Today's Day in Rock Stories

Bob Seger Giving Away Glenn Frey Tribute Song

The stadium tours with the current line-up of Guns N' Roses with Slash and Duff back with frontman Axl Rose are reportedly raking in in excess of $5.5m per show.

But speaking to Guy 'Favazz' Favazza of the St. Louis, Missouri radio station KSHE, Fortus shot down suggestions the reunion was fuelled by dollar signs.

"No. Axl has been going on on time for years before [the reunion]," said Fortus. "It's been great. Is money the motivating factor for him? Absolutely not. I've never seen that guy motivated by money, as long as I've known him. Otherwise, this reunion would have happened a long time ago."

The initial dates met with high demand for tickets so the group announced that they have added three new U.S. concerts: May 21st at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, June 29th at MetLife Stadium in E. Rutherford, and June 4th at Soldier Field in Chicago.

The 15-song set of classic 1970s tracks at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne opened, as usual, with the title track to the band's groundbreaking, self-titled 1970 debut and ended with the signature song, "Paranoid."

The pairing previously delivered the "...And Justice For All" track at the 56th annual Grammy Awards in early 2014, which the band recently referred to as "one of the most creative, unique performances of our career."

The band has so far announced three UK headline shows as part of their finale trek: March 22nd in Glasgow at the Cat House, the 23rd in Manchester at Sound Control and the 24th in London at the Tufnell Park Dome.

They posted the following statement about their decision to disband: "To our fans, our friends, our family. This is by far the hardest decision we have had to make, but We Are The Ocean is coming to the end. This is a message to say thank you for exceeding all our expectations, and clarifying that music is one of the most powerful and incredible things in this world. It's taken us to places we had only dreamed of and given us the opportunity to meet some incredibly inspiring and hard-working people along the way.

Sony ATV agreed to buy out the remaining 50% interest in the catalog from Michael Jackson's estate in spring of last year for $750 millions dollars. However, based on U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 writers have the ability to reclaim the publisher's cut of their songs after 56 years (if the song was written before 1978) and 35 years (for songs written in or after 1978).

The group, which features The Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover, At The Drive-In's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Le Butcherettes' Teri Gender Bender, will be releasing their self-titled debut on February 24th.

"Finally! After 3 years of building, our very first LSC (London Stereoscopic Company) book of 21st century photography is almost ready to be sent off to the printers," explains May. "And the photographer is me, and the pictures are of a rock group that began to work on making a vision come true around 1970.

"Queen In 3-D! Off stage, on stage - on tour, off tour - in the studio, in the snow, in the sunshine, in the rain - in the pink and in the blue. But always in depth! Stereoscopic memories, and my own personal recollections that go with them.

The Allman Brothers Band were arguably the most influential American band in the first half of the Seventies, ushering in a generation of great Southern rock music, but not without suffering a massive personal and professional loss during the recording of 1972's Eat A Peach album.

Older namesake sibling Duane Allman was already a veteran studio player on hit sessions at Muscle Shoals Studio. Duane was the American slide guitarist who traded lick for lick with the great Eric Clapton as Derek & the Dominoes on the legendary Layla album. Again, it was Duane Allman who formed and led the Allman Brothers Band and behind them an entire new Southern Rock movement. But midway through the recording of what would become Eat a Peach, Duane died riding his beloved motorcycle.

Yet with almost superhuman resolve, singer / songwriter / organist Gregg Allman and the rest of the original group would not only continue, but reach even greater heights, eventually inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In this interview marking the forty-fifth anniversary of this bittersweet album, Gregg Allman and ex-guitarist Dickey Betts reveal how the music sustained the brotherhood.

"The music was always kickass from the very start. That was a real constant thing in our lives. Without the music, if the music hadn't been the way it was, then the brotherhood wouldn't have been the way it was, and the whole thing would have collapsed a long time ago." - Gregg Allman

They will be kicking off the tour, which includes an appearance at this year's Coachella Festival, on March 24th in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre and wrapping things up on May 12th in Raleigh, NC at the Red Hat Amphitheatre.

The new album follows their 2014 album "They Want My Soul" and the band co-produced the new effort with Dave Fridmann. The title song can be streamed here.

The group will be releasing their new record "Anything Could Happen" on Friday, January 20th. It follows their 1993 album "Friday Night Is Killing Me", which will also be receiving a special vinyl release next Tuesday (Jan 24th).

"There are moments that feel heavier than anything we've ever done, not that we're the heaviest band in the world, but they have a finesse because of our experience," said Flowers. 'There's also really beautiful things. Lyrically, it's really close to home."

The band will be launching the trek to promote their latest studio album, "The Empire", which was released late last year and they will be supported on the outing by Internal Bleeding, Sacrificial Slaughter, Voices Of Ruin and Micawber.

T2 Trainspotting will play in U.S. theaters starting in March. Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" appeared in the first scene of Trainspotting and played behind the 1996 movie's popular "Choose Life."

Billed as "a long-planned "correction" of the project, the story goes that the band were unhappy with the original final mix on indie label SST Records and wanted to remix the album for subsequent pressings, but their schedule became busy when they signed with A&M Records and began work on their major-label debut, "Louder Than Love" and remix plans were scrapped.

Last year, Soundgarden acquired the original multi-track tapes to "Ultramega OK" and connected with engineer Jack Endino to create a fresh mix of the album that, for the band, ties up this persistent loose end and remedies the sound of their debut album.

The expanded reissue also includes the newly-created "Ultramega OK EP", which presents newly-remixed, early versions of six songs that would make the album; these were originally recorded in 1987 by Endino and Chris Hanzsek at Seattle's Reciprocal Recording.

The new effort will be entitled 'One Foot In The Grave' and follows their 2014 album "R.I.B.". They hit the Gernhart Studios in Troisdorf with producer Martin Buchwalter (Destruction, Accuser, Perzonal War, Suidakra, etc.) earlier this month.