In a storyline concocted by frontman James Hetfield, players begin as Metallica's opening act, and eventually play as Metallica once they prove their mettle. Everything about the game, from the menu animations based on art by Pushead, Metallica's long-running collaborating artist, to venues and stage sets from all phases of the band's career to signature lighting effects and crowd chants will be familiar to fans.

At that time Duff McKagan admitted that Jennings could make a good replacement: "Shooter's great, actually," he told CR's Scott Rowley. "That's a good idea. He's does a southern rock thing, but his old band was straight up kinda rock. He's a talented guy man, he's pretty awesome. He would be good."

"Wolfie had it the toughest on tour: he had three or four hours of [tutoring] every day, and then the gig," Eddie Van Halen told RollingStone.com.

When discussing the possibilities of a Guns N' Roses reunion and what it would mean to him, according to a Sleazeroxx report Adler said, "It would be nice if we could do a reunion. I know, it would help me, in my life. Because I'm afraid when I die I'm gonna have to come back again to finish what I started. And if I could finish what I started with the GN'R guys, as a band, I know I could die happy.

Less than a minute after tickets for last August's Neil Diamond concerts at New York's Madison Square Garden went on sale, more than 100 seats were available for hundreds of dollars more than their normal face value on premium-ticket site TicketExchange.com. The seller? Neil Diamond.

Ticket reselling -- also known as scalping -- is an estimated $3 billion-a-year business in which professional brokers buy seats with the hope of flipping them to the public at a hefty markup.

The 25-year-old bee-hived soul singer pleaded not guilty to a charge of common assault at Westminster Magistrates' Court, the Press Association reported.

A DVD capturing the group's last reunion performance -- a one-off Aug. 8, 2008, concert in Hollywood, Fla. -- will be released soon.

The Interscope album moved 484,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, the best sales week for an artist since Britney Spears' "Circus" arrived at No. 1 in early December with 505,000.

The 67-year-old Tork had surgery Wednesday in New York. His spokeswoman says he is doing well and will begin radiation treatment after a short recovery period.

The album, hailed as the most intense rock'n'roll album since Led Zeppelin, coincides with a European tour that will consist of outdoor festivals, including Montreaux, Switzerland, and Bospop, Holland, plus various intimate indoor rock shows including the London O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on June 25th.

Jones, the last surviving drummer in the Motown session band known as the Funk Brothers, was stricken in mid-February but had been showing signs of improvement, said his sister-in-law Leslie Coleman.

Officials said the teenager, John Katehis (pictured below), of East Elmhurst, Queens, New York apparently answered a Craigslist ad in which Weber, 47, sought a sexual partner, according to The New York Times. The police believed Weber planned to pay Katehis for sex. The police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said that the two had arranged to meet on Wednesday, March 18 in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, but rescheduled the meeting for Friday evening.

Travis was guitarist in the Cute Lepers for the last six months and was the perfect addition to the band as it's developed. He was our friend. His company was always a pleasure. I don't think I ever heard him say a negative word about any one. He was smart, polite and considerate, always interested in learning more about music and playing guitar... he really loved music. He was passionate about music in a way that only other like minded musicians recognize and relate with. When Travis joined the band he would not think twice about jumping on the bus from Olympia and making the two hour ride to Seattle for a spur of the moment rehearsal, and then riding the bus two more hours to get back home. In fact Travis was doing this three times a week up until we left for Europe to start our tour. His character and his commitment made him the very best we could hope for in a band-mate and a friend. We're gonna really miss him.

Ronald Strykert, 51, was taken into custody by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies on Friday (February 13) on the charge of making criminal threats against frontman Colin Hay.

Just ask George Gouldsmith. The LA-based IT manager has been a big fan of the band Boston since 'More Than A Feeling' ruled the radio in the '70s. In 2005, Gouldsmith started a Yahoo message board called Boston Rocks, but he bagged it last year after the site's members began squabbling and Boston mastermind Tom Scholz took exception to some of the posts.

Hi. We're blink-182. This past week there've been a lot of questions about the current status of the band, and we wanted you to hear it straight from us.

To put it simply, We're back. We mean, really back. Picking up where we left off and then some. In the studio writing and recording a new album. Preparing to tour the world yet again. Friendships reformed. 17 years deep in our legacy.

Summer 2009.

"Our fallen comrade has not made significant progress as of late, but continues to fight on from his accident. Doctors are working feverishly to return our brother to us, and we continue to hold out hope and faith that Chi returns to the life he has waiting for him and can join us on stage once again.

The Cramps formed in 1976 and were part of the now legendary downtown New York punk scene. Their lineup shifted over the years but always included Lux and his wife, Poison Ivy.

That's what an Internet poster who calls himself kstreetshuffle is asking. He just slapped a mash of the two songs on YouTube. [Sadly the KISS song is far superior and actually sung in key.]

