Today's Day in Rock Stories

Emerson, Lake And Palmer's Greg Lake Dead At 69

"I went for a check four weeks ago and the doctor said that at the moment there is no activity where I had the cancer before, but there is activity in the throat," Iommi reveals. "When I get back to England, I have to have an operation to remove this thing at the back of my nose. The doctors found a lump there and we don't know if it is cancer or what, but I feel OK at the moment."

Asked how dealing with the health issue has changed his perspective on life, Iommi says "I was knocked for six when the doctors told me that it was, that it was stage III cancer. It really did change my life as far as what I have to do now. I have to live what life I've got because I have been on the road nearly 50 years. I need to be at home more and I need to pay more attention to my friends and family.

Richards tells The Guardian newspaper the album happened pretty much by accident, when the Stones gathered in Mark Knopfler's British Grove Studios in London in December 2015 to work on some new material. The sound wasn't gelling, so Richards told the band to play Little Walter's "Blue and Lonesome".

"We cut that, we listened to it back and suddenly the sound is there. Mick turns round and says, 'I wanna do this Howlin' Wolf song,' and then he says, 'And I'd like to do this Lightnin' Slim,' and now I've got the man on a roll. When you've got the lead man calling the shots and saying, "I want to do that, I want to do this,' keep the tape rolling." And they do record on tape, Richards says. "This is not digital crap."

The Stones recorded the bulk of the songs in two days. "Maybe (late keyboard player) Ian Stewart was sending a message from above," Richards says. "It's almost like getting something off your chest that had been there for a long time. I'm looking forward to volume two already."

Volume 2, already? We'll see. After all, the Stones were in the studio supposedly working on an album of new material. But according to Ronnie Wood, the band don't intend on slowing down now.

Asked how he and Slash connected, Fortus tells KSHE: "I had actually been asked to join Slash's band a while ago, at a Thin Lizzy show. We were playing a festival and his manager came up and said, 'Man, we'd love to steal you.' I couldn't do that to my friend. That would be such a slap in the face."

Mustaine was thrown out of Lars Ulrich's band in 1983 and went on to form Megadeth, but spent nearly three decades expressing negative views about his former colleagues and their work.

Relations have thawed in recent years, with Mustaine having performed alongside Metallica, and Hammett - his replacement - playing along. Hammett said over the weekend that the other guitarist must have been "pissed off" over his treatment in the 1980s, and that he felt "a lot of empathy" for him, adding that he hoped their recent experiences had "healed some scars."

Now Mustaine has responded by tweeting: "I have tremendous respect for Kirk Hammett and I appreciated his take on this. He is almost 100% accurate� almost. I wish him the best."

Ulrich tells Apple Music: "Everybody's like, 'Eight years - what have you been doing?' It's like, 'Excuse me? We've been busier than we ever have in our lives. We spent three years touring Death Magnetic, we put two incredibly hard years into the Through The Never movie project. We did the dance with Lou Reed and we've played every festival on this planet multiple times. We've been to continents that are primarily inhabited by penguins.

The 20th anniversary celebration will coincide with the release of New Found Glory's ninth, yet-untitled studio album. Besides playing that new music for fans, the band will perform select albums in their entirety throughout the tour.

As just as Havok states, the video is indeed stark. For this harder-edged track, the set is white while many of the props in the performance-based video are black.

But the bassist says production is still being negotiated - and reminds fans that NWA box-office hit Straight Outta Compton was 11 years in the making.

He tells Sirius XM: "It's now being moved around. Some different companies are really interested. It's beyond being in development. We're changing partners. I know that Straight Outta Compton took over 11 years to put together. It's a slow-moving process."

Sixx continues: "I don't wanna really be involved in something that's just piece-mealed together just to say, 'We did it!' You know, one of those VH1 rock movies you see like on Meat Loaf. It's not what we wanted.

And the drummer says it was inevitable that cancer would feature as part of the as-yet-untitled album's theme. Mastodon recently said the record was in the bag and nod Dailor has opened up further on the concept.

On how the new songs are linked, Dailor tells Loudwire: "There is a tie, a concept that goes between them. The last couple of years have been not... there's been some illness within the bands' family, there's been a bunch of cancer.

"So the whole album is sort of all about cancer basically. Well, not literally. It's a big story that sort of roped to go along with it. It takes place in the desert.

"It brought us together writing wise, because when someone is going through cancer, Bill's mom was going through cancer and he's kind of far away from her, so there's wasn't a lot that you can do.

"And my mom's also sick as well and being far away there's not a lot you can do. I mean, you know we were done writing anyways but we kind of needed something to occupy some hours of the day that would've been kind of us sitting there worrying about the situation that you don't really have that much control over.

