Izzy Stradlin Walked Out On Guns N' Roses Reunion 2018 In Review

The iconic band have already announced plans to publish an official book, "Led Zeppelin By Led Zeppelin", in October, and release a live album at some point, as well, among other projects. "All those projects, well, they're going to do somebody some good somewhere, and that's good," Plant tells Esquire while on a North American tour in support of his latest album, "Carry Fire." "But you don't even have to talk to me if all you want to know about is Led Zeppelin. Thirty-eight years ago [Zeppelin drummer] John Bonham passed away, that's all I know. That's it. That's the story. You know, Led Zeppelin was an amazing, prolific fun factory for a period of time, but it was three amazing musicians and a singer living in the times. Those times. That's not going to stop me doing what I'm doing now. So that's a headline, or not a headline. It doesn't matter to me."

Plant continues exploring new sonic territory on his latest studio effort after regrouping with the Sensational Space Shifters for the follow-up to 2014's "lullaby and...The Ceaseless Roar", which debuted and peaked at No. 10 on the US Billboard 200 upon its release.

"If I didn't I'd be a whore, and I'm never going to be that," explains the rocker. "I'm only a singer, and therefore I can get bored really quickly. And if I get bored really quickly, what am I doing nearly 70 years old being bored? No chance. So I move on all the time.

"The fact of that is, in the last ten or fifteen years, my work has been really well received. And it's very nice to see, and it makes me feel a bit that I'm in the right place, at least for some people, even if other people just don't know about it."

Newsted joined the group following the tragic death of Cliff Burton and famously his bass parts on his first appearance on the 1988 album were bruied low in the mix and some fans had hoped that would be corrected with the reissue. But mixer Steve Thompson revealed in a recent interview that would not be the case.

He told the Talk Toomey podcast (via Banana 101.5) "I just contributed to the anniversary album of ...And Justice [for All]. I just sent them a bunch of pictures and some outtakes, but they have no desire to remix the record. They want to keep it the way it is.

The iconic metal outfit recently confirmed Tipton's plans and decade-long fight with the health issue alongside word that album co-producer Andy Sneap would step in for the guitarist on their upcoming world tour, which begins in Wilkes Barre, PA on March 13.

Downing - whose twin-lead guitar work with Tipton provided a signature sound for the group through the years before he retired in 2011 - issued a statement acknowledging his bandmate's status while describing Sneap as "one of the greatest contributors to rock and metal that you will ever have the privilege to meet. To that end I have no doubt that his contribution to the new Judas Priest album was much more than just as a producer."

Frontman Rob Halford addressed Downing's remarks during a February 27 interview on "The Freaks With Kenny & Crash" show on Phoenix's Fox Sports 910 radio station, stating, "Let me just say that the great joy of Judas Priest is that we've never gone into this kind of arena of a public dispute. And it's so easy to fall into that trap in social media today. How many people have you seen in sports, for example, that have made a rash comment on Twitter, just on the heat of the moment, emotionally. You know, we're all human, we've all got feelings, and we have a tendency to blurt out the first thing that is on our minds, and rightly or wrongly, things can kind of come back and chase you afterwards in a negative way.

"So, with regards to everything that was made in [K.K.'s] statement today, a lot of it, to me, is completely superfluous," he continued. "But the one point that I would like to clarify and have on record is this insinuation that Andy Sneap was covering Glenn's guitar parts on 'Firepower', and I can categorically state that that is a thousand percent false. Because I was with Glenn for all of his guitar work, and he worked really, really hard. Imagine this guy in the tenth year of Parkinson's. I've never seen anybody so brave in the fact that every song was a challenge for him to make it work, but he did - consistently, day after day. It was just a very powerful thing to experience firsthand. And this just goes to show you about the amazing stories that surround invididuals around the world that are dealing with Parkinson's in their life."

"I just wanted to touch on that one issue," added Halford, "because out of everything that was laid out in that statement, that one hit me personally. And so now I've been able to clarify that and make sure that everybody out in the world listening to the show, on the Internet and elsewhere, understands that everything that you hear from Glenn on 'Firepower' is the amazing Glenn Tipton. Oh yeah!"