Nikki spits into the crowd and then tells her to suck his dick. After he calls her a bitch and tells her to get the ---- outta here, she then starts to cry.

The Canadian artist, real name Jason Dean Bennison, was chosen as the replacement for late rocker Michael Hutchence after winning a reality TV search in 2005.

The statement reads: "At the request of the authorities, Rihanna is not commenting about the incident involving Chris Brown.

The venue lists the show as "S*blime" and Bud Gaugh (of Sublime) notes: "VERY VERY special guests performing. Trust us, you will kick yourself in the ass with spiked steel-toe boots if you miss this show. "

Tripp Eisen was paroled from the Mid-State Correctional Facility and was released from custody on April 17, 2007 after serving time for allegedly meeting and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in January 2005.

Overall album sales on the other hand dropped -8.5% to 535.4 million while digital album sales soared 32% to 65.8 million units sold in 2008. While the digital future keeps growing, old school vinyl is making a major resurgence and jumped 89% last year to 1.88 million LPs sold.

Before we get into the top selling artists etc, an interesting side note: while MTV and their assorted channels, radio, and the labels seem to focus a lot of their energy on rap, R&B and country, it appears that alternative, rock and metal are far more popular with record buyers. Rap took a nose dive of almost 20% in 2008 with sales of 33,410 million units, compare that to the 50,476 million metal albums sold. R&B which dominates Top 40 radio only managed sales of 77,014 million (a drop of almost 20% from 2007). Country music was the worst hit in sales decline, falling 24% in 2008 to end up BEHIND metal in sales at 47,657 million. While all genres saw a drop in sales in 2008, it was the rock related ones that declined the least. Alternative CD sales fell -8.7% with 80,919 million units sold. Rock declined -6.5% with 139,666 units sold (interesting almost twice as much as R&B. MTV pay attention to why your ratings are dropping) and metal saw the smallest decline in sales with only a -4.7% drop in 2008.

Who were the biggest sellers of 2008? Taylor Swift came out on top with 4,003,000 units sold. AC/DC roared back in 2008 coming in at No. 2 with sales of 3,418,000. Lil Wayne was 3 with 3,382,000. Coldplay came in fourth with 2,691,000. Metallica was fifth with 2,466,000 with Kid Rock just behind them with 2,405,000 albums sold last year. The rest of the top 10 looked like this:
7. Jonas Brothers (2,340,000)
8. Sugarland (2,063,000)
9. Nickelback (1,953,000) 1
0. Jack Johnson (1,895,000).

Did someone say vinyl sales almost doubled? Here is how the top 10 vinyl albums sales ended up in 2008:
1. In Rainbows/ Radiohead
2. Abbey Road / Beatles
3. Chinese Democracy / Guns N' Roses
4. Funplex/ B-52's
5. Third/ Portished
6. In the Aeroplane� /Neutral Milk Hotel
7. Dark Side of the Moon/ Pink Floyd
8. Fleet Foxes/ Fleet Foxes
9. Death Magnetic/ Metallica
10. O.K. Computer/ Radiohead

Corey Nickels, 29, collapsed on the concourse level of the Mid-America Center at 10:30pm (CST) on Sunday night (January 25) after watching the band, suffering cardiac arrest as rescue staff attended to him, reports Nonpareilonline.com.

The Irish band's sleeve for 'No Line On The Horizon' features the same image as Deupree's 2006 album 'Specification. Fifteen'.

She says in the clip, which can be seen at the full story link, "I'm sure you all have seen me rocking an Iron Maiden shirt lately and I know there's been some people saying, 'Oh, she's a poser,' and 'The only reason she's wearing Iron Maiden is because she wants to be a rock star.' . . .

Asheton, 60, was an original member of the rock band fronted by Iggy Pop in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Here is an example of how the UK music tabs are spinning the story: "drummer Lars Ulrich admits he would jump at the chance to tour alongside Axl Rose's legendary group. He says, 'We're road dogs. We love to tour. So we'd never say no. We've learned never to say no to anything, and all four of us love Chinese Democracy.'"

The actual exchange went like this (full video below): A reporter asks "on the topic of drama and near tragedy, would you guys ever consider touring with Guns N' Roses again now that they're back out?"

(Laughter from Metallica) Lars is seen shaking his head and mouthing the word "no" but then becomes diplomatic and says, "Like James was saying earlier, we're rode dogs we love to tour, so if that opportunity ever came in the right situation� of course."

Kelly Osbourne knows - she thinks you should march up to the journalist who wrote the story and thump them in the face in front of several people until you're arrested. It seems to work quite well, but only if you're under the influence or drugs or drink or 'personal problems' or whatever the hell is up with Kelly Osbourne at the moment.

According to The Tennessean, a Kentucky man has been charged with vehicular homicide after police said he drove into a concrete wall, killing Daum.