Let there be rock, indeed! Foo Fighters honored Malcolm Young of AC/DC on Saturday night in Corona, Mexico. (Love the beer toss on the right side of the audience.)
Guns N’ Roses also paid tribute to the co-founder and rhythm guitarist of AC/DC at their show in Sacramento, CA Saturday night as well.
And there’s one of Malcolm’s last performances of “Let There Be Rock” in December 2009 on the Black Ice Tour at the River Plate in Bueno Aires, Argentina (full show). God bless ya, Mal !! You were a great man, player and person. It was an honor to know and work with you over the years. (No wonder AC/DC are one of the highest grossing touring bands in the world. Those two shows in Buenos Aires raked in 9.2 million dollars alone with audiences upwards of 185,000. Oh yeah, Let There Be Rock!)
My pal Myles Kennedy, Alter Bridge frontman, finally will release a 12-song solo album titled Year Of The Tiger in 2018. Kennedy said in a recent interview with Metal Wani the LP was “probably the closest thing to a full-on concept record that I’ve ever written . . . It basically tells a story from start to finish, and it documents when my father passed away when I was a kid and basically what happened after that with my mom, my brother and I — it tells that story.”
We asked Kennedy a while back if writing such personal subject matter was a form of therapy: “Oh absolutely. In fact, it saves you so much money in therapy costs, you know (laughter). It’s like, you can go to a counselor or you can just write a song and purge all your problems.”
Year Of The Tiger is actually the second solo album Kennedy recorded, with the singer starting a previous effort in 2009 and completing it over a period of several years.
Although that disc was mixed in early 2016, Kennedy decided to “not to move forward” with the project because as he told Metal Wani, “I had to step back and look at it with a fresh perspective and say, ‘You know what? You’ve gotta be honest with yourself as a writer. Is this where you are now? No. And is this what you want to represent where you are now? No.’”
Kennedy wrote an entire album’s worth of new material for Year Of The Tiger, with the exception of one song that he carried over from the previous LP.
Alter Bridge continues to tour in support of its fifth album, The Last Hero, which came out in 2016. The band plays on Friday night (Nov 24th) in Lake Buena Vista, FL.
The group is expected to take most of 2018 off from the road while the members focus on other projects.
Meanwhile, Myles also sings lead vocals for Slash‘s solo band, Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, although that group has not worked since 2015 in the wake of Slash reuniting with Axl Rose and Duff McKagan in Guns N’ Roses. It is not known if Slash intends to reactivate the group when the Guns tour — which began in April 2016 and shows no signs of slowing down at the moment — eventually comes to a close. (Editor’s note: I feel quite confident they will. Slash has never been that guy to rest on his laurels! Plus he loves that band. Although getting him back into clubs after playing stadiums could be a feat!) (Thanks Blabbermouth and The Pulse Of Radio.)
Oh this is CLASSIC…on so many levels! The Pulse Of Radio via Metal Sucks and Alternative Nation say the death of convicted mass murderer Charles Manson has seemingly brought out the stupid in a bunch of folks online, starting with Daron Malakian. The System Of A Down guitarist took to social media on Monday (Nov 20th) to mourn Manson’s passing and give an impassioned defense of why he was a fan of Manson’s music, social commentary and views on the world.
Malakian wrote, “Very sad to hear the news about Charles Manson’s death. During the time I was writing the Toxicity album, Manson’s interviews and music were a big influence on me as an artist. I titled the song ‘ATWA’ after Manson’s environmental organization. My interest was in the way he articulated his thoughts and his views on society, not in the murders.”
Malakian posted a photo of himself next to a painting used for the cover of a single by his solo band, Scars On Broadway, which he said was influenced by Manson and prominently featured a swastika like the one Manson carved on his own forehead.
