SHADOWS FALL, the Massachusetts metal band which was at the forefront of the New Wave of American Metal scene that dominated the ’00s, reunited to play a one-off show last night (Saturday, December 18) at The Palladium in Worcester in their native Massachusetts. Also appearing on the bill were UNEARTH, DARKEST HOUR, WITHIN THE RUINS, SWORN ENEMY and CARNIVORA. Fan-filmed video of SHADOWS FALL’s performance is available below.

A few days before the concert, SHADOWS FALL singer Brian Fair told Heavy New York about the preparations for the gig: “Jon [Donais, guitar] and Jason [Bittner, drums] have been full-on touring full time with two legendary and super-professional bands in ANTHRAX and OVERKILL, so those dudes are at the top of their game in every way. I’ve been playing a bunch of shows, but I haven’t done real touring type of stuff, so I had to make sure physically I was gonna be ready. So when I was practicing the set, I literally had headphones on and I would do cardio in between any of the vocals to just try to simulate the adrenaline and the chaos and that type of thing, and also to see if I could make it through an hour-and-a-half headlining set. And Paul [Romanko, bass] hadn’t played, really, with anyone since we stopped, so he really went into the workshed and was playing a ton again. We got to practice and we were, like, ‘Man, we sound better than we used to.’ But also we were notoriously bad about rehearsing. We would do one rehearsal before an eight-week tour, and halfway through it we were, like, ‘Ah, we know these songs. Do we really have to play ‘Destroyer Of Senses’ again? We know fucking ‘Destroyer Of Senses’.’ And looking back, we’re, like, ‘Man, we should have rehearsed. We’re really good when we rehearse.’ [Laughs] All the harmonies are in lock. And this whole week [of rehearsing] has just been, like, ‘All right. We sound good. We’re ready.’ Hopefully, barring technical difficulties or any of the things that normally follow SHADOWS FALL around, we’re definitely ready to come out and crush it. So now, if the gear can keep up with us, we’re ready.”

SHADOWS FALL released a statement in August 2014 in which the bandmembers explained that financial difficulties made it virtually impossible for the group to continue as a full-time concern.

In August 2015, SHADOWS FALL played a few reunion shows on the U.S. East Coast, one year after completing what was being billed at the time as the band’s “final” European tour.

SHADOWS FALL’s latest album, “Fire From The Sky”, released in May 2012 via Razor & Tie. The CD sold around 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 38 on The Billboard 200 chart.

SHADOWS FALL members Jon Donais and Matt Bachand recently launched a new project called LIVING WRECKAGE, in which they are joined by guitarist Matt LeBreton (DOWNPOUR), drummer Jon Morency (LET US PREY) and vocalist Jeff Gard DEATH RAY VISION.

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AC/DC’s Angus Young was the featured guest on BBC’s “The Rock Show With Johnnie Walker” during the “Rock God” segment. Angus picked Chuck Berry and stated about his choice (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Chuck Berry was probably one of the great guitar people for rock and roll. He combined a lot of elements — he combined blues, a bit of jazz and his own unique style. He melded all these kind of different genres of music, but he seemed to bring it together and bring it out and it [came] out in that rock and roll style — so plain and simple, but it was so effective.

“I saw him live once when I was younger,” Angus continued. “I just loved his stage presence and how he performed. He was one of those people, when he got on a stage, he owned it.”

Earlier this year, Angus spoke to Germany’s Guitar magazine about his early musical influences. He said: “I could play guitar a little bit, but I really got focused on it around the years when I was about 12 into my teenage years, I started to focus more on it. And around when I was about 13 [or] 14, that’s when Jimi Hendrix appeared on the horizon. And when I first heard the song ‘Purple Haze’, I was totally enthralled: ‘How’s he doing that?’ I was just so impressed with it. Plus, Malcolm, my brother, there was a few shows we had also seen. We had gone, the two of us together, and we had seen people like the band THE YARDBIRDS; they had come to Australia. And at the time, the lineup had just changed. I think they originally used to have Jeff Beck. But then, later on, when we saw them, they didn’t have Jeff Beck; they had Jimmy Page on guitar. So that was good, because at that time, that kind of sound, especially for guitar, it jumped out at you, the sound of it. So that was really good. But then when along came Hendrix, you kind of went, ‘Woah! This is another level on guitar.’ So I was very much a fan of that.”

