Today's Day in Rock Stories

Original Guns N' Roses Star Wants Prayers For Full Reunion

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."

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."

Gibbons stops by to sit in with Fogerty and his band after he hears them rocking out on the CCR track "Green River." The pairing then proceed to run through snippets of the endless hits they've issued, including CCR's "Fortunate Son," "Bad Moon Rising" and "Up Around the Bend," Fogerty solo hits "Centerfield" and "The Old Man Down the Road," and ZZ Top's "La Grange," "Sharp Dressed Man," "Tush" and "Legs."

My name is George Lambert, and, among other things, I play drums for the rockin' blues, swing band Paradise Kings. I produced our latest, award-winning album, Controlled Burn, and I wrote the lyrics to seven of the eight songs on that record. Some might think it a bit odd that the drummer writes the majority of the lyrics, but it just works that way in our band. A few reasons might be that I have some time, and I also used to write screenplays, so writing is something that I've down throughout my life.

The song I've chosen to "Single Out" for this segment is titled Poor Me, Poor Me, Pour Me Another Drink. This was the second song I wrote on the record; the first being Money Ain't My Friend.

Poor Me�..is a very personal song for me, because since the age of sixteen, I was of marginal emotional maturity, boarding on insanity, and I was basically an alcoholic. I used alcohol to make me feel like I was part of society, part of the crowd; I could finally relate to people when I had a beer in my hand. When I was without, I instantaneously felt like an outsider, full of anxiety, fear and dread. This went on for a long, long, long time. I did get in trouble with the law a few times, and the last time I spent the night in jail, I swore things had to change. To make a long story short, they did change. I've been sober for nearly six years now, and life is completely different for me. With the help of AA and my Higher Power (God), I've managed to maintain a (somewhat J) sound mind and can relate to people and life on life's terms, not my own. It's a monumental change and basically a miracle.
So, Poor Me��. Basically chronicles me sitting in a bar, banging my hand on the bar asking myself, "Why even try?" The Cat I mention in the song is drugs, as one can guess. I think the song describes a lot of alcoholics in that, deep-down, we know we need to change our ways, but then we get some booze in our system and everything starts looking better; it's all great, as in the lyric, "One of these days I'll get off this broken bar stool, and get my sorry ass back to school, that's right, I'm gonna show 'em how, a million ideas, but for now�."

This is obviously not a drinking anthem, which it could easily be construed as. If you notice the spelling, the title is POOR ME! It's actually one of many sayings, which made me laugh in a meeting of AA. It was one of the first times I'd ever laughed without help from a substance, and it was great. I'll never forget that laugh, because it was real.

If you take the time to listen to the song, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing the lyrics.

Peace.

The tour launches July 6 in Kansas City, MO, with shows lined up through September 8, when the acts hit the stage in Ridgefield, MA. Both artist's shows will be accompanied by a full orchestra, turning up the energy of the experience in the outdoor venues.

As usual, classic rock fans will have plenty of exclusive wax to covet, led by the previously announced trove of David Bowie albums, Neil Young live in 1973 and a Led Zeppelin 7-inch with new mixes that will surely be among the most sought-after releases this year.

Pink Floyd are reissuing their debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, on mono vinyl for the first time in 50 years, while the Grateful Dead's 1987 tour with Bob Dylan, Dylan & the Dead, will arrive on on red and blue tie-dye vinyl. Jimi Hendrix's "Mannish Boy" b/w "Trash Man" taken from 1969 sessions is set for a 7-inch release.

Leto made the big reveal during an interview with CBS Sunday Morning host, Anthony Mason. "I think I wrote this song about three years ago," Leto explained. "It was one of the first new songs I wrote on this album."

Leto plays more than a minute of the track, with Mason asking if the finished version is how he originally heard it in his head. "No, especially this," Leto responds, turning up a section featuring the gospel choir. "That's a couple choirs. That's really fun to hear people's voices and that power on a song that you've written. This song, it grew from a piano, a vocal and a tiny little drum beat."

During the past 10 years, the New York band has online appeared the left coast fans during the Ozzfest Meets Knotfest event last year but will be kicking off a headline run in Los Angeles on May 16th.

It is with great sadness, and a heavy heart, that we announce that Van McLain, a founding member of the band Shooting Star passed away from complications of West Nile Virus in Kansas City, Missouri on March 2, 2018.