Such exciting news to share today! Here’s the press release! The 12th annual Rock On The Range returns to MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus, OHFriday,May 18, Saturday, May 19 and Sunday, May 20 with its most power-packed lineup to date. America’s largest and most acclaimed rock festival features nearly 60 bands on three stages, led by Tool, Avenged Sevenfold, and Alice In Chains, also featuring Godsmack, A Perfect Circle, Stone Sour, Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Stone Temple Pilots, Machine Gun Kelly, The Used, Bullet For My Valentine, Black Veil Brides, and many more. Many of the biggest names in rock will be joined by some of rock’s most exciting up-and-coming talent such as Greta Van Fleet, Code Orange, Power Trip, and New Years Day.
Rock On The Range also showcases rock’s favorite comedians in the ROTR Rolling Rock Comedy Tent, and the festival includes various onsite experiences during the three-day weekend. The comedy lineup will be announced in early 2018. Rock On The Range continues to grow year after year and draws attendees from around the world. 2017 was the festival’s biggest year to date with a crowd of 135,000 in attendance; tickets sold out just a month after going sale, marking the festival’s fifth consecutive advance sell-out.
Rock On The Range General Admission and VIP tickets (including layaway options), as well as Hotel and Camping Packages, are on sale now at www.RockOnTheRange.com. Fans are encouraged to buy early and save. Each ticket price level has a limited number of tickets available, so attendees can save more by buying earlier. Ticket prices will automatically move to the next price level once an allotment sells out. The ROTR layaway option also allows purchasers to split the ticket cost into four monthly payments.
M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold said, “Rock On The Range is the undisputed champion of American rock festivals. The team over there has done an incredible job of curating a potent mix of all the types of rock ’n roll that any fan could ask for. It’s an honor to play at the top of the bill, and we cannot wait to see everyone in May.”
“We are looking forward to returning to Rock On The Range as a headliner this year and rocking out with all of you. Bring It!” said Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains.
“Following last year’s amazing festival we knew we had to deliver. We have one of the only shows from Tool in 2018, a band the Rangers have been wanting for years — and also having A Perfect Circle on the same festival is something special. Adding Avenged Sevenfold, Alice In Chains, Godsmack, and the special returns of Stone Sour and Stone Temple Pilots only builds on that excitement. We can’t wait for May,” said Gary Spivack, Executive Producer for Rock On The Range.
The current music lineup for Rock On The Range 2018 is as follows: Tool, Avenged Sevenfold, Alice In Chains, Godsmack, A Perfect Circle, Stone Sour, Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Stone Temple Pilots, Machine Gun Kelly, Bullet For My Valentine, The Used, Tech N9ne, Underoath, BABYMETAL, Black Veil Brides, Asking Alexandria, I Prevail, Greta Van Fleet, Yelawolf, Trivium, Body Count, Quicksand, Red Sun Rising, Baroness, Andrew W.K., Atreyu, Anti-Flag, We Came As Romans, The Bronx, 10 Years, Senses Fail, New Years Day, Emmure, Hawthorne Heights, Turnstile, Miss May I, Code Orange, Power Trip, Dance Gavin Dance, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, Stick To Your Guns, Wilson, From Ashes To New, Black Foxxes, Like A Storm, Shaman’s Harvest, While She Sleeps, The Fever 333, I See Stars, Mutoid Man, My Ticket Home, Cane Hill, Joyous Wolf, Stitched Up Heart, Them Evils, Spirit Animal, Like Moths To Flames and Shim.
Current ticket pricing levels are as follows while supplies last:
Weekend Field VIP – $349.50 plus fees
Weekend Field GA – $299.50 plus fees
Weekend Stadium GA – $149.50 plus fees
The following Premier Hotel and Camping Packages are also available for purchase while supplies last: Premier Hotel Packages: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond Packages; Camping: Uber Ranger Glamping Package; The Diehard Ranger, Ultimate Ranger, and Xtreme Ranger premier packages, as well as the basic GA Camping packages, are currently SOLD OUT. Specially priced tickets for Rock On The Range will be available for active military through ROTR partner GovX (www.govx.com) while supplies last. Rock On The Range is produced by AEG Presents and Danny Wimmer Presents. Rock On The Range is brought to you in part by Monster Energy.
Website: www.RockOnTheRange.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rockontherange
Twitter: www.twitter.com/rockontherange
Instagram: www.instagram.com/rockontherange
Hashtag: #RockOnTheRange
Speaking of Stone Sour, Blabbermouth & The Pulse Of Radio reporting lead singer Corey Taylor has confirmed in an interview with Rock Tube that the band is already working on material for its next LP and that it’s headed in a different direction than this year’s Hydrograd. Taylor explained, “We’ve already been writing some stuff, and it’s actually kind of . . . It looks like it’s darker — (there are) some really cool, darker ideas.”
But Taylor cautioned that it’s still too early to tell which direction Stone Sour’s next disc will take, adding, “It’s one thing to say ‘dark,’ but then you never know. You could say, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s gonna be dark as s**t,’ and then you get in the studio and it’s not dark at all. You’re just, like, ‘Well, what the hell was I talking about?’ You just kind of have to go with the music. You never know.”
Taylor told us last summer that he wanted Hydrograd to be a “good, kick-ass hard rock album,” saying, “We just wanted to make a feel-good album . . . one of those kind of throwback albums that you just put on and there doesn’t have to be an overall message.”
