Today's Day in Rock Stories

Eagles Add New Dates To North American Tour

He starts by revealing that drummer Roger Taylor and he weren't even looking for a singer at the time: "After we'd finished touring with Paul Rodgers, once again Roger and I felt we were done, and probably that would be the end of Queen touring. We didn't go out looking for a singer who sounded like Freddie and we didn't embark on one of these TV searches for stars. We just quietly got on with our business. But fate was to intervene. A gift from God?!"

He then talks about hearing of Lambert's progress on American Idol, his rendition of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' on the show and how people told him that Lambert "is the natural successor to Freddie; he is the guy you should be touring with." May then goes on to recount how they finally made the decision to invite Lambert to perform with them.

Produced by longtime Alter Bridge associate Michael "Elvis" Baskette, the project sees Kennedy embracing musical elements and influences he hasn't explored until this point in his career.

The multi-instrumentalist played lap steel, mandolin, banjo and bass in addition to the guitar on the record to create what is billed as "a new sonic canvas that some might consider a departure from the high gain wall of sound Kennedy has been associated with" in his time with Alter Bridge and his work with Slash's solo career.

The rocker's appreciation for the blues and acoustic-based music can be heard throughout the 12-song concept record inspired by the loss of his father when he was a child. "It's probably the closest thing to a full-on concept record that I've ever written," Kennedy tells Metal Wani. "I mean, the story is congruent throughout the entire... It basically tells a story from start to finish, and it documents when my father passed away when I was a kid and basically what happened after that with my mom, my brother and I - it tells that story. So it's a full-on concept from start to finish."

"Year Of The Tiger" will mark Kennedy's solo debut, but the project actually follows a full record the singer recorded over a several-year period beginning in 2009 and mixed last year before he decided to shelve it.

"I'm kind of a firm believer that songs can have a shelf life with an artist," Kennedy explains. "And what happened was I'd been chipping away at the solo record for quite a while when I had time� so when I actually documented it and finished it, I had to step back and look at it with a fresh perspective and say, 'You know what? You've gotta be honest with yourself as a writer. Is this where you are now? No. And is this what you want to represent where you are now? No.'

The documentary will also cover Prince's secret gig at the White House in 2015, when he and Stevie Wonder performed. It then follows him on his solo tour, described in a Channel 4 announcement as, "the sound of Prince stripped bare; the simplicity of these performances showed Prince in reflective mode, all the more poignant in hindsight, as these would be his final shows."

The tune was the second single from the band's third album, "Master Of Reality", which peaked at No. 8 on the US Billboard 200 on its way to eventually selling more than 2 million copies in the country.

Directed by Dick Carruthers (Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Oasis), "The End" presents the last concert under the Sabbath brand by three-quarters of the original lineup in their hometown of Birmingham, England this past February.

"To bring it all back home after all these years was pretty special," says the group. "It was so hard to say goodbye to the fans, who've been incredibly loyal to us through the years. We never dreamed in the early days that we'd be here 49 years later doing our last show on our home turf."

The first inklings of "Broken Cycle" were, according to the hundreds of .wav samples and scraps in that folder, started on May 29, 2015 and simply titled "riff67". I'd been messing with layering some atmospheric loops and a virtual version of the Middle Eastern instrument called an "oud", which is a traditional stringed instrument from the region much bigger than a ukulele, but smaller than a guitar. That 12-note hook was born that night, then I didn't touch it again for about a month.

Now, guitar is not my primary instrument by a long shot, nor am I a drummer. I tend to write guitar and drums together (using Guitar Pro, as well as Toontrack's EZDrummer series to lay down ideas in MIDI / piano roll) and then weave samples and bass ideas around that. I'd been on a "fast songs" kick for a while and wanted to try something different. Hey, it's all about playing in a sonic playground at this point, right? Then the 2.0 musicians come in, learn their part (quite often with "wtf, Kadria?!" from the guitarists looking at that tab and pitching stuffed Angry Birds at me while I'm attempting to beatbox the crazier "baa-da-ba-DAAAs" and "WOOM!"s alongside them during the process) Then they come up with more intuitive fingerings, the 2.0 bassists properly anchor the low end while 2.0 drummers (in this case, Ernie Topran, who performed drums on the entire album) lock in the basic idea, smooth rhythms out and add certain hits and touches to improve the part as a whole. Broken Cycle was only the third song early in the process that came out with a full structure this way.

