Today's Day in Rock Stories

A Perfect Circle Stream Fishy New Song

The group shared the following comments, "Guitarist Eddie Reyes and Taking Back Sunday have parted ways due to personal reasons. Eddie was a founding member of the band and his contributions can be felt all along the way.

The rocker was in the lineup for the group's classic tracks "Metal Gods", "Breaking The Law" and "Living After Midnight" at the city's ShoWare Center. The show marked Tipton's third appearance on the group's "Firepower" tour of North America - after stops in Newark, NJ on March 20 and Uncasville, CT on March 22 - and news of his retirement from the road following a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease.

"Firepower" co-producer Andy Sneap recently stepped into the Judas Priest lineup as Tipton's choice to take over his touring duties, while leaving the door open for possible random appearances on the trek.

White delivered the project's current single, "Over And Over And Over", early in the show before returning to rock the set's lead track, "Connected By Love."

Hosted by comedian and former SNL writer John Mulaney, the singer also appeared in an unaired "Cut For Time" sketch as a wedding band guitarist in a video released by the late night series.

Rolling Stone reports the absence of leader Mark Knopfler, guitarist David Knopfler and drummer Pick Withers left the band to be represented at the event by keyboardists Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher and bassist John Illsley, who inducted the group into the Rock Hall himself as no one appeared as a presenter to do so.

"In the absence of someone here to induct Dire Straits into the 2018 Hall Of Fame," began Illsley, "as a founding member, I thought perhaps that I might be the best qualified one to do this. It's a bit weird but, here we are�life is strange."

The bassist acknowledged Knopfler's absence, saying "I know there's been a lot of speculation about the fact that Mark is not here, but I can assure you, it's just a personal thing. It's personal reasons, let's just leave it at that. This is really more about a group of people more than one person, it's a collective, a brotherhood and that's something that needs acknowledging tonight."

"I know it's a little bit odd," concluded the bassist, "but it's my honor to welcome Dire Straits into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame."

Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale had this to say, "After the announcement of our tour with In This Moment, the response was so great that we decided to do another run together! It's going to be so much fun to tour with our good friends! See you all on the road!"

The band's newest member Bastian Thusgaard had this to say, "I'm so proud of my achievements on this album. I was given a great amount of freedom both in writing and recording. Obviously, I wanted to honor the 'drum vibe' that has developed in the band through time. At the same time, I'm very aware of the fact that I'm a different drummer to my predecessors. This is something I really wanted to showcase by adding my own vibe to the band's sound."

Singer Bjorn "Speed" Strid added, "On this new album we have gone back to classic heavy metal basics but with a twist of our own legacy of sound, with soaring melancholic melodies at a sometimes-furious tempo and great diversity. People will recognize the vibe that we've had on the latest two albums, but we feel that we've taken our sound even further, with more energy, darker elements but uplifting structure."

The annual event takes place on April 21st and the band will be releasing a special limited edition 12" vinyl single called "Say It With Love". We were sent the following details:

"It's about someone convincing someone else to be proud of their scars and their imperfections and never forgetting where they came from and who they are, and convincing them that they are stronger than they imagined," guitarist/vocalist Mark Tremonti tells Billboard. "I know it's a song that fits radio just as much as any other song on the album, but I don't want it to take people's attention off the storyline and the whole concept of the record."

Due June 8 and produced by longtime band associate Michael "Elvis" Baskette, the group's fourth album tells the story of humans and fabricated beings trying to co-exist at the turn of the next century.

First previewed with the title track, the story is being turned into a full-length work of fiction by Tremonti and American author John Shirley that will be issued alongside the record.

The band will be kicking off the series of live performances with an appearance at the Wanee Festival on April 20th in Live Oak, Fl and wrapping things up on October 6th in Burlingham, NY at the Catskills Wine & Food Festival.

Styx's Tommy Shaw, James "JY" Young, and Lawrence Gowan sat down with Rather and in the revealed excerpts, Young explains the band's longevity and continued subbess:

"We're meant to bring this music-which comes from a higher place and is channeled through us and has the power to soothe, to calm, to inspire, and, in the best cases, to heal. We are the stewards of this mighty power, and it's our great joy to get out here and use that power."

