Happy hump day Radicals! Here’s what’s going on in the world of rock and roll!
Ghost has revealed the dates and venues for its “Rats! On The Road” North American tour, which kicks off on May 5th in Riverside, California and ends on June 1st in St. Paul, Minnesota. You ca see all the dates on the Road Rage page. The Swedish occult metal act has been working on new material since last year and is expected to release its fourth studio album in late spring or early summer. The tour is named after one of the songs on the LP, “Rats,” although it has yet to seen if that is the album title as well.
Ghost frontman Tobias Forge — who performs as Papa Emeritus — told us a while back that Ghost enjoys coming to America: “We always love touring America, it’s always fun. Touring Europe and North America is very, very different. It helps that it’s the same language everywhere. You can stop anywhere and just go out on the street and talk to anybody. America’s always treated us very well too. It is truly a, it’s a wild place, and you guys like rock ‘n’ roll.”
Ghost’s new LP will follow up 2015’s Meliora, which featured the Grammy-winning breakthrough hit “Cirice.” Forge told Revolver about the upcoming disc, “It is loosely themed around the concept of death and doom. It’s a themed album around medieval times, but it’s definitely clinging onto a lot of very current things.”
Original Guns N’ Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin came close to joining the band’s “Not In This Lifetime” reunion tour on at least one stop, according to one-time Guns manager Alan Niven. Stradlin allegedly showed up for a soundcheck rehearsal in Nashville, but things fell apart at the last minute. Original drummer Steven Adler was there as well and did play — if Stradlin had performed, it would have been the first time the founding Guns lineup played together in 26 years.
Niven explained on the Appetite For Distortion podcast, “Obviously, had it gone well and everybody had been happy, and there had been a little bit of brotherhood — I’m sure he would have stayed with it. But something must have really upset him, because he left after the soundcheck, and never turned up for another one or an appearance. I would think right now, he’s probably a little pissed off.”
Fans on a Guns message board have backed reports that the show was indeed in Nashville. Adler also performed with the band in Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Buenos Aires. Stradlin has mostly avoided commenting publicly on his absence from the reunion lineup, only claiming in one since-deleted tweet that the band “didn’t want to split the loot equally.” The “Not in This Lifetime” tour, meanwhile, will continue with another round of dates later this year.
Stone Sour has announced a spring headlining tour with support on select dates from Palaye Royale, The Bronx and ’68. The trek will include appearances at several festivals in the U.S. If all goes according to plan, the month-long run will mark the return of guitarist Josh Rand, who last performed with the group in January before he entered treatment for unspecified issues.
It is not clear whether Rand is being treated for a medical issue or problems with substance or alcohol abuse. Stone Sour is touring in support of its sixth studio effort, Hydrograd, which came out at the end of June and features the chart-topping rock radio hit “Song #3.” The latest track issued from the disc is “Rose Red Violent Blue.”
The band will also support Ozzy Osbourne on the initial North American leg of his “No More Tours 2” tour, which kicks off August 30th in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Muse has revealed that the band is in the process of assembling a vinyl box set titled Origin Of Muse that will collect early material including unreleased songs and demos, as well as photos and videos. The package will cover the era from the trio’s formation through its first two albums, 1999’s Showbiz and 2001’s Origin Of Symmetry.
Speaking on Beats One, the band members admitted that the set was “still in progress,” with drummer Dominic Howard saying, “There’s some really early versions of some of the Showbiz tracks and a really early version of ‘Plug In Baby’ which is actually quite an old song and it didn’t make the first album.”
Howard added, “There was some really old live recordings that we found as well from the early days. We’re still just debating whether they’re actually listenable or not! I think it will happen eventually . . . it’s a big old wormhole of old footage and music and cuttings and ridiculous pictures of us at school and stuff.”
Frontman Matt Bellamy explained that there were unreleased songs from later albums in the vault as well, saying, “There’s a track called ‘Soaked’ we did that was going to be on the (2004) Absolution album but it felt like an Elton John tune . . . Everyone sort of agreed that even though it was a good song it wasn’t really right for Muse. We recorded it. That’s buried somewhere.”
Muse released a new single and video on February 15th called “Thought Contagion.” The track follows “Dig Down,” which was released last year. The band intends to issue two more singles in the coming months, with the full album arriving either in the fall or early 2019.
Cable channel Showtime is developing a documentary about Stone Temple Pilots. Kent Sevener, Showtime executive VP of content acquisition & business & legal affairs, revealed the existence of the project in an interview with Broadcasting & Cable, promising “a compelling story” and explaining that “not a lot has been done about the band.” Sevener did not indicate when the documentary would air or if footage has already been compiled for it.
STP bassist Robert DeLeo told us a while back that he’s never taken the band’s success for granted: “I really enjoy what I do. I think it’s an honor, and I don’t take it lightly. I feel blessed to be out here, making music and playing for people. It’s a dream that I had when I was little, and to be able to follow through with that dream and continue to do that, is a complete honor.”
STP will releases its self-titled seventh album on March 16th. The set marks the recording debut of singer and one-time The X Factor contestant Jeff Gutt as the third vocalist in the group’s history. Gutt made his live debut with the band last November at the Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles. Before that, STP had been without a vocalist since November 2015, when the late Chester Bennington — who joined the group in early 2013 — departed to spend more time with his main band Linkin Park.
Scott Weiland, who reunited with the group in 2010 after an eight-year hiatus but was dismissed in 2013, died in December 2015 of a drug overdose while on a solo tour.
STP will begin its first tour with Gutt on the mic this Friday (March 2nd) in Santa Clarita, California.
That’s Dirt! Have a wonderful day!
