Los Angeles-based label Tallest Man Records has released a stunning flamenco-tinged cover of iconic rock anthem “Crazy Train” from THE STRING REVOLUTION featuring Steve Stevens. This collaboration came together to pay tribute to the legendary guitar player Randy Rhoads and in particular his love for classical guitar. Stevens has always been an admirer of Rhoads’s, and THE STRING REVOLUTION, which is led by Janet Robin, has a special connection to Rhoads. Robin was his only female guitar student when she was nine years old.

“When I was told that Randy Rhoads was to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame I was thrilled,” says Stevens. “Long overdue but so deserving. As I was contacted to contribute to a reimagining of Ozzy’s ‘Crazy Train’…in my mind, I had one requirement, that it not be in any way similar to the iconic original version. Upon hearing the track two things struck me immediately, it works so well as a Spanish guitar piece, and that Randy would have loved it. It’s widely known that Randy was a beautiful classical guitarist, even continuing lessons through his Ozzy days. I hope we did you, proud buddy.”

THE STRING REVOLUTION is four professional virtuoso guitar players who create distinctive sounds with their guitars: mimicking percussion, special effects, melodic grooves, bass lines, and more. They share a passion for many different musical styles and guitar techniques which has given THE STRING REVOLUTION a unique sound. This is evident in their studio recordings and live shows. A clear dedication and hard work ethic for the project brought THE STRING REVOLUTION together. In addition to Robin (who was named in the “Top 50 Acoustic Guitarist Bonus List” by Guitar Player magazine, 2017), who is also an acclaimed touring guitarist with the likes of Lindsey Buckingham, Meredith Brooks, AIR SUPPLY, and many more, THE STRING REVOLUTION is comprised of award-winning Austrian nylon-string guitarist Markus Illko, Swiss multi-credited producer, songwriter and guitarist Daniel Schwarz, and underground Los Angeles indie darling, artist and guitarist Art Zavala Jr.

“In arranging ‘Crazy Train’ with THE STRING REVOLUTION, we really tried to keep the energy and vibe of the original but we wanted to put our own stamp on it,” says Robin. “As my guitar teacher Randy Rhoads used to say to me. ‘Don’t try to play like me. Play like yourself.’ I really took that to heart and I feel TSR was on board with that same kind of thinking: be true to the original, but put a new, original spin on it. And that’s what I think we did.”

Former OZZY bassist Rudy Sarzo, who played on the original recording of “Crazy Train”, said: “First time I heard Randy Rhoads play classical guitar was while we were both teaching at his family’s music school, Musonia, during breaks between students. Shortly after, his compositions and recordings with Ozzy of such classics as ‘Dee’, ‘Diary Of A Madman’, ‘Revelation Mother Earth’ showcased his passion for classical guitar. Steve Stevens’s ‘Crazy Train: A (Flamenco) Tribute To Randy Rhoads’ is a magnificent rendition of this heavy metal classic and gives us a glimpse into the musical style Randy might have been playing today.”

Rhoads’s sister Kathy Rhoads Dargenzio said: “Listening to THE STRING REVOLUTION’s version of ‘Crazy Train’ puts a huge smile on my face! Janet Robin was one of Randy’s students back in the day. To see and hear my brother’s influence is bittersweet. He would have loved this. Thanks, Janet and the band, for keeping his flame burning bright! Nailed it!”

