Happy Valentine’s Day Radicals! Remember that rock and roll loves you!
Rage Against The Machine has unveiled a plan to combat online ticket scalping for its upcoming reunion tour.
While tickets for the 40-date “Public Service Announcement” trek are officially going on sale Thursday (February 13th), you can already buy tickets for most shows on StubHub and for festival dates on Ticketmaster — at hugely jacked up prices.
On Wednesday (February 12th), a statement was posted on Rage’s official web site which said in part, “We are doing everything we can to protect 90% of the RATM tickets from scalpers and then WE are holding in reserve 10% of the seating (random seats throughout each venue) to sell at a higher ticket price (but low enough to undercut the scalpers) We will donate 100% OF THE MONEY over the base ticket price to charities and activist organizations IN EACH CITY.”
The statement continued, “We are confident this will help many more fans get tickets at face value and put a big dent in the aftermarket gouging. WE HATE SCALPING AS MUCH AS YOU DO and will continue to try to find ways to combat it.”
The band added that it is donating all profits from its first three shows to immigrants’ rights organizations and will be supporting multiple charities and activist organizations throughout the tour.
The reunited quartet will kick off its first major trek in 20 years in March at several cities along or near the Mexican border, before headlining the 2020 installment of Coachella in Indio, California. The rest of the spring and fall will see the group playing arena shows and festivals, before heading to Europe in late summer for a string of major festivals.
Five Finger Death Punch singer Ivan Moody said in a new interview with Metal Hammer that he would have died if he had tried to complete the band’s 2016 tour.
Moody’s struggles with alcohol abuse came to a head in November 2016, when the band has to cut a show short due to his erratic behavior. All That Remains singer Phil Labonte finished out the trek while Moody headed to rehab.
Moody recalled, “At first, man, I was f**king livid, but Phil’s a blessing, man. That guy saved the day for me. If I would’ve finished that European tour, I’d have died on the plane ride home.”
It was the first of several attempts to get clean. Guitarist Zoltan Bathory told us that for a while the band didn’t know if their singer would survive: “Ivan was in a very difficult situation. Went back many, many times to rehab and, you know, at moments he looked like he’s not gonna make it. And sometimes it looks like he’s gonna be a statistic — he’s gonna be another rock star that didn’t make it, you know?”
More incidents, missed shows and trips to rehab took place over the course of the next year, and it was late 2018 when Moody finally turned the corner. Moody credited fellow vocalists Rob Halford of Judas Priest and Korn‘s Jonathan Davis with giving him support along the way as he’s now reached 19 months of sobriety.
Five Finger Death Punch’s new album, F8, is due out on February 28th, with the band launching a spring North American tour on April 8th in Sunrise, Florida.
Want to hear new music from Pearl Jam? All you have to do is point your smartphone at the moon.
A week before the official release of the single “Superblood Wolfmoon,” Universal Music Group and creative studio Powster have teamed for an augmented-reality experience that can be unlocked via Pearl Jam’s web app.
Fans can point their cellphone cameras at the moon, triggering onscreen animations around and over the actual moon along with a preview of “Superblood Wolfmoon.” Fans will also be able to access a pre-order page for the single ahead of its February 18th release.
Android and iOS users can visit the moon.pearljam.com site to unlock the AR experience.
Powster CEO Ste Thompson said in a statement, “We’re honored to be working with Pearl Jam to bring their music to life through technology blended with the elements of nature that inspired their tone. This activation displays their innovation and creative energy going into their new album.”
“Superblood Wolfmoon” is the second single from the band’s upcoming 11th studio album, Gigaton, following the release last month of “Dance Of The Clairvoyants.” Gigaton is set to arrive on March 27th.
Ozzy Osbourne has revealed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that he was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease back in 2003. The legendary singer disclosed that he was stricken with the disease last month during an appearance on Good Morning America.
Ozzy told the Times, “I’m not dying from Parkinson’s. I’ve been working with it most of my life. I’ve cheated death so many times. If tomorrow you read ‘Ozzy Osbourne never woke up this morning,’ you wouldn’t go, ‘Oh, my God!’ You’d go, ‘Well, it finally caught up with him.'”
Ozzy has told us before that he’s been spooked by the number of musicians who have died in recent years: “I mean, of late everyone’s dropping dead. I’m only hoping my number don’t come up soon. You hear me talking, I’m lucky I’m not one of the dead ones, ’cause I used to — I mean, when there’s drugs involved or alcohol, I should have died a thousand times.”
Ozzy, who noted that the medication he takes for tremors can cause short-term memory loss, hopes to resume his solo farewell tour later this year. He had neck surgery early last year to correct an old injury that he aggravated, forcing him to stay off the road for all of 2019.
But he cautioned that he wasn’t sure when he would hit the stage again, adding, “I don’t want to go back out there until I’m ready.”
For now, Ozzy is scheduled to resume the North American leg of tour this spring. His first new solo album in 10 years, Ordinary Man, is due for release on February 21st.
Metallica has announced that its second annual “All Within My Hands Helping Hands Concert” has been rescheduled from March to September. The event will now be held on September 12th at the Masonic in San Francisco. Last year’s concert saw the band take to the stage acoustically with proceeds from the show and an accompanying auction raising over $1.3 million for charity. Funds raised from it went towards Feeding America and the American Association of Community Colleges.
Asking Alexandria has shared a new song called “They Don’t Want What We Want (And They Don’t Care).” Guitarist Ben Bruce said about the track, “Some of Danny (Worsnop)’s catchiest vocals, one of the biggest guitar riffs I’ve ever written and some of James (Cassell)’s best drumming all thrown into one big melting pot. We cannot wait to play this song live! We are super proud to be flying the rock flag high on this one.” The song is expected to appear on the British band’s next LP, due later this year.
Weezer, The Smashing Pumpkins and 311 top the bill for the 2020 Beale Street Music Festival, scheduled to take place at Tom Lee Park in Memphis, Tennessee from May 1st through the 3rd. Other rock and alternative acts in the lineup include Dirty Honey, The 1975, The Lumineers, Deftones, Noel Gallagher, Manchester Orchestra, Rival Sons, AJR, Portugal. The Man, Of Monsters And Men and more, along with acts from many other genres. Tickets are on sale now at $55 for a single-day pass, $145 for a three-day ticket and $699 for a VIP package.
Have a wonderful Valentine’s, and an awesome weekend!
