Def Leppard’s Rick Allen says their latest material is a “wonderful mixture” of styles.

They’re currently working on the follow-up to 2008’s Songs From The Sparkle Lounge and hope to release their 11th album later this year.

The drummer reveals the new songs encapsulate everything they’ve done before while still paying tribute to their musical influences.

Discussing the new album, he tells Talking Metal Digital, “We continue to pay homage to our roots – a lot of the bands we grew up listening to during the 70s. I think it’s a wonderful mixture of everything that inspired us and everything we’ve done. I think people will hear many different influences.”

Allen says the majority of the 16 tracks they’ve been working on are almost finished and reveals some are “just about ready to present.”

He continues, “We’ve carved out three good long sessions where we all got together. And within those time periods we were able to put about 16 songs together and as of right now, they’re more or less about 85-90% finished – some of them even more so. Some are just about ready to present, so we’re really excited about it. It’s been a really nice project.

It’s been good getting together the way that we did in the studio. Over the years we tended to rely more on technology, sending files to one another for the other person to finish off. Actually getting together in a room and all being together in that way is incredibly valuable and really creative.”

While the band are in the studio with co-producer Ronan McHugh, Allen says he’d like to work with producer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange again at some point in the future, although he thinks it might be a long shot. Lange was at the helm for some of Leppard’s most successful albums, including: High ’N’ Dry, Pyromania and Hysteria.

Allen adds, “I’d love to work with Mutt again but I’m not sure we could spend the amount of time in the studio that we’ve spent in the past with Mutt. We like to work in a quicker way. It would be fantastic to do a few songs with him but I’m not sure we could actually do a full record with him.”

Earlier this week, guitarist Vivian Campbell said he was cautious but confident about his current cancer status. Leppard will take to the road across Canada starting April before they head to Europe for a run of shows in May.

additional source: classicrock.teamrock.com

As previously reported, UFO will be releasing their new album, A Conspiracy Of Stars, on February 20th in Germany, February 23rd in Europe and March 3rd in America. This is the first time in 20 years that UFO has recorded an album in their native country. Watch a teaser for the album below.

A Conspiracy Of Stars track listing for Digipak:

1. The Killing Kind
2. Run Boy Run
3. Ballad Of The Left Hand Gun
04. Sugar Cane
5. Devil`s In The Detail
6. Precious Cargo
7. The Real Deal
8. One And Only
9. Messiah Of Love
10. Rollin` Rollin`
11. King Of The Hill (Bonus Track)

A Conspiracy Of Stars track listing jewel case:

1. The Killing Kind
2. Run Boy Run
3. Ballad Of The Left Hand Gun
4. Sugar Cane
5. Devil`s In The Detail
6. Precious Cargo
7. The Real Deal
8. One And Only
9. Messiah Of Love
10. Rollin` Rollin`

A Conspiracy Of Stars track listing LP:

Side 1:

1. The Killing Kind
2. Run Boy Run
3. Ballad Of The Left Hand Gun

Side 2:

1. Sugar Cane
2. Devil`s In The Detail
3. Precious Cargo

Side 3:

1. The Real Deal
2. One And Only
3. Messiah Of Love

Side 4:

1. Rollin` Rollin`
2. King Of The Hill (Bonus Track)

UFO 2015 tour dates:

February:

20 Germany, Barby – Rautenkranz
21 Germany, Berlin – K17
22 Germany, Hagen/Osnabrück – Saal Stock
23 Germany, Hamburg – Downtown Blues Club
25 Germany, Mannheim – Alte Seilerei
26 Germany, Bochum – Zeche
27 Germany, Siegburg – Kubana
28 Germany, Affalter – Zur Linde

March:

2 Germany, Rostock – Mau Club
4 Poland, Warsaw – Stodola
5 Lithuania, Vilnius – Forum Palace
6 Poland, Krakow – Kwadrat
7 Czech Rep., Zlin – Masters of Rock Café
9 Germany, Burgrieden/Ulm – Riffelhof
10 Germany, Osterode – Dorster Festhalle
11 Germany, Freiburg – Jazzhaus
12 Switzerland, Zug – Choller Halle

April:

16 England, Norwich – Waterfront
17 England, Cambridge – Junction
18 England, Wolverhampton – Wulfrun Hall
19 England, Manchester – Ritz
21 Ireland, Dublin – The Academy
22 N. Ireland, Belfast – The Limelight
24 England, Glasgow – O2 ABC
25 England, Newcastle – O2 Academy
26 England, Leeds – O2 Academy
28 England, Nottingham – Rock City
30 England, Bristol – O2 Academy

May:

1 England, Falmouth – Pavilion
2 England, Exeter – Phoenix
3 England, Salisbury – City Hall
5 England, Brighton – Concorde 2
6 England, Oxford – O2 Academy
7 England, London – HMV Forum

Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp is proud to welcome Michael Schenker of UFO, Scorpions, MSG, along with Grammy award winner and The Godfather of Heavy Metal Drumming, Bill Ward, along with Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple as special guests at this Masters Of Metal camp.