Stevens is one of the most original guitarists to emerge from the ’80s rock scene, best known for his 41-year partnership with Billy Idol, his work on Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana”, his Grammy Award-winning performance on “Top Gun Anthem” and his work with Vince Neil on “Exposed”. Stevens has also lent his unmistakable sound and style to many hit records, including Pink’s “Try This”, Diana Ross’s “Eaten Alive”, Joni Mitchell’s “Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm”, Robert Palmer’s “Don’t Explain”, THE THOMPSON TWINS’ “Here’s To Future Days”, Ric Ocasek’s “This Side Of Paradise”, Peter Criss’s “Let Me Rock You”, Juno Reactor’s “Shango”, “Hokata” and “Pistolero”, Kyosuke Himuro’s “Beat Haze Odyssey”, Steve Lukather’s “Lukather” and on his solo outings with STEVE STEVENS ATOMIC PLAYBOYS’ “Atomic Playboys”, BOZZIO LEVIN STEVENS’s “Black Light Syndrome” and “Situation Dangerous” and the critically acclaimed solo releases “Flamenco A Go Go” and “Memory Crash”. Stevens’s catalog of hit songs that he co-wrote and performed alongside Idol includes “Rebel Yell”, “Eyes Without A Face” and “Flesh For Fantasy”. They sound as fresh and relevant today as the day they were released, as evidenced by being recently covered by artists as varied as Miley Cyrus, GREEN DAY, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, HIM, BLACK VEIL BRIDES, CHILDREN OF BODOM, DOPE, DAUGHTRY, SUM 41, BLINK 182, DROWNING POOL, MURDERDOLLS, DEATHSTARS and THE DONNAS. Stevens co-wrote on the most recent Idol EP “Roadside”, produced by Butch Walker featuring collaborations with hit-songwriters Sam Hollander, Tommy English, Joe Janiak and Grant Michaels. Stevens is currently working on new music with Idol and will be hitting the road with Idol this spring on their U.S. arena tour JOURNEY, then on to Europe where they will be playing major festivals in addition to dates where Idol will be supported by THE GO GO’S, then on to Rock In Rio alongside GREEN DAY.

In a new interview with Ruben Mosqueda of Photo Concerto, SAXON frontman Biff Byford was asked if he can picture himself retiring in the not-too-distant future. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBBERMOUTH.NET): “No, retirement is not really [something I think about] at all, really. That word, I don’t really relate to it much, because if I retired, I’d be doing something with music. I don’t think guys like me retire.”

The 71-year-old singer continued: “You get bands that retire, then, like, six months later the singer brings out a solo album. He’s not really retiring, is he? Retiring a band and retiring yourself, I suppose it’s totally different, isn’t it?”

Four years ago, Byford dismissed Jay Jay French as “a silly little man” after the TWISTED SISTER guitarist criticized other bands for continuing to perform well past their prime. At an April 2018 Spooky Empire convention in Orlando, Florida, Jay Jay said that the members of SAXON are “80 fucking years old” and called the current touring lineup of JUDAS PRIEST “a cover band.” Jay Jay went on to say that TWISTED SISTER called it quits in 2016 because the members of the band wanted to go out while they could still deliver the kind of performances that earned them the reputation as one of the strongest live acts around.

During an appearance on the “Thunder Underground” podcast, Byford explained that SAXON’s insistence on releasing new music more than 40 years into the band’s career had little to do with any commercial aspirations.

“There are six or seven [classic rock and metal] bands out there that release albums regardless of whether they’re gonna be platinum or not,” the singer said (hear audio below). “For us, it’s not really about being at the top of the charts anywhere. It’s nice if you’re in the charts, obviously, but it’s all about how many people buy the record and how many people come see you live. We deserve to be bigger in America, without a doubt, and we’re making strides to do that. Some people might think it’s a bit late, but it’s never too late, really, and we’ve proven that.

“There are a lot of bands out there that [are still releasing new music],” he continued. “SCORPIONS, they’re all putting albums out. WHITESNAKE put albums out, MOTÖRHEAD put albums out, [IRON] MAIDEN put albums out, we put albums out. If you don’t put albums out and you’re just going out doing the odd show and playing your big hits, then I can understand it being totally boring for people. Because you can’t tour it constantly if you’re just playing hits. You can go every two years and play your hits, but you can’t keep going back every four or five months — you can’t do that. So I think that bands like TWISTED SISTER, they’ve retired, they’ve stopped, [and] they [aren’t interested in putting] another album out, because they know it’s not gonna be platinum. So therefore, in their eyes, it brings down their profile, but in actual fact, it doesn’t, ’cause people never forget the hits. And actually, if anything, they get more credibility, ’cause they’re out playing the hits from the ’80s, whatever hits you have, plus the new stuff. So I think it rejuvenates a band. I think you get a new audience and people like it. Obviously, they have to be good albums. There’s no point releasing a piece of shit, ’cause that won’t work. You have to have a great album. You can’t polish a turd. The albums have to be of a certain quality.”