He continued: “I was not really a good note picker. People, they could hear a song and just pick up the notes. I used to say to Malcolm, ‘You pick up the notes and then show me.’ [Laughs] So he would do that. He’d pick out all the notes of anything I wanted to know, and then he would just show me, and then I would play it like he showed me… But I had a host of styles. From other family members who played, you pick up a bit of Chuck Berry, you pick up a bit of blues, and some folk tunes. So I had a bit of a variety of different stuff — even some early traditional jazz stuff. My sister, she was always getting me different records and stuff, ’cause she knew we were interested in doing stuff. It wasn’t so much guitar. I heard Louis Armstrong play on the trumpet, do a solo, and I’d go, ‘I like the notes,’ and I’d learn the notes… So I had quite a bit of variety. When I look at all the players who I admire, there’s a lot of players. You can go from A to Z — there’s a lot of players.”

AC/DC’s latest album “Power Up”, was released in November 2020. The LP features AC/DC’s current lineup of Brian Johnson (vocals), Phil Rudd (drums), Cliff Williams (bass), Angus Young (guitar) and Stevie Young (guitar). It was recorded over a six-week period in August and September 2018 at Warehouse Studios in Vancouver with producer Brendan O’Brien, who also worked 2008’s “Black Ice” and 2014’s “Rock Or Bust”.

“Power Up” landed at the No. 1 spot in 18 countries, including in the U.S., where it sold over 117,000 copies in the first week. “Power Up” marked AC/DC’s sixth No. 1 album in Australia where the band is the only Australian group in history to have had a No. 1 album across five decades: “Back In Black” (1980s), “Ballbreaker Live” (1990s), “Black Ice” (2000s), “Rock Or Bust” (2010s) and “Power Up” (2020s).

“Power Up” was the fastest-selling album of 2020 in at least three of its biggest markets — U.S., Australia and the U.K. — where it debuted at No. 1.

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In a new interview with Neil Jones of U.K.’s Planet Rock, BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi was asked if there is a chance of some new music from him being released in the not-too-distant future. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “[There’s] a good chance. I enjoy doing this. I’ve got so much stuff, I just wanna get started on getting it together now. Because my phone, there’s four or five hundred riffs on it. And I’ve gotta get ’em off. It’s getting around to doing it — that’s the thing. It’s just an abundance of all this stuff that I need to… ‘Cause the pandemic put a bit of a block on it, really. And I was working it out and the engineer was coming over and we were getting through some things. But then when that happened and you couldn’t have anybody in the house or in the studio, it put the kibosh on that for a bit. And then I started getting involved in other stuff. And it’s just kicking back on again. I’ve gotta get back into getting these things down properly.”

When Jones pointed out to Iommi that METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett lost a phone with more than 300 pieces of music on it during the creative process for the band’s last studio album, “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct”, Tony said: “I heard that. That must be awful. Somebody will nick my phone now. [Laughs] It’s on my other phone. [Laughs]”

Iommi recently released a signature cologne, a collaboration with Italian luxury perfume house Xerjoff.

“Scent Of Dark” is the product of a recent friendship struck up during the pandemic between Iommi and Sergio Momo, acclaimed perfumer, and designer for Xerjoff, well known for its unique and individual creations and collaborations in the fragrance world. Sergio is also an accomplished guitarist, and his fine fretwork can be heard on “Scent Of Dark”, a new song Iommi released to promote the cologne.

SABBATH’s final tour, “The End”, concluded in February 2017 in Birmingham, closing out the quartet’s groundbreaking 49-year career. “The End” was SABBATH’s last tour because Iommi can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.