Some of the biggest heavy hitters in the world of metal are coming to Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp this coming March 26th-29th, 2015, and it’s gonna get loud.

If you ever dreamed of jamming with true heavy metal icons, this is your chance. This is a once in a lifetime experience to spend time playing and learning from three of the biggest names in hard rock history. Over the course of the camp, your band will have personal time with each of these masters, as well as the opportunity to ask the questions you’ve always wanted to ask. Along with meeting and jamming with these incredible talents, each band performs 2 nights at the infamous House of Blues at Mandalay Bay in Las Vagas, NV. This camp is not be missed by any metal fan, as this opportunity will not repeat itself.

It all begins at the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp studios as you prepare for your own personal rockstar experience. You’ll join a band of other fantasy campers and start working on your set under the expert mentorship of your own rockstar camp counselors like Rudy Sarzo, Bumblefoot or Vinny Appice. Then your band will meet and rock out with each of our special guests, Michael Schenker, Bill Ward and Glen Hughes.

Over the next four days of rehearsals, master classes and what every good band needs, stocked up craft services tables and great meals, you’ll polish up your set and get ready to perform in two LIVE shows at the House of Blues!

There will be special performances but our rockstar counselors, and the opportunity for you to jam with any of our rockstar counselors, not just your own. This camp is a true fantasy come to life for any fan of hard rock and heavy metal. It will rock beyond your expectations!

Space is limited. Don’t miss this opportunity, sign up now!

Legendary figure in the history of metal guitar, Michael Schenker is best known for his tenure in UFO, in addition to his solo band. He first rose to fame as an early member of the Scorpions, then achieved fame in the mid-1970s as the lead guitar player for UFO.

Bill Ward needs no introduction. As the drummer of one of the most influential heavy metal bands in history, Ward was an integral force in the creation of the heavy metal genre. Known as the Godfather Of Heavy Metal Drumming, he has inspired and influenced countless drummers who have followed. A sure moment of pride in Ward’s life came in 2000 when he, along with his original band, was honored with a long overdue Grammy Award.

Master bass player, songwriter and vocalist Glenn Hughes, has remained one of heavy metals most revered artists. In 1973, Hughes joined Deep Purple. No other rock musician has carved such a distinctive style blending the finest elements of hard rock, soul and funk. That astonishing voice is Hughes’ calling card.

We also have some amazing counselors participating in this camp, including Bumblefoot (Guns N’ Roses) Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Whitesnake), Vinny Appice (Dio) Brian Tichy (Whitesnake, Foreigner, Billy Idol), Glen Sobel (Alice Cooper) and many more…

For more information, call Beth @ 888.762.2263 ex 5 or to register for this camp, please visit www.rockcamp.com/masters-of-metal-fantasy-camp.

Greg Prato of Songfacts spoke with Overkill frontman Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth. Highlights from interview appear below.

Songfacts: Let’s discuss a few Overkill songs..what about the song Hello From the Gutter?

Bobby: This was a title by a New York journalist named Jimmy Breslin. It was an editorial on David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killer, and the title was Hello From the Gutters of New York. Breslin covered Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, through those murders.

This was right around the time that the band was getting together. We would always hang out in Brooklyn and Queens. Berkowitz was actually from Yonkers, but he was murdering young couples that were necking in cars. I’m sure you know the story. But he’s one of the most infamous serial killers.

But it was a Breslin title, Hello From the Gutters of New York. And we turned it into Hello From the Gutter. Lyrically, I took some of that pomp and circumstance and sensationalism that was going on around that time.

Songfacts: What about the song Elimination?

Bobby: Elimination was motivated by the scare of the AIDS epidemic. I guess this was ’89 and we were a touring band. Everything had changed for the human race sexually, because they were getting a handle on what was going on, and nobody was immune to this.

When the band had started in the early ’80s, AIDS was “the gay cancer.” But by ’89, people had a better view of it: it wasn’t [just] a gay disease, it was a human disease. The idea behind Elimination was to say, “This is about us, it’s not about you, or about you, it’s about us collectively.”