Addressing Jay Jay’s comments directly, Biff said: “I haven’t answered that guy — a silly little man, really. But he didn’t mention [IRON] MAIDEN, he didn’t mention SCORPIONS, he didn’t mention WHITESNAKE, he didn’t mention VAN HALEN. It’s just silly — not even worth mentioning. I mean, [TWISTED SISTER singer] Dee Snider is still touring, right? You know what I mean? C’mon!”

He added: “I just think it’s your personal choice, and it’s nobody else’s business, actually, what I want to do, or what a guitarist wants to do. If a guitarist wants to say, ‘I’ve had enough,’ then he’s had enough. And he goes home and… I don’t know… I don’t know what the guy, Jay Jay or whatever they call him… He’ll go and sit on the porch in his rocking chair with his pipe and slippers and fade away. We’re fucking Vikings. We don’t do that shit.”

SAXON’s new album, “Carpe Diem”, will be released on February 4 via Silver Lining Music. The LP was produced by Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, EXODUS, ACCEPT) at Backstage Recording Studios in Derbyshire with Byford and Sneap mixing and mastering.

MACHINE HEAD’s Robb Flynn and Jared MacEachern held the latest “Electric Happy Hour” on Friday, January 28 during which they celebrated the fourth anniversary of “Catharsis”, the band’s ninth studio album, by performing it in its entirety. You can now watch video of the performance below.

In a message accompanying the YouTube release of the video, MACHINE HEAD said: “Due to the wildly varying guitar tunings used on the album, the boyz have been forced to modify the running order of the play-thru but this has only served to increase the ferocity of the set-list. Album opener ‘Volatile’ and live set firm favorite ‘Catharsis’ are followed up by the deep cuts ‘Beyond the Pale’, ‘Psychotic’ and ‘Hope Begets Hope’. ‘Grind You Down’ and ‘Eulogy’ are given their live debuts and we are treated to full arrangements of ‘Behind a Mask’ and ‘Bastards’ rather than the usual stripped down Electric Happy Hour versions.”

Featured songs:

0:00:00 Welcome and Beers Up
0:05:39 Volatile
0:10:37 Catharsis
0:16:28 Beyond The Pale
0:23:22 Psychotic
0:28:58 Hope Begets Hope
0:33:57 Screaming At The Sun
0:38:28 Triple Beam
0:43:41 Heavy Lies The Crown
0:52:03 Grind You Down
1:02:13 Behind A Mask
1:11:37 Bastards
1:18:24 California Bleeding
1:22:44 Kaleidoscope
1:27:18 Eulogy
1:33:17 Become The Firestorm
1:38:37 Imperium
1:51:30 Darkness Within – Intro
1:57:28 Darkness Within

In a 2018 interview with Australia’s The Rockpit, Flynn was asked about the crowd reception to the songs from “Catharsis”, which got mixed reviews upon its release in January 2018. He said: “You know, it’s funny because I’ve been touring for 30 years now, and I actually did my first tour in 1988, and even before that, I was touring up and down California, and even before the Internet, there’s always the type of thing where people were writing and if you were around before the Internet, you would read magazines and there was always the letter section and people would be talking shit and ‘This song sucks’ and ‘This band sucks’ and ‘This record sucks’. [Laughs] I mean, we had so much of that during the ‘Burn My Eyes’ era, it was crazy; people either really loved it or really hated it. I think it’s just when you make something that, and I don’t want to say it’s controversial, but when you make something that has a strong stance, a strong opinion, like you’re taking a side, people feel something from that. To me, there’s been a lot of criticism but the fact that anybody is bothering to criticize, I think, is cool because it means they care.

“We have really passionate fans, we have some really dedicated fans and they want to fucking talk about it, and that’s awesome,” he continued. “In a lot of ways, that’s what the record was about — I wanted you to think, I wanted you to feel, I wanted you to feel something. Anything — anger, sadness, joy, fucking resentment; whatever the feeling was — and make you open up your mind a little bit. Make you think outside of what metal could or couldn’t be, and so the reaction that we got was kind of the reaction that… I didn’t not expect that reaction. And you never know when you go out and play it live what’s going to happen, and you never know what songs are going to connect, and there’s always going to be some songs that just fucking connect and go crazy live, and there’s other songs where there’s always just a dud live, and you never know why and it’s like that with every record.