Iommi revealed his cancer diagnosis in early 2012, shortly after SABBATH announced a reunion tour and album. He underwent treatment throughout the recording of the disc, titled “13”, and the subsequent tour to promote it.

The BLACK SABBATH guitarist successfully underwent an operation in January 2017 to remove a noncancerous lump from his throat.

“13” was the first album in 35 years to feature Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler all playing together.

For those wondering what the Tony Iommi interview was all about yesterday. Here ya go. New music to accompany… yes, a new fragrance called ‘Scent of Dark’. https://t.co/SlOj7Zktcr #blacksabbath #tonyiommi pic.twitter.com/PFgBgWTj60
— Neil Jones (@NeilJonesRock) November 25, 2021

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Dave Mustaine has recalled a “terrible trick” his wife pulled on him for his 30th birthday.

The MEGADETH leader, who turned 60 in September, recounted the episode while filming a new video message on Cameo, which lets users hire celebrities to record brief, personalized video messages about virtually any topic.

Addressing a fan named James who was celebrating his 30th birthday, Dave said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I remember when I had my 30th birthday. My wife pulled this terrible trick on me and told me that one of my favorite dogs was in the backyard and had cut his leg on one of the sprinklers. So I come running into the backyard. I had just been in kickboxing class so I’m still in my uniform and everything. I run into the backyard and [I hear] ‘Surprise.’ There’s a whole bunch of my friends [there]. Now, granted, I don’t have a lot of friends, so there was just about every single one there. And I was so blown away. I was really mad at my wife for teasing me like that, but I got over it. And I had been given this killer jacket for my birthday from my sensei, Benny ‘The Jet’. It was a Ukidokan kickboxing team jacket. So I took it and threw it into my bedroom. [My wife] Pam and I had white furniture at the time; we were newly married and didn’t realize white furniture is lame. So we put her Doberman in the room too and it chewed my jacket up. Can you believe that? Oh, I was so mad.”

Earlier this month, Mustaine revealed that MEGADETH’s new album, “The Sick, The Dying And The Dead” has been mastered and is “super close” to being released. The follow-up to 2016’s “Dystopia” is tentatively due in the spring of 2022.

Mustaine has yet to reveal who played bass on the new MEGADETH album after David Ellefson’s tracks were removed from the LP following his dismissal from the band in late May.

Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter.

MEGADETH recently completed “The Metal Tour Of The Year” with LAMB OF GOD, TRIVIUM and HATEBREED.

For “The Metal Tour Of The Year”, MEGADETH was rejoined by bassist James LoMenzo for the first time in nearly 12 years.

LoMenzo joined MEGADETH in 2006 and appeared on two of the group’s studio albums, 2007’s “United Abominations” and 2009’s “Endgame”. He was fired from the band in 2010 and replaced with a returning Ellefson.

Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest departure.

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Earlier this month, EVANESCENCE postponed the remaining five shows on its U.S. tour with HALESTORM due to multiple COVID-19 cases within the touring party. The concerts in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Camden, Newark, and Worcester, which were originally scheduled to take place between December 12 and December 18, will now happen at the end of January.

Speaking to the Philadelphia radio station 93.3 WMMR about the shows postponements, EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee stated (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “There [were] a few COVID cases in our touring party, like has happened to so many people. And we just knew that right away the safe thing to do was to hit pause and shut it down and keep everybody safe. Fortunately, we were able to reschedule our last five dates for January right away, so that definitely felt better.

“In these times, you’ve just gotta do your best, do everything you can to protect yourself and then be flexible, because there are some things about it that are just kind of out of your control,” she said before adding: “It is pretty wild — unlike any time I’ve ever lived through.”

Asked if everyone in EVANESCENCE and the band’s crew was vaccinated before hitting the road, Amy said: “Totally. I think what being vaccinated really does is keep you from having really severe reactions and potentially dying. So it can save your life. And I hope that people will just understand that even if it’s not you or the person next to you, you can still catch it and pass it. Vaccinated or not, we should still be masking up, we should still be very careful; there’s a new variant around.