On February 28, Downing released a follow-up statement in reaction to Halford's remarks, saying "just to clarify that my complimenting Andy Sneap as I did was no more than I would have said about any other guitar playing producers that have also contributed much more than expected to our past albums. Great talent such as Chris Tsangarides (R.I.P) and Roy Z both not only produced - but also contributed song ideas, riffs and licks, lyric ideas etc. Consequently, albums like Painkiller and Angel of Retribution would not have been the same without them. Even George Martin, I believe, provided much more for the Beatles than just the role of a normal producer.

"I'm going to sound like Trump - 'It will happen; don't worry about it' - but it's in the early stages," explains Richards. "We have some stuff down, which is very interesting."

Producer Don Was, who confirms the Stones have been working on new music off and on for more than two years, raves about the work they've done so far.

"The songwriting that Keith and Mick did last year was really something to behold," says Was. "The three of us sat in a room, with them facing each other, five feet apart, with guitars, and there's something magical that happens that's still as fresh as when they started."

When The Rolling Stones entered British Grove Studios in West London in December of 2015, the plan was to begin work on new original material, but the group got on a roll playing blues covers in the studio.

"I knew Mick had a couple of songs, and I had a few," says Richards. "But it was a new studio, so I called Ronnie Wood and I said, 'Get down this Little Walter track called "Blue and Lonesome" - we'll have that in our pocket in case the new stuff isn't working out in the new room.'

During the band introductions in the middle of the set, Dave Grohl acknowledged keyboardist Rami Jaffee as the musician began playing the opening chords to Lennon's iconic 1971 song, "Imagine", while Grohl sang the lyrics to Van Halen's 1984 hit, "Jump."

Inspired by a 2010 YouTube mashup of the tunes by DJ Mighty Mike, the Foos shared footage of their rehearsal while giving a shout-out to the original, saying "Woodshedding for the summer tour has never felt so good...see you out there....(I'll learn the words by then, I swear). Thanks to Mighty Mike for the inspirado (Oh, and Halen and Lennon, too)."

The DJ shared the Foos performance on Facebook, writing "Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters just covered my 2010 mashup between Lennon and Van Halen and they thank me in the credits! Now I can die peacefully!"

It's still some achievement. Journey's Greatest Hits rose this week from 108-101 (March 3-dated chart) and debuted in December 1988, but it peaked at only No. 10 back in 1989. Between October 1990 and December 2009 it disappeared from the chart, but after a change in eligibility rules it returned and has been back pretty much ever since.

The group had a brief run with late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington taking over lead vocals but when he left the group, the band took their time in finding a new singer and ultimately hired former The X Factor contestant Jeff Gutt.

The band will be releasing their first album featuring Gutt on lead vocals next week. The self-titled album is set to hit stores on March 16th and DeLeo spoke to The San Diego Union-Tribune about their new singer.

"There was no room for error," he told the paper. "That's why we spent nearly a year together with Jeff before we invited him to join the band. We wanted to make sure it was the right decision. But we did find somebody who could not only do the catalog of our previous songs justice, but someone we could write new songs with, too."

"It's really nice and great," guitarist and founder Mick Jones has told Ultimate Classic Rock. "It sort of completes the circle almost. It's a great feeling and the fans love it. We love it. It's amazing - Kelly and Lou Gramm hit it off like a house on fire. They love it. I was holding my breath for a minute there, because in other conditions, it could be a touchy subject. But it hasn't been at all - it's been the opposite."

Blackmore said this of playing with the current lineup, "it's really a lot of fun to play with this band. The other guys are getting more and more confident. And Ronnie Romero is a fantastic singer.

"On the other side, I'm happy to play for all the fans that grew up with my old music. The shows in the very big halls or arenas are almost to completely sold out."

To illustrate how seriously many of the post-British Invasion bands were approaching the rock idiom by early 1973, you need look no further than Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon to see how this "progressive" rock movement had matured, with spectacular results both artistically and commercially, confirmed by IN THE STUDIO guests, musical lunar explorers David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Nick Mason.