“I’ve gotta say, man, the songs on this record, like the track, ‘Catharsis’, which was such a surprisingly controversial track, I thought that was just a straight-up MACHINE HEAD banger, like a classic. So many people just fucking raged about that song, and we were, like, ‘What the fuck!’ and then when we played it live, oh my god! People lost their fucking minds, man! Every night it’s a highlight of the set. ‘Triple Beam’ is a highlight of the set; ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’ is a highlight of the set; and it’s almost the type of thing where everything you read on the Internet is wrong. [Laughs]

He added: “Of course they’re fucking flipping out on all the songs that everybody goes crazy over live! And maybe that’s because of it, or I don’t know why. It’s weird; it’s really weird.”

Flynn went on to say that it makes him and the rest of MACHINE HEAD “feel good” to see such an overwhelmingly positive response to the band’s new material.

“We’re on our ninth record, we’ve been MACHINE HEAD for 25 years now, and it’s a great feeling to go out and know that, this is not the oldies, this isn’t the ‘Burn My Eyes’ show, this is us moving forward and people are still reacting to that in a fucking super-positive way and that is not the traditional arc of a band this far into their career,” he said. “It makes us proud, it makes us feel a sense of pride on the music that we’re doing and what we do because I think a lot of what music is for us, music is a feeling. Music is something that you can’t even put your finger on, it’s something that transcends explanation and I don’t know where the inspiration comes from. I just write and I just write about what I feel like and sometimes it’s political and sometimes it’s just really fucking negative and sometimes it’s stories about my past and sometimes it’s about what I think about the future. Sometimes it’s happy, sometimes it’s party fucking songs — ‘let’s get hammered and wasted and fucking rage!’ It’s all over the map, and for me, it’s a great way to express and release this stuff, and I think a lot of times metal has this surprisingly pretty conservative slant about what you can and can’t do and it gets a little annoying.”

The follow-up to 2014’s “Bloodstone & Diamonds”, “Catharsis” was produced by Flynn and recorded, mixed, and co-produced by Zack Ohren (FALLUJAH, ALL SHALL PERISH) at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California. Mastering was handled by Ted Jensen (HATEBREED, ALICE IN CHAINS, DEFTONES) at Sterling Sound in New York. Cover photography was created by Seanen Middleton.

“Catharsis” was the final album to feature guitarist Phil Demmel and drummer Dave McClain, who both left MACHINE HEAD in October 2018.

Part two of a new documentary celebrating the 15th anniversary of ALL THAT REMAINS’ breakthrough album “The Fall Of Ideals” is available below.

ALL THAT REMAINS will embark on “The Fall Of Ideals” 15th-anniversary trek this spring, kicking off on March 12 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and running through May 20 in Hartford, Connecticut. MISS MAY I, VARIALS and TALLAH will serve as support. ALL THAT REMAINS will perform “The Fall Of Ideals” in full on this run.

“The Fall Of Ideals” was reissued last November. The best-selling title features such fan favorites as “This Calling”, “Six” and “The Air That I Breathe”. In addition to the wide release, the band has exclusive colored vinyl variants with deluxe packaging available only at the band’s webstore.

Originally released in 2006, “The Fall Of Ideals” launched a new era for ALL THAT REMAINS — finding the band moving away from the death metal of their first two albums (2002’s “Behind Silence And Solitude” and 2004’s “This Darkened Heart”) and settling into the melodic metalcore that defined their career. “The Fall Of Ideals” also introduced fans to the band’s longtime bassist Jeanne Sagan and marked their only album to feature drummer Shannon Lucas. The newcomers joined founding members Phil Labonte (vocals) and Oli Herbert (lead guitars), as well as rhythm guitarist Mike Martin.

