Today's Day in Rock Stories

Unreleased Eddie Van Halen Track Goes Online

Keyboard player Jonathan Cain spoke with the Dayton Daily News about the upcoming induction and revealed during the interview that Perry is expected to be at the event. "The ceremony is the first time we're going to get to see Steve Perry in a long time, so that'll be fun."

Unfortunately that does not mean that they will be reuniting with the former frontman as Cain added, "As far as we know he's just going to accept the award and then skedaddle. That's all I know, unless something changes."

He went on to say that their current singer Arnel Pineda "is going to represent very well, like he always does." Cain then continued with these comments about the singer who they discovered via YouTube, "It's amazing because Arnel has been consistently on the road for 10 years now.

DeGuzman battled a rare form of bone cancer two years ago which went into remission but has now returned and has spread to his liver and lungs and his parents have started a crowdfunding drive to help fund an expensive treatment that may give him a chance to beat the cancer.

They had this to say on the GoFundMe page, "Two years ago at age 36, our son Alvin, a professional musician, developed a rare type of bone cancer, mesenchymal chondrosarcoma, that caused sudden paralysis of his legs up to his chest. Today, his cancer has returned with a vengeance, and the cancer has spread to his liver, lungs and bones! We have to act fast as his treatment options are few and his time is running out!

"In our quest to save his life, we read about a new version of a genetic medicine that has cured patients with bone cancer and pancreatic cancer. We are optimistic that if Alvin can be treated with this medicine, he has a chance of winning his battle against cancer.

DeGrasso will now most likely focus his energy on his recently acquired gig with the reunited version of Ratt featuring Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini, Juan Croucier and Carlos Cavazo.

Black Star Riders broke the news of their lineup shakeup with the following social media post, "In a mutual decision, Black Star Riders and drummer Jimmy DeGrasso have decided to part ways.

The new Caught Up In The Gears Of Application Tour leg will feature support from Battlecross and Child Bite who were also part of the first leg that took place at the beginning of the year.

Anything's Max Bemis take on Bayside's "They're Not Horses, They're Unicorns" can be heard here and Bayside's Anthony Raneri version of Say Anything's "Night's Song" is streaming here.

The new film was directed by Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford) and explores the making of their 2016 album "Skeleton Tree". It has been released in standard DVD format, as well as in 2D and 3D Blu-Ray versions. It's available here.

The band will be hitting the road for their North American tour on May 26th when the trek kicks off with a sold out show in Brooklyn at Kings Theater and will be concluding on June 29th in Los Angeles at the Greek Theatre.

Dickinson was asked about the shutting down of the Cardiff live music spot Dempseys in a recent interview with WalesOnline and he responded, "Sadly, that seems to be happening in a lot of places.

"It's the gentrification of the city centre, the dodgy hangouts which are really cool which kids like. We wouldn't have been able to start out if there hadn't been venues like that.

"The good thing is you don't need a lot to have a place where you can have a racket and have people turn up." Bruce then expanded on the impact it will have on musicians, "Small venues are indispensable to bands... always have been and always will be. I think we miss a trick in this country and some countries in Europe do it better in that they protect their social infrastructure. And pubs and small venues are part of that social infrastructure.

The new album will be entitled "The Ballads V" and is set to be released on April 21st in various formats including a CD digipack that will features a bonus poster, a double LP gatefold purple vinyl, digitally, and in Europe a limited box set that will feature a CD digipack, powerbank, CD slim case single, sticker, photocard.

The new album will be entitled "The Best Of...So Far" and is set to hit stores on May 19th in both standard and deluxe editions digitally and on CD, as well as a 2LP vinyl version. Fans can stream the new track "Be Who You Are" here and it is also available as an instant track for those that preorder the new collection.

Singer and guitar player Daniel Cavanagh had this to say, "Here we present the song 'Springfield', it's actually the song that closed our unforgettable Wembley gig with Opeth and it seemed to be a track that just fell into place without much effort.

Weller coproduced the album with his longtime collaborator Jan "Stan" Kybert (Oasis, Bjork, Massive Attack) and recorded the 10 track effort at his Black Bard Studio.

The Finnish rockers new song was produced by the Swedish team The Family and was recorded and mixed in Stockholm and is the first new music from the group since they went on hiatus in 2012.