“But, yeah, we were all testing daily, actually, on top of being vaccinated and wearing masks all the time — except when we’re at the end of the day in your bus, like, ‘Okay, finally I can chill.’ Or on stage. So, even with all those precautions in place, we’re still having to travel from place to place and going to venues and there’s a crowd there and everything else.

“Just in whatever any of us are doing, I definitely in every way would advocate get the vaccine,” she added. “And beyond that, especially now, heading into the winter time and the holidays and everything, be careful. Care for the ones you love. [Take] the test when you first get together. That’s definitely something that helped us because we were able to catch it immediately and stop any spread from happening with us and stop the whole thing. But we are really grateful. We’ve had a gorgeous, beautiful tour, and it’s the first one back since all this madness. It’s just been something that we are so, so grateful [for]. I am so grateful to do this for my job. We had time to make this gorgeous album and beautiful production, and I’m just really happy we’re gonna be able to pick it back up again next month.”

New EVANESCENCE + HALESTORM dates:

Jan. 14 – Cincinnati, OH @ Heritage Bank Center (postponed from Dec. 12)
Jan. 16 – Camden, NJ @ BB&T Pavilion (postponed from Dec. 17)
Jan. 17 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Peterson Events Center (postponed from Dec. 14)
Jan. 20 – Worcester, MA @ DCU Center (postponed from Dec. 18)
Jan. 21 – Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center (postponed from Dec. 15)

EVANESCENCE and HALESTORM’s tour kicked off on November 5 at in Portland, Oregon and was scheduled to run through December 18 in Worcester, Massachusetts.

EVANESCENCE and HALESTORM first toured together in 2012. Lee later guested on the track “Break In” on HALESTORM’s 2020 “Reimagined” EP and HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale lent backing vocals to the EVANESCENCE song “Use My Voice” and appeared in the accompanying music video.

EVANESCENCE was on tour supporting this year’s “The Bitter Truth” album. HALESTORM was promoting its latest single, “Back From The Dead”, which recently became the band’s sixth No. 1 at rock radio.

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Kid Rock has blasted “pansy ass woke critics” of his latest single, saying they are the ones who inspired him to write the song in the first place.

Last month, Kid Rock released “Don’t Tell Me How To Live”, a defiant new track in which he rants against “woke” culture and the mainstream media at a time when “every opinion has a millennial offended.”

The first new music from the Michigan-bred rap-rocker since 2017, which was recorded with the Canadian hard rockers MONSTER TRUCK and plays off that band’s 2015 song of the same title, was accompanied by an official music video which features Kid Rock wearing a shirt that says “social media sucks.” “I’m the last of a few still screaming ‘Fuck you,'” he raps in the song.

On Thursday (December 16), Kid Rock took to his Facebook page to fire back at some of his detractors, calling them “idiots” and urging them to “toughen up and enjoy life.”

He wrote: “All you pansy ass woke critics and trolls are exactly what brought me to create ‘Don’t Tell Me How To Live’. Thank you for the inspiration! Keep shoveling coal on the fire you idiots! I fucking love it!

“To the Kid Rock dysfunctional family, we already know there is NO tribe like ours in music, period. Stay tuned for more songs to be released soon, an album early next year and god willing… a monster 2022 tour announcement!!!

“Merry Christmas – Kid Rock #NoSellout

“PS, Remember ‘Sticks and Stones may break my bones….?’ Whatever happened to that shit? Quit being so dam offended, toughen up and enjoy life! We all know the media, social and mainstream, are completely out of hand and only in the business of clicks and views nowadays. Don’t take the bait anymore!! Do some research and seek truth or fuck it, just ignore ’em and rock harder!”

This past January, Kid Rock revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic gave him plenty of time to write new music, saying, “I haven’t this much time to work on music since my first record.” According to the Detroit Free Press, he added that he had planned to release a 50-song triple-album this year, made up of 10 hip-hop tracks, 10 rock tracks, 10 country tracks and 20 previously unreleased cuts.

