Today's Day in Rock Stories

Why Guns N' Roses Reunion Didn't Include Izzy Stradlin

The 66-year-old singer-songwriter says his wife Patti Scialfa observes his bouts of mental illness as "a freight train bearing down" on him. He also describes his inner struggle as a car with multiple versions of himself inside - and there's no way of knowing which one is in the driver's seat.

He tells Vanity Fair: "I was crushed between 60 and 62, good for a year and out again from 63 to 64. Not a good record. Whoever you've been and wherever you've been, it never leaves you. I always picture it as a car. All your selves are in it. And a new self can get in, but the old selves can't ever get out. The important thing is, who's got their hands on the wheel at any given moment?"

He adds: "Playing a show brings a tremendous amount of euphoria - and the danger of it is, there's always that moment, comes every night, where you think, 'Hey, man, I'm gonna live forever.' You're feeling all your power.

Cassells said: "We literally f***ing destroyed these hotel rooms in Australia. We piled everything in the room - furniture, all the mattresses, into a corner so we could sit on it and take a picture. Just don't leave us in a hotel room for days on end - we will f*** it up."

Asked about big names expressing political opinions, he responds: "They should all shut their pieholes. I really believe democracy doesn't work well when celebrities butt their heads into places they don't belong.

"Katy Perry, Gene Simmons, Chubby Checker - I don't care who you are, you've got influence, and your fans tend sometimes to do stuff they would normally not do, just because they're your fans.

He tells TeamRock: "It's gonna be great fun for us, and the fans. We just want to have a good time, re-creating the wonderful music of Yes over the years.

"There's a lot of jokes about life, talking about our love for music, and what we will be up to in the next couple of years. We have some songs based on music from all of us really - very intense to very ethereal. It's really typical Yes energy.

Vocalist Andrew Freeman fronts the outfit, who were rounded out by original Dio bassist Jimmy Bain until his death in January. He was replaced by ex-Ozzy Osbourne man Phil Soussan.

Appice recently said Last In Line would "be around" more during 2017 as Campbell's Def Leppard duties eased off, adding: "We haven't really gone out and bombarded the audience with this yet.

The package presents Carlos Santana and his band alongside Journey guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Gregg Rolie, percussionist Michael Carabello and drummer Michael Shrieve - who regrouped for the 2016 reunion album, "Santana IV."

That project marked the appearance of the former members with the guitar icon on record for the first time in 45 years. "Santana IV: Live At The House Of Blues Las Vegas" saw the former members join Carlos on stage in March for the first time since 1973 while delivering performances of classic tracks and songs from the latest record.

The show marked the fifth of ten rescheduled US tour dates the band are playing this fall with Rose as they wind down a world tour in support of 2014's "Rock Or Bust."

The Guns N' Roses leader stepped in to assist the Australian rockers after longtime frontman Brian Johnson was advised by doctors in March to stop performing or risk permanent hearing loss.

Chuck Yarborough of The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports "Rose's trademark soaring vocals throughout the 24-song set weren't those Johnson, and they weren't like original AC/DC singer, the late Bon Scott.

He tells Eon Music: "We're hoping to actually start to start writing some songs in 2017 and then god knows when we'll see it. I can't stand still. It's like start me going and I'm just going to keep running, so I keep pushing forward and forward and forward. More Diamond Head music would be great for everyone."

Speaking about the track, the band's mainman Justin Greaves tells Prog: "As usual, I like to kick off the run to an album release with a favourite song, which does not already give everything away.

"No Fun is such a track. It is born from a riff that I have had on demo since 2004 - the year I started making Crippled Black Phoenix tunes. It kept almost being finished, but never actually saw life until this album.

"I am really happy with the new album as I should be. Personally I think it sounds the best yet, so I am proud to team up with Prog and let a first song out into the world in advance of the full album release."

He continues: "No Fun might raise an eyebrow or two among our amazing fans, but this is typical of Crippled Black Phoenix - laying musical traps to lead and mislead people into the Phoenix Asteroids, to circle the universe forever.

Soord had the following to say about the alternative version of the track: "People always ask me how I write songs and I always say the same thing - with my acoustic guitar.

Drummer Tomas Haake recently revealed they recorded the album live for the first time in over two decades to capture what they "sound like honestly." He also said they were influenced by terrorism, extremist views and religious dogma in society.

He saod: "On this album and on previous albums, inspiration for lyrics has been current events and also a mix of things. Sometimes its purely fiction - something that you can be inspired and influenced by, something you've read in a book or seen in a movie or another song you hear.

Ole Ole Ole!: A Trip Across Latin America is part concert film and part documentary, following the Stones across nine cities in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Mexico before ending in Havana, Cuba, for a historic moment.

He adds: "I think this is what people want to hear from me - and won't be disappointed." Bonnett also describes the story behind album's potential first single, Into The Night.

He says: "It's about a guy who's been on a long trip, who comes home to find his bags have been packed. He comes home weary and looking forward to going to sleep and seeing his family, but he can't get in the door - his key doesn't work.

The band features frontman Rishi Dhir who has worked with artists including Beck, The Horrors, Brian Jonestown, The Black Angels and The Dandy Warhols in the past.

Dhir says: "Around January 2015, NASA released images of the Andromeda galaxy taken by the Hubble telescope. I was deep in the writing for Ship Of Fools and was scouring the net for inspiration. I came upon an article in a science magazine describing what can be seen from the photograph. There were lines describing the stars as 'grains of sand from a wizard's hand', or something like that.

"I found the article very poetic and inspiring. Pair this with the fact that my musical obsession at the time was Air's soundtrack for the colour reissue of Le Voyage Dans La Lune and I was working with the imagery of Bosch's Ship of Fools.

The first rock concert at the city's new US Bank Stadium was broadcast live across the world, and included their first-ever live delivery of latest track Hardwired - just five days after they'd first rehearsed it together.

Frontman James Hetfield introduced the song by thanking their support bands for the evening, asking fans: "Did you guys see Volbeat? They're really good. Then Avenged Sevenfold, of course, you all liked them. There were here representing live and loud heavy music. This one goes out to them."

Speaking about the follow-up to their 2003 debut The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait For Something Wild, vocalist Mikee Goodman says: "To me this was the hardest album I've ever made lyrically and vocally.

Andrew Dominik reports Cave wanted to make the film so he wouldn't have to face the media while promoting the record - as he wanted to avoid talking about the death of his son Arthur.

The 15-year-old died after he fell from a cliff in Brighton earlier this year. The inquest into his death revealed the teenager had taken LSD for the first time before the accident.

Speaking at the documentary's premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Dominik says (via the Guardian): "Nick went into a newsagent in Brighton and saw a copy of Mojo - he realised he was going to have to promote the record.

"Arthur had died halfway through making it and the idea of promoting it made him feel sick, because he was going to have to discuss the context of the record with a whole bunch of journalists.

The track is named after the first woman ever to be in Antarctica and is "portrayed through reverberating swathes of electronics and clanging, countrified guitar."

The End, shot in Los Angeles last December, will be featured alongside exclusive documentary footage, telling the full story of their farewell performance at the Staples Center.

It was screened in the US in June, and will now be seen in the UK, Europe, South America, Australia and Japan. Organizers say: "In January 2014, Motley Crue held a press conference announcing their final tour, complete with a 'cessation of touring' agreement prohibiting any and all future live engagements.

"The two-year concert trek saw Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee perform across five continents, grossing over $100 million. While not everyone was able to witness their final show live, fans can catch all the action when MusicScreen, Live Alliance, Eagle Rock Entertainment and Tenth Street Entertainment present Motley Crue: The End in selected cinemas on October 13."