Today's Day in Rock Stories

Lou Gramm Addresses Foreigner 40th Anniversary Tour Report

The iconic original Deep Purple guitarist was asked in an interview if he was disappointed that he wasn't able to invite Dio, who died of cancer in 2010, to be part of the Rainbow reformation.

He responded, "I hate to say it, but no, I wasn't. I'd finished with Ronnie a long time ago, and we kept in touch now and again but I went on to other things and he was in other things.

"We kept it very convivial and that, but I think neither one of us really wanted to get back together. He's a strong alpha male, and so am I; he wanted to go one way, I wanted to go the other."

The tour, their first since 2011, is scheduled to kick off with a two-night-stand at the Pearl in Las Vegas on April 7th and 8th and will wrap up with the previously announced Hollywood Bowl show on May 7th.

The new dates include stops in various markets across America in addition to the band's appearances at the Welcome to Rockvill, Fort Rock and Carolina Rebellion festivals.

The show took place on what would have been Bowie's 70th birthday and included performances by past members of his touring band, including guitarist Earl Slick, former King Crimson frontman and touring guitarist Adrian Belew, pianist Mike Garson and bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, who played on some of Bowie's biggest hits such as "Space Oddity" and "Young Americans."

Other guests included Bowie's close friend Gary Oldman, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliot, UK Synthpop act La Roux, Keane's Tom Chaplin, Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon, Tony Hadley and members of Spandau Ballet.

The Irish band's fifth album, "The Joshua Tree" spawned three hit singles ("With Or Without You", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Where The Streets Have No Name") on its way to selling more than 25 million copies worldwide, including 10 million in the U.S. alone.

A two-month run across North America will begin in Vancouver, BC on May 12 and include U2's first ever US festival headline appearance at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in June. Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers and One Republic will open select dates.

The band will hit Europe in July with Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds as special guests. "It seems like we have come full circle from when The Joshua Tree songs were originally writtten, with global upheaval, extreme right wing politics and some fundamental human rights at risk," reflects The Edge. "To celebrate the album - as these songs seem so relevant and prescient of these times too - we decided to do these shows, it feels right for now. We're looking forward to it."

The drummer posted a photo along with the caption "That's a wrap on rehearsals. Now off to record! #stonesour #studiolife #2017 #dw #sabian #promark #evans @dwdrums @evansdrumheads @promarkbydaddario @sabiancymbals_official (photo by @stubs_dsm )"

The band broke the news fans with the following statement, "Bands are a lot like a relationship; you've all heard this. Sometimes when sh*t goes south, it's hard to tell who broke up with whom, if you're ever going to get back together, when to give them back their things - it's messy, and it takes a while to figure out how to get back to focusing on just yourself, when all you've known for a good part of your life is sharing it with this other person.

The group was formed in Portland, Or in 1980 and originally broke up in 1993, only to regroup five years later but now it appears that they have officially called it a day.

Apart from the Motorhead/Phil Campbell and The Bastard Sons icon on one track, Lorina is backed on the album by his long time musical partner Dan DC Conway (Drums), fellow Black Label Society bandmates John JD DeServio (Bass) and Jeff Fabb (Drums), former Lizzy Borden bandmate Marten Andersson (Bass).

Sugar Ray Norcia, individually, and collectively with his band, The Bluetones, received the most nominations with seven, including B.B. King Entertainer Award, Best Song, Best Album and Best Band. The total reaches ten with the inclusion of his Bluetones bandmates Monster Mike Welch (Instrumentalist-Guitar), Michael "Mudcat" Ward (Instrumentalist-Bass) and Anthony Geraci (Pinetop Perkins Piano Player).

The new promo clip was filmed during the band's Knotfest 2016 performance and features SiriusXM's Liquid Metal's Jose Mangin on guest vocals. The band had the following to say about the new album which was produced by Ross Robinson (Korn, Slipknot) and mixed by Joe Barresi (Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age):

"From the band to you the fans we hope you had some bad ass, family filled, lovely holidays but now if the time to get what you really wanted and have been waiting for.

The track is from a May 1986 concert at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, MO that is featured in the revamped package, which also includes a remastered version of the original album.

