Here’s your music news for this morning. We’ll start off with the saddest bit, in case you missed it yesterday.
All That Remains guitarist Oli Herbert has died at the age of 44. Although details of what happened remain unclear, Herbert apparently passed away in an accident near his home in Connecticut. According to the Connecticut State Police, he was found dead in a pond near his home around 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday (October 16th) after he was reported missing.
Officers searched the area and found Herbert’s body in the pond, with officials saying at press time that there didn’t appear to be anything suspicious about the situation. An autopsy was slated for Wednesday (October 17th) to determine the cause of death.
The band said in a statement, “Oli was an incredibly talented guitarist and songwriter who defined rock and metal from the Northeast. His impact on the genres and our lives will continue indefinitely . . . The band and family request that you please respect their privacy and remember Oli by celebrating the great music he made.”
Herbert’s widow, Beth, later released the following statement via his official Facebook page: “Thank you all for the kind thoughts and words. I don’t want to go into what happened until we have a complete picture, but as soon as we do, there will be a statement from the family on this page. In the meantime, please respect our privacy as there are still relatives being informed of Oli’s passing. Thank you.”
Until his death, Herbert was the only other remaining original member of the group aside from singer Phil Labonte. Herbert appeared on all nine of the group’s albums, including the upcoming Victim Of The New Disease, which is due out November 9th.
A lawsuit filed by four former members of Ghost against the band’s leader, Tobias Forge, has been dismissed by a Swedish court. Forge, who founded the group eight years ago, was sued by the four ex-members in April 2017. They accused the singer of cheating them out of their rightful share of the profits from the band’s album releases and world tours.
The lawsuit was filed in the district court of Linköping, Sweden, where Ghost was originally based. It claimed that a partnership agreement existed between Forge and the four former members, all of whom performed anonymously in the band as Nameless Ghouls. As a result of the lawsuit, Forge was forced to reveal his identity after years of performing in a mask as Papa Emeritus.
Forge responded that “no legal partnership” ever existed between him and the other members, that they were paid a fixed salary to perform as his backing band, and that they were essentially session musicians.
Forge told us that the lawsuit only inspired him to work harder at making Ghost a success: “I had a situation that urgently told me to salvage the situation and reclaim what is mine and also justify that it was mine to begin with. It’s just growing pains, and all this has just been — it’s the result of things going well, not the opposite.”
The trial in Linköping District Court lasted for six days, and a 108-page decision was released on Wednesday (October 17th) dismissing the case. The four former members — Simon Soderberg, Mauro Rubino, Henrik Palm and Martin Hjertstedt — were also ordered to pay Forge’s legal fees, which could amount to approximately $146,000. They have three weeks to appeal the ruling.
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has revealed that the band intends to take some time off before recording a new album. Grohl shared the news during an interview with Billboard, saying, “You kind of set these goals for yourself, to see if you can do it again, even when you’re crawling to the finish line you know that it’s there. So here we are at the last set of shows we’ve been on for a year and a half and I’m ready to take a break, but I’m ready to do it again at some point.”
The Foos have been taking a year or two off between their last few albums, although Grohl tends to pop up in between LP cycles with other projects such as his Sound City documentary from a few years back.
He also told Billboard that he already has a rough idea of what the band’s next album — its 10th — should be, explaining, “When we start making records it’s almost like I don’t hear the song as much as I can see them, in my head . . . I see music in kind of shapes and patterns, so I can see the next record, I know that there is another one there, I don’t know when but I think I know what we should do.”
The Foos will finish out their current North American tour and 2018 itinerary on October 23rd in Calgary, Canada. Nothing else is on the books except for two gigs in New Orleans next February and two festival dates the following June. The band has been touring behind its Concrete And Gold LP, which came out in September 2017.
Grohl himself and some friends will debut his 23-minute solo track “Play” live at Warren Haynes‘ annual Christmas Jam on December 8th in Asheville, North Carolina. All proceeds from Christmas Jam will go to the Asheville area Habitat for Humanity.
Ozzy Osbourne has announced the new dates for the four shows on his North American “No More Tours 2” that he was recently forced to cancel. The 69-year-old rocker was hospitalized earlier in the month after suffering a hand injury that led to an infection and surgery.
Three of the four scrapped shows were in California, while the fourth was in Las Vegas. All four shows have now been rescheduled for July 2019. The new dates are:
July 20 – Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena
July 23 – Chula Vista, CA – Mattress Firm Amphitheatre
July 27 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
July 29 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl
Ticketholders for the four shows should hold on to their tickets, as they will be honored for the rescheduled dates. Refunds are also available at point of purchase.
Despite the name of the tour being a reference to Ozzy’s 1992 “farewell” trek — which turned out to be anything but — the current jaunt is said to be his last major global tour of this length and will end in 2020.
Greta Van Fleet has released a stream of yet another new song, titled “You’re The One.” It’s the fifth and probably final track released ahead of the band’s first full-length LP, Anthem Of The Peaceful Army, which arrives on Friday (October 19th). The quartet has previously previewed the tunes “Anthem,” “When The Curtain Falls,” “Watching Over” and “Lover, Leaver.”
Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to Citizen Zero guitarist Sammy Boller! Have a great day!