In the studio, the Massachusetts quintet partnered with two prominent metal artists: KILLSWITCH ENGAGE’s Adam Dutkiewicz, who served as producer, and SOILWORK’s Peter Wichers, who engineered the sessions. The dynamic, 11-song set found the musicians pushing their sonic boundaries, while Labonte showcased his broad vocal range — from epic, extended screams and in-your-face growls to emotive choruses. The album spawned a variety of enduring favorites, including the hard-driving “This Calling”, which featured in the soundtracks to “Saw III” and “Masters Of Horror II”, as well as singles “The Air That I Breathe” and “Not Alone”. Other highlights included the guitar-forward “Whispers (I Hear You)” and the dramatic “Six”, which appeared in “Guitar Hero II”.

Upon its release in the summer of 2006, “The Fall Of Ideals” was embraced by fans, becoming the band’s first album to break the Billboard 200 (peaking at No. 75) and eventually selling more than 450,000 units. The album also caught the attention of critics. Pop Matters hailed, “ALL THAT REMAINS has made the kind of stylistic leap that most bands can only wish they could pull off… ‘The Fall Of Ideals’ [is] invigorating from start to finish, and could very well be the metalcore album of the year.” BLABBERMOUTH.NET praised, “ALL THAT REMAINS effortlessly blends thrashy twin guitar fireworks and Phil Labonte’s raging vocals with soaring clean vocals and overall tunefulness…There is no denying that those guys play their asses off here and the result is immensely gratifying.” Lambgoat simply declared, “The entire band executes the songs perfectly,” adding that “the production…is full and crisp.”

“We’re so thankful to everyone who has kept this disc in their hearts for the past 15 years,” said Labonte. “We are proud to celebrate the reissue and can’t wait to tell you about all the other cool things we have in store.”

In the 15 years since “The Fall Of Ideals”, ALL THAT REMAINS have built an undeniable legacy as one of this century’s most consistent purveyors of heavy music with a bulletproof canon of arena-worthy anthems. Currently consisting of Labonte and Martin, as well as drummer Jason Costa, and lead guitarist Jason Richardson, the band continues to defy the odds of its genre. To date, they have sold more than a million albums worldwide, earning five consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart, and boasting more than 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify — an unprecedented feat for any metal band. In 2018, ALL THAT REMAINS released their widely acclaimed ninth studio album, “Victim Of The New Disease”.

In a new interview with France’s United Rock Nations, KORN guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer was asked about his health, four months after he was forced to sit out some of the band’s shows as a result of testing positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. “I’m well,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “I’m healthy. I’ve this stupid COVID crap; I’ve had it twice now. I had it [the second time] two weeks ago, and finally I got through. So I’m healthy. I’ve got a kick-ass immune system. We’re planning shows at the end of the month and then we’re planning a tour in March and then we’re planning to come to Europe and play some big festivals and get to come to France. So I’m really excited. I haven’t been there in a long time and I miss it.”

Last month, Shaffer reflected on the fact that he was one of three members of KORN — along with singer Jonathan Davis and drummer Ray Luzier — to contract COVID-19 during the band’s recently completed U.S. tour. Speaking to Finland’s Chaoszine, he said: “When the tour started, Jonathan was so worried about getting it. He was so fucking freaked out. He wouldn’t leave his bus. He wouldn’t leave his hotel. The only time we saw him was when he was out on the stage. [We were going], ‘Hey, man. Good to see you,’ rocking out. At the end of the show, bam — back to his bus. It was kind of funny; there was something quite funny about it. But then he still managed to get it. But then I’m thinking, like, well, we’re up on stage. There’s thousands of people screaming at us with their germs and air. And, of course. I’m surprised that everybody didn’t get it.”

James went on to say that he believes KORN guitarist Brian “Head” Welch had COVID-19 in 2020. “But he’s protected by God,” Munky said.

Asked what it was like being back out on the road for the first time in more than a year, Munky said: “It was fun — it was fun all the way until I got a positive result. And I was, like, ‘Fuck!’ And then I was in hell. It was like [going from] the best thing to the worst. I was staying in Salt Lake City. I had all the symptoms, and it was terrible… There was a little bit of [mental hell as well] — seeing videos of my fill-in play on stage [with KORN while I was recovering from COVID-19]. And they came through L.A., which is where we’re from, and some West Coast shows that I missed. That was frustrating; that was a little challenging, actually. But nothing a little NyQuil [cold, cough and flu medicine] can’t handle. [Laughs]”

As a result of Davis’s infection in August, KORN postponed six dates and canceled two on its U.S. tour. A month later, Munky also contracted COVID-19 and was temporarily replaced by J.R. Bareis from LOVE AND DEATH. In October, Luzier became the third member of the band to get infected, forcing him to miss three shows on KORN’s U.S. tour. Filling in for him was FEVER 333’s Aric Improta.