Jagger was present for the baby's arrival, which took place at a hospital in New York. "Mother and baby are doing well and we request that the media respect their privacy at this time," Jagger and Hamrick shared in a joint statement (via BBC News). There's no word yet on whether Jagger's newest addition is a boy or girl.

Bach and Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses decided to take the sedative pills one 1990 night at the Rainbow Bar & Grill in Hollywood - giving Ulrich the opportunity to have a laugh at their expense.

The story is told in Bach's book 18 And Life On Skid Row, which also contains an anecdote about Jon Bon Jovi's dad making a death threat. "After who knows how many hours drinking with Duff, we found ourselves underneath the back corner table of the Rainbow, which has always been the best place in the world. This is your place where Sebastian, Duff and Lars did Quaaludes.

"Who knows how or where we got them, but we put them into our mouths. They were big hockey-puck-shapes pills. As the night went on the drugs began to hit me."

He remembers seeing McKagan's mouth appear to alter shape, then noticed his friend was drooling - and the same began to happen to him as the relaxant effect of the quaaludes kicked in.

He continues: "As I look up, I see the laughing little heavy metal gnome known as Lars Ulrich dancing merrily round our table. He's like a little leprechaun doing a pixie dance. 'Hey, everybody! Come and meet your heroes! It's a dream come true!'"

"Looking forward to seeing you guys on our UK/Euro tour where we'll play Among The Living in its entirety," says drummer Charlie Benante. "You're gonna hear songs like 'I AmThe Law,' 'Imitation Of Life'�.we're gonna play 'Heart Of It All', 'One World', yadda yadda yadda.

"I read it over my breakfast," he said. "It's like remembering where you were when Kennedy was [assassinated]." King went on to say that when he first heard Dylan-on an AM radio broadcast, when the author was just 14-it was "like being electrified."

The Iceland stop currently marks the opening date and seventh overall of the Foo Fighters 2017 trek, ahead of festival appearances in Finland, Poland, Denmark, Belgium, Spain and Portugal - with more shows expected to be confirmed soon.

The group's return from a planned hiatus follows extensive touring in support of 2014's "Sonic Highways", with drummer Taylor Hawkins revealing the band have not yet started writing their ninth record.

"We're still in a hunker down period right now," Hawkins tells NME. "We know we have those shows next year, and we did a charity event for Dave's kid's school a couple of weeks ago that got a little bit of press. We're fine, we love each other we're all good. We're just figuring out when the world's ready for more Foo Fighters, we're a family.

"Initially the song was inspired by my frustration at the response on social media to the tragic death of three-year-old Alan Kurdi," vocalist Harley Anderson tells Metal Hammer. "I was angered that people were so unaware of the consequences of Western foreign policy, the impact of structural violence; the fact that such tragedies happen all too often and go ignored. The narrative of the song then moves onto the fact that if we allow these things to happen to others, then eventually we in the developed world will suffer the same fate because of our complacency and apathy to human suffering.

Gunn said earlier this week that he wasn't sorry for King 810's stance on guns in the aftermath of having a concert cancelled. And he stated that if any terrorists invaded one of his concerts they'd "probably be shot from the stage."

In response to reaction to that message, he's now said: "It's not about a band or a show or a city or a cancellation. It's about lying down or not. Sooner or later we will wake up to an unrecognizable set of bullsh*t we have to live by and we will have no idea how we got here. History is full of examples of this 'progressive' way of thinking. None have worked. All have ended in mass conflict or death."

"[Andrew was] a huge influence on Polar when we started and a real bucket list moment for us to have him on there," guitarist Fabian Lomas tells Metal Hammer. "We played shows together last year and kept in touch ever since. When we were in the studio we had this part that was perfect for him, we sent him the track, he was into really it and the rest is history."

"Deus Ex Machina really explains the decline in human interaction and compassion towards each other," Fabian continues. "Modern day life is being lived through ever present technological devices and social media forums, people are forgetting what it's like to actually have real opinions, real experiences and real friends.

Munky tells Full Metal Jackie: "I think it's difficult to put us in a category, and I think, in the beginning, that's why somebody, whoever it was - some European journalist - said, 'We don't know what to call these guys, so we're gonna call it 'nu metal.' I think that's where that term came from.

"There's so many elements that influence us, and we've tried to incorporate different melodies and different structures and rhythmic elements, and that all comes from just each of our personalities.

The band will be playing a free gig at Camden's Black Heart venue on Tuesday 13 December along with angular prog trio Thumpermonkey, who will be previewing exclusive new material at the gig which has been organised by Balamir's label. Doors open at 7pm.

Says Belamir, "People ask me why I'm putting on the show and the answer is simple. It's basically because it's the only way I can get to go to a work Christmas do and be guaranteed that the music isn't going to be utter sh*te! I get to watch two completely underappreciated genius UK bands that I love for free and then play music that I like until I decide it's time to go home."