Kravitz's three-times-platinum 15-track Greatest Hits, originally released in 2000, will finally be made available to all retail outlets in a 2LP 180-gram black vinyl configuration. Additionally, a limited-edition exclusive 180-gram version available from uDiscover will feature custom clear mixed with smoky silver and white swirls on LP1, and custom clear mixed with blue and white smoky swirls on LP2.

The soundtrack is the first official career retrospective compilation for the guitar virtuoso, Mick Ronson, known affectionately as "Ronno." As well as highlights from Ronson's solo records, the compilation includes material from his key collaborations with David Bowie, Elton John, Ian Hunter, Michael Chapman and Queen.

Snider spoke with 90.3 WMSC FM (via UCR) and says that the new effort is "a really exciting album I did not expect to make, especially at this point in my life."

Frontman John Salmon had this to say,"We went out to Montana, f***ed around, and summoned the spirit of the 'Sh*t Kicker.' No but seriously, from the moment we wrote it, we knew "Sh*t Kicker" would be the best representation of our style. A song about true grit, unwavering courage, and standing your ground. Our goal was to symbolically showcase the Sh*t Kicker that lives in all of us; no matter who you are, or where you're from.

The new video was directed and edited by Raphael Bittencourt. Gabriel Connor had the following comments about the upcoming EP, "Working on this EP was a lot of fun. Augustus is a great friend of ours and he's a very creative producer.

This song is one of the more pinnacle tracks off of our "Epiphany" release, as the album as a whole, deals with when people take an honest inventory and come to realizations about themselves and the world around them.

When I wrote this song, there were major frustrations that I was experiencing at that time in terms of how I viewed myself and the way I communicate with people. Through most of my life, I have often felt criticized for the way that I talk and was left with an impression that it annoys people. Despite the insecurities, I worked very hard on brevity, as my mind would have so much information that it was overly challenging to filter what to say and even more importantly, how to say it.

Feelings are neither right or wrong, it's how you choose to act, or react, to them.

So for a period of time, in a depression-fueled frustration, I chose to just to say nothing and detach as best I could from human interaction. I was making incorrect assumptions that people in general weren't interested in what I had to say, or were too wrought up in their own chatter inside their heads that they weren't effectively listening anyway.

This course of action lead to isolation and it affected my perception of the world. I began starting to put thoughts in people's heads and words in their mouths that weren't really there. The frustration transitioned into anger and hatred started to consume me. I was screaming like a madman on the inside as I wanted to tell people what I really thought, but I was living in such fear or my anger that if I did lose control, it would irrevocably damage many friendships and relationships. The sad reality was that it was beginning to happen regardless as people were feeling pushed away, They were feeling confused and hurt and wanted to know what it was that caused me to withdraw.

My epiphany was that I was allowing only a couple of toxic people in my life to rule my perception. I had to remove them from my life and once I did that, it allowed me to gain clarity. I was able to begin a healing process of forgiving and accepting myself and was able to get back to being the good person I knew that I was. I then was humbled to later learn that most people actually enjoy my company and the "entertaining" way that I communicate.

When it came to record this song, we wanted to really feature Christopher [Migdalski] on doing an extended range guitar solo. He's been battling Parkinson's disease for about twelve years now and we've all felt inspired by him as he continues to still strive for his dreams in spite of it. At this time, at least with medical technology as it is today, we all know the inevitable outcome of what disease will eventually do to him. So, we wanted to have something that would act as a "time capsule" or a testament this to man's courage and the amazing talent that he has that is being robbed by this disease.

We once again teamed up with Dan Precision (Rise Against, Naked Raygun) to record and help produce the album. So Chris and Dan spent the better part of the day getting the solo so that it came across with the sonorous power that we all were so delighted that it did. This is also the main reason we elected to do the video, so that in decades to come his children and generations that will follow, can reflect back on the achievements this man made overcoming obstacles that many of us in day-to-day life take for granted.