Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (GUNS N’ ROSES), Michael Starr (STEEL PANTHER), Nita Strauss (ALICE COOPER) and Jason Hook (ex-FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH) are among the musicians who paid tribute to legendary VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen by performing a number of VAN HALEN classics with the all-star band THE STOWAWAYS on this year’s ShipRocked cruise, which set sail from Galveston, Texas on January 22 and included stops in Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico before returning on January 27. Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below (courtesy of registered YouTube user Justin West).

Last year, Thal discussed VAN HALEN’s fourth LP, 1981’s “Fair Warning” ruring an appearance on the 100th episode of the “Infectious Groove” podcast. He said: “I was 12 years old, and up to this point, I was sort of like an Angus Young [AC/DC] kind of guitar player. I remember I was at a band practice, and there was a kid hanging out there who asked me if I heard VAN HALEN. I hadn’t heard them before, so he played me a recording of the intro to ‘Mean Street’ on the just-released ‘Fair Warning’ album. And just like anybody that heard VAN HALEN for the first time, it blew my mind. I never heard that kind of guitar playing before. Still, to this day, I’ve never heard that kind of guitar playing ever again. That intro was just a sound I had never heard before, and it opened my eyes, my ears, my mind, my spirit, my entire being. It just changed the course of everything and how I looked at playing guitar and making music and the role that guitar has in a song and in music. And from there, I became a different kind of player. I started really experimenting and digging deep to find who I was. It will always be one of my favorite albums. And I am so grateful that I got to be on earth at the same time VAN HALEN was.”

Thal previously spoke about Eddie Van Halen’s influence on his playing in an October 2020 interview with the WDHA radio station. He stated at the time: “I heard ‘Eruption’ and I was just blown away immediately. It changed my life — it really changed my life, that moment, and I remember it vividly. I got a cassette of ‘Eruption’ and I went home and I spent months learning it. Just little by little and just hearing a couple of notes on a cassette, I would find ’em on the guitar, and a few more, and a few more, until I had the whole thing. Then I opened up the cassette, I unscrewed the four little screws on it, and I opened it up and I flipped the reel the other direction and I put it back together, so now everything was backwards, and then I learned it backwards.”

He continued: “I had a cover band when I was 13 years old called PARADOX. And we played — half the set was RUSH and the other half was a bunch of VAN HALEN. [I was] the hugest VAN HALEN fan. I subscribed to Guitar World magazine and would read every Eddie Van Halen interview. And I started innovating — I started taking apart my guitar, then doing all the tricks that he was doing, [like] dipping your pickups in wax to change the amount of feedback, and all kinds of crazy stuff. And that’s what made me start to really experiment and dig deep and try and find my own voice. Because nobody had as much of a personality and identity and unique spirit in their playing that they put out as he did as a guitar player. You can argue that, sure, but if you think about it, everything that he brought to the table — the guitar tone, the way he used a Variac to change the voltage and bring a different sound out of a Marshall amp and he created this new kind of tone that was called the ‘brown sound.’ And just the originality of his style — the way he played, the way he phrased everything, just what his fingers did and all the tapping that he did, like the big ending of ‘Eruption’ and then things like the intro to ‘Little Guitars’, quickly picking one string and hitting on notes on another string, like [there were] two people playing one guitar. There was so many things that he did. And also, the guitar’s role in a song was completely different. It used to be, ‘Okay, here’s your rhythm track, and you overdub the leads.’ But he made it this live personality of just this ripping high-energy entity in a song. And on albums too — he changed the way a guitar’s role was on an album, where you would have breaks in between songs with little unique guitar parts and his long guitar intros and things that you just did not hear on rock albums — at least not like that. He absolutely was the number one game changer. And from that point on, after he was on the radar, everything changed.”

Starr, who fronted ATOMIC PUNKS in the 1990s and early 2000s under the stage name David Lee Ralph, spoke about Eddie Van Halen’s influence in an interview with Rock Titan TV. He said: “You don’t realize how rooted in VAN HALEN one is until one heavy metal hero departs the world, and for me, that’s what it’s been like. I didn’t even know what to post or say or do.

