Good morning Radicals! Here’s what’s going on in rock and roll news today:
Ozzy Osbourne insisted in an interview with Rolling Stone that he is not retiring from music at the end of his upcoming “No More Tours 2” tour, but is instead saying goodbye to long global treks in favor of select shows. He explained, “I’m not retiring. It’s ‘No More Tours,’ so I’m just not doing world tours anymore. I’m still going to be doing gigs, but I’m not going on tour for six months at a time anymore. I’d like to spend some time at home.”
The Black Sabbath singer — who also said farewell to that group a year ago this week — said he simply wants to spend more time at home with his ever-expanding family, admitting, “I just need to slow it down a little. I enjoy being a grandfather. I don’t want to go through another generation of Osbournes without seeing them grow up.”
Ozzy’s son Jack and his wife Lisa just welcomed their third daughter into the world last weekend, giving the 70-year-old Prince of Darkness a total of eight grandchildren now.
Ozzy’s final world tour kicks off this spring with dates in Mexico, South America and Europe, coming to North America in August. It’s slated to last until 2020. You can see all the North American tour dates on the Road Rage page.
He said this week at a press conference that he has “eight or nine” song ideas for a new album, which he may work on once the tour is completed. He and his wife/manager Sharon Osbourne also indicated that Ozzfest will continue as an annual destination festival even if Ozzy himself doesn’t play, and that the singer could entertain the idea of doing a residency somewhere.
The members of Halestorm keep beating the drum in interviews for their upcoming fourth album which is expected out later this spring. Speaking with Little Falls, Minnesota radio station FM94 about the yet-to-be-titled LP, bassist Josh Smith said, “It’s the best stuff we’ve ever done. It’s amazing. It’ll be out this year. I can’t tell you when, but we’re finishing it up at the moment. As soon as we get off tour, we go right back in the studio, get back to work and hopefully we’re finishing it up shortly thereafter.”
Halestorm has been working on its fourth studio effort outside Nashville with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who has previously worked with Rush, Korn, Alice In Chains, Deftones and others.
He also produced Halestorm’s third covers EP, ReAniMate 3.0: The CoVeRs eP, which came out in January 2017. The new Halestorm set will follow up 2015’s Into The Wild Life, which some fans criticized for veering too far into pop music territory. Halestorm is currently on tour with Stone Sour. See the full schedule on the Road Rage page.
Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament revealed in a new interview with Rolling Stone that he will release his third solo album, titled Heaven/Hell, in March. Ament is the second member of the group to issue a solo effort in the past year, following drummer Matt Cameron‘s solo debut Cavedweller in late 2017.
Ament did not indicate an exact date for the release or whether he would tour behind it. Pearl Jam itself has been writing its 11th studio LP and is heading out on European and North American tour dates this spring and summer.
Ament did discuss his favorite 2017 albums in the article, naming records by St. Vincent, The War On Drugs, LCD Soundsystem, Mogwai, At the Drive-in, Portugal. The Man and The xx among his top albums of last year.
In addition to a full month of European dates, Pearl Jam will play two shows apiece at Seattle’s Safeco Field, Chicago’s Wrigley Field and Boston’s Fenway Park, in addition to a gig in Missoula, Montana. It’s not clear whether more North American dates are in the works.
Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy has announced a string of U.S. tour dates beginning in May. The trek will be in support of Kennedy’s debut solo album, Year Of The Tiger, which arrives on March 9th. The dates kick off on May 2nd in Spokane, Washington, with Kennedy finishing up on the 25th of that month in Dundee, Illinois. Check out the full lineup on the Road Rage page.
Kennedy, who also fronts Slash‘s solo band, told us a while back that he’s gotten more comfortable behind the mic over the years: “You know, I think I’ve gradually learned to become more of a frontman than I was initially. I mean, when I first started, especially playing with Alter Bridge, you know, I really considered myself more a guitar player who sang. As the years have gone on, and then especially once I started playing with Slash and I was pretty much for the entire set without a guitar, learning to evolve into more of a front guy. I don’t consider myself the greatest by any means, I just — I’m starting to feel more comfortable with it.”
Year Of The Tiger is inspired by the death of Kennedy’s father when the singer was a young boy, with Kennedy saying, “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, so it’s a full-on concept from start to finish.”
Kennedy will perform cuts from his entire career on the tour, including the Mayfield Four, Alter Bridge and Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators.
Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday today to Linkin Park bassist Dave “Phoenix” Farrell, and Vince Neil of Motley Crue! Have a great day!
