Black Sabbath Cancel 'Farewell' Concert

The band originally broke the news via gossip site TMZ which published a report that contradicted the official announcement about Portnoy's involvement.

The veteran band's official announcement said "Portnoy (Dream Theater, Adrenaline Mob, Winery Dogs) is the replacement for their brother A.J. Pero for all shows this year."

They went on to say that their farewell "Forty and F*ck It" tour will celebrate their 40th anniversary and will feature "the core line-up" of Dee Snider, Jay Jay French, Eddie Ojeda, and Mark Mendoza. No word yet who will be playing in place of AJ Pero who died last month.

Snider expressed anger at Pero's death and says that it could have been avoided in comments he made to TMZ. He said, "People ask me how I feel about A.J.'s passing, and, quite honestly, I'm going through a real period of anger right now about it.

"He was a great guy, and I loved him dearly. But he had a history of heart disease - his family did; his father died in his early 60s of heart disease - and A.J. never had himself checked out."

Snider went on to say that his death could have been avoid,"When they did the autopsy, he had 95 percent blockage, advanced heart disease - and he didn't have to die. And I feel it's, basically, irresponsible behavior on his part. You have a responsibility, as a parent, as an adult, to get yourself checked out."

The band will be paying tribute to Pero with two special shows that will include Portnoy. The band revealed that they will be recording the first show on May 30th at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for "broadcast, DVD and CD."

Due June 23, "The Marquee - Live in 1971" was originally filmed for US television shortly after the group completed a farewell tour of the UK for tax reasons.

The project features carefully restored footage and sound mixed by Bob Clearmountain, including 5.1 surround sound on the DVD and SD Blu-ray formats.

"The Marquee - Live in 1971" will be available in multiple formats, including DVD, Blu-ray, DVD/CD and DVD/LP combinations. The release coincides with the expanded reissue of "Sticky Fingers", which hits stores on May 25 (May 26 in North America).

The rocker was eating at a branch of Denny's in Alberta at the weekend when he was allegedly punched in the face. Initial reports claimed a fight broke out after Manson called another diner a "bitch."

Both played on the classic Mercyful Fate albums "Melissa" and "Don't Break the Oath" and they recruited Demonica's Marc Grabowski to play bass and former Mercyful Fate, King Diamond drummer Snowy Shaw and vocalist Sean Peck of Cage and Death Dealer fame for the new band.

The new EP will be entitled "Satan's Tomb" and will be released by Metal Blade Records. An exact release date has not been announced. Metal Blade's Brian Slagel had this to say, "I am super excited to welcome Denner / Shermann to the Metal Blade family.

"I have known Michael and Hank for more than 25 years. I am honored to be able to work with these two legendary musicians. Really excited to work with all the guys on this exciting new band!"

Shermann had this to say about the new group and EP, "We have been writing and recording with an incredible line up of musicians and the fans are in for a dark, classic, heavy metal treat for sure. We wanted to get back to the essence of what we created back in the early 80s. The music inevitable sounds like you would hope it to be, fans of our early work should be very excited".

The band will also be celebrating the anniversary on Record Store Day, April 18th, with the release of a limited edition 12" vinyl LP picture disc of the album.

The Holy Bible Tour will be kicking off on April 20th in Washington DC at the 9:30 Club and will be concluding the trek on May 4th in San Francisco, CA at Bimbos 365.

The year 1974 must have seemed quite a whirlwind for Brit blues-rockers Bad Company. As former members of Free, singer/songwriter Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, along with ex- Mott the Hoople guitarist/ songwriter Mick Ralphs and bass player Boz Burrell (who had a stint with King Crimson), had all tasted success in the UK early in their respective careers, tagging them with the blessing/curse of "supergroup" upon the formation of Bad Company.

Bad Company had elbowed their way to the forefront of the rock world by the April 1975 release of their second album Straight Shooter, delivering the timeless hits "Good Lovin' Gone Bad", "Feel Like Makin' Love" and "Shooting Star" and avoiding a sophomore jinx.

