Today's Day in Rock Stories

Ritchie Blackmore Records New Songs With Rainbow Singer

Simmons made an appearance on the Thunder Underground podcast and was asked his opinion of online streaming music services like Spotify. He responded, "Good luck to 'em. I am not a supporter. I do believe in free market economy - supply and demand and all that kind of stuff - and I support Taylor Swift and Metallica and anybody else who doesn't wanna play the game; The Beatles didn't wanna play the game for a long time."

He went on to explain that he is "a rich bastard" and it doesn't affect him but says that it is hurting up and coming bands. Gene explains, "Imagine you're a new band and you have your passion and your music and you really love it, you can't do it. There's nothing else. They can't show up live, because they don't know who you are, so somehow you've gotta get the music out there. But if you wanna earn a living, you can't get the music out there.

The show will also include performances from Metallca's tourmates Avenged Sevenfold and Volbeat and will be taking place on June 9th at the Iowa Speedway.

Seattle PI reports Wetter - who plead guilty last month to two counts of fourth-degree assault - was handed a suspended sentence of 364 days in jail, meaning he will not serve any time. His plea agreement includes restitution, two years of probation, counseling and no contact with his nephews.

Police and court documents indicate the August 2016 incident at White River Amphitheater began when Nancy's twin 16-year-old sons asked Wetter if they could check out his and Ann's new tour bus. Wetter provided access but reportedly became upset when one of the pair left the door open, despite his instructions to keep it closed to prevent the dogs inside from escaping.

The joint tour is scheduled to begin on July 18 in Atlanta, GA at the Tabernacle and will run until August 5th where it will conclude in Seattle at The Paramount Theatre.

"There's so much about it that I was excited about, and then there was parts of me that I was a little bit freaked out about," explained Sixx (audio below). "The thing that was interesting is, at first, when I heard that I needed that, I had that feeling, 'Oh my God! That's like an old person thing.' And I started getting a lot of feedback from our listeners and people in their 30s and 40s that have had hip replacement. In fact, I was just talking to a friend of mine, and his wife, who is 38, just had it done. So it's actually more common than not. And especially because people are more active now."

"It's amazing what they can do with modern medicine," he continued. "I have to tell you, I was up, I was walking. The next day, I walked three hundred feet, and the next day, with only a cane, I walked up a flight of stairs, they showed me how to get in and out of a car, and they sent me home. And I've been here in the house pretty much ever since then.

"I went out a little bit yesterday, and I kind of took it too far. But I just wanted to be active. So, for anybody out there that has to go through a surgery like this, it's probably the best thing you'll ever do for yourself, 'cause I'm really feeling a lot better than I was before I went in for surgery."

The special outing is scheduled to kick off on July 29th in Columbus, OH at Double Happiness and will be wrapping up on August 25th in Pittsburgh, PA at The Rex.

The new album was captured during a special show at the famed Nashville venue on February 27th of last year where Emmanuel was joined on stage by Steve Wariner and John Knowles (who are the only other two living CPGs, a.k.a. Certified Guitar Players, a moniker bestowed on four guitarist that he admired by music icon Chet Atkins.

The new visual was directed by Matt Alonzo (Xzibit, Tyrese, The Game) and frontman Cody Carson had this to say, "We are extremely proud to present the music video for our latest single 'Hypnotized'. Writing this song was an extremely cathartic experience with all of that pent-up anger being let out; Making this video felt no different.

"We understand how important it is to be able to let out your anger, unleash your inner demons, and just act out every once in a while. Songs like this allow you to do that."

They will inducted during a special all-star event that will be hosted by Chris Isaak and is set to take place at the ACL Live at The Moody Theater on October 25th.

Isaak will also be inducting his hero Orbison at the event which will feature performances from Raul Malo and Ry Cooder as well as a New Orleans tribute to The Neville Brothers.

The new video can be streamed here. The album was recorded primarily by Kotzen as a one-man band. He explains, "It's really not deliberate when the record is finished and suddenly I'm the only performer on it.

The new album will features Ilous' unique take on a number of classic songs from artists like Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Don Henley, Def Leppard, Rainbow, The Doobie Brothers, Chris Isaak and Christopher Cross but with a Latin and flamenco edge.

Terry had this to say, "This album is just the start in a series of different projects I have in mind for the future. I decided to start with covers of familiar & rock favorites to introduce the Latin / Flamenco Rock sound to my audience, and I plan to start up a series of intimate club shows reminiscent of close-knit Latin & Gypsy gatherings."

The festival will be returning to the site of the original 1967 festival at the Monterey County Fairgrounds and will even be launching 50 years to the day of the original event on June 16th through 18th.

The classic album featured Ginsberg singing the poetry of the English Romantic William Blake, and the special reissue will also include a second disc of rarities and previously unissued songs.

When guitarist J. Geils passed away last week at age 71, he left behind a legacy of wonderful music, not only for the blues-rock sounds he created within his namesake

J. Geils Band, but also on several albums he recorded for Stony Plain Records that explored the music of his formative years - jazz and swing - instilled in him by his father.

Frontman Jonathan Davis had this to say, "We're really excited to perform at this year's awards and are looking forward to seeing all our fans in Cleveland. I performed at the first ever APMAs back in 2014 with Asking Alexandria and it's been awesome to watch how this show has grown over the years."

The band have been working on the project over the past year while juggling the release of expanded reissues of 1991's "Badmotorfinger" and their 1988 debut, "Ultramega OK", solo dates by Chris Cornell, and his and drummer Matt Cameron's involvement with the reunited supergroup Temple Of The Dog.

"There are some songs that have been demoed," Thayil tells 93.3 WMMR Philadelphia. "I think Matt's demoed some things completely he's recorded on his computer. Chris has demoed a few things. He's written lyrics for ideas that I've written and that Ben (Shepherd) and Matt have written.

The melody for the 'Paper Heart' chorus came to me while I was in the shower. I find that happens a lot. It took me ages to find verse chords and a melody that worked which was pretty annoying. I couldn't get the chorus out of my head so I knew that others were gonna like it if we could eventually get round to finishing it. I had the light bulb moment whilst sat at the little upright piano that we have at our place. Jimmy (lead guitar) and I sat down to write the lyrics that day and it all came together pretty fast.

I find when you have a melody in your head for a while it becomes obvious what the song needs to be about lyrically. Jimmy and I write all of our lyrics together and for this one we drew on some personal experiences along with some of our friends situations for the inspiration. Everyone feels fragile at times and the song was written with that in mind. Being led down a road that leads to a brick wall isn't a very pleasant experience and takes time to recover from. Without going too deep into it, that's what 'Paper Heart' is all about.

Having written it we were really keen to get in the studio to make sure it could make it onto our debut album. We kind of rushed it into our next studio session and recorded the whole thing in a day. It was the first time that we'd recorded a song without playing it at a gig first. I think it's important to road test songs but time wasn't on our side so we just went for it. Glad to say it turned out ok!