Today's Day in Rock Stories

Ozzy Osbourne Announces His Farewell Tour

In one story to illustrate Bennington's loyalty to his bandmates, Shinoda recounts how their label wasn't totally convinced that the debut album Linkin Park was recording at the time would do well.

As he tells it, "When we were recording [2000's] 'Hybrid Theory,' we were basically a new band with a new record deal. The label could have shelved us at any moment, and we were halfway through recording when our A&R started losing faith in us. He took Chester aside and suggested he take the band over, or put me on keyboards, or even kick me out. He told him, 'You're the talent, you should make a rock record. You don't need the rapping, you don't need the rest of the guys...' Chester finished the conversation and came in to tell us. 'So what did you say to him?' I said."

The performance came on the heels of a mass shooting in Texas that left 26 dead. The singer explained that he was attempting to make a statement about the ease with which automatic weapons are obtained. "My performance was not meant to be disrespectful or show any insensitivity," he wrote in part.

"In an era where mass shootings have become a nearly daily occurrence this was an act of theater in an attempt to make a statement about how easily accessible semi-automatic weapons are and how seeing them has become normalized.

The July 6, 1986 festival footage sees the group in full flight with bassist Cliff Burton, who would die in a tragic tour bus accident in Sweden just two months later.

After an extensive series of auditions, Jason Newsted was added to the lineup to handle bass duties for the remaining dates on the tour and, as it turned out, for the next 15 years before his departure in 2001.

The unreleased live 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 (!)."

CBS Minnesota reports that Prince played the blue cloud guitar put up for bidding by Julian's Auctions onstage in the late '80s-early '90s, and was made for the late music legend by guitar luthier Andy Beech.

The man they call Moz was scheduled to perform at the Vina Robles Amphitheatre in Pasa Robles, CA, Sunday night (Nov. 5) when the cancellation was announced just moments before he was expected to hit the stage.

The lead single from the project sees the duo from the original Montrose band joined on the track by Toto guitarist Steve Lukather and the rhythm section of bassist Ricky Phillips (Styx, Bad English) and drummer Eric Singer (Kiss, Alice Cooper).

Phillips oversaw the completion of "10x10" following Montrose's March 2012 death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the pair had laid down basic tracks with Singer while following the guitarist's concept to record an album of ten songs with ten different singers.

"It's valuable to have 10x10 be seen as Ronnie's last work, rather than going and digging up some stuff from his past," says Hagar. "This was something he truly had a vision for."

The group - who primarily play Mott The Hoople-releated tunes (including songs by Mott, Ian Hunter and British Lions) - were formed specifically to open a series of 2009 reunion shows for Mott The Hoople at London's Hammersmith Odeon.

The band features Elliott, The Quireboys' Paul Guerin (guitar), Guy Griffin (guitar) and Keith Weir (keyboards), former Vixen bassist Share Ross, and drummer Phil Martini.

"Come Together" was updated during sessions at the Village Recorders in Los Angeles, with production handled by Junkie XL, Mike Elizondo, and Sam de Jong. Clark, though typically featured in a more straight-ahead blues-rock setting, said he and XL immediately hit it off. Watch the video here

Dylan's pitch for the show was�Dylanesque. He "provided�a box of writings that Dylan had done on various pieces of hotel room stationery from around the globe, with lines of dialogue on some, character names on others and plot ideas on others still."

The pair took their idea to HBO and met with an exec who loved Bob Dylan and bragged that he had tickets to the original Woodstock framed in his office. The compliment didn't go over well because Bob Dylan didn't play at Woodstock. The scenario was recapped on an episode of Pete Holmes' You Made it Weird podcast from several years ago.

The tune is one of three newly re-imagined tracks - including "Life Is Beautiful 2017" and "Girl With Golden Eyes 2017" - included in the package that serves as an audio companion to Motley Crue and Sixx:AM bassist Nikki Sixx's 2007 memoir, "The Heroin Diaries."

The New York Times bestseller chronicles a year of decadence and depravity that almost cost Sixx his life during the recording and tour for Motley Crue's 1987 album, "Girls, Girls, Girls."

"Over the last ten years," says Sixx, "I've met so many people who have thanked me for The Heroin Diaries and say that it saved their lives. But the truth is, writing The Heroin Diaries saved my life too."

To start with, his "Skinnerburst '59 Les Paul was used for most of the album. This is the first we've done that was tuned down a half step and I'm more set up for standard pitch, as most of my guitars are used to that tension." Talking more about his main axe for the album, Bonamassa said, "The Skinnerburst turned out to be a real simplifier because I put strings on it, tuned up and only had to loosen the truss rod just slightly to give it a little more tension. That way I could hit the chords hard without worrying about any funky wobbling sounds."

What can only be described as a mid-tempo bruiser that embodies the struggle of a tortured soul, "Another You" is the tale of an indecisive heart that is caught between the Devil that tempts you and the Angel that reminds you.

No matter how much adoration there is for their significant other, ultimately temptation leads this dark soul away from his love, but he always returns to be saved by her. "Another You" is a song about self-realization.

It's about the constant "event" of dealing with what you want and dealing with what you need in life to be happy. Making it work with another person. Seeing what's best, but not always choosing what's best. It's the ongoing struggle.

The video itself was filmed in their hometown of Baltimore, MD at Angel's Rock Barwith 818 Digital Media. When asked why they chose this narrative behind the video, Guitarist Christian Rivera says, "We wanted to capture the essence of what a good rock show is like in our hometown, so we decided to shoot one of our shows unscripted and on the fly."

Says Rivera," Call me biased, but after traveling the country a few times, I can honestly say that Baltimore has one of the BEST music scenes that you've never heard of. Crazy how it doesn't even seem to be a blip on anyone's radar. But I suspect it won't stay that way for long, and I know we're working as hard as we can to make as much noise as we can. We thought it would be a cool idea to showcase a microcosm - our little corner - of our music scene. This particular show was part of a monthly concert series called "Monthly Mayhem," which was the brainchild of a prominent Baltimore promoter, Transcendent Events. The event is held once a month, on a Thursday night, and it is LIT!

"With our approach to writing and recording the song, we pretty much followed our basic formula - Keith and Billy handled the lyrics, Keith wrote the basic structure of the song and then I put my touches on it with the countermelodies, textures, and other nuances. One thing we did differently this time around was adding a proper guitar solo to the song. We always get a copy of the day's work from our engineer, Tony Correlli, so that we can listen with fresh ears. I thought that the bridge section was rocking, but that it also needed some flavor, so I suggested that we bring in our other guitar player, Chuck Moore, to take a pass at a guitar solo. He nailed it on the first take!"

"Lyrically, Billy had come up with the first verse and his words matched perfectly with where I was coming from. A place of remembering scars, of battling with inner demons, wondering who you really are and who and what you really need. It's a song of the violence inside the mind of a torn heart," bassist/vocalist, Keith Thompson added.

"Everyone goes through that on some level. You are what your addictions allow you to be. Everyone has them in some form. Good ones and bad ones alike. 'Another You' is a collaborative piece mixing mine and Billy's lyrics but both with the same mood (same vibe). The opening riff I've had for a while. It's like a "soundcheck" kind of riff for me. Our drummer, Justin [Posner], gave me the perfect groove for it. He for sure has a "style". Chuck came in late and laid a little solo that we all thought was awesome. The song is a vibe. The bridge is based off a weird back and forth riff that again Justin turned into a sick groove."