As early as the Moody Blues' 1968 Days of Future Passed, which was the result of a combination of new technology (the Mellotron, which crudely emulated choral and orchestral sounds) and desperation, an increasing number of British and European bands expanded rock's canvas musically and lyrically without the slightest consideration to the pop hit mainstream. King Crimson's stunning debut in 1969, In the Court of the Crimson King, inspired others such as fellow Londoners YES to release Close to the Edge less than a year after their breakthrough album Fragile. While not normally considered a prog-rock band, Traffic nevertheless had their biggest seller in 1972 with The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, built around the 11 minute hypnotic title song which featured electronically synthesized saxophone, while Trilogy from Emerson, Lake and Palmer as well as Foxtrot from the Peter Gabriel-led Genesis, had critics raving and cash registers ringing.

Of course all of this would culminate in Spring 1973 with the incomparable Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon, an iconic masterpiece which long ago threw off any binders imparted by categorization merely as progressive rock.

Roger Waters share the concept behind Dark Side... with IN THE STUDIO producer and host Redbeard.

The guest appearance marked a rare return to the stage for Johnson, who left AC/DC in the middle of their "Rock Or Bust" world tour in 2016 after being advised by doctors to stop performing in arenas and stadium-sized venues immediately or risk total hearing loss.

"On stage it was getting harder and harder to hear the guitars, even hear the keys, and I was basically going on muscle memory," the singer recently revealed. "And I'm not the kind of guy who likes to cheat. The way I look at it, I had a great run."

While Axl Rose stepped in to help AC/DC complete the trek, Johnson began working with the inventor of in-ear monitors, Asius Technologies founder Stephen Ambrose, to find a technical solution that would allow him to return to live performances one day.

The veteran band's album shot to the top of the charts 15 months after release due to a promotional bundle that included the effort with tickets to the group's upcoming tour.

But the following week, the album suffered the biggest drop in chart history when it plunged to No. 168 with a 96% drop in sales, according to a report from UCR.

It turns out that the band is just looking ahead and the move was not tied to any immediate plans to embark on a retirement tour, cofounder and frontman Paul Stanley explained in a recent interview. [later in the year they announced their latest farewell tour]

Stanley was asked about the move by Michael Cavacini and responded, "It's not the first trademark that's been filed. "I thought it was a terrific name, and I was surprised nobody had used it before. I wanted to make sure that when we used it, and there will be a time that we do, I imagine - I wanted to be sure that we own it and it's ours.

"When we wanted to go out and do the 'Hottest Show On Earth' tour, Ringling Bros. came to us and said, 'You can't do that.' It set off a light and bell for me. We've always had slogans or sayings that are synonymous with us, and this was another. Everything does end, in one form or another.

Adler make the comments when asked about his reunion jams at select shows of the Not In This Lifetime Tour by The Johnny Dare Morning Show on 98.9 The Rock in Kansas City.

He said, "It was very exciting. Of course, I wish the guys would have wanted to have done the real reunion with me and Izzy [Stradlin], but just being able to play with them was very exciting. It was just so great. You get love from 100 people, it's a wonderful feeling. You get love from 85,000 people, it's a high. There's no drug better.

Iommi and Halford recently took part in a photo shoot for Metal Hammer and the Sabbath guitarist reportedly expressed his desire to work with the Metal God, according to Loudwire)

"We've talked about [working together] for ages," Iommi said. "When the time's right it would be nice to write a track or two, or whatever. I'd like to do that. It's nice to work with people that you respect and like."

The band wrote on their Facebook page on Tuesday (March 27): "Important Announcement: It's with a heavy heart we have to announce that our brother Ronnie Atkins is in hospital in Basel, Switzerland.

"He suffered an unfortunate blow to the head and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. He is currently undergoing tests and being observed by specialists.
The latest news is that he is conscious but has to remain in hospital for a while. As a consequence of this we have to cancel the last 3 shows on our tour. Once Ronnie is fully recovered we will come back and play these shows and film the scheduled DVD.

Named after the former Bay Area Music Awards presented by BAM magazine, the honor of a plaque in front of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium recognizes the accomplishments of members of the local music community.

According to ABC7 News San Francisco, Hagar is the newest member of an esteemed group that includes Carlos Santana, Jerry Garcia, Journey, Jefferson Starship, John Lee Hooker and music promoter Bill Graham.

"Nothing is as gratifying as when your hometown, your home area, honors you," says the Red Rocker. "It's where you want it the most. I mean, I will be down here looking at my plaque, believe me."