The band shared the good news that Blunstone is now recovering rapidly from the infection and their shows in Ridgefield, CT, Boston and Northampton, MA are now rescheduled to take place in May.

The Slaughter frontman will be releasing his sophomore solo album on May 26th in North America and Europe under a new deal with Megadeth bassist David Ellefson's EMP Label Group, preceded by a Japanese release on May 10th.

Ellefson shared the following, "I have been friends with Mark for over 30 years, since he was in Vinnie Vincent Invasion, and there's a lot of shared history. So when we started talking about the idea of putting this record out, yes, it was a great and natural fit. Mark is such a tremendous talent and songwriter, and the scope of that is truly evident on Halfway There. We're extremely proud, and excited, to have been able to partner with him on it, and can't wait for the World to hear it."

The grand opening for the Jackson, MN store will be taking place on April 7th through 9th and will feature appearances from Ellefson as well as That Metal Show's Don Jamieson who will be the cohost on the second day.

The effort was also resequenced and includes a bonus track called "Get You High" which is the first new song that the group has released since the original album hit stores. The new version is available here.

The EP was produced by Al Sutton (Kid Rock, Hank Williams Jr.) and Marlon Young (Kid Rock) and is set to be released on April 21st under the band's recently inked deal with Lava/Republic Records.

Lava Records president Jason Flom personally signed the deal with the band and shared his exciting about what they have to offer, "Greta Van Fleet is the future of real Rock & Roll. They've got the chops, the swagger and the songs to make their mark as the band of their generation."

Blake Gallant shared his excitement about the new effort, "We have had to overcome a lot as a band to get to this point. It took everything we had both as a band and as people to survive everything that happened, including the terrible wreck when a drunk driver hit our tour van. I think that really comes through in these new songs. So we are beyond excited and very grateful to finally share this album with the world."

Whenever I'm alone or in a naturally creative mindset, I tend to relive certain moments in my life. They play out like movie scenes in my head as I constantly repeat and reassess the details of whatever happens to pop into my head.

During the summer of my sophomore year in college, I was only playing through scenes that revolved around sour relationships. That entire year had been spent in my head. Whether I was just drifting away in class or blowing things out of proportion, one thing was constant; I was overthinking every single thing possible. It was very easy for me to blame myself for the awful situations I found myself in while I was in that mindset. Because of that, I failed to notice how some relationships and friendships I had were toxic because of the other party. There was no mutual respect in these relationships and it was very obvious. The lyrics of "Cheat" detail but one of those relationships, so I won't spend too much time retelling the story. Let's backtrack a little bit.

The day before I left for that sophomore year summer, I came up with a guitar lick that really stuck. I remember sitting in the living room of my apartment playing that one riff for hours on end, to the point that it drove my roommate insane. That guitar lead ended up being one of the most memorable part of "Cheat" and really helped get that song off the ground. It took me almost two months to write anything else to that lick, because nothing I wrote seemed "worthy". But one day it clicked and I wrote the chord progression that ended up finding it's way into the final version. The verses seemed to write themselves after that. I sat on a couple verses, a solid chord progression, and a catchy guitar riff for about two more months until I brought the idea to my guitarist (Matt Bolton).

At first glance, the guys weren't really into the vibe that I was gunning for. This made perfect sense, seeing as we had only made very hard hitting, emotionally charged music at that point. Presenting and upbeat, catchy idea was very far left field. It took a little bit of conversation, but I managed to convince them that there was a way to make this work for us. Matt and I sat down and tracked the first demo up until the second verse. I came back a week later and Matt had found the special ingredient; the big halftime finale at the end of "Cheat". This aspect of the song was very important as it tied together everything we had done up to that point very nicely. Jake (bass) and Josh (drums) came in at that point and really added smoothness, groove, and finesse. The halftime groove that's presented in the pre-chorus/hook was conceived at that time.

From then on, we demoed through the song a couple times until we hit the sweet spot. We took the piece to the same studio we recorded our EP "Written Off, Moving On" at, VuDu Studios. Our head producer, Mike Watts, really ran with what we had provided him. We took the finished product to a video studio and shot our music video with Tim Burton (Timbur Media). The rest is history.