Good morning Radicals! Here’s what’s up in music news today!
Tool drummer Danny Carey, bassist Justin Chancellor and guitarist Adam Jones will take part in a series of music clinics next month. The three musicians will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the group’s music that will include discussing their writing process and analyzing individual tracks in an open question-and-answer discussion. Ticket holders will also receive exclusive commemorative merchandise.
Chancellor was asked a while back whether the members of Tool work separately on new songs, or create them while rehearsing together: “Both. We all bring in lots of ideas, and we jam ’em a lot, and we tear ’em apart, and put them back together, and sometimes in the process, we come up with spontaneity and a completely fresh, new idea.”
The event, billed as a “rare, immersive dissection and performance,” will not include frontman Maynard James Keenan, although the three instrumental members of the group will perform for the audience. A traveling exhibit will also be on display at each event, featuring unique items from Tool’s history.
Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 13th at 10:00 a.m. local time. A limited number of tickets allotted for Tool Army members will available on Wednesday (April 11th) at 1:00 p.m. ET via the band’s webstore. Tickets are reportedly $500 each. Tool is currently recording its long-awaited new album, which is expected to arrive later this year.
System Of A Down has announced its first U.S. shows in three years, a five-date run starting October 13th in San Bernardino, California and ending on October 19th in Las Vegas, Nevada. The quartet last performed in the U.S. during their 2015 “Wake Up The Souls” tour, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Their most recent live work was a 2017 European run. The band has toured sporadically since reuniting in 2010 after a five-year hiatus, although it’s been 13 years since they’ve released new music.
System last released new music in 2005 when it issued the Mezmerize and Hypnotize LPs six months apart. Although there has been talk of a new music over the last few years, it has yet to surface. Singer Serj Tankian told Rolling Stone year that the band members have “discussed” making new music but added that they “still haven’t come eye to eye on how things should be done for us to be able to move forward with it.”
Nevertheless, Tankian insisted that all four musicians were friends, saying, “We have a great time together touring. But sometimes putting together a record, and that creative output and how things should be done, is different in four people’s heads and it doesn’t always come together.”
Metallica frontman James Hetfield has revealed that he used the wood from a garage that played an early role in the band’s career to build a new guitar. The guitar is named “Carl” after 3132 Carlson Boulevard in El Cerrito, California, the band’s home during its breakthrough years from 1983 to 1986. During this period, the group rehearsed and wrote most of the songs for the albums Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets in the house’s garage, which has since been torn down. A video is now online in which Hetfield tells the story of how “Carl” came to be. Shoutout to Blabbermouth for the story!
Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor paid musical tribute to Paul Gray on what would have been the late Slipknot bassist’s 46th birthday by posting a video of himself playing a short piece on his home piano. Taylor wrote in the caption, “Happy Birthday. #2,” referring to Gray by the number assigned to the bassist in the band. Gray was found dead on May 24th, 2010 after overdosing on drugs in a hotel room in a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa. Gray was 38 years old at the time of his death.
Ozzy Osbourne has given up driving for good after he was involved in a minor accident on the road, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mirror. His son Jack told the tabloid, “He had a little bumper kiss on the freeway with someone and he was, like, ‘You know, I don’t want to drive anymore.’ He was already driving less and less. I think he is of that mindset he’d rather not have the responsibility.”
Jack added that the Black Sabbath singer was especially worried about the possibility of facing a lawsuit even if the damage wasn’t that great. He explained, “Think about it — Ozzy bumps someone, and it is, like, next thing you know, ‘We are going to sue for a billion,’ because people are silly. His thing was more, like, ‘I don’t want to be liable.’”
Ozzy made headlines in 2010 when he rear-ended another car while driving around Los Angeles, although there were no injuries and damage was minor. Ozzy’s wife and manager Sharon addressed the incident on The Talk, saying, “Ozzy just recently passed his driving test and you know, every guy’s dream from being a kid, they’ve wanted to have a Ferrari. So he goes and gets himself one. It had 20 miles on the clock, he goes, ‘I’m going driving.’ He goes out, gets lost, doesn’t know where he is and he hits another car.”
Ozzy revealed in a 2010 interview that it took him 19 attempts to obtain his driver’s license because he was always “drunk or something.” The vocalist was nearly killed in 2003 when an all-terrain vehicle he was driving around the grounds of his English estate flipped over. Ozzy suffered a broken collarbone, eight fractured ribs and a damaged vertebrae in his neck.
Finally, we wish a Happy Birthday to Mike Mushok of Staind!