“I didn’t realize how much [Eddie] was a part of my life — inspiration, music-wise. That band was everything for me. And I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of people. I always wanted to David Lee Roth. I always wanted to be Eddie. I can’t play guitar that good, but… And thankfully, I got to meet Dave several times, and I also got to meet Eddie a couple of times before he passed away. And I’m grateful. I only met him briefly, like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ I met him at a place called Staples, back before Gary Cherone joined [VAN HALEN]. It was him and [his son] Wolfie in the checkout. I’m, like, ‘Hey, Eddie. I’m a big fan.’ He’s, like, ‘I know your band. ATOMIC PUNKS. You guys are pretty good.’ And I was, like, ‘Holy shit! Eddie Van Halen knows our tribute band.’ That was a huge deal. Then I went to [VAN HALEN’s] dress rehearsal when they first rejoined with Wolfie at the Forum [in Los Angeles]. And I was walking in front of the stage, and I saw Eddie walk up, and I just walked to the stage and shook his hand and said hi, and that was the end of it. So, to me, I look at Eddie as this just complete rock god.

“VAN HALEN was everything for me,” Starr, whose real name is Ralph Saenz, repeated. “I love SCORPIONS. I love MÖTLEY CRÜE, DEEP PURPLE, CHEAP TRICK, RATT, BON JOVI, WHITE LION… I love all that stuff, but to me, it all started with VAN HALEN. Everyone tried to copy Dave and Eddie.”

Eddie Van Halen died in October 2020 after a years-long battle with cancer. He was 65 years old.

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As part of METALLICA’s 40th-anniversary celebrations, the band’s longtime photographer Ross Halfin was the subject of a 90-minute question-and-answer session with Steffan Chirazi, the editor of METALLICA’s fan-club magazine So What!, on December 18, 2021 at Elk’s Lodge in San Francisco, California. Ostensibly to discuss Halfin’s book documenting METALLICA’s “Black” album era — “Metallica: The Black Album In Black & White” — the conversation also looked back over Halfin’s career, focusing on his decades of work with the band. METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett dropped in for a chat too, and the audience chipped in with several questions of their own.

Reflecting on one of METALLICA’s early tours, Hammett said: “Geddy Lee [RUSH] showed up at one of our shows on the ‘Ride The Lightning’ tour. We played Toronto, and all of a sudden we got a message backstage that Geddy Lee was in the audience. And [late METALLICA bassist] Cliff Burton just freaked out. He started pacing, he started smoking pot, and he was, like, ‘Oh my God! Geddy! Geddy Lee!’ He could not settle down; he was so nervous and just happy at the same time that Geddy Lee was there. And then Ross tells him that Geezer Butler [BLACK SABBATH] is out there one night. Same thing — he starts pacing around, super nervous, grab[s] a beer.”

Back in 2015, Geddy confirmed the longstanding rumor that he almost produced METALLICA’s classic 1986 album “Master Of Puppets”. He told Noisey: “It’s sort of true. There was some discussion with [METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich], back in the day, about working with them. This was before ‘Master Of Puppets’ came out, I think. There was talk, you know. I was friends with their management, and I met Lars back in England. I remember going to see them here in Toronto when they played at the Masonic Temple. That’s when the original bass player [Cliff Burton] was still happening. You know, before that tragedy. And, you know, we talked about it, and I liked their band a lot at that time. But it just never came together.”

During the same interview, Lee admitted that he isn’t much of a heavy metal fan.

“I don’t listen to a lot of metal,” he said. “Even though there’s an aspect of our sound that can be quite metal, I sort of attribute it more to early metal, in the way that [LED] ZEPPELIN were metal and in the way that BLACK SABBATH were metal, and BLUE CHEER were metal. And that’s the sort of tradition of metal that we took on.”

He continued: “I like METALLICA. I’ve got great respect for them. But you won’t hear too much speed metal or death metal in my house.”

