Laura: This song wrote itself. Sometimes I'll wake up at night with a paragraph written, word for word in my head, and I just put it onto paper, and�boom!�it's a song. I feel really lucky when that happens. For this one, I was sleeping in the van on an overnight drive and I woke up from a recurring dream, where this guy I used to know was following me. In the dream, I'm never so much scared of him as I am anxious to avoid him seeing me or finding me. I met him on tour and there were a lot of emotions attached and our story was just like if you had ripped the last part of a story out of a book and thrown it away. I just started thinking about how unfair that was and I thought if I wrote down my dream, it would get out of the bowels of my mind.

On his blog, group member Mark Hoppus says the recent death of Blink producer Jerry Finn and drummer Travis Barker's survival of a plane crash brought the threesome back in contact.

GNRDaily.com reports that Guns N' Roses new album "Chinese Democracy" will be available for streaming in its entirety on the official Guns N' Roses MySpace page today November 20. Check it out here

There are also rumors sweeping the internet that Chinese Democracy has leaked and is being shared around torrent sites. more

To think, it only took 14 years and a budding UK filmmaker named Jimmy Reay to get Axl Rose and Slash to appear in a video together. Well, kinda. Reay and his friend Jamie DeBarge both donned costumes to appear as Gun N' Roses members past and present to appear in this video, to the new GN'R' song Chinese Democracy. You gotta see it

Speaking of videos. Chinese Democracy's impending arrival has VH1 digging into the MTV News vaults for gems from the Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose. Topping the list: October 24, 1987: Guns N' Roses Trash "Headbangers Ball" This is GN'R's first-ever appearance on MTV, and they definitely made a lasting impression, especially on "Headbangers" host Asher Benrubi (who, incidentally, looks like a cross between Ron Jeremy and your aunt's pontoon-boat-owning boyfriend). After a perfunctory interview (Axl mostly just scowls and wears a leather fedora), GN'R are given 30 seconds to "redecorate" the studio, at which point all hell breaks loose. Axl displays his superhuman strength by hoisting a casket-shaped riser above his head and tossing it at Benrubi, nearly killing him (OK, so Slash helps). Check out the full article

Now for some more fun. Our friends over at Music Radar put together a special look at "33 insane facts about Chinese Democracy," which is a must read for any GNR fan. Here is just the first fact:

Those with an IQ over 100 can skip this story. Miley Cyrus will be performing on Dancing With The Stars at the end of the month. The teen poptart will entertain fans on the season 7 finale November 25th on ABC. more

Poor Gene Simmons. On the day he gets to ring the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange the markets take a nose dive with the down sinking below 8000 for the first time in five years. Ouch! Ee can't blame Gene for this but still the irony of the man that signs his signature with a dollar sign ringing the bell on a doomed market is something to note. Watch the video

Megadeth's frontman Dave Mustaine once sang "what do you mean I don't support your system? I go to court when I have to." He will now have to live up to those words when he reports for jury duty this coming May. more

On November 25, The Sword will release a limited edition CD set that includes both Age Of Winters and Gods Of The Earth. This special package will be available at all of their live shows (both headlining and Metallica support dates) as well as on Amazon

Kristin Andreassen, solo artist and guitarist/vocalist/clogger with the acclaimed stringband Uncle Earl, will be performing live on the nationally syndicated popular radio program A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keilor on Saturday, November 22. Andreassen will also participate in a live performance of the program on November 21. more

Lil Goonie has teamed up with America's favorite guilty pleasure, Girls Gone Wild, as part of the new "Hollywood Gone Wild" campaign. The campaign will feature Lil Goonie's single "Girlz Gone Wild" in a series of commercials and infomercials, to be run on major networks such as SpikeTV, Comedy Central, MTV, and FUSE.

Book Of Black Earth are proud to announce their involvement in the January / February 2009 Killing 'Til Oblivion Tour with Cattle Decapitation, Psyopus, Book of Black Earth, and Gigan in support of the band's second full-length and Prosthetic Records debut 'Horoskopus.'

Former Korn guitarist turned solo artist, Brian "Head" Welch, will be a featured guest star on the December 4th episode of L.A. Ink. The segment was filmed earlier this summer and Head got a new tattoo on the show.more

Joe Stump (Holyhell, Reign Of Terror) will be bringing his brand of guitar showmanship to Europe in November and December with his "allstar" bands which features Ian Parry (Elegy, Consortium Project) on vocals, Jay Rigney (HolyHell, Reign of Terror, Joe Stump solo) on bass and Vengeance drummer Erik Stout. more

Neil Diamond is about to embark on the final leg of his world tour, but he's already put his next album in motion. Diamond and Rick Rubin will meet on January 12 to start planning the follow-up to his recent chart-topping "Home Before Dark." more

Order Of Ennead has been added to the lineup of Winterfest 2009, a European tour that also features the likes of Decide, Vader, Samael, Devian and The Amenta.

50 Cent plays a ruthless loan shark in the London gangland movie "Dead Man Running," which began shooting today (Nov. 19). Also cast are Brenda Blethyn ("Secrets And Lies") Tamer Hassan ("Layer Cake"), Danny Dyer ("The Business"), and Monet Mazur ("Stoned"). more

You can now own those never-before-released performances on "Songs From The Underground". The new CD, previously only available through the Linkin Park fan club Linkin Park Underground, will be sold at selected Best Buy locations starting Thanksgiving Day!

Her second album, "Fearless," sold 592,000 copies during the week ended November 16, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the largest sum for a country album since the Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden" started with 711,000 last November.

"I don't even know where to go with that other than, you know� They're not in the same position I'm in or had to go through what I've gone through here," Vinnie replied. "It's really none of their business where it goes, so I don't know how else to address it � I really don't even think about it; it doesn't cross my mind."

The band returned to the stage in 2005 for the first time in 12 years for shows in London and New York, but the drummer reveals those shows will be their last.

The trek, which was scheduled to take place in January/February 2009, was reportedly called off because P.O.D. is unable to fulfill its touring obligations due to the band's decision to go on "hiatus."

The band will wrap up their current tour with We Are Scientists tonight in Nashville before heading to Europe for a run of shows.

The epic and grandiose musical landscape of the new God Forbid album proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this group have paved a new path out from the stagnant metalcore scene and the future looks to be a very bright one. The stunning new effort, Earthsblood, blends together the perfect amount of brutality, melodies and utter catchiness against a wall of sonic excess and pummeling groove-laden riffs.

The Christmas special. A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! is a one-hour original musical holiday special. It premieres on Sunday, November 23 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on COMEDY CENTRAL. The musical companion EP of the same name will be available on iTunes.

Even though the scene was cut from the final film, my favorite song on the REPO! Soundtrack is "Needle Through A Bug", a macabre duet between the Shilo and GraveRobber characters. I like the track because it operates well on multiple levels. It also was one of the last tracks composed for the film, so it has the benefit of remaining fresh in my mind.

Thematically: "Needle" features two completely different character types � Shilo (the innocent) and GraveRobber (the big, bad wolf) � using completely different tactics to achieve the same goal: TO GET OUT OF A BAD SITUATION. Shilo must venture beyond her comfort zone and do something that's completely gross and frightening to her � i.e. she must plunge a needle into the skull of a dead woman. GraveRobber, who's not used to having to rely on others, is immobilized in the scene and has to convince Shilo to do this horrible deed. Otherwise he's dead meat. The title of the song is in reference to GraveRobber's tactics; he's telling Shilo that sticking a needle into a cadaver is no different than sticking a "needle through a bug".