The singer told Rock Tube he was pleased with how Hydrograd turned out, remarking, “Not only do I think it’s the best work that we’ve ever done, but I also feel like we could put this album up against anybody, and not only would we stand our own, we would beat a lot of the s**t that’s out there.” Hydrograd was released at the end of June and featured the chart-topping rock radio hit “Song #3.” The latest track issued from the disc is “Rose Red Violent Blue.”
Stone Sour recently announced a new North American tour for early 2018. The new dates include a co-headline tour with Halestorm that’s set to commence on January 27th in Abbotsford, British Columbia, followed by a string of headline shows with support from Red Sun Rising, which get underway on Feb 16th in Grand Rapids, MI. (See Road Rage.)
Book Ends = driving things
Metallica frontman James Hetfield admitted in a new interview with Clash Music he wasn’t “100 percent” into the era of the band that produced the Load and Reload albums, calling it a “compromise” he didn’t necessarily agree with. Hetfield explained, “There always has to be some kind of compromise — especially when you’ve got four guys in a band. You’ve got two guys that are really driving the thing — Lars (Ulrich, drums) and myself — and when we don’t agree, there has to be a compromise.”
Hetfield continued, “As far as doing something that doesn’t feel right, I’m sure there’s been a few times that it’s happened — the Load and Reload era, for me, was one of those; the way that was looking, I wasn’t 100 percent on with it, but I would say that that was a compromise. I said, ‘I’m going with Lars’s and Kirk‘s (Hammett, guitar) vision on this. You guys are extremely passionate about this, so I’ll jump on board, because if the four of us are into it, it’s going to be better.’ So I did my best with it, and it didn’t pan out as good as I was hoping, but, again, there’s no regrets.”
In a 2016 interview with Team Rock, Hetfield called the Load/Reload period the “U2 version of Metallica.” The 1996 and 1997 releases found the band experimenting wildly with both their music and image, injecting both country and alternative sounds into their songs and doing things like cutting their hair and wearing make-up.
Hetfield told us a while back he thinks the band has endured because they make music for themselves first and foremost: “We’re not gonna not tour or write because people don’t like it. We would continue to do our best, and that’s all we can ask of ourselves and, you know, the creative juices flow, you can’t stop them. I can sit here and say, ‘We wrote this for ourselves and we always have written for ourselves,’ but when other people give you kudos, they enjoy it, they say it relates to them, it makes their life better, of course it’s gonna make you feel even more satisfied.“
Following the Load/Reload albums and tour, Metallica went into a tailspin that resulted in the exit of bassist Jason Newsted, Hetfield spending the better part of a year in rehab and the band nearly splitting up. Following 2003’s even more controversial St. Anger album, the band returned to a heavier style more reminiscent of its early albums on 2008’s Death Magnetic and 2016’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. (Thanks The Pulse Of Radio)
Now this is cool. A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel recalled in an interview with Detroit radio station WRIF how he spent two and a half years working on the Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy. Howerdel explained, “You’d call me ‘Pro Tools engineer,’ basically. I came in, to start, making sounds for Robin Finck, who I knew from Nine Inch Nails. He called me and said, ‘I just got this offer to come down and play some guitar or get some sounds with Guns N’ Roses. They want interesting sounds. Can you help me program?’ And that kind of turned into this two-and-a-half-year gig with the band.”
Howerdel said he eventually became singer Axl Rose‘s “computer guy,” saying, “I kind of was there all night with Axl as he would work. The band came in during the day with a producer and would work most of the day, and then I would come in 10 o’clock at night, say goodbye to those guys, Axl would show up later on, and then we’d do our thing all night and then do it the next day.”
Although Axl has always had a reputation for being difficult, Howerdel told us a while back that he never saw it that way: “You know, I had a really good time working in that camp. You know, Axl was a really hard worker, had a big vision for something he cared passionately about and, you know, it was definitely an interesting two-and-a-half some-odd years of my life.”
Howerdel eventually resigned from the Guns project in September 1999 so he could devote his time to launching A Perfect Circle. A Perfect Circle recently shared the official music video for “The Doomed,” the first new music to be heard from the band’s long-awaited new album, due out in early 2018.
Linkin Park has posted a five-minute official video recap of the band’s tribute concert to its late frontman Chester Bennington. Video of the entire show has also been posted online. The performance took place on October 27th at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and saw Linkin Park return to the stage for the first time — joined by a number of guests — since Bennington took his own life this past July. The band has also asked fans to honor Bennington by donating to the One More Light Foundation. (Blabbermouth/Loudwire)
Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has made his debut as a film composer on a new film called In The Fade. The movie, about a woman who seeks revenge on a neo-Nazi group after they murder her husband and son, will arrive on December 27th. Homme’s score is available on major streaming platforms, with a physical release due in December. Homme was joined by fellow Queens members Michael Shuman and Troy Van Leeuwen for the recording of the soundtrack. (NME)
I Prevail has shared a new music video for the song “Already Dead.” The Samuel Halleen-directed clip stars Kyle Gass of Tenacious D fame. Guitarist Steve Menoian commented, “We wanted to make a video for ‘Already Dead‘ because it gets a great reaction live and is so much fun to play. When Kyle Gass agreed to collaborate with us, it became a bucket list dream come true.” The track is taken from I Prevail’s latest album, Lifelines. (The PRP)
Celebrating life today: both Mike Bordin (Faith No More, ex-Ozzy Osbourne) and Charlie Benante (Anthrax) are 55 today!