Cliff joined METALLICA in 1982 and performed on the band’s first three studio albums: “Kill ‘Em All”, “Ride The Lightning” and “Master Of Puppets”. He also received a posthumous writing credit for the song “To Live Is to Die” from the band’s fourth studio album, “…And Justice For All” and was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a member of METALLICA on April 4, 2009.

His life was tragically cut short at the age of 24 in a tour bus crash on September 27, 1986 in Sweden.

Burton’s initial replacement in the group was Jason Newsted, who stayed in the lineup until 2001. Robert Trujillo joined in 2003 and remains in the band to this day.

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The second in a series of webisodes featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the making of SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS’ upcoming album, titled “4”, can be seen below.

Due on February 11 via Gibson Records in partnership with BMG, “4” is Slash’s fifth solo album and fourth overall with his band featuring Myles Kennedy (vocals), Brent Fitz (drums), Todd Kerns (bass, vocals) and Frank Sidoris (guitar, vocals).

In October, SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS released the official music video for the LP’s first single, “The River Is Rising”, shot on location in downtown Los Angeles with Gibson TV director Todd Harapiak.

For “4”, Slash and the band traveled across the country together to Nashville, Tennessee and recorded the new album at the historic RCA Studio A with producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, John Prine, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile), revealing a stunning new sound and style all captured live in the studio. Cobb shared the band’s desire to lay down the tracks live, in the studio including guitar solos and vocals — a first for the group.

The band’s previous albums over the last decade — “Apocalyptic Love”, “World On Fire” and “Living The Dream” — have continued on an upward trajectory, all achieving Top 5 Billboard charting debuts in the U.S. and reaching the Top 10 on 12 major charts across the globe. To date, the three SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS albums have now garnered 10 consecutive Top 5 Radio singles, spawned sold-out world tours, and have earned Slash and the band the best critical acclaim of their career with their latest album “Living The Dream” (2018) singled out by the Los Angeles Times, Classic Rock, Guitar World, Loudwire, LA Weekly, and more, as their best songs to date.

The new album “4” has the added history-making distinction of being the first-ever album to be released on the new Gibson Records label, which is headquartered in the iconic American instrument brand Gibson’s hometown of Music City, Nashville. In light of the 30-year partnership between Gibson and the Grammy Award-winning Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Slash, it makes sense the new SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS’ album “4” will be released via Gibson Records.

SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS will kick off a North American headlining tour on February 8, in Portland, Oregon and hit 28 major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Nashville, Dallas, Austin, Houston, and more, before wrapping up March 26 in Orlando, Florida.

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On the heels of the announcement of his 11th solo album “Shades”, acclaimed KING’S X guitarist, songwriter, and co-vocalist Ty Tabor has released the album’s first single, “Sister Genocide”. The dynamic, mid-tempo rocker opens with a crash, and blooms with the help of Ty’s heavy rhythms and tasteful solos. Originally slated for a future KING’S X release, “Sister Genocide” is a heavy, driving track that lays the foundation of what “Shades” has to offer, and is just one of the many colors on Ty’s palette on his latest solo offering. The lyric video for “Sister Genocide” was created by Wayne Joyner and can be seen below.

“Shades” will arrive on March 4 via Rat Pak Records. The album features 10 brand new songs with three bonus tracks and follows the successful release of 2018’s “Alien Beans”. “Shades” is available for preorder in various configurations, including CD, vinyl and digital download.

“When it comes to what I write for solo material, I don’t really think about bands or anything like that. These new songs explore different sides of life and death,” Ty explains. “I was dealing with the recent loss of my dad when some of this was written. There are lighter moments mixed in to keep it from being too focused on loss or sadness. I also resurrected a couple of old ideas that weren’t ready until now. I just write music that makes me happy, and I’ve ended up with an album I really love!”

From the opening chords of “Come Home”, it is clear that Tabor’s trademark guitar tone lays the bedrock for his latest solo release. Ty tackles a wide array of emotions and topics with layered harmonies, hooky pop sensibilities, and the total riffage that remains a crucial ingredient to the KING’S X sound. Songs like “What You’re Thinking”, “One Drop Of Water” and “Doesn’t Linger” show Ty’s penchant for crafting tunes with tremendous melodies, while songs like “Shallow” and “Your Fantasy” trend heavy and exemplify why Ty is one of the most influential guitarists of the last three decades.