We had a full instrumental structure by late July, and then I started the "lyrical core dump" process where I'd loop the thing and then start writing stream-of-consciousness what I was feeling. From the July 22, 2015 core dump: "�.be patient with me, I'm still working through a lot of f***ed up sh*t but I have to fight myself in order to trust you because you've shown me time and again you're trustworthy�., but I don't know how to do it and that's one hell of a difficult admission for me, because I've learned to put the shields up so high and do everything by myself. You deserve it. Having you around will help me fight this battle. Opening up. Tangled knots from the past made smooth? Burning away impurities?"

Lyrically this was extremely tough for me to write at times - I don't like admitting vulnerability, even to myself. There is no one "Muse" per se who inspired it - it's directed at a composite of "someone"s who can make me feel safe in being emotionally vulnerable. It was never meant to be specific to a romantic partner, though some could take that interpretation. But friends who I consider my real family are the personal inspiration for the lyrics.

We started performing "Broken Cycle" in late 2015, when we got a lot of great response from our fans up and down the east coast, we knew it had to go on the new album.

I knew at some point on this album I wanted to say "to hell with 'rock/metal video' convention and make a dance music video. Broken Cycle, with that oud and the mid-tempo groove amongst the 190+ beats-per-minute headbanging songs, was a natural choice. Since dancing with the scimitar had become so closely associated with the Inviolate frontwoman, I invited the Sisters of Anarchy troupe to wield the swords for the video and we spent the summer of 2017 choreographing, then learning the dance, which is not just fusion bellydance, but adds modern and traditional metal elements like headbanging and windmilling. The imagery of the dancers with swords, looking like an army platoon while having their friend's back at all times, is a direct and deliberate reflection of the lyrics.

On the episode guest-hosted by Lady Bird actress and fellow Irishwoman Saoirse Ronan, the band delivered the tracks "American Soul" and "Get Out Of Your Own Way" from the project, which saw its release on December 1.

The companion to 2014's "Songs Of Innocence" was completed earlier this year with a series of producers - including Jacknife Lee and Ryan Tedder, Steve Lillywhite, Andy Barlow and Jolyon Thomas - following recording sessions in Dublin, New York and Los Angeles.

The two projects draw inspiration from a collection of poems, "Songs Of Innocence And Experience", by the 18th century English mystic and poet William Blake.

It will feature all 16 studio albums, along with outtakes and b-sides, and the three original live albums Live Dates, Live Dates Volume Two and Live In Tokyo. Eight previously unreleased live albums that were recorded between 1973 and 1980 are also included.

Elmore James died at age 45 in 1963 of a heart attack and never reaped the rewards of the late-'60s blues revival. However, his music is a crucial bridge between generations of blues artists - from Robert Johnson (with whom James played) to Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and beyond. "Dust My Broom" - although a Robert Johnson song, it's best-known interpretation is by Elmore James - was later covered by ZZ Top, Canned Heat, Johnny Winter and Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.

Three years in the making, I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow is the official Gary Moore biography written by acclaimed music writer Harry Shapiro, who was given exclusive access to Gary's family, friends and musicians. The press release says, "Gary never found life easy. He had demons to battle, could be his own worst enemy and made quite a few extra ones on the way. But when he suddenly died in 2011, the outpourings of admiration and grief from fellow musicians and fans around the world was heartfelt."

You began playing guitar when you were 12 years ago. How did you go about learning? We were on Christmas break-out of school. The day I went back to school, I went to the library and checked out two books. One was titled "How to Play Guitar," and the other, "Basic Guitar." I studied the chord charts, learning and getting familiar with placing my fingers in the right position, going for it until it didn't hurt any more. Later I started figuring out leads by watching other players. A lot of that came from watching "Austin City Limits" on TV every Saturday night. That's how it started. I also listened to the Jackson 5 and other soul records, plus the jazz and blues records that my Dad listened to, along with stuff on the radio.

The Soungarden singer's solo tune is a finalist in the "Best Rock Performance" category, which will see it compete alongside songs by Foo Fighters, Leonard Cohen, Kaleo and Nothing More.

The honor is Cornell's fifteenth Grammy nomination; he and Soundgarden previously won twice in 1995 for a pair of tracks from the Seattle band's "Superunknown" album - "Spoonman" was named "Best Metal Performance" while "Black Hole Sun" picked up hardware for "Best Hard Rock Performance."