Not surprisingly, Malakian got a lot of pushback from his followers on social media, leading him to defend his admiration for Manson by saying, “If all you know about Manson is what you’ve be sold by the media, I don’t blame you for you negative comments. But the other side of Manson was that he was a songwriter whose song ‘Look At Your Game’ was covered by Guns N’ Roses.” The track, “Look At Your Game, Girl,” was included as a hidden song on the 1993 Guns album The Spaghetti Incident? at the insistence of singer Axl Rose, drawing protests from his bandmates and the families of Manson’s victims.
Malakian added, “Manson also had very valid view points on the society and the environment that even some of you people who are calling me disgusting couldn’t argue with if you took the time to look into his interviews . . . If Manson was just some idiot who killed people he wouldn’t inspire me in any way.”
Manson, who died over the weekend at the age of 83, was jailed for life in 1971 for a series of nine vicious murders committed in Los Angeles at four locations in July and August 1969, including the killing of pregnant actress Sharon Tate. The murders were carried out on his orders by members of a cult that sprang up around him known as the Manson Family. In 1971 he was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, all of which were carried out at his instruction by members of the group. Manson was also convicted of first-degree murder for two other deaths.
Meanwhile, a number of other people on Twitter seemed to confuse Charles Manson with Marilyn Manson, posting photos of the shock rocker and paying tribute to him and his music while referring to him as the imprisoned murderer. One user wrote, “RIP Charles Manson. You changed music in the 1990s forever.” SMH.
Marilyn Manson himself, who did take his last name from the notorious cult leader, posted a cover of Charles Manson’s song “Sick City” after news of the killer’s passing broke.
Nice going, Wolfie! Seems like there are a bunch of knuckleheads on social media. (No, I’m not talking about Five Finger Death Punch fans!) Van Halen bassist Wolfgang Van Halen has alerted fans to an Instagram user pretending to be his dad, Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen. In a series of his own Instagram posts, Wolfgang revealed someone had set up an account with a name similar to Eddie’s real one, accusing the person of being a Boston-based woman named Vanessa who was apparently trying to steal $40,000.
Wolfgang wrote, “This account has being going around and messaging people pretending to be @eddievanhalen (no underscore). If you’re following @_eddievanhalen (with an underscore) you’re following the wrong account. Notice how it doesn’t have a verification check? Go report this account, everyone!”
Wolfgang also posted messages he sent directly to the user, in which he first wrote, “Oh hey, Dad! How’s it going?! It’s me. Your son. You obviously know that because you’re totally my dad.” He then attacked, saying, “Stop messaging people pretending to be someone you’re not. You’ve been reported and your account is going to be shut down.” The person denied Wolfgang’s accusations.
The younger Van Halen later posted a photo of him and his dad, writing, “I stopped by to see Pop anyway. Just to make sure he wasn’t a woman from Boston named Vanessa trying to steal $40,000. I’m still not 100% sure.” (Thanks The Pulse Of Radio via Ultimate Classic Rock.)
Five Finger Death Punch was joined onstage by an elderly lady during the band’s concert in Oslo, Norway on Saturday night (Nov 18th). The group was performing the song “Jekyll And Hyde” when singer Ivan Moody motioned for a special guest on the side of the stage to step out and join him and his bandmates. The woman ended up spending three minutes on stage with the band, dancing and playing air guitar to the track. The band later tweeted a video of the moment, writing, “Special Guest ‘Heavy Metal Grandma’ – we found this 70 years old lady rocking out in the first row … She is more metal than you.” (Blabbermouth)
Stone Temple Pilots performed with new singer Jeff Gutt at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on Nov 14th and now pro-shot videos have emerged of two of the songs. In the first clip, the Pilots rip through “Still Remains” from 1994’s Purple album, while the second one features the first live performance of the band’s new single, “Meadow.” STP recently finished recording their seventh full-length album, which is due out in spring 2018. (Rolling Stone)
Linkin Park won “Favorite Alternative Artist” at the American Music Awards on Sunday night (Nov 19th), with members Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon on hand to pick up the prize, which they dedicated to late singer Chester Bennington. But the band members apparently did not have the proper backstage passes and were actually asked to leave the show by security — after winning their award. Doh! (Rock Feed)