“Shades” track listing:

01. Come Home
02. Shallow
03. Your Fantasy
04. What You’re Thinking
05. Sister Genocide
06. Best Day In A While
07. Insane
08. One Drop Of Water
09. Doesn’t Linger
10. Leaves Falling Down
11. Ashes (bonus track; CD and digital download only]
12. Political Nonsense (bonus track; CD and digital download only)
13. Ashes (Acoustic) (bonus track; CD and digital download only)

Photo credit: Reames Photography

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Former KILLSWITCH ENGAGE singer Howard Jones rejoined the band on stage at the opening concert of the Massachusetts metallers’ U.S. tour Friday night (January 28) at Stage AE in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to perform three songs, “The Signal Fire”, “Rose Of Sharyn” and “The End Of Heartache”. Fan-filmed video of his appearance can be seen below. Support on the trek is coming from AUGUST BURNS RED and Jones’s current group LIGHT THE TORCH.

“The Signal Fire” is taken from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE’s latest album, “Atonement”, which came out in 2019.

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE’s current singer Jesse Leach said that he wrote “The Signal Fire” lyrics “with Howard in mind and our connection through our similar mental illnesses.” He explained: “I mean, now that I’ve hung with this guy a few times, it’s ‘crazy’ (pun intended) how similar we are. We are brothers in metal, anxiety, hardcore music, love of medicinal marijuana and fighting depression.

“We may be very different-sounding voices, but, in truth, we are similar in many ways in our minds,” he added.

Jesse went on to say that the song’s lyrics are “about keeping hope in dark times and helping out those in need.”

Leach, who has previously blamed his exit from KILLSWITCH in 2002 on his battle with depression, said that he planned “on using this song to help continue to raise awareness for mental health and suicide prevention. Both Howard and I have a very strong outspoken stance on the subject and I will use this to help with the cause,” he said.

Leach appeared on KILLSWITCH’s self-titled debut and sophomore album, “Alive Or Just Breathing”, before exiting the band. Jones took over on vocals for “The End Of Heartache”, “As Daylight Dies” and the 2009 self-titled set before being dismissed from the group 10 years ago.

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SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor has blasted Machine Gun Kelly, saying the rapper-turned-rocker doesn’t get to “run [his] mouth about bands that have been doing this for 20 years.”

The war of words started last September when Machine Gun Kelly and SLIPKNOT performed at Riot Fest in Chicago. “You wanna know what I’m really happy that I’m not doing?” Kelly — real name Colson Baker — said during his performance, according to a video shot by a fan. “Being 50 years old wearing a fucking weird mask on a fucking stage, talking shit.

“Let me see who chose to be here instead of with all the old weird dudes with masks,” MGK added.

After Machine Gun Kelly’s comments made the rounds, he tweeted “very odd that when an artist talks shit, and i respond, I’m the bad guy.”

“corey did a verse for a song on tickets to my downfall album, it was fucking terrible, so i didn’t use it. he got mad about it, and talked shit to a magazine about the same album he was almost on. yalls stories are all off. just admit he’s bitter,” he tweeted later.

The comment MGK was apparently referring to was from Taylor’s appearance on “Cutter’s Rockcast” a year ago. “I hate all new rock for the most part. I [hate] the artists who failed in one genre and decided to go rock — and I think he knows who he is,” Corey said at the time.

In response to Machine Gun Kelly’s September tweets, Taylor took to social media to share screenshots of what appeared to be an e-mail conversation he had with Travis Barker, who was a producer on MGK’s “Tickets To My Downfall” album. He also included the following message: “I don’t like people airing private shit like a child. So this is all I’ll say: I didn’t do the track because I don’t like when people try to ‘write’ for me. I said NO to THEM. So without further ado…. #receipts This is all I’m going to say about it.”