In an interview with InTheStudio host Redbeard, Ralphs, Kirke, and Paul Rodgers recall how the Grammy- nominated "Feel Like Makin' Love" single, originally composed during Paul's time in Free but never finished, ended up on Bad Company's Straight Shooter album.

" We had come off a very heavy tour...We needed material, come to think of it... so I started to play it and I said to Ralphsy, 'It needs a chorus, something to come in heavy here.' So he says, 'How about this?' (hums guitar part of chorus). Weird isn't it? It came together like almost by accident. It might still have been floating around in my head today if we hadn't like needed a song desperately, you know." - Paul Rodgers

The legendary music star will be receiving the Johnny Mercer Award at this year's event. The organization state that the honor is "exclusively reserved for a songwriter or songwriting team who has already been inducted in a prior year, and whose body of work is of such high quality and impact, that it upholds the gold standard set by the legendary Johnny Mercer."

The organizations president and CEO Linda Moran had this to say, "We are thrilled to be honoring the songwriter who has combined Celtic fire with Rhythm & Blues in an unforgettable way. Van Morrison and his songs have been a powerful cultural force on both sides of the Atlantic for five decades."

Adebimpe had this to say about the new video, "I just happen to like looking at people and wondering what's up. We got some people together, some of whom we ran into on the street while we were shooting, and did that.

"We asked if they could quietly (or not) go to brighter or darker places inside themselves let us be there with them for a little while. Everyone's sifting through something, right?" Watch the video here.

Jagger spoke with Rolling Stone about a variety of topics and revealed that the band may play more shows after their 15 date summer stadium tour in North America.

He said, "Well, after the U.S. tour, there's nothing booked. But there are plans for what we'll do in the autumn for gigs, maybe. I don't know about the early autumn, but in the late autumn there's a lot of talk. I haven't booked it yet, but�"

Billy gave an update on the new album to The Age Of Metal (via Blabbermouth), "We have five or six songs demoed up. There's still probably a lot of tweaking on it, I'm sure. But, hopefully, within the next couple of months, being on the road, we can get some time to just kind of mess with some stuff."

He had this to say about when fans can expect the album, "I don't know. I can't set a date. But at this point in time in our careers, when it's ready, it's ready. And at the end of the day, we're the ones that have to live with it for the rest of our life and tour on it. So we wanna make sure it's ready.

"And we're fortunate to have Nuclear Blast really supporting us and not sweating us on it. They're just, like, 'When it's ready, we'll know, we'll be ready and we'll go.' So I hope towards the end of the year, it's done and finished."

The animated video is for the track "Pyre" from their forthcoming debut album "inflamed rides" which the band is putting out independently. Watch the video here.

The band explained their reasons for releasing the album independently, "It's an established fact that the once accepted norms of the music business have changed beyond all recognition in an incredibly short space of time. As with any type of change, new possibilities and opportunities are replacing more established ways of operating.

"We, as O.R.k, have decided to make use of one of these brand new opportunities in the form of musicraiser.com to release our music directly, without going through the traditionally accepted channels of record label, publicist etc.

"There are a few reasons for this, but first and foremost is that, owing to the spontaneous and rapid flow of creativity that has given birth to our debut album, acting quickly and facilitating direct a connection seems the most fitting way to get our vision into the public domain.

The special screening will feature the Grateful Dead's previously unreleased concert from the July 19, 1989 show at Alpine Valley. Fathom sent over these details:

"Recorded from the analog master multi-camera video from the famous concert venue in East Troy, Wisconsin, this exclusive cinema event captures the Grateful Dead -- Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Brent Mydland, and Bob Weir - in a peak era of energy and chemistry on stage and features favorites including 'Sugaree,' 'Box Of Rain,' 'Terrapin Station,' 'Morning Dew,' and more."

And Mushroomhead will have to alter their upcoming touring plans so Nothing, also known as Jeff Hatrix, can be there for her - meaning the band will lose income from cancelled shows.

