We Will Rock You

In an interview with Billboard, rocker Sammy Hagar said that his supergroup Chickenfoot may be forced to record its next album with a different drummer.

Hagar said that the band has four complete songs and “seven pieces of new music” ready to go, but drummer Chad Smith is committed to a new album with his main band, Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“Once they start recording, Chad’s never going to be able to get a break. If he does, he’ll get a couple weeks here, a couple days there, which is not really enough to devote to Chickenfoot,” Hagar said. “And when they’re done with [the album] they’re gonna go on the road for a year and a half. So we either have to get a new drummer or wait for Chad…which is unfair to Chickenfoot. It’s too good a band.”

In the meantime there will be a new album from Joe Satriani, one from Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Hagar is working on finishing his autobiography, entitled Red. This is his third attempt at a memoir, and he promises it will be the true warts-and-all story of his life, which was turbulent in his early days because of an alcoholic father who died in the back of a police car.

“I figure there’s only one shot at an autobiography, and you’ve got to tell the story, as much as it may be painful,” Hagar reflected. “I really believe there’s a lot of people out there that really have no idea where I came from and who I really am. I’ve never been a press junkie, and I think that’s a good thing. So I think the book is going to blow people’s minds.”

The long, screwy saga of Axl Rose just continues to get stranger.

As has been reported elsewhere, Guns N’ Roses had a tough weekend. Billboard reported that the famously late and temperamental singer was fuming after being booed at the Reading Festival on Friday night. The band arrived an hour late, played to a hostile crowd and was cut short at the originally agreed upon noise curfew, prompting Rose to post via Twitter, “the fans deserve an apology from those responsible for the nonsense.”

On Sunday GNR was again late, this time half an hour late to the stage at the Leeds Festival. Rose claimed that the band was told it could play until midnight, but festival organizers denied that claim. The band was forced to end its set at 11:20 PM.

Tabloid The Daily Star claimed that at both concerts, the problem was that Axl was taking a nap backstage, and that he has issued strict orders to his crew not to wake him when he is sleeping. Still, the tabloid claimed, the singer was angry when he realized his nap had cost him. “Axl was furious. He refused to take responsibility and blamed his team so he sacked them,” a source supposedly told the paper. “Then he realised it was too late to fly in anyone else from America so he had to rehire them for Leeds.”

Whatever really happened, Rose is not ready to give it up. In a lengthy Twitter rant he said, “Our start times at the Reading and Leeds festivals factually had nothing to do with us as the previous bands (who were great by the way) came off stage when they did and we went on within our contracted and documented changeover time period.

“Whatever other nonsense anyone’s choosing to write would appear intentionally false.

“Having the fans or our show penalized for how the event was ran or simply the natural flow of events those evenings and for such minimal amount of overtime along with distortions and falsehoods by media, the promoter and or event organizers regarding the events seems a bit draconian and more than unfair to the fans.

“A simple question: If you are aware of our changeover time, the average length of our show and the general nature of how these types of festivals run all of which are no big secrets…why book us?”

Of course, Axl would have more credibility here if not for the fact that he has practically made a career out of being late, or not showing up at all, and then whining about how misunderstood he is. Poor baby.

Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Rickey Medlocke takes exception to the notion that the band’s current lineup is a tribute act.

As reported by Planet Rock, Medlocke told the San Jose News that although there is only one original member left in the band, he does not feel that makes Lynyrd Skynyrd a tribute act. “I think that as long as Gary [Rossington] and myself and Johnny [Van Zant] are there, it’s always going to be Lynyrd Skynyrd,” the guitarist asserted. “But I do like to think that we’re giving tribute to the guys that came before us.”

The guitarist first joined Skynyrd in 1970, a stint in which he played drums in the band. He left to form Blackfoot, but nearly returned to Skynyrd for the 1977 tour that culminated in a fatal plane crash that ended that version of the band.

“I was invited to go travel with the guys for like a week,” Medlocke said. “But I got bookings with my band and I couldn’t make it. So therefore, things worked out the way they did. It was too bad that the band was cut down at a time when it was. Who knows how much further that band could have gotten?”

Medlocke rejoined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1996 playing guitar, and has been with the band ever since.

Steve Hackett is probably best known for playing guitar in the groundbreaking progressive rock group Genesis. Joining the band in 1971 for the album Nursery Cryme, the guitarist stayed with Genesis through 1977’s Wind & Wuthering before departing for a solo career.

Hackett has since recorded a number of solo albums in a variety of styles, covering world music, Brazilian rhythms, classical, blues and more. In 1986 he formed the supergroup GTR with Yes guitarist Steve Howe, which lasted for one album. In more recent years Hackett has primarily focused on solo work.

In 2010 Hackett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis, and he recently released an album entitled Out of the Tunnel’s Mouth. Last month he performed at the High Voltage Festival in London, and he has announced an upcoming band project called Squackett which will pair him with Yes bassist Chris Squire.

Steve Hackett joins us on Long Live Rock to discuss his new album, tour, the High Voltage festival, Squackett, and much more!

Special thanks to Jo Lehmann for arranging this interview. Listen at this link or in the player below.

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With the death of singer Ronnie James Dio, the surviving members of Heaven & Hell have made it clear that the band is over, however, that doesn’t mean they won’t work with each other in another context.

Bassist Geezer Butler told Canada’s Exclaim magazine he’d love to work more with guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Vinny Appice as something other than Heaven & Hell. Geezer goes on to say that at their age, they don’t know what to do, but he feels “it’ll sort itself out eventually.”

Read more at Exclaim.ca.

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This news is brought to you by VH1 Radio’s Dave Basner

Neil Young has revealed the details to his upcoming album.

The singer posted on Facebook that his latest release will be called Le Noise and will come out on CD, vinyl and digitally on September 28th. Then, in late November, it will be issued on Blu-Ray and as a free iPhone and iPad app.

Le Noise was produced by Daniel Lanois, who recently described it to Rolling Stone as “a couple of solo acoustic songs, but the rest is very electric.”

Learn more at Facebook.com/NeilYoung.

Ozzy Osbourne has released a video for the next single from his record Scream.

Entitled “Life Won’t Wait,” the video was directed by Ozzy’s son Jack, and you can preview it below, as well as a discussion about the filming.

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Last year, Cheap Trick released their album The Latest and the guys are already thinking about new music.

 Bassist Tom Petersson told Billboard that the band got together in LA recently and came up with ten ideas that they’re working on. The rocker explained, “That’s how it works now. We just do it as it happens, when opportunities come up, just putting together ideas. And once you get ten or 12 strong things it’s like, ‘Wow, we have the record!’”

Read more at Billboard.com

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Ozzy Osbourne is talking more about the possibility of reuniting the original Black Sabbath lineup.

The Prince of Darkness told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “I would love to do a killer Black Sabbath album. It would make my life, my whole thing, round up perfectly for me.”

Read more at PittsburghLive.com.

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In the past week, footage from Aerosmith’s live shows has come out and shows guitarist Joe Perry inadvertently knocking singer Steven Tyler off the stage and Steven accidentally clocking Joe in the head with a mic stand. Now, Perry is addressing the issues on Twitter.

The rocker wrote that the media is making it seem like the band is fighting but explained live music is “a contact sport.” He said “accidents happen” and added that he gets “pissed off” when he’s made out to be a villain and advises fans to “use your own eyes and ears.” Joe goes on to say that even with all the craziness, he’s “gonna see this [tour] through.”

Read more at Twitter.com/AdmiralPerry.

• Joe revealed when he was hit in the head by the mic stand, EMTs wanted him to go to the emergency room but he chose to finish the show as his head bled.