First up is the Alex Lifeson Signature ES-Les Paul, which Music Radar describes as "a signature model full of character at an appealing price." The Gibson ES-335 Premiere Figured, from Gibson's Memphis division is "acoustically louder, open and with more clarity."

"'Happiness' is about seeing only the golden sand and overlooking the broken glass," says frontman Justin Hawkins. "Hearing the waves crash and filtering out the grotesque cries of mating gulls. Smelling the distant odor of fresh chips and ignoring the stench of nearby dog s**t. Happiness is a choice. Choose The Darkness."

All of Young's solo work is posted on the archives, as is music he made with Buffalo Springfield, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, and Crazy Horse. Serious Neil Young fans will be most interested in the ten(!) unreleased albums posted to the archive, as well as a handful of previously unreleased films.

They continued, "Like the song itself, we wanted to reach out to as many people as possible, people who have been less fortunate in life, giving them a platform to tell their stories. On researching the ideas for the video, we came across so many charities, and while they are all doing such great work, we were immediately inspired by A Sense Of Home and wanted to show support and build awareness."

"This organization offered a real solution that could be rolled out across the world, particularly in Ireland where this problem is so prevalent," the statement continues. "Share it wide and share it proud with arms open."

In an announcement by the Sundance Institute, the documentary titled Bad Reputation and directed by Kevin Kerslake, takes a "look at the life of Joan Jett, from her early years as the founder of The Runaways and first meeting collaborator Kenny Laguna in 1980 to her enduring presence in pop culture as a rock 'n' roll pioneer."

The DVD presents material filmed on and off stage during the band's 1977 US tour in support of the record, including footage from a Houston concert late in the year.

The 2017 3CD/1DVD/1LP "News Of The World" package contains the documentary, engineer Bob Ludwig's 2011 remaster of the album alongside two discs of bonus tracks, and a pure analogue re-cut of the original vinyl LP direct from the unmastered analogue master mix tapes.

A "Raw Sessions" disc presents recently unearthed out-takes and rarities from the band's archives, while a bonus tracks disc features a variety of previously-released but hard-to-find versions of "News Of The World" tracks recorded in concert, for radio shows, or in alternate mixes, including the band's entire five-song final live session recorded for BBC Radio in October 1977.

The Sacramento, Ca alt-rockers had the following to say about the song, "Passing Through is a song about trying to latch onto meaning in life as we go through the moments that challenge us as individuals."

Rave On: The Buddy Holly Story, produced by 1515 Productions, explores Holly's life and story via interviews with those who knew and worked with him, as well as prominent music fans who were influenced by his work.

"'20 Years From Now' is a song we wrote and recorded during the Makes Me Sick album sessions," said guitarist Chad Gilbert in a press statement. "We loved the song and felt it stood out in a different way than the rest, so instead of squeezing it on the album, we wanted to give it a life of it's own."

"If you have seen us on this recent '20 Years Of Pop Punk' tour, then you got a first listen as it was our intro to the concert," Gilbert added. "We have learned so many lessons over the 20 years of this band, but the underlining meaning of the song is about letting go of worry to feel true freedom. When you reflect on your life, you realize how arguments, pride, and the worry of proving yourself never changed or fixed anything. Failure and missteps help refine your character and make you wiser. All you truly need to worry about is waking up each day and to try to be the best version of yourself. We feel very lucky that when we wake up we still get to be in this band. Thank you for that and we hope you enjoy the song."

Both acts hail from the emerald shores of Ireland and in a series of promo videos cast member Kenan Thompson finds himself the odd man out, standing in a circle of Irish artists.

Tommy spoke with American Songwriter recently about the new track and had this to say, "When [Crowell] asked me to play on his new album, I suggested we trade and he sing on my album. It was a deal! When I went to his studio to play on his track, he sang me this song and I came back the next day and we recorded 'Looking Forward To The Past.' Rodney works the same way I like to: sitting down and playing as if it's in front of an audience.
We capture a performance, and we don't manufacture it."

Crowell added: "Playing guitar and singing with Tommy Emmanuel is like catching a ride with an F-15 fighter jet pilot. Gravity has no effect on Tommy; it's as if he literally flies a guitar."