aerialists, little people, macabre clowns and stilt walkers.” Tickets for the residency will go on sale Friday, April 5.

Rock n Rolls Missing Soul: ZZ Top's Billy Gibson Back In The Garage

I tend to study the aging process of musicians through my Rock Star neighbor Herb. A vibrant little guy filled with heaping piles of dreams and not enough people or years left in the book to fill them. Herb suffers from pre-Beatles disease. He and his "life's been rough" cohorts in stage presentation were doing a fine job denting the hardcore shells of a growing Rock n Roll nation when without prior preparation...the band was taken down and out by The British Invasion. Rock Star Herb has spent years trying to fit the puzzle pieces back together. The biggest chunks being hidden away moments felt right before being busted free from the spit shine and glamour of Regional success... I'm proud of them for not letting the band fade. To watch him talk about being up on stage is like watching lightning ignite before thunder rolls. While Jagger, McCartney, The Beach Boys, Dylan and Neil Young continue to prove that age is only a number. Missing from the true history of American music are the gut driven talents that made it beyond garage doors and smoke filled bar rooms. The electrified umbilical cords that fed starving imaginations that whispered, "If they can do it so can I." Rock Star Herb still packs 40,000 into his festivals but young buck promoters caught up in digital fixes can't seem to dial up the bowels of what makes music from America what the world listens to. Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones... seriously couldn't have been without sucking on the breast of Rhythm and Blues, Soul and raw direct from the street this is gonna piss off your parents Rock n Roll. Someone that might be able to relate with Rock Star Herb is a very hairy Texan. Saturday Night Billy Gibbon performed with the Moving Sidewalks, the band he was in prior to forming ZZ Top, for the first time since their 1969 breakup. In a new interview, Gibbons described what it was like to return to his garage-rock roots. “We’re taking things in reverse,” he told the Village Voice. “The enticement of unlearning is certainly working its magic with the band and being able to tag the energy that was flying around in 1967 is rewarding.” The Moving Sidewalks are playing at B.B. King’s Blues Club & Grill in New York as part of the Cavestomp! series of garage-rock concerts. What was originally expected to be a one-off show to celebrate the release of ‘The Complete Moving Sidewalks‘ has resulted in a second date — in Austin, Texas on April 28 — and some new material that will be recorded in the near future. “What’s been fascinating is what it has stimulated in the way of writing,” he continued. “Not only have we gotten together and polished up existing songs, but we’ve started writing in that style.” The project has the full blessing of his ZZ Top bandmates, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. “They’re kind of excited, asked me if I can get them tickets,” Gibbons said.

Lennon And McCartney Breakup Letter Up For Auction

Since the very beginning. Classic Rock's biggest names have left more than greasy thumb prints on a newly opened black vinyl album. The famous love to write stuff down in the quirkiest of places. On napkins, match book covers beat up old notebooks and handkerchiefs. Show me a decade in which someone hasn't uncovered a sheet of awareness connected to a famous writer or performer that just so happened to burp up a puddle of creative flow onto a strange and unusual place. While in Seattle I was glued to Jimi Hendrix daily journal where he wrote about being excited about hanging out with Joni Mitchell and other creative wordsmiths. I couldn't unwrap my imagination from Kurt Cobain's pen scratchings. Inside my radio station studio is a specially crafted book from John Lennon that puts into play his personalized handwritten notes. An musician in the midst of thought has always been my favorite place hear music. Bent sentences. Pitch volume and tone not yet set. Scratches on top of scratches eventually becoming total blackouts. It leaves the reader in a state of assumption. Which is healthy in a musical world of payoffs and confessions. Outside of song lyrics John Lennon was notoriously known for writing letters. John's most famous letter will hit the auction block May 30th. The Break Up letter to Paul and Linda McCartney is expected to pull in $61,000 There's no word on the actual contents of the letter. This is the second famous Lennon letter to be auctioned off. The first was a handwritten request to Eric Clapton. John Lennon wrote: Eric, I know I can bring out something great, in fact greater in you that had been so far evident in your music. "I hope to bring out the same kind of greatness in all of us, which I know will happen if/when we get together." Not all Lennon letters have sold at auction: Last year, another note to Paul and Linda – a six-page rant about the end of the Beatles and how he and Yoko Ono were treated – failed to sell at Christie's in London after bids didn't reach the £63,000 reserve price.