In his messages, Barker apparently included “notes” from MGK to Taylor about his verse on a song.

“Can u tell him he f****n killed it and im stoked and HONORED he is even on it wtf !!!” Kelly wrote. “I sent Corey an idea for the second half of his verse and he can obviously say fuck it but it would be sick to see if it inspired anything or if he could try it like that,” one of the suggestions read.

“So I listened to the ideas and to be honest, I don’t think I’m the right guy for the track. Nothing personal, I just think if this is what MGK is looking for, someone else is the guy to do it,” Taylor replied to Barker.

“It’s ALL good, and I’m stoked for him— I hope you guys find the right fit for it. Hope you guys understand and I wish you guys the best with it. If I can help in any way, let me know,” he continued.

Kelly responded to Taylor on Twitter: “basically, your verse was really bad. respectfully, i was just telling you to rewrite it because it was really bad. respectfully. but let’s do a britney spears song cover together.”

During the question-and-answer portion of his show aboard this year’s ShipRocked cruise, Taylor revisited his feud with Machine Gun Kelly, telling the audience (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “For those of you that don’t know, MGK doesn’t like me very much. And let me follow that up by saying I don’t care.

“I won’t fill you in on the whole fucking story because you can go online and look it all up. However, I will say this: he maintains that I started it. The truth is he started it. Now, I will explain to you why.

“If you don’t know, they asked me to do a tune with him,” Corey continued. “They sent it to me. I didn’t dig it. And I tried to do something with it because of my respect for Travis, because he and I worked together before. They sent me these really weird notes and they wanted me to sing his words. And I just said, ‘I’m not gonna do it.’ And I sent an e-mail. I posted that e-mail. And I didn’t hear back from him. And I thought it was done. Fast forward about eight months, and Machine Gun Kelly is doing this weird Instagram Live interview with Allie from Spotify. And he goes off on this fucking rant about rock stars and comfortable shoes. It sounds as smart as you think it is. … I mean, spit was coming out of his face. And I’m watching it and I’m going, ‘You fuck. You’ve been here for five minutes, basically, and you’re gonna fucking run your mouth about bands that have been doing this for 20 fucking years, like in the mud, in the dirt. They’re gonna wear whatever the fuck they want. You’re gonna walk in here with your fucking black tongue and try to talk some shit on some bands that would fucking circle your ass? Fuck you.’ So when I had my opportunity to say something, I did. And I didn’t call him out. I just said what I said about people failing in one genre and sliding over to another. And that upset him. … Weirdly, we’re in Chicago on the same show, and we’re playing basically at the same time. And he wasn’t happy that there were a lot of people at our show — and I do mean a lot.

“But he, to this day, maintains that I started it,” Taylor added. “It’s, like, the only reason I said what I said is because he said what he said. You don’t get to walk into a genre with the history, with the work… The fact that this genre really doesn’t get the fucking respect that it deserves. You don’t get to walk in as some weird substitute teacher and pretend that you can tell us what to wear — boots, shoes, house fucking shoes, slippers. Why don’t you suck every inch of my dick? You don’t get to do that. And these are bands that maybe I don’t even fucking know, but guess what? I fucking respect them because they get on fucking stage and they fucking give every fucking thing they’ve got.”

“Tickets To My Downfall” was released in September 2020 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. It was the No. 1 contemporary rock album of both 2020 and 2021, and has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide with over 3.6 billion streams.

Corey Taylor’s Q&A. He was asked about the MGK situation. His answer…

Posted by Kris Sterbinsky on Thursday, January 27, 2022

More of Corey Taylor during his Q&A. I’ve been a huge slipknot and stone sour fan for 20 years. You have no idea how pumped I was when they added him to this cruise. Some videos of him playing are coming soon.

Posted by Kris Sterbinsky on Thursday, January 27, 2022

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Our cooped up correspondent pecks on some shoegazey metal, metalcore mavericks, and an a still-ruling NWOBHM originator this week.
The post For Those About Squawk: Waldo Pecks on Cloakroom, The Last Ten Seconds of Life and Saxon appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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