Anderson, who will be touring in support of his "Restless" EP, will be kicking off the tour on May 2nd in Uncasville, CT at the Mohegan Sun Casino. Right now the trek is set to run until July 26th in Half Moon Bay, CA at the Sand Bar but more dates are still to be announced.

The group hinted that work had begun on the follow-up to 2012's L'Enfant Sauvage earlier this month. Now it's been confirmed it'll be recorded at Silver Cord, New York.

The band say: "Designed and owned by Joe Duplantier of Gojira, the studio will serve as the band's headquarters for the next couple of months as they produce their sixth studio album.

The album pays homage to the musicians who inspired them to form a band in 1977, particularly Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. The track listing includes numbers by Terry & McGhee, as well as Randy Newman's slave trader satire Sail Away, Bessie Smith's Backwater Blues, and songs by Lead Belly, Hank Williams and Jethro Tull.

"We always loved American folk music and Mark, as a harmonica player, is drawn towards blues and country music," says Dennis. "Living with the blues is everything a blues song is�a life's journey of struggle and coming to terms with it".

The LA-based band will play Donington's Zippo Encore Stage on Sunday, June 14. And they've lined up gigs at Glasgow's Cathouse on June 16 and London's O2 Islington Academy on June 17.

Dean - who created the Yes 'bubble' logo and illustrated many of the band's most iconic covers including Close To The Edge and _Tales From Topographic Oceans - _will introduce Howe on before he plays.

"If you are a fan of truly 'LIVE' albums, as I am, and have stated, this album rules!," says Hannon. "Just to hear Eddie's guitar tones on 'Romeo Delight', 'Beautiful Girls', '"Women In Love' alone is worth the $16. As for Dave, well he's included a 6 page book with lyrics to read the words he don't sing and to hear him tell of the spotlight operator in 'Ice Cream Man' is priceless, not to mention all the Japanese BS he rambles.

"I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this CD while driving my 17 yr old to school this morning remembering hearing VH when I was his age and loving it!!!

"For those of us who anxiously waited in line at Tower Records to get 'VHII', 'Women and Children First', and 'Fair Warning'�this album will tickle your fancy�for those who want perfect vocals, buy a One Direction live album!!!"

The year was 2002 and i believe the month was October when we were officially signed to Elektra Records. I was excited to be part of their label, but more importantly I was excited to start recording our first full length record with them. I couldn't wait to let people hear what we had in store for them.

It was about a year passed since the attacks on September 11th had happened and I felt an obligation to the people of my city, to all the fans, to myself as well as to the band to write something in memory of 9/11.

Hence the song "Sworn Enemy" probably our most popular song we have and definitely the most meaningful song that I have ever wrote, was in my own words to be a tribute to all the fallen on that ill fated day that will forever be recognized as one of the worst days in American history.

To this day I still get emails from people in the armed forces as well as regular civilians that tell me how much it means to them that I wrote that song for a nation united against terrorism. I never realized when I first wrote the song what an impact it would have in a music scene.

Set to premiere on cable channel HBO on May 4, the project provides a no-holds-barred access to the Nirvana frontman's personal archives, including never-before-seen home movies, recordings, artwork, photography, journals, demos and songbooks.

A soundtrack album will feature unreleased material while the film will also be spun-off into a companion book of the same name. "Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck" will open in Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York City on April 24, as part of series of international cinema debuts; the picture will also be screened in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (April 9), the UK (April 10), Sweden (April 27), Italy, Australia and New Zealand (April 30).

The series, titled American Epic, will feature new recordings of White, Beck, and Alabama Shakes recording classic American songs from the 1920s, and an accompanying soundtrack for the film will be released on Columbia Records.

In addition, White's Third Man Records will release an accompanying series of vinyl releases, while Sony Music's Legacy Recordings will offer up some archival recordings.

Bass player Phil Monypenny had this to say about the track, "'Ten Steps to Success' is a very special song for us. It was a song that got the attention of lots of people who would later get involved in our work and our new album. We can't wait to play it live for everyone on this coming tour"