Good morning Radicals! Well, it’s that time of year again…
The 2020 nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been announced with Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Judas Priest, Motorhead and Depeche Mode among the celebrated rock artists leading the pack.
Nine Inch Nails and Judas Priest have been up for the Hall before, this year joining previously shortlisted artists Todd Rundgren, Kraftwerk, Rufus & Chaka Khan and the MC5. Joining Soundgarden, Motorhead and Depeche Mode as first-time nominees are Pat Benatar, Whitney Houston, Dave Matthews Band, The Notorious B.I.G., T. Rex, and Thin Lizzy.
The top Rock Hall vote-getters will be announced in January and inducted on May 2nd, 2020 at Cleveland’s Public Hall, with the event airing live.
To be eligible for this year’s ballot, each nominee’s first single or album had to be released in 1994 or earlier. For the seventh consecutive year, the public will have the opportunity to vote alongside the more than 800 artists, historians and music industry insiders of the Rock Hall voting body. Fans can vote on the Rock Hall’s site https://www.rockhall.com for the nominees they’d like to see inducted. The top five acts will comprise a “fan’s ballot” that will count as one of the ballots that determine the class of 2020.
Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil shed light on what the honor means for the band and the work of the late Chris Cornell: “I felt proud. I thought this is important, especially for the legacy of Soundgarden and for Chris’ legacy. As both a current enterprise as well as a posthumous enterprise. There’s still things we want to release that have not been; just some old tapes, some live performances. So, in that regard, there is a current concern, but also in looking back — and I think in terms of the legacy and something like this nomination — it is important. I never had the opportunity to look back before and to understand it that way and the legacy and the body of work we’ve completed up to this point.”
Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford told us he’s proud to have Priest considered part of the fabric that connects the best of rock: “It’s just fantastic to be in the same category of all the other extraordinary talent is a thrill. And it just re-emphasizes the broad spectrum of what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame represents. It’s a little bit of everybody, again.”
Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee told us he was absolutely over the moon at the prospect of the band being singled out: “We’ve been waiting for that (laughs) for a long time. And in my book, if anyone really deserves to be in that Hall of Fame, it’s Motorhead in so many ways, ’cause they’re the inspiration of thousands of bands.”
Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor was the sole member of the band to be nominated. He told us a while back that music has always been the best way for him to express his emotions: “In my early 20’s, when I first started to write music, it was because I found a way to take this anger or pain or resentment or sadness and express it in a way other than punching a wall, that had some beauty to it. And then later found out, if I put it to music, there’s real power here and there’s kind of a truthful honesty or something that people that have heard it seem to relate to.”
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and his band The Coattail Riders will release their third studio album, titled Get The Money, on November 8th. The band has shared a preview track called “Crossed The Line” that features guest appearances from Foos mastermind Dave Grohl and Yes vocalist Jon Davison.
In addition to Grohl and Davison, guests on the LP include Foos guitarist Pat Smear, Queen drummer Roger Taylor, the Eagles‘ Joe Walsh, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Nancy Wilson from Heart, the Pretenders‘ Chrissie Hynde, Perry Farrell, LeAnn Rimes and more.
Hawkins told us a while ago that working on other projects helps keep him in playing shape when Foo Fighters are not busy: “I’m not really the kind of guy that sits around like, ‘I’m gonna go play drums by myself for two hours.’ I just don’t. Not interested in that. I’ve always only ever played in bands and with other people. And yes, I do think it keeps my ears fresh and my hands in shape and it keeps me in shape so I can go do the crazy three-hour Foo Fighters shows.”
In addition to the Coattail Riders, Hawkins has also released one album from a group called the Birds Of Satan and also issued a mini-LP in 2016 called KOTA on which he sang lead vocals and played nearly every instrument.
Foo Fighters themselves are reportedly in the early stages of work on a new album, the band’s 10th, although details remain scarce.
Guns N’ Roses‘ classic song “Sweet Child O’ Mine” is now officially the first music video from the 1980s to reach a billion views on YouTube. This is the second such milestone for the band, whose 1992 video for “November Rain” became in 2018 the first — and so far only — clip from the 1990s to reach the coveted billion-view mark.
“Sweet Child O’ Mine” was a breakthrough commercial smash from the first Guns album, 1987’s Appetite For Destruction, which remains the best-selling U.S. debut album ever with more than 30 million copies shifted worldwide.
Three members of the band’s founding lineup — singer Axl Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan — reunited in 2016 for the “Not In This Lifetime” tour, which is still going strong after three years and is now Number Four on the list of the most successful tours in music history.
The band is gearing up to enter the studio sometime soon and begin work on the first new Guns album since 2008’s Chinese Democracy and the first to feature the three original members since 1993’s covers set, “The Spaghetti Incident?”
Bring Me The Horizon has launched a website that will deliver a customized T-shirt based on one’s Spotify listening habits of the band. Called “Amo in Color,” the colorful merch generator lets the listener pick six favorite songs from the band’s recent album Amo in illustrating the personalized garment. It uses those six selections in combination with one’s previous band listening history on Spotify to generate the made-to-order T-shirt.
YouTuber Ten Second Songs, aka Anthony Vincent, is known for covering classic tunes in very different genres. His newest offering is a rendition of Slipknot‘s “Psychosocial,” done in — count ’em — 25 very diverse styles. Vincent sings the hard-driving tune in the style of Hanson, The Cure, Britney Spears, Linkin Park and Lil Nas X, as well as a broken Gameboy, meditation music, kids’ group the Wiggles and even “every girl with a ukulele (that loves Billie Eilish).”
A new documentary called The Rainbow features interviews with Ozzy Osbourne, Slash, Gene Simmons, Lita Ford, the late Lemmy Kilmister and many others in a look at the vast and legendary history of Hollywood’s famed Rainbow Bar & Grill and Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip. The film gives viewers an inside look at the Maglieri family, who owned both venues and dedicated their lives to preserving rock history. The Rainbow will be available on demand October 29th.
Finally, let’s wish a Happy Birthday to Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Hellyeah singer Chad Grey, Blacktop Mojo guitarist Chuck Wepfer and Taproot singer Stephen Richards! That’s a damn fine collection of ass-kickers!
