His details are listed as, "Caucasian, drummer, 46, has kids, smokes and drinks regularly, travels a lot... and is rich as can be."

Josh Freese hasn't been a member of GNR for nearly a decade (he left to become a founding member of A Perfect Circle) but the press is still fascinated with "Crazy" Axl stories, so it's no surprise that Spinner.com broached the subject with him. "Everyone always baits me to give them a crazy Axl story. I don't really have any," he told the online pub. "I spent two years in a studio with him [and] I never saw any mood swings. He was never not cool to me. So, I am always quick to defend the guy, even though I know his reality is different than mine. Then again, everyone has a different reality."

Stone Temple Pilots/ex-Velvet Revolver singer Scott Weiland and his solo band have announced a string of solo dates in North America. Grab them here

A judge sentenced three men convicted of murdering an internationally known South African reggae star in a botched carjacking to life in prison Thursday. Lucky Dube's 2007 killing drew worldwide attention to crime in South Africa, which has one of the world's highest murder rates. The 43-year-old singer was gunned down in his car in front of his children in suburban Johannesburg.more

Malawi's child welfare minister is backing Madonna's bid to adopt a second child from the impoverished southern African country. more A Malawian judge could rule Friday on Madonna's request to adopt a second child from the impoverished southern African country amid criticism from some activists who say the little girl would be best off with relatives in Malawi.more

Blur have recruited Klaxons and Florence And The Machine for their comeback gig in Manchester. The band will play the city's MEN Arena on June 26, where they'll be joined by the two acts. more

B.B. King, Herbie Hancock, Black Eyed Peas and Lauryn Hill are booked to perform at the Montreux Jazz festival, one of Europe's most prestigious summer music events, organizers said on Thursday.more

The Jayhawks, the lauded Americana band originally from Minneapolis, are reuniting their mid-90s line-up for a pair of summer shows, with plans to play together more next year. The band is set to headline the Basilica Block Party in Minneapolis on July 10, marking the first time the Jayhawks will play with both principals Gary Louris and Mark Olson in the United States in over a decade.more

Death Angel will release their first ever live DVD this year entitled, 'Sonic German Beatdown.' The DVD contains two concerts filmed live in Germany, as well as two video clips and a bonus live CD.more

Rise Against have announced plans to release a limited edition seven inch via Fat Wreck Chords, due out this summer.more

Soon-to-be Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Beck will make his first ever festival appearance at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, as part of the massive lineup for the 30th anniversary of the summer concert eventmore

Defunct hardcore/metal band Until The End has resurfaced with, if nothing else, plans for a June reunion show.more

AC Entertainment, co-creator of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., has acquired Nashville-based concert promotion company Great Big Shows.more

U.S. album sales in March 2009 were 17.9% lower than the same period in 2008 and 29.8% lower than the same week in 2007, according to SoundScan information available at Billboard.bizmore

Nightwish will play a special homecoming show at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki on September 19 to mark the end of the band's colossal "Dark Passion Play" world tour. Support at the gig will come from Apocalyptica.more

Daath is about to unleash their brand-new album 'The Concealers', which will be released on April 20th (Europe) and April 21st (US). more

Anvil are strongly rumored to have landed the opening slot on at least some of the shows on the upcoming Judas Priest / Whitesnake North American tour. more

Warbringer has vowed to continue on, however, with guitarist Adam Carroll on drums until they meet up with Epicurean, whose drummer John Gensmer has agreed to play both sets.

The park's new owners also appeared to be backing away from a solely rock-'n'-roll theme for the park. John Stine, the director of sales and marketing for FPI MB Entertainment, the company that purchased the park out of bankruptcy in February for $25 million, said the park will be music-themed, with only an emphasis on rock 'n' roll.

In addition, Birmingham's LG Arena will host a second Spandau show to accommodate fans on October 25th. The band are also adding Liverpool to the tour for the first time, playing the Liverpool Echo Arena on October 29th.

A special collectors box that houses all 14 albums is also planned for release, and each of the albums will be available digitally.

The band is touring to support their critically acclaimed album, The March, which hit streets on October 14, 2008 and debuted at #45 on the Billboard Top 200. The upcoming North American tour also features newcomers and label mates Lazarus A.D., rounding out the bill to one of pummeling metal and high speed thrash!

As with other dates on the run, the band celebrated the 10 year anniversary of Clarity by performing the entire album.

The breathtaking "Are You Experienced?" was built start to finish during this session. Eddie Kramer recalls the song's construction. "The structure of the song was recorded first, with Jimi's rhythm guitar, Mitch's drums, and Noel's bass recorded forward." Hendrix's initial take, a loose but often spectacular effort, began with the guitarist strumming the song's distinctive introduction. This part, Kramer says, came from Hendrix's penchant for discovering new sounds. "Jimi had practiced that riff at home, so he knew what it would sound like backward," explains Kramer. "At Olympic, we experimented with the sounds and placements to see what would work best."
A second take barely began before a mistake occurred and Kramer called for a new take. This effort also fell short before a complete fourth take began to showcase the refinements Hendrix had begun to make, trimming parts and tightening the rhythm playing throughout the song. The fifth take was superb, but Hendrix felt he could do better. He called for a playback and cautioned that there were some parts of the take where the group had speeded up. The group returned to the studio and recorded a brief end part for the previous take. Kramer then called for a playback, after which Hendrix kicked off a new take�this classic performance supplied the album's unforgettable title track.

With the basic track having filled all four of the available tracks, Kramer created a four-to-four reduction mix. One of the newly open tracks was dedicated to a backward rhythm track, featuring backward guitar, bass, and percussion. This was first recorded forward, and then Kramer turned the tape around and played it backward on a second machine, while another machine recorded the output to the open track on the four-track master.
Hours of private studying had helped Hendrix master this difficult technique on his personal reel-to-reel tape machine. Fascinated with sounds, Hendrix listened to tapes backward just to study the possibilities of the technique.

Hendrix's fascination with backward tapes caused some mild friction with Mitch Mitchell, who struggled to replicate these unique sounds on demand. "Mitch had started to get uptight because Jimi would want him to play all of the different rhythms we had discovered by playing tapes backward at the flat," says Chandler. "We'd play around with backward tapes to hear the rhythm, which was actually the drums backward. Jimi would want Mitch to play that rhythm."

In addition to the hypnotic effect created by the backward guitar parts, Hendrix further embellished the final master with a piano overdub. "That's Jimi playing the octaves on the wonderful, old, out-of-tune, upright piano at Olympic," says Kramer. "That piano sound, reminiscent of a bell tolling, was an essential part of the basic rhythm track."

Despite all of the experimentation, the group's approach to "Are You Experienced?" was concise, with Chandler encouraging Hendrix's creativity within the boundaries he had established. "This was when Chas's firm hand was on top of the creative process," says Kramer. "The session was very organized."