Good morning Radicals! Here’s what’s up in music news today:
The members of Greta Van Fleet told Billboard in a new interview that the quartet’s plans for 2019 include writing and recording new music, despite the fact that the band’s first full-length album, Anthem Of The Peaceful Army, just came out in October.
Asked about the group’s plans for the New Year, bassist Sam Kiszka said, “A lot more writing, getting some stuff recorded and start working on the next thing.” Pressed if that meant they would release new music next year, drummer Danny Wagner joked, “Oh yeah, absolutely. I’ll quit if we don’t.” Frontman Josh Kiszka added, “We’ll all quit; we’re parting ways if we don’t release new music.”
To keep the set lists fresh on its current tour, the band is bringing archival songs into the mix on occasion. Guitarist Jake Kiszka told us earlier this year that the band had a wealth of backlogged music: “The whole canon’s packed full so, you know, we’ve got enough material to blast out an album. And we’re continuously writing more as well, so it’s — I wouldn’t say that it’s an issue at all but it becomes more selective now that we have so much material.”
While there is no timeline to release new material, the band members claimed they have been writing songs since the day they finished recording Anthem Of The Peaceful Army, and have completed several new tracks. Anthem Of The Peaceful Army opened at Number Three on the Billboard 200 chart in October.
Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge has told Philadelphia’s WMMR that his “biggest wish” at the moment is to create a Ghost-branded pinball machine. He explained, “I love pinball, and from the amount of characters that we have, that’s a little bit more my focus right now. Just knowing that I wanna make a pinball machine with finally enough fodder to make that now.”
Forge himself doesn’t own any pinball machines, but added, “It’s definitely . . . I have a long purchase list of things that I want in my so-called ‘man cave.’”
Forge also revealed that he has pondered the idea of developing a musical based on Ghost’s music, saying, “I think the one different aspect of what I have in mind, as opposed to other rock musicals, is that most other rock musicals, except for Tommy, I guess, and a few more, is that we’re not technically a historic band, so it would not be a legacy thing where there would be a retrospective of all of our songs.”
Forge added that he would not want to write the script for a musical himself, but would compose the music and “lend” one of the Ghost characters, like Cardinal Copia or Papa Emeritus, to the story.
Ghost is on tour promoting its latest album, Prequelle, which came out in June. The band’s lengthy North American trek closes out this Saturday (December 15th) in Brooklyn, New York.
Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch has shared a new video feature for I Am Second in which he discusses his faith and how he feels it led him back to the band after eight years apart.
Welch left the band back in 2005 while battling drug addiction and more, becoming a born again Christian. After pursuing various other projects, he rejoined Korn in 2013 and has remained a member ever since. He said in the video, “It’s not the most popular thing to do at a rock concert, is talk about Christ. Now I’m doing it because it’s the most realest thing that’s happened to me in my life.”
Welch continued, “We need to figure out what’s right for our lives for this time, you know? I did that, I followed God right back into Korn and he’s there and I’m not separated from them or the fans any longer. It says in the Bible he’s gonna restore all things. God is so good that he’s restored me in that way.”
Welch‘s previously strained relationship with his daughter and his own struggles with fatherhood during his time away from Korn serves as the focus of a new documentary titled Loud Krazy Love. That film will air on Showtime this Friday (December 14th).
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Red Hot Chili Peppers bass player Flea are among the artists who will participate in interviews for Punk, a documentary series being produced for the Epix cable channel that aims to tell the “quintessential story of punk.”
Iggy Pop will serve as executive producer on the upcoming four-part series, which will also include interviews with the Sex Pistols‘ John Lydon, Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, Marky Ramone, the MC5’s Wayne Kramer, Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra and more.
A statement from Epix said about the series, “Featuring original interviews with America’s punk pioneers and the U.K.’s most notorious bands, alongside a seamless blend of rare and unseen photos, gritty archival film and video, a crackling soundtrack of punk hits and misses, Punk explores the music, the fashion, the art and the DIY attitude of a subculture of self-described misfits and outcasts.”
Modern-day punk rock singer Tim McIlrath from Rise Against told us a while back that punk still exists but has taken different forms: “It’s sort of gone in two different directions. It’s gone in this very commercialized state of punk rock where you have all these bands doing punk simply because mohawks happen to be selling more this year than vinyl pants and Goth makeup. But you still have the real punk rock bands out there that are doing it for the right reasons. Punk rock is still out there. You just have to sift through a lot more stuff to find it, but you will find it.”
Punk will premiere on Epix on March 11th, 2019.
Guns N’ Roses closed out the “Not In This Lifetime” reunion tour with their first-ever concert in Hawaii on December 8th. The band’s extended final show at Aloha Stadium lasted almost three-and-a-half hours, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Although Guns N’ Roses have not given any indication of the band’s plans beyond this tour, Axl Rose seemed to hint at a future for them during the encores, telling the crowd, “Thank you very much for the last couple of years, and we hope to keep this thing running, so we’ll see what happens next. We had to get through this first, and you helped us do that. We can’t do what’s next until we finish this.”
After the show, the band’s Twitter account posted, “Mahalo Hawaii! Thank you for an unforgettable closing night.” Guns manager Fernando Lebeis posted a picture of Rose walking backstage in a robe after the concert, alongside a caption that reads “The End…?”
Both guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan — the other two original members involved in the tour — tweeted their thanks after the show as well. Slash called the 159-show tour “an amazing ride,” while McKagan called the trek “simply unbelievable.”
The trio of Rose, Slash and McKagan launched the “Not In This Lifetime” tour with a rare club show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on April 1st, 2016. Now ending its third year, the trek has been seen by over five million fans and is among the five biggest-selling concert tours in music history, with ticket sales of more than $500 million.
Finally, we want to wish a Happy Birthday to Sevendust drummer Morgan Rose, Blink 182 & Angels & Airwaves singer Tom DeLonge, and Evanescence singer Amy Lee! Have a wonderful day!