Kid Rock, an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump, made headlines in 2017 when he announced he was considering a run for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan.

In September 2020, Kid Rock hosted an outdoor rally for Trump’s presidential campaign in Michigan. Three and a half years earlier, the musician visited the Oval Office with fellow rocker Ted Nugent and former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Kid Rock was once a contestant on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice”, which starred Trump.

“Don’t Tell Me How To Live” lyrics:

FUCK ALL YOU HOES
DETROIT TILL I DIE MOTHERFUCKER
TALKIN ALL THAT BULLSHIT
AIN’T NOBODY GONNA TELL ME HOW TO LIVE

I’M A MOONSHINE SIPPER STRAIGHT SLIPPIN’ IN THE DARKNESS
FAR FROM HEARTLESS I’M MORE LIKE THE SHARPEST
TOOL IN THE SHED NO I’VE NEVER BEEN THE SMARTEST
BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE I HIT THE FUCKING HARDEST

DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE YOU HEARD ME SCREAM IT
AND TWENTY YEARS LATER BITCH I STILL FUCKING MEAN IT
BUCKA BUCKA YOU AIN’T NEVER MET A MOTHERFUCKER LIKE THIS
KISS MY ASS THEN YOU CAN SUCK A DICK SIDEWAYS
MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY LISTEN UP
AIN’T NOTHING CHANGED HERE I STILL DON’T GIVE A FUCK
SO WHAT THE FUCKS UP WITH ALL THE BACKLASH
YOU SNOWFLAKES HERE’S A NEWS FLASH

AIN’T NOBODY GONNA TELL ME HOW TO LIVE

YEARS AGO WE ALL THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE SEE
THAT EVER KID GOT A MOTHERFUCKIN’ TROPHY
BUT YO HOMIE HERE’S THE SITUATION
A NATION OF PUSSIES IS OUR NEXT GENERATION
AND THESE MINIONS AND THEIR AGENDAS
EVERY OPINION HAS A MILLENNIAL OFFENDED
BUT THIS AMENDMENT ONE IT RINGS TRUE
AND IF YOU DON’T DISSENT BITCH THEN SEE NUMBER TWO

AIN’T NOTHIN NEW RIGHT CHURCH WRONG PEW
GET A CLUE, A CREW, YOUR FAKE NEWS AND VIEWS
CAN ALL GET THE BOTTOM OF MY MOTHERFUCKIN’ SHOE
I’M THE LAST OF A FEW STILL SCREAMIN’ FUCK YOU

AIN’T NOBODY GONNA TELL ME HOW TO LIVE
AIN’T NOBODY GONNA TELL ME HOW TO LIVE
OH I’M GONNA SOAR LIKE AN EAGLE
MY WINGS WILL CARRY ME AWAY
I GOT THE HEART OF A LION
I GET STRONGER EVERYDAY

YOU’LL NEVER TELL ME SHIT
YOU’LL NEVER FLIP MY SCRIPT
BECAUSE I’M MORE OUTRAGEOUS THAN THE VEGAS STRIP
YOU’RE LIKE MAYBERRY BITCH I’M HARD AND CRISP
HIGH RISK HILLBILLY BUT I’M FILTHY RICH
YOU’RE LIKE MILLI VANILLI KINDA SILLY AND SHIT
I’M LIKE SHOTGUN WILLIE SMOKIN’ PHILLIES AND SHIT

I’M LIKE REVEREND RUN OR DAVID LEE ROTH
LIKE SPRINGSTEEN BITCH I’M THE MOTHER FUCKIN BOSS
JAMES DEAN SHIT I’M MORE LIKE BRAD PITT
A LITTLE LESS PRETTY BUT I SLANG MORE DICK
I TWANG MORE RIFFS I SLIDE THRU GRASS
I RIP MORE LINES THAN A 10LB BASS
PASS THE MIC I’M LIKE SLOE GIN FIZZ

IT AIN’T NOBODY IT AIN’T NOBODY
AIN’T NOBODY GONNA TELL ME HOW TO LIVE

All you pansy ass woke critics and trolls are exactly what brought me to create “Don’t Tell Me How To Live”
Thank you…

Posted by Kid Rock on Thursday, December 16, 2021

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SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor has praised director and producer Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back” documentary, calling it “one of the most fascinating things” he has ever seen.