"Utilizing the tones and textures of the latest guitar effects, 'Out in the Cold' heard Priest reinvent the classic heavy metal ballad," says the band of the opening tune from the Fuel For Life tour. "The haunting opening refrain leads into a passionate empathy of lost love, building a forceful tempo that lifts the dynamics through to a wave-crashing conclusion."

Judas Priest's tenth album, "Turbo" peaked at No. 17 on the US Billboard 200 on its way to sales of more than 1 million in the country.

The releases include reissues of three long-out-of-print albums - Selvmord, The Dark River and Green Eyed Demon - and one compilation, known as AIDS to the People, made up tracks from previously release and unreleased singles.

Selvmord, which translates to "suicide," was Vond's 1994 full length and was originally released as a limited edition LP by the now-defunct Dutch label Necromantic Gallery. "We included a razorblade with the 20 first copies," Mortiis said, adding with a morbid sense of humor that "there have been no suicides that we are aware of." That version of the record has been sold out for two decades. It was released in CD format by various record labels.

Recorded and released in 1996, The Dark River was released on vinyl and CD through Mortiis' own Dark Dungeon Music. Later pressings were available through various official labels, as well as bootlegs.
Green Eyed Demon followed in 1997. "This record differs in that it is very inspired by dark industrial noise collage type of music," Mortiis said. "It is way more 'uneasy listening' than any other Vond recording." The LP and CD were released by US label Cybertzara Records and have been unavailable since.

The film features the late saxophonist Clarence Clemons and was recorded at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, Spain stop of The Rising Tour on October 16, 2002.

The band will be launching the tour in support of their new album "Caught Up In The Gears Of Application" with the first show taking place January 12th in Austin and the trek wrapping up on February 3rd in Pensacola, FL.

The following night they will be taking part in the three-day festival-style benefit for Eyehategod frontman Mike IX Williams who is recovering from a liver transplant.

The band, led by former Gallows' singer Frank Carter, recruited renowned artist Jake Chapman to create the new visual, which can be streamed online here.

Carter had the following to say about the clip, "Jake Chapman is one of my favourite artists of all time. Somehow in this mad world we also became quite good friends. Foolishly I jeoardised all of that by asking him to make us a music video for our song 'Wild Flowers.'

"Luckily for me, Jake Is further into the abyss of madness than I am and he has made something completely captivating and utterly insane... but best of all, we are still friends!"

Belladonna's appearance marks the third time that the rocker delivered the anthem at a sporting event in recent months following a late September showing at Wrigley Field prior to a Chicago Cubs game and a November 12 appearance at Chicago's United Center prior to the start of a Chicago Bulls home game.

Anthrax are gearing up for the launch of a 2017 European tour to mark the 30th anniversary of their 1987 album, "Among The Living." The month-long run that will see the group perform the record in its entirety opens on February 19 in Utrecht, The Netherlands, with shows wrapping up in Paris, France on March 16.

Looking back on the days he spent with a young Hammett, Satriani tells Classic Rock: "Kirk was a great student. He was very eager to learn. His fingers moved great - and he had great taste in guitar players like Michael Schenker and Uli John Roth. He was completely musical.

"He'd been in Exodus, but all of a sudden got in this band, Metallica, and he disappeared for a few months then came back with a copy of Kill 'Em All. Thrash metal songs had brand new chord progressions that had nothing to do with blues, Zeppelin or the Beatles.

"Kirk would come in and say, 'Check out this new song I have to solo over - what key is this in?' Often the song wasn't in just one key. I had to teach him to decipher the song's tonality, to understand the musical possibilities, and how to make his own decisions on what to play."

Bonnet is best known as a former vocalist for a number of iconic hard rock bands where he sang on numerous classic albums including Rainbow's 'Down To Earth' (1979), Michael Schenker Group's 'Assault Attack' (1982), Alcatrazz's 'No Parole For Rock 'n' Roll' (1983) and 'Disturbing The Peace' (1985), and Impellitteri's 'Stand In Line' (1988).

Riding high off the success of their 1973 We're An American Band hit album and tour Grand Funk retained the extraordinary Todd Rundgren to produce Shinin' On, the band's eighth album.