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A daily update of the latest in Classic Rock

Friday, May 24th

DAVID LEE ROTH KILLS JAPANESE THUGS

David Lee Roth isn’t just a rocker and a former EMT, he’s also an actor, and now, you can see the Van Halen singer show off his skills as a thespian.  He’s released a short film he wrote and starred in.  In it, David takes on some card-playing Japanese thugs who think he doesn’t understand Japanese.  A shirtless Roth shows them in a way they’ll never forget that he does.  Check out the bloody video at the YouTube channel for The Roth Show.

METALLICA RELEASE TRAILER FOR THEIR 3D FILM

Metallica will release their upcoming feature film, Metallica Through the Never, in the fall, but you can now see the official trailer for the movie.  Like the 3D flick it’s promoting, the trailer mixes a fictional storyline with the band’s live concert footage.  Check out the preview at Metallica.com and see Metallica Through the Never in IMAX theaters on September 27^th and in conventional theaters on October 4^th.

Metallica singer James Hetfield has given an update on the status of the band’s upcoming album.  The rocker told Billboard that he wants it “done yesterday” but because the band is busy touring as well as promoting their upcoming 3D film and the second Orion Music + More Festival, they haven’t had much time to work on music.  What they have done is “jammed” and “come up with enough material for a record.”  He added, “We’ve gone through maybe one-tenth of the material that’s on our riffs CDs.  We’ve got enough for an album, we just haven’t had enough time to really focus on it and dial in and start whittling it into these masterpieces, hopefully.”

HOW BOB DYLAN TAUGHT HIMSELF GUITAR

On Friday (5/24), Robert Zimmerman turns 72 years old.  You might know him better by his stage name, Bob Dylan, and what a name he’s made for himself.  The legendary singer-songwriter has been making iconic music for over five decades and it all started by Dylan teaching himself how to play guitar.  He told us how he did it.

“What I remember is like learning a couple of chords from books and then just going out to watch people to see how they’re doing it.  How they were playing those chords.  Wherever people were playing, you don’t really go so much to hear them, you go to see how they’re doing what they’re doing.  You try to get up as close as you can just to see what their fingers are doing.  You know, in that early stage it’s just a learning thing and that sometimes can take years.”

Even at his age, Bob is still working and will be touring the country this summer.  Get all his dates at BobDylan.com.

STEVIE NICKS IS HAPPILY NEVER MARRIED

On Sunday (5/26), Stevie Nicks turns 65 years old.  During her lifetime, she has created some amazing music, and she says the reason she was able to is because it was her main focus.  The Fleetwood Mac singer spoke to us more about her goal in life.

"I think that I am really like your quintessential woman-artist-person that will probably never be married and will always be working in some sort of a creative vein.  Everybody else in this band has children and it’s very different from my life.  I don’t have to get up at six o’clock with kids and I don’t want to.  I made the decision a long time ago that I did not want to be a mom, I wanted to be a creative person and I wanted to continue to do that.”

Stevie is continuing to be creative as Fleetwood Mac tours the country.  Get all their dates at FleetwoodMac.com.

KLAUS MEINE DOESN’T SEE SCORPIONS IN YOUNGER BANDS

Scorpions singer Klaus Meine turns 65 on Saturday (5/25).  The band has been touring the world on their Get Your Sting and Blackout trek, what was originally going to be their last tour as a group.  However, that might not be the case anymore.  There’s no word as to why the band changed their mind, but perhaps it’s because the guys didn’t see any younger band out there that could carry the Scorpions torch and be known as “the next Scorpions?”  Klaus told us more. 

"There are many young bands, young generation rock bands, but I don’t see any young Scorpions out there so far.  You know, with this mix between rock songs and ballads, lots of riffs and very strong melodies, well, I don’t know, a new Scorpions, hard to tell, I don’t know anybody right now.”

The Scorpions pick up the European leg of their trek in July.  Get all their dates at The-Scorpions.com. 

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Thursday, May 23rd

JUDAS PRIEST TALK NEW MUSIC

Last year, Judas Priest embarked on their Epitaph tour, their final massive world trek ever, but that doesn’t mean the band is hanging it up.  In fact, they’re working on new music and singer Rob Halford told us what to expect from it.