The three-episode, nearly eight-hour documentary features the four members of THE BEATLES — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — crafting what was to become their final album. (THE BEATLES recorded “Let It Be” before “Abbey Road” but released the latter first.) It also includes the band’s iconic final performance on a rooftop in London.

Taylor, who released his first solo album last year, discussed “Get Back” in a recent interview with HardDrive Radio’s Lou Brutus. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I watched the first episode and then, obviously, life kind of pulled me away.

“It is one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen. ‘Cause it challenges everything we thought we knew about them, especially that period. But at the same time, it reinforces what we thought we knew. To me, it’s cool watching their dynamic knowing that they’d been together since they were teenagers in one form or another. They’d been playing together since… I think it was — what? — 1956 when they all started kind of jamming together. And to watch that all kind of unfold and to see…

“Being in a band with people for multiple years, I understand how a dynamic works, so I can watch that with a certain savvy about how that plays out dynamic-wise, emotionally,” Taylor added. “Knowing that, especially from George’s point of view, who’s such a great writer, but then you get in a circle, and you’ve got John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it’s, like, where do you fit? So, watching him fight with that and try to kind of find his voice and find out who fits in with that whole thing, it’s fascinating. And knowing how that feels, especially in SLIPKNOT — not so much in STONE SOUR, but in SLIPKNOT — I could relate to that in so many different ways. And then watching them get stoked when something would pop. Especially watching Paul figure out ‘Get Back’ and watching that happen was so cool, dude. Because I’ve done it — I’ve sat there and just twisted on a riff until the melody line comes to mind, and just playing it and exhausting every avenue. If you wanna know how to write a song, there’s your blueprint right there. It’s just that easy.”

Culled and restored from 60 hours of studio sessions and the aforementioned rooftop concert, “Get Back” has been praised for finally allowing us to experience what it felt like to be in the studio with the Fab Four. Some of the original footage appeared in a much more condensed form in director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary “Let It Be”, which was briefly available on home video in the 1980s, but never since. THE BEATLES drummer Ringo Starr was particularly unhappy with how that film came out, saying “there was no joy and no laughter” in it.

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Wolfgang Van Halen doesn’t think Alex Van Halen will perform at any of David Lee Roth’s final concerts.

The VAN HALEN frontman recently announced that was retiring, with his previously announced Las Vegas residency serving as his last set of shows. He also implied that his former bandmate Alex would make an appearance at some point during the run.

But in a recent interview with SPIN, Wolfgang, who joined his father Eddie Van Halen in VAN HALEN at the age of 16 for the band’s 2007 reunion tour with Roth, replacing Michael Anthony, seemed to pour cold water on the idea. Asked about the possibility of Alex joining David on stage in Las Vegas, Wolfgang said: “I don’t think so.” When the interviewer pointed out that Roth had said it was happening, Wolfgang replied: “Yeah, I know. I don’t know about that.” He added: “I’m not talking for Al or anything, but I haven’t heard. I haven’t talked to Al about it, but I mean, that doesn’t really seem like something Al would do.

“The thing with VAN HALEN that people should have learned [by] now is that if it doesn’t come from them, it’s not true. And Al has not made any public statements about this. So I wouldn’t expect it. If he didn’t say it, it’s probably not true.”

He continued: “People love to talk about dad and the way he ran the band, but that’s not really true. Al’s the kind of the one who was in charge and in the way that the band publicly sort of related.”

Earlier this month, Wolfgang spoke about David’s retirement in an interview with Consequence. Addressing his personal relationship with the singer, the 30-year-old said: “Dave is a… he’s very much a one-of-a-kind [chuckles] sort of guy. We don’t really talk, if ever. We were always cordial on tour together, but it’s not like I’ve spoken to him at all in the last six years. But, I mean, he’s fucking David Lee Roth. I’m so happy for him and for everything that he’s accomplished. And he’s just a phenomenal… He’ll always be one of the best.”

