Today's Day in Rock Stories

Slash Working On A New Album To Be Released This Fall

RHCP drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Josh Klinghoffer jumped up on stage with the Seattle band for a fiery version of "Rockin' In The Free World," which can be seen in an online video.

Featuring an eclectic instrumental mix and a melody reminiscent of the theme song to the 1990s sitcom "The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, White resurrected the tune from a scrapped collaboration with Jay-Z.

"A couple years ago I had worked on a few tracks with Jay Z," explains White, "we were going to do an album together, it just never culminated and we didn't finish. But this was something I played drums, piano guitar, and bass on as an idea for him to maybe spur him on to inspire him and do something."

Corgan insisted that 'I would say this is the happiest time of the band," which is backed up by producer Rick Rubin's assessment of the new Smashing Pumpkins music being created in his studio.

'The energy of the performances are fiery and vibrant," Mr. Rubin told New York Times, stating that the music 'fits well with classic Pumpkin catalog," a clarion call to longtime fans.

'It's not unusual for there to exist volatility with passionate, creative people," Rubin shared in regards to the drama that's constantly around Smashing Pumpkins. "It seems like they've know each other long enough for many of the old wounds to have healed and they all seem like they are in a good place, so they came in with a healthy mind-set."

At the forefront of that drama is original bassist D'arcy Wretzky, who spoiled the reunion rollout by revealing intimate details and sharing a text message exchange with Corgan that painted him a negative light. She's not involved in the reunion, and she insists that she was never given the opportunity.

"Rocktopia" fuses the most iconic 20th-century rock tracks with world-renowned classical masterpieces, blending material from Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Queen, The Who and more with Mozart, Beethoven and Puccini, among others.

"We love both classical music and classic rock," explains Rocktopia co-creator and Trans Siberian Orchestra vocalist Rob Evan. "There are so many parallels between the genres and between the 'rock stars' who composed and performed them. With Rocktopia, we want to break down barriers and any preconceived notion of what either genre is about - and electrify and inspire lovers of either musical style with these completely original new pieces."

The 4LP set captured the UK outfit in concert on a 1994 European tour in support of "The Division Bell" and delivered their 1973 album classic, "The Dark Side Of The Moon", in its entirety for the first time in almost two decades.

Remastered from the original tapes by James Guthrie, Joel Plante and Bernie Grundman, the 2018 "Pulse" reissue includes four different inner sleeves - each inside individual outer sleeves - alongside a 52-page hardback photo book.

Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis and Peter Curzon, who worked on the original art with the late Hipgnosis co-founder Storm Thorgerson, recreated the art package.

The group has shared the complete tracklist for the album, which features Halsey and Zedd. A new song from the full-length, "One Track Mind," featuring A$AP Rocky, debuts today (March 23).

The stark cover art featuring lists of words set against brightly colored backgrounds will mark the album's promotional campaign, with posters and billboards featuring the provocative lists going up around the world.

Frontman Brendon Urie also sang his version of the DuckTales theme with the house band, The Roots and video clips of both performances are streaming online.

The doc focuses on Tyler's storied life in music, with an emphasis on his current solo campaign that embraces country music. Fellow rock stars including Slash of Guns n' Rose and Stone Temple Pilots' Ted DeLeo appear in the trailer espousing the many virtues of Steven Tyler as he embarks on the next stage of his career.

'Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, rather than take a risk and be happy," Tyler says in the clip of his move towards country. 'I feel like I'm doing something new again."

With three-fifths of Prophets of Rage--Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk--all being members of Audioslave, the band ably reproduced the track while Tankian's operatic vocals did Cornell justice.

Don't Get Too Close: The song was written on the fly at band practice. We all had a bad day at school and the song was just coming along and easy to write. It's really an aggressive song for us. Very different from the songs we wrote when we were 14 -15 years old. Just, thinking about the stress of girlfriends, homework, work, friends, dealing with teenage angst and throwing in family stress made us realize sometimes you're not being your true self and building walls. As Sean has said, "it's the fight between what you are inside and what you choose to show everyone." Recording the song was really fun and enlightening for me. When I was tracking the scream vocals I went so hard I almost threw up. I now realize recording this song was like therapy for me. It helped me release my aggression and frustrations.

Norterra Pkwy: The main road in the neighborhood I grew up in is named Norterra Parkway. It is in the suburbs of Phoenix and all of my childhood friends live in various neighborhoods off of Norterra Parkway. One night my best friend, Peyton and I snuck out of the house and went to a birthday party at a girl's house that we knew. It was mostly girls from our school at this party, and four of them happened to be on a trampoline. So me and my homie went to go chill with them on the trampoline. As we were walking up to the trampoline two girls left which made room for us on the trampoline. We snuggled with the two girls and talked for hours. While I was cuddling with one of them, I came up with the line "lay in my arms and dream." This song is really about being with friends, flirtation, and young love. I was 15 years old when I wrote it.