Davis, who was reportedly fully vaccinated, had been taking a seat on a custom throne near the drum riser at KORN’s later shows due to lingering effects of his bout with COVID-19.

KORN’s new album, “Requiem”, will arrive on February 4 via Loma Vista Recordings. The official music video for the disc’s first single, “Start The Healing”, directed by Tim Saccenti (FLYING LOTUS, RUN THE JEWELS, DEPECHE MODE), was made available in November.

“Requiem” was produced by Chris Collier and KORN.

Former SKID ROW drummer Phil Varone has once again responded to ex-SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach’s claim that Varone’s decision to pose nude for an Playgirl is “further proof that the name ‘SKID ROW’ has completely lost all credibility, cool, accuracy and is now devoid of all meaning in every way.”

Varone, who was one of eight patients featured on the “Celebrity Rehab” spin-off series “Sex Rehab With Dr. Drew”, was featured on the cover of Playgirl more than a decade ago. The publication, which included a 16-page spread on Varone, hit newsstands in December 2010.

A short time after Varone’s appearance in Playgirl was announced, Bach took to his Twitter to write: “[This is] further proof that the name ‘SKID ROW’ has completely lost all credibility, cool, accuracy and is now devoid of all meaning in every way.”

Varone reflected on Bach’s comments in a brand new interview with Sofa King Cool. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Baz is very ironic. I’ve known him for… I knew those guys 10 years before I joined the band. I mean, they were friends of mine. Before I joined the band, I knew Sebastian. And I never really understood why he said anything. This is a guy who wore a shirt that said ‘AIDS Kills F**s Dead’. This is a guy that threw a bottle into a crowd and almost killed a girl. And the band had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep his ass out of jail and pay all these things in medical. And he’s talking about me on Playgirl?

“He’s in a war with himself, ’cause I’ve got nothing to say,” Phil continued. “The guy was a tremendous rock star — legendary — and he’s always gonna be that way. And I just don’t understand at what point the people go the extra mile to say anything when it’s, like, ‘Dude, you already have the gig. Just shut up. People like you already. Don’t ruin it.’ ‘Cause people like him, he can just talk himself into a hole.

“What does me doing Playgirl have anything to do with SKID ROW or hurting SKID ROW? Not to mention that one of his favorite bands, TYPE O NEGATIVE, Pete Steele did it. Bret Michaels did it. Brad Pitt did it. I mean, so many people have done Playgirl. It was a bucket list thing for me. I mean, granted, yeah, my dick is bigger than his, so don’t be mad at me about that. Scream at whoever you believe the maker is.

“I don’t know what his deal is,” Varone added. “I just thought it was funny. ‘Cause it’s very hypocritical. If anything was gonna ruin the band, it would have been him back then. And doing Playgirl is not porn at all. It’s a naked body. When did naked bodies become pornography? I don’t know. Because in Europe no one gives a shit. Everyone’s naked over there.”

Varone joined SKID ROW in 2000 — about four years after Bach parted ways with the group.

Back in February 2010, Varone filed a lawsuit against SKID ROW guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo and bassist Rachel Bolan, accusing his former bandmates of “spreading lies” and destroying his reputation. He claimed Sabo and Bolan “embarked on a crusade to spread vicious lies about Varone in an effort to destroy his professional and personal reputation” and “to prevent him from truthfully describing his career history as the drummer for SKID ROW, by contending that his use of the band name is trademark infringement.” In addition, he claimed the pair “had falsely informed people that Varone had slept with Sabo’s wife, that Varone is a cocaine addict and that Varone is a liar,” adding, “Its (SKID ROW’s) complete omission from a description of Varone’s professional experience deprives Varone from the benefits of his experience as a professional studio and live musician and rock star who toured the world, gave countless interviews, made hundreds of appearances and amassed thousands of fans worldwide.” According to the complaint, Sabo, Bolan and their lawyer contacted night clubs and both Oprah Winfrey’s and Tyra Banks’ talk shows in advance of his appearance in connection with “Sex Rehab” and successfully prevented Varone from being identified as a former drummer of SKID ROW.

