Today's Day in Rock Stories

Posthumous Gregg Allman Song 'My Only True Friend' Goes Online

The hologram - created by Eyellusion with the full support of Dio's widow and manager, Wendy - will be seen delivering the singer's actual live vocal recordings mixed with music performed by Dio Disciples, a group of former collaborators including guitarist Craig Goldy, drummer Simon Wright and keyboardist Scott Warren; the band is rounded out by bassist Bjorn Englen and vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens, with Oni Logan to appear on select dates.

The Dio hologram will perform for the majority of the show, delivering an alternating set list that will feature songs such as "Rainbow In The Dark", "We Rock", "Neon Nights", "King Of Rock & Roll", "Man On The Silver Mountain", "Heaven & Hell", "Holy Diver" and more.

Following its debut at last year's Wacken Open Air festival in Germany, the hologram of the late rocker saw its US debut at the 28th annual Pollstar Awards in Los Angeles, CA on February 2.

The "Dio Returns" production will play more than 80 shows around the globe, with the first series of dates set to begin this fall in Europe, kicking off in Helsinki, Finland on November 30 and a US tour planned for spring 2018.

The rocker previewed the event with a social media post, writing, "Last hour of playing guitar before going into surgery tomorrow to repair my rotator cuff from breaking guitars. IRONIC?"

Sixx updated fans late Tuesday evening with a pair of post-op photos, adding, "Rotator and torn bicep fixed. Doctor did a great job." The shoulder repair comes just three months after the bassist underwent successful hip placement surgery.

The San Diego, CA band - guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo, drummer Eric Kretz and vocalist Scott Weiland - debuted with "Core" in the fall of 1992 and by the following summer were one of the biggest rock acts on the scene, powered by exhilarating live shows and a string of now-classic songs from the album, remastered here for the very first time.

The 4CD Super Deluxe Edition features a newly-remastered version of the original record, plus more than two hours of unreleased demos and live performances, including the band's performance on "MTV Unplugged." The package also delivers the original album on vinyl and a DVD that contains a 5.1 Surround Sound Mix along with videos for the album's four singles: "Sex Type Thing", "Plush", "Wicked Garden" and "Creep."

Limited to 15,000 copies worldwide, the 4CD set is packaged in a richly detailed 12x12 hardcover book with rare and unseen photographs from the era. Fans can pre-order a limited edition bundle of the "Core: Super Deluxe Edition" at stonetemplepilots.com which includes a bonus replica 7" vinyl single of "Plush" that was originally released in the UK in 1993; the exclusive bundle is limited to 1,000 copies.

Following a stint with UK rockers Samson, Dickinson joined Iron Maiden in 1981, and made his first appearance with the group on record with the release of their third album, 1982's "The Number Of The Beast."

35 years and more than a dozen studio albums and countless world tours later, Dickinson has emerged as rock's true renaissance man, engaged in off stage activities as an airline pilot and captain, an aviation entrepreneur, a beer brewer, motivational speaker, film scriptwriter, twice-published novelist, radio presenter, TV actor and a world-class fencer.

I was reading this one book in March 2016. On the last page of the last chapter I read a sentence with the word "Valkyrie." I was immediately drawn to it. I kind of like to pick words based on the way they sound; whether it's the hard consonant that interests me or the overall number of syllables. The next month we were driving back to NYC in the rain after spending the weekend with family in Pennsylvania. I opened up the little note I keep in my phone for all my song ideas. And there it was, the word "Valkyrie" staring back at me.

I glanced out the window at the gloomy weather and began thinking about how the word could be applied as an analogy for my life. It made me think about how everyone tends to fear death at one point in their life or another. It made me remember when I was six years old and first learned I was going to die. And that's a lot to take in�I am going to die. We end up spending most of our lives figuring out how to be okay with that. We try to stuff them with fulfilling experiences so we can "die happily" and "have no regrets."

"Valkyrie" became a way for me to take control of that fear by externalizing it. As the Valkyrie, I could then decide who dies and who lives. It felt much more comfortable imagining what it was like on the flip side of things. Some of the lyrics also allude to the fact that recording the song itself has somehow immortalized me just into the thing I was writing about. By some strange logic I ended up creating this eternal parallel loop.

The twin drumming harkens back to the legendary group's early 90s Union Tour which featured two drummers playing simultaneously. White had this to say, "It's a pleasure for me to welcome Dylan Howe to the YES stage.

The tune appeared on the band's debut album, "Kill 'Em All", which didn't appear on the US Billboard 200 chart until three years later, where it peaked at No. 66 on its way to eventually selling 3 million copies Stateside.

The Montreal stop was one of three Canadian dates this month on Metallica's WorldWired tour in support of their latest album, "Hardwired�To Self-Destruct."

Following the Montreal appearance, Metallica are now enjoying a two-week break before returning to live action at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA on July 29 to begin the final three-week series of dates on their North American summer stadium run.

Now the couple are auctioning off many of the small things (and big things as well) from their Beverly Hills' home, with proceeds going to Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Gilmore remembered meeting Bennington in a studio before he officially joined Linkin Park. "I was just like, 'Oh my god, this is really special,'" Gilmore recalled. "I'd never really heard somebody sing that incredibly just in a little crappy rehearsal room. He wasn't really singing like that on the demos, and I just felt like, if he can sing like this in the studio, then we might have a chance of doing something."

Gibson caught up with Thorogood to discuss the new effort and he explained the reasoning behind releasing a solo album after all these years, "Well, we needed to put something out that we hadn't done yet! (Laughs) We did pretty much everything else. We did several live records, some anthologies and best of records, so we figured, what's left? I've actually been meaning to do this for years, and I've been putting it off."

In 1977 Art Pepper made a comeback following some time off from recording. In 1979, the Japanese came calling in the form of a small record label, Yupiteru, later known as Atlas. They wanted Art to record for them. By then, Art was under exclusive contract to Fantasy/Galaxy Records and could not record as a leader.

However, in a scheme suggested by his wife, Laurie Pepper, Art could be a "sideman." He could in turn choose the "leaders." He recorded six albums for Atlas with six terrific "leaders." The concept became the six-volume "West Coast Sessions!" series. Volume 1 featured Sonny Stitt; Volume 2, Pete Jolly; Volume 3, Lee Konitz; and Volume 4, Bill Watrous. Those volumes were reissued in expanded editions by Omnivore Recordings beginning in 2016.