Today's Day in Rock Stories

Sammy Hagar Changes His Tune About Van Halen Reunion

The revelation came during an interview with The Guardian, with Plant talking about taking a new direction while recording Led Zeppelin's third album, III.

Willey tenure with the death metal group spanned from 2008 through 2012. Guitarist Tony Lazaro broke the sad news to fans with the following, "It is with heavy heart and deep sadness that I say Gator [Gaeton Collier, bass] and I lost and old friend and singer of Vital Remains, Scott Willey.

"I had just seen him this summer at Summer Slaughter Fest in July. And we had a nice conversation about a lot of things. We told some road stories from the past and we had some good laughs.

Spanning 1963 to 1969, The Beatles' holiday recordings were originally pressed on flexi discs and mailed to fan club members each December. Never released beyond the fan club until now, The Beatles' seven holiday messages have been newly pressed on a rainbow of seven-inch colored vinyl singles for The Christmas Records box set, to be released worldwide on December 15.

A performance of the thrash metal track was captured live during a January 25, 1987 show at Grugahalle in Essen, West Germany. The unreleased recording is featured on the 2017 expanded editions of "Master Of Puppets", including a 3-CD set that presents the remastered album, a disc that is a combination of rough mixes, demos and an interview, and a third disc featuring a mix of live songs that are sequenced into a typical set list from the Damage, Inc. tour.

A limited-edition deluxe box set includes "unreleased demos, rough mixes, interviews and live tracks, many of which have never even been available in the collector or bootleg community and were pulled from our personal collections," says the band. "There's also a 108-page hardcover book with rare and never before seen photos and essays from those who were there with us for the wild ride.

"All in all, there are three LPs, ten CDs, a cassette, two DVDs, a lithograph with art by Pushead, a folder with handwritten lyrics, and if that isn't enough to push you over the edge, we've also thrown in a set of six buttons (!)."

Jay Nash: This track turned out to be one of my favorites. The writing process started with this acoustic guitar riff that is almost indistinguishable on the record in its current state, but it really provided the underlying backbone of the song. It's this open string thing that is something of a cross between something that Neil Young might almost play and a jam band riff. The sound of it cast a little spell on Josh and me, and we started imagining the song should tell a story of a simpler time. When Josh added the backbeat, it easily settled into a groove that felt powerful and timeless.

Josh was telling me how he used to record his grandfather's stories before he died, and that he had some great ones about the great flood of 1940 that wreaked havoc on many western North Carolina counties, including his hometown of Wilkesboro. Together, we imagined a protagonist in this song that was inspired by Josh's grandad's stories. However, in this case, our imaginations ran with the concept. The central character here is running from some dark memories, and he is using the flood as an excuse to cut his losses and leave it all behind him. That part of the story doesn't have any historical root. We just liked the context of this historic flood where log cabins were literally floating down the river. In the case of "our hero," he doesn't feel a whole lot of sadness or remorse when he sees that his home has been destroyed, instead, we imagine him almost relieved.

Recording this song proved to be a lot of fun too. After we recorded the basic tracks of drums, acoustic guitar and my (Jay's) vocal, this song became something of a "Postal Service" project. I don't think that either of us started out with a clear and definite picture of what the final product was going to sound like, but somehow, I think that it ended up exactly where it needed to be. I started with the mandolin riff, which ultimately became the most prominent instrumental feature of the song. Next, Josh went deep down the rabbit hole with a bunch of percussion sounds� goat's toenails, chains, and a bunch of weird drums. I remember getting a rough mix back from him of the new parts that he had added, and being blown away by how much grit and texture the percussion added to the track. After that, I probably spent an entire day adding acoustic lap steel and electric guitar to the track. I say acoustic lap steel, because I played an old Silvertone with excessively high action, tuned to GDBGDB and used a lap steel bar. It recorded with a very cool, earthy snarl. The last bit was the electric part where I found myself seeking a tone reminiscent of somewhere between Mark Knopfler's tone on early Dire Straits albums and Mike Campbell's slide tone on "Won't Back Down." It's fun to hear how the whole orchestration ended up working out.

Josh Day: I loved the whole process of how this song came together. The storyline really helped us visualize what the track needed sonically. Jay came to the table with so many great ideas, and we just ran with it. From multiple guitar parts to the mandolin parts, these elements became the melodic hooks of the song. And all of the pieces of the musical puzzle started to fit together very organically. We both continued adding musical layers from our respective studios, which allowed me to spend time doing one of my favorite things which is creating percussion parts. I loved being able to dig into my library of sounds and add different elements to help bring more life to the drums, and the overall track. Super proud of how this track turned out!

"I hope to god this (expletive) he is being accused of is not true as he has been nothing but a good friend to me," Rock said in the email to music industry blogger Lefsetz (via The Detroit News), confirming that he has terminated his professional relationship with Webster. "But if it comes to light that it is, I will be the first to cut the head off the snake."

The tour launches June 23 in Tampa, Florida and will wrap up in Phoenix, Arizona on August 12. "We're all big Weezer fans," said Pixies' Black Francis in a press statement. "So we're really looking forward to this summer. We have a lot of respect for Weezer, they're not afraid to take risks with their music."

The dates mark Stewart's eighth residency at the Colosseum, ranging back to 2011. The show has already played to over a half-million fans, and features hits from the singer's storied career, including "You Wear It Well," "Maggie May," "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy," "The First Cut is the Deepest," "Tonight's The Night" and "Hot Legs."

That explains why Mensa appeared on BBC Radio 1 and played an unplugged cover of "Karma Police" from the band's acclaimed 1997 classic album OK Computer.

The lead single from Oasis' second album, "(What's The Story) Morning Glory", marked the band's first UK No. 1 while the project went on to become the country's fifth biggest-selling album of all time with more than 4.7 million copies in the group's homeland.

Gallagher's appearance is part of a special series of concert broadcasts to celebrate BBC Radio 2's 50th birthday; others involved include Tears For Fears, Chic ft. Nile Rodgers, Paloma Faith and Deep Purple.

The band is currently in the early stages of their next studio album which they will be releasing next year. Richardson joins original members Michael Sweet, Robert Sweet and Oz Fox.

This will mark the first boxed released from the group and it will be entitled "Decade: History of Our Evolution". The collection will include six albums: Decade, Decade Acoustic, Decade 2, Decade 2 Acoustic, Decade Demos, and Decade Rarities.

Crispin Earl had this to say about the FMN cover, "Growing up Faith No More was one of our favourite bands, not only did they have great songs, but they had an uncompromising passion for what they did musically.

Gary Clark, Jr., Stephen and Ziggy Marley, Aloe Blacc, Don Was and Jim James of My Morning Jacket were among the artists that hit the stage of the Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A. for the Exodus Live 40 show.

Now, Young is looking to auction off some of his prized collection (230 pieces, to be exact), including some very rare pieces including the Lionel Hudson factory prototype locomotive with a pre-auction estimate of $4,000 to $9,000. Young's H.O.A.R.D tour psychedelic Vanderbilt Hudson locomotive will also be on the auction block, which is expected to sell for $3,000 to $6,000, according to Julien's Auctions (via Reuters).