In 2014, Varone slammed his former bandmates in SKID ROW as “clueless, jealous dummies” whose recent “piece-of-shit records” are best used as “a set of drink coasters.”

During an interview on “The Classic Metal Show”, Sabo was asked about “Waking Up Dead”, the 2007 documentary from Varone which followed Phil through four years of drug abuse and wall-to-wall sex with groupies while drumming for the band. “I thought it was gross, man, to be quite honest with you,” Sabo said. “See, that’s just a lifestyle I never cared for or partook in. I never did drugs. The worst thing I ever did was drink too much vodka and puke, and that’s basically the extent of my shit. So to live that and to see that, I thought it was pretty gross and disgusting, to be honest with you. I don’t have any empathy for that situation at all, because you have choices. You make choices in life, and that was the choice that he made. And I don’t wanna be a part of that or a party to it. So, I guess the only thing I can say is that I thought it was pretty gross.”

In a 2006 interview with Metalshrine, Bolan stated about “Waking Up Dead”: “I haven’t [seen it] and I don’t support it at all… That’s [Phil’s] world. I don’t do drugs and the guys in the band don’t do drugs. I don’t endorse it. That’s his world and he wanted to put our image in it and being the fact that the guy was only in the band for two years…. The fact that he thinks he has the right to go out and use the SKID ROW name is preposterous. Yeah, that’s his world, not ours.”

During an appearance on this past Thursday’s (January 27) episode of SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, legendary rocker Alice Cooper confirmed that he is putting together ideas for the follow-up to last year’s “Detroit Stories” LP. “I’m working on two albums right now, actually — two studio albums,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “And all I can say is that one is written — totally written — and we’ll be doing bed tracks for that one pretty soon. And then the other one is just a touch in the future, but that’s being written right now too. They’re two entirely different kinds of albums, but they’re Alice Cooper pure rock and roll albums. The two albums will really be hard rock albums.”

The 73-year-old singer went on to say that his longtime producer Bob Ezrin will once again be involved with both LPs, the first one of which will arrive later this year.

“It’s kind of like the old days when you’re touring and putting out records at the same time,” Alice explained. “It kind of takes me back to when you’re doing ‘Love It To Death’ and then you tour for ‘Love It To Death’. While you’re doing ‘Love It To Death’, you’re writing ‘Killer’. When ‘Love It To Death’ is over, ‘Killer’ comes out and then you go support that. And while you’re doing ‘Killer’, you’re writing ‘School’s Out’. So we’re kind of piggybacking everything. And I kind of like that. It keeps everything moving. I don’t like those big chunks of time when there’s nothing going on.”

Earlier this month, Alice’s guitarist Nita Strauss revealed to Detroit’s WRIF radio station that she and her Cooper bandmates “recorded quite a bit of music” for his upcoming album. “The band did also have a huge part in the writing this time, which is the first time that’s happened in the eight years that I’ve been in the band,” she said. “So it was really, really fun — really exciting for us to get to work with a legend like Bob Ezrin. [It was] a huge, huge honor to be in the studio with him and Alice creating what we hope will be some more Alice Cooper music to just add to his legacy.”

She added: “I’m on the [Alice Cooper] live DVD. I’m on the live album releases, the live tracks that are bonus tracks and stuff, but [this is my] first studio album with Alice. I’m actually the only person in the [current lineup of Alice’s] band that hasn’t recorded anything with Alice before, so this is huge for me. [I’m] very, very honored.”

Less than a year ago, Alice told Australia’s Heavy that he wanted to record his next album on the road with the current lineup of his solo band. “I like it — I like the idea,” he said. “I brought up the idea because my stage band is so tight. They’re not even on [‘Detroit Stories’]. But they’re so tight that they can play anything. And I said, ‘Well, then why don’t we write the songs on the road about the road? Let’s write the songs about what happens on the road.’ Or just it could be funny, it could be tragic, it could be whatever. I said, ‘But let’s make this album rock, like you guys do. And I’d love to play it live during soundchecks.’ Instead of playing ‘Eighteen’ or ‘School’s Out’ or doing a soundcheck every day, I said, ‘Let’s rehearse these songs.’ And then, at one point, somewhere on the road when we have two days off, we’ll set up the next gig and record them all — record them live in a venue.’ And I said, ‘That would be unique. Nobody’s ever done that. So let’s do something nobody’s ever done.'”

