Today's Day in Rock Stories

Rock Legend Gregg Allman Dead At 69

The band issued the following statement, "We are heartbroken by the atrocity committed against the innocent victims of Manchester. We sadly will not be able to play Manchester Arena on the 30th May.

The 1992 stadium trek was riddled with problems from Guns N' Roses taking the stage late to a riot that took place in August of that year at the show in Montreal.

Metallica were first forced to cut their performance short at the ill-fated show after frontman James Hetfield was badly burned by stage pyrotechnics. Instead of rushing out to continue the show, Guns N' Roses didn't take the stage for over two hours, according to reports of the incident. But GNR then cut their set short with Axl Rose telling the audience, "this will be our last show for a long time" before walking off the stage less than an hour into their set.

Newsted reflected on the tour during an interview with Loudwire to promote his new 'RAWK' art exhibition. He said, "We chose to play first, of course, because we wanted to play on time. If we're going on at 8:01, we're on at 8:01. That's the way it's always been. That's why Metallica's still touring now and crushing everybody and selling more records."

He then added that Guns N' Roses "showed me what I don't ever want to become. Antics, pissing away of money, disrespecting people that work for you� Looking down on people who look up to you - worst thing you can do, especially in this business. I saw them do that a lot and I didn't like it."

The singer was found dead in a Detroit hotel following a Soundgarden concert at the city's Fox Theatre on May 17. LA Daily News reports the service opened with his song, "The Promise", from the 2017 movie of the same name.

Eulogies to the late rocker were delivered by Cornell's Soundgarden bandmates Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron, Cornell's Audioslave bandmate Tom Morello, Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament and actor Josh Brolin.

Linkin Park's Chester Bennington sang Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" for mourners, which included numerous members of rock royalty and Cornell's widow and two young children, according to Billboard.

McCartney said the following in a Q&A on his official website, "What really happened was I was coming back from a trip abroad with our roadie, Mal Evans, just the two of us together on the plane. And we were eating and he mumbled to me, asked me to pass the salt and pepper. And I misheard him. He said [mumbles] 'saltandpepper'. I go, 'Sergeant Pepper?' I thought he said, 'Sergeant Pepper'. I went, 'Oh! Wait a minute, that's a great idea!' So we had a laugh about it, then I started thinking about Sergeant Pepper as a character. I thought it would be a very interesting idea for us to assume alter egos for this album we were about to make.

"So that's what we did. And yeah, I started doing drawings of how the band might look. I sort of got this military look thing going and one of my ideas was that they were being presented by the Lord Mayor of some Northern town in a park. And in the old days they used to have floral clocks, they called them. It was like a clock that was made out of flowers. So I did drawings of the floral clock and then, 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band', AKA The Beatles, getting an award. So they've got a big cup and they're getting some sort of award from the town.

"So that's where the idea came from and then I just talked to all the guys and said, 'What do you think of this idea?' They liked it and I said, 'It will mean, when I approach the mic, it's not Paul McCartney. I don't have to think this is a Paul McCartney song'. So it was freeing. It was quite liberating.

At press time, the listing is still there on Diverse Vinyl saying the album is on the Harvest label with a catalog number NYHITCH001. Hitchhiker is said to be a collection of solo acoustic songs that Young recorded at Indigo Ranch Studios in Malibu. In his 2014 memoir Special Deluxe, Young recalled: "I spent the night there with David and recorded nine solo acoustic songs, completing a tape I called Hitchhiker.

The album, entitled "Smiling On A Cloudy Day", will be released on July 11th and will feature "10 songs from the band's early psychedelic period", according to the announcement.

Side one will feature the following tracks: "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)", "Cream Puff War", "Morning Dew", "That's It For The Other One" and "Born Cross-Eyed".

The band kicked off the tour last Thursday (May 25th) in Hattiesburg, MS and will be on the road until June 4th with the final show in Oakland, CA at the Oakland Metro.

The one day event will be taking place at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, CA on Saturday, September 9th, 2017 and will also feature performances from Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Best Coast, Bad Suns, Cloud Nothings, Pup, Coin, Citizen, (Sandy) Alex G, Now Now, Kevin Devine, Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas, Charley Bliss and more to be announced.

Organizer Andy Serrao had the following to say about the event: "Sonically, music has highs and lows, and emotional highs and lows, and with the California topography, we have the mountains, the desert and the ocean. The name High & Low fit for us, with the vision for where we wanted to go.

The press release says: "Galaktikon II: Become The Storm follows the space-age theme of 2012's original Galaktikon album, with a conceptual storyline and a heavier, darker, more brutal sound. In addition to Brendon Small on vocals and guitar, the album will feature acclaimed musicians and Dethklok alum Bryan Beller (bass; The Aristocrats, Dweezil Zappa, Steve Vai) and Gene Hoglan (drums; Testament, Death, Dark Angel). Galaktikon II: Become The Storm was co-produced by Small and Grammy-nominated producer/engineer Ulrich Wild, who also worked behind the board on the Dethklok albums.