“We have all the songs in our heads running right now as we’re speaking to you, we can hear them.  It’s coming along really well.  We’re in no rush.  It’ll be ready when it’s ready.  What we will say is we felt it was very important to follow up Nostradamus, the last release, and that was a concept experiment and it was a real success for us and the fans loved it but I think our fans and ourselves as a band, we want to get back to the side of Priest that we haven’t heard for a few years and reemphasize and remake those big, heavy metal statements again.”

As for when we get to buy it, Halford went on to explain that they aren’t going to set dates for themselves.

“I think that’s the best way to approach it because it would be wrong to say, ‘On this date, at this moment, the record is coming out.’  But where we’re at now, we’re very, very confident and, going out on a limb, I would say that we should have it wrapped up by the end of this year.  We’re forging ahead and everything’s looking good and yeah, it’s looking right.  So in the not too distant metal future there will be new Priest to listen to.”

For now, you can see the final show of Priest’s Epitaph tour on DVD or Blu-ray.  It hits shelves on May 28^th.  Learn more and stay up to date at JudasPriest.com.

HEAR SOME OF ALICE IN CHAINS’ NEW ALBUM

On Tuesday, Alice in Chains will release their latest album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, but you don’t have to wait until then to get a taste of what the record sounds like.  Audio samples from all of the tracks can now be heard at iTunes.  Check them out now.

KEITH RICHARDS HAS VERY OVERDUE LIBRARY BOOKS

Keith Richards might be amazing at playing guitar but the rocker is not so great about getting library books back.  The Rolling Stone told England’s The Sun that as a teenager, he loved going to the library, calling it “a place where you get a hint there was a place called civilization.”  However, Keith went on to admit, “I still owe fines from about 50 years ago.”  If that’s true, the guitarist might owe as much as 30-thousand dollars.

ZZ TOP STILL EXCITED TO PLAY LIVE

ZZ Top will be spending the summer on the road, performing live across the world.  It’s nothing new for the guys, who have been playing in front of audiences for over four decades.  So does guitarist Billy F. Gibbons still feel excited on the stage or is he tired these days?  Here’s what he told us.

“Oh, totally amped.  It’s no different today than when we started.  A lot of times we’re asked, ‘Well what was it like when… did you ever think that you’d still be doing this?’  It doesn’t matter.  We love it.  It’s a fine time up there.”

Billy went on to reveal the pre-show ritual the guys do before they take the stage.

“The one essential moment is, just prior to taking the deck, we’ll, it’s not really a handshake, we’ll just take the fingertips together and give it a go.”

ZZ Top play in Savannah, Georgia on Thursday.  Get all their dates at ZZTop.com.

PAUL ALLEN RELEASING ALBUM WITH BIG NAME GUESTS

Paul Allen isn’t just the guy who co-founded Microsoft, he’s also a rocker and along with his band, The Underthinkers, Paul is releasing an album, and it boasts some big names in rock.  The 13-track blues-based guitar rock album is called Everywhere at Once and features guest appearances from the likes of Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, Chrissie Hynde, Joe Walsh of The Eagles, Derek Trucks of the Allman Brothers Band and many others.  It hits shelves on August 6^th.

JOE STRUMMER GETS A SPANISH PLAZA

Joe Strummer was honored this week in Granada, Spain.  According to The Guardian, at a ceremony on Monday, the late Clash singer had a plaza named after him.  Members of The Pogues as well as Joe’s former bands, The 101ers and The Mescaleros, took part in an impromptu acoustic jam at the event, singing Clash hits like “Spanish Bombs” and “London Calling.”   Joe’s daughters, Lola and Jazz,were also in attendance.

LARS ULRICH IMPRESSED BY CANNES

Metallicadrummer Lars Ulrich has been spending a little time at the Cannes Film Festival in France, promoting the band’s upcoming 3D film, Metallica Through the Never, which hits theaters this fall.  So how has he been liking the event?  He told Vulture.com, “It’s insane.  Everything that you thought it would be times 10-thousand.  I mean, it’s great and it’s overwhelming.”  Ulrich went on to say the only downside is that he’s been so busy that he hasn’t actually been able to see a single film, which he said is tough for a movie buff like him.  Read more at Vulture.com.

TREVOR BOLDER, FORMER BASSIST FOR BOWIE, PASSES AWAY

Bassist Trevor Bolder, who played with David Bowie’s Spiders from Mars, passed away this week at age 62 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.  Bowie commented on Trevor’s death, writing on DavidBowie.com, “Trevor was a wonderful musician and a major inspiration for whichever band he was working with.  But he was foremostly a tremendous guy, a great man.” 

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