Alice went on to say that he had every confidence that the members of his current solo band — Strauss, Tommy Henriksen (guitar), Ryan Roxie (guitar), Chuck Garric (bass) and Glen Sobel (drums) — would be able to rise to the occasion and make an album while on tour. “If you get the right players, you can do anything,” he said. “I’ve got Nita Strauss in there. Nita is just a monster guitar player. She was voted ‘Guitarist Of The Decade’ magazine in Guitar magazine, and my drummer was voted ‘Best Drummer In Rock’ last year. And the great thing about this band is they never have a bad night; they’re good every night. And they’re all best friends. I never hear an argument; I never hear an ego pop up; I never hear anybody yelling at anybody unless it’s funny. All I hear backstage is laughing.”

Released in February 2021, “Detroit Stories” was recorded with Ezrin, mostly in Royal Oak with Detroit musicians and featuring a mix of original material alongside covers of songs by Bob Seger, the MC5, Mitch Ryder’s DETROIT and OUTRAGEOUS CHERRY.

In 2018, Cooper issued “A Paranormal Evening At The Olympia Paris”, a recording of his December 7, 2017 concert at the world-renowned Olympia venue in France. The effort captured Cooper and his current bandmates performing a choice selection of classic Cooper hits, in addition to some highlights from 2017’s “Paranormal” album. Alice later said that he wanted to release a document of his band’s onstage prowess because they “deserved a live album.”

Fan-filmed video footage of Geoff Tate’s January 26 performance at Stage West in State College, Pennsylvania can be seen below (courtesy of YouTube user “Jim Powers”).

Tate’s current tour is celebrating the 30th anniversary of QUEENSRŸCHE’s “Empire” and “Rage For Order” albums.

1986’s “Rage For Order” introduced a much more polished look and sound for QUEENSRŸCHE. The album featured keyboards as prominently as guitars, and the group adopted an image more closely associated with glam rock or glam metal than with heavy metal (of which glam metal was a subgenre). A video was filmed for the song “Gonna Get Close to You”, originally recorded in 1984 by DALBELLO.

Released in 1990, “Empire” included the hit ballad “Silent Lucidity”, which reached No. 9 on the Billboard singles chart, helped propel “Empire” to No. 7 on the album chart and earned two Grammy Award nominations.

Prior to the launch of the trek in early 2020, Tate told MisplacedStraws.com that he would take the “Empire 30th Anniversary Tour” to “as many countries as I can and playing the album in its entirety, which I’ve never done before. So that’ll be real fun. In fact, I think there’s some songs on that album that I’ve never, ever played live before, so it’ll be a treat — for me, as well, I think, for the audience too,” the former QUEENSRŸCHE singer said. “I’m really looking forward to that.”

Tate told Eonmusic that one song from “Empire” that was rarely performed live is “Anybody Listening?” “When QUEENSRŸCHE was together, we never really put that song in our set,” he said. “We just had a hard time playing it, for some reason; it just never jelled or felt right. And I’d really like to play that song again, and play it right.”

In April 2014, Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE announced that a settlement had been reached after a nearly two-year legal battle where the singer sued over the rights to the QUEENSRŸCHE name after being fired in 2012. Original QUEENSRŸCHE members Michael Wilton (guitar), Scott Rockenfield (drums) and Eddie Jackson (bass) responded with a countersuit. The settlement included an agreement that Wilton, Rockenfield and Jackson would continue as QUEENSRŸCHE, while Tate would have the sole right to perform the albums “Operation: Mindcrime” and “Operation: Mindcrime II” in their entirety live.

Tate was replaced in QUEENSRŸCHE by former CRIMSON GLORY singer Todd La Torre.

Geoff recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of “Operation: Mindcrime” on European and U.S. tours.