Wolfgang previously discussed his relationship with Roth in a November 2020 interview with Rolling Stone. At the time, he said: “We’re cordial. But it was very business-related. You know, we were always cool, but we really only ever saw each other onstage.”

A year ago, Wolfgang revealed a hilarious prank a tour manager played on Roth during VAN HALEN’s final run of shows, which concluded in October 2015 at the the Hollywood Bowl. Speaking to SPIN, Wolfgang said: “Throughout the whole tour, Dave had an issue whenever someone in the audience had a beach ball. Outdoor theater, summer concert, Southern California party rock, VAN HALEN — it’s not out of the ordinary. But every time he saw them, it would really upset him for some reason. And he would stop singing and then stand at the front of the stage and say, ‘Throw the beach ball up here, throw the beach ball up here, throw the beach ball up here’ eight times until it eventually got up, and he would stamp it out. Then he’d throw it off the stage. I guess he just really didn’t want that out there.

“Before the very last show, the tour manager came up to my dad and me and whispered, ‘Hey, you’ve got a funny little surprise for all of you guys at the end of the show,'” he continued. “We’re, like, ‘What?’ And he goes, ‘At the very end of ‘Jump’, when you’re doing the ride out, we’re going to release 50 beach balls from the top of the audience. And we’ll just see what happens.’ But even if he gets pissed off, what was he gonna do? It’s the last fucking show. And sure enough, we get to ‘Jump’, and there was just a cavalcade, an avalanche of beach balls, and Dave was just, like, short-circuiting. He didn’t understand how to handle it. But we all laughed it off. And it was just a really fun, almost like a fun practical joke. And yeah, that was a really fun memory of that show. As time went further and further by, the more I thought about it, like, ‘Wow, if that is the last show, what an amazing way to cap it off.'”

Eddie passed away in October 2020 at the age of 65. He had been battling throat cancer and died surrounded by friends and family at a Santa Monica, California hospital.

VAN HALEN had been inactive since it completed its U.S. tour six years ago.

In early 2019, rumors were rampant that the classic-era lineup of VAN HALEN would reunite for the first time since 1984. It has since been revealed that a health setback involving Eddie was responsible for the tour not materializing.

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QUEEN guitarist Brian May tested positive for COVID-19.

The 74-year-old musician shared the news in an Instagram post, where he included a photo of his positive test result.

He wrote in an accompanying message: “Yep. The shocking day finally came for me. The dreaded double red line. And yes – definitely NO sympathy please – it has been a truly horrible few days, but I’m OK. And I will tell the tale. PLEASE take extra care out there, good folks. This thing is incredibly transmissible. You really do NOT want it messing up YOUR Christmas. With love – Bri”.

May, who lives in London, had in the past attacked U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, telling The Independent: “I think it would have been impossible for anyone to make worse decisions than Boris. At every point he did too little too late. Hundreds, if not thousands, of our relatives died because of bad advice and because of the bad decisions that Boris made with [former health secretary Matt] Hancock and those other people.”

He continued: “If [Johnson] had taken the precautions of shutting down the borders a year earlier, we wouldn’t have been in the situation we were. And the fact that he’s willing to trade lives quite openly for economic gain, I find horrific… completely unacceptable.”

May compared it to “Winston Churchill going out in his garden and seeing the plans overhead and the bodies and going ‘the bombs are dropping! The bombs are dropping! Should we hide? No, actually let’s think of the economic consequences of hiding…'”

According to the BBC, the U.K.’s daily coronavirus cases record was broken for a third consecutive day on Friday, with another 93,000 reported.

London mayor Sadiq Khan said Friday’s 26,000 new cases were having an impact on staff absences in the city’s emergency services.

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A post shared by Brian Harold May (@brianmayforreal)

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