Songfacts:..I’m curious, have you ever had any vocal problems over the years, and how do you keep your voice in shape?

Bobby: I did. Early on I started developing what’s called polyps, which are kind of warts or nodes. I started getting it on my vocal cords. And it’s really just from singing incorrectly. I mean, I really didn’t know how to sing, even though my mother sang and it’s always been something in our family, I just didn’t know how. I’d come home from tours and couldn’t talk for two months, which is kind of unusual for a young guy. More common for an older guy.

So I took lessons between Feel The Fire and Taking Over to learn how to sing correctly. And when you do that, if the polyps are not so advanced, they kind of wear themselves away from using your cords correctly. So all the way back in ’86 into ’87, I started learning how to sing correctly.

To this day is I still use those principles and I warm up for a minimum of a half hour before a show, and then I kind of cool down for another half hour. So an hour before the show I’m doing something, singing somewhere in the bus or a dressing room. The same stuff I had learned all the way back in the ’80s.

To read the entire interview with Booby Blitz, please click here.

Overkill’s latest album was White Devil Armory which was released on July 22nd.

Y&T have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the making of a career-spanning documentary.

Frontman Dave Meniketti hopes fans will step up so the band can tell their own story their own way.

The movie is to be built out of the hundreds of hours of personal footage shot over the years. It’s set to cover their earliest days of rehearsing in Leonard Haze’s grandmother’s house, then move through the first two albums, touring with Journey, Boston and Queen, to their big breaks with AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne and Dio.

It’s also designed to be a tribute to bassist Phil Kennemore, who died in 2011.

Meniketti says, “In the past we’d ask a record company or a big corporation for funding – and in exchange, sign away our rights and artistic control. But we can do it differently, and tell the story the way it should be told, uncut, with all the nitty-gritty, the stories you want to hear, in a film you want to see.”

The crowdfunded edition of the DVD will feature bonus material that won’t appear in the standard version. Y&T have raised nearly $9000 of a required $26,000 via the Kickstarter campaign, with 28 days to run. To donate, please click here.

The DVD is expected in July.

source: classicrock.teamrock.com

Blabbermouth.net reports:

Stryper frontman Michael Sweet says that he was approached to produce a solo album from Sebastian Bach, claiming that the plan was to write music that was reminiscent of “those powerful songs from [Bach’s Skid Row] past.”

During Sweet’s appearance on the January 19th edition of Eddie Trunk’s SiriusXM satellite radio show, Eddie Trunk Live, Eddie brought mentioned that Bach wondering in a recent interview why so few of his 800,000 Facebook followers purchased his latest solo album, Give ‘Em Hell, when it was first released.

Sweet replied to Eddie, “This isn’t a bash against Sebastian at all; it’s just my opinion. I think people wanna hear Sebastian of old. They wanna hear the Skid Row Sebastian. They wanna hear the hits. And he’s giving them modern rock. It’s [Give ‘Em Hell] a good album, it’s a good-sounding album, but it’s not the glory days. And I think that’s the one thing Stryper at least tried to do, and I saw the numbers to prove it.”

He continued, “Our album Reborn, which is a little more modern…Murder By Pride was in between modern and old… they sold less than 5,000 the first week out. We come out with No More Hell To Pay, which is going right back to our roots, giving the fans what they want and wanted, and we did almost 10,000 units first week out.”

Asked if there was any truth to reports that he was supposed to be collaborating with Bach on some new music, Michael said: “I don’t wanna throw him under the bus or make him feel awkward or weird. I was approached to do a Sebastian album… to produce it and to co-write with him and basically try to kind of go back to those powerful songs from the past. Not make a dated record, but just that style, the anthemy Skid Row stuff that everybody loves. And that was the plan. Management got involved, and Sebastian and I e-mailed each other back and forth. It was going down the track a little ways and all of a sudden it came to a screeching halt. He decided he wanted to do an acoustic album, or wanted to do this, or wanted to do that. And I was just, like, ‘Guys, let me know what’s going on, if it’s going on.’ And I never really heard any more about it, so I guess it’s not happening. But it would have been cool.”

Sweet added, “I’ll tell you right now, I think I could have helped Sebastian make a killer album. But hey… We’ll never know.”

After Sweet’s comments were first published online, Bach reportedly wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted, “Dear @michaelhsweet : shut your mouth. Before I shut it for you.”

Sweet tweeted today (January 29th), “I never disrespected @sebastianbach & I wish him well. I simply answered a question that was asked by @EddieTrunk Nothing more, nothing less.”

Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler has been arrested following an altercation at the Corkscrew Saloon on the Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley, Calif.

Booked at the Inyo County Jail under this full name of Terence Michael Butler, the 65-year-old was charged with misdemeanor assault, public intoxication and vandalism on Tuesday (Jan. 27). Butler has since been released “after detox and citation,” the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department said in an official statement.

“Shortly after midnight on Jan. 27, sheriff’s dispatch received a call regarding a verbal and physical altercation,” the statement says. “After the Inyo county sheriff’s deputy arrived on scene and interviewed witnesses, it was determined that there had been an argument that escalated into a physical confrontation — resulting in an individual being struck, and a broken window.”

Butler has also been Black Sabbath’s primary lyricist since co-founding the group in 1968. He remained with Black Sabbath through 1985, served an early-’90s stint and has been back with the group since 1997 — a period of rebirth that included the hit Ozzy Osbourne reunion album 13.

photo courtesy of TMZ

source: ultimateclassicrock.com

Black Star Riders has confirmed their appearance at this year’s Download Festival – England’s premiere summer rock event taking place at “the spiritual home of rock,” Donington Park. The multi-stage music festival will also host KISS, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Faith No More, Muse, and Slash.

In the U.S., Black Star Riders will play three shows this April as special guests to Europe following their appearance on the Monsters Of Rock cruise. Upcoming show dates are:

4/24/15 Potawatomi Casino – Milwaukee, WI [Tickets on sale 1/30]
4/28/15 House of Blues – Chicago, IL [On sale now]
4/30/15 Irving Plaza – New York, NY [On sale now]

Additional U.S. tour dates will be announced soon.

Pre-sale ticket links are available on the official Black Star Riders Facebook page.

Black Star Riders forthcoming album, The Killer Instinct, is available for pre-order in multiple formats by clicking here.

To listen to a lyric video for song The Killer Instinct, please go here and read more about the album, click here.

Guitar legend Eddie Van Halen will speak at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and Zócalo Public Square February 12th about innovation as part of the national “What It Means to Be American” program. The Dutch immigrant and naturalized U.S. citizen will discuss his American journey, his role in creating one of the biggest American rock bands of all time, how he has reinvented the way the guitar is played and designed, and he will answer the question, “Is rock ‘n’ roll about reinvention?” Entertainment journalist Denise Quan will moderate the sold-out event.

Edward “Eddie” Van Halen (b. Jan. 26th, 1955) is a Dutch American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, producer and self-taught inventor of guitar technology and technique that allows musicians to make sound in new ways. The February 12th event is sold-out, and no public tickets are available. The event video may be accessed February 13th at www.whatitmeanstobeamerican.org.

Best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen is recognized for his innovative performance and recording styles, two-hand tapping, scorching solos and energetic concerts. Van Halen has invented guitar technology, technique and instruments that have redefined how the guitar is played and heard.

For the event Van Halen and Fender will donate a master-built replica of Van Halen’s infamous white-with-black-stripe Stratocaster. This is the guitar that changed the guitar world in 1978 when Van Halen cross-pollinated Gibson electronics with Fender body and neck designs. To represent the path of progressions in his instrument designs, a Stealth finished EVH Brand Wolfgang will also be included to represent his modern-day workhorse.

In addition to the guitars, Van Halen and Fender Musical Instruments Corp. will also donate an EVH Brand 5150-III amplifier and speaker cabinet to embody the journey and progression of his amplifier designs from the early ’70s through the modern day.

The National Museum of American History and Los Angeles-based Ideas Exchange Zócalo Public Square have partnered to present “What It Means to Be American,” a collaborative three-year initiative aimed at engaging leading thinkers, public figures and Americans from all walks of life to explore how the United States became the nation it is today.

The “What It Means to Be American” initiative will inform the museum’s upcoming exhibition projects centered on exploring the themes of democracy, immigration and migration, and the nation people build together. Additional events will take place in the museum’s Liberty Square, an interactive events space scheduled to open in 2016.

Through incomparable collections, rigorous research and dynamic public outreach, the National Museum of American History explores the richness and complexity of American history. The museum helps people understand the past in order to make sense of the present and shape a more humane future. The museum is located at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W., and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25). Admission is free. For more information, visit americanhistory.si.edu. For Smithsonian information, the public may call (202) 633-1000.

Zócalo Public Square, a proud affiliate of Arizona State University, is a not-for-profit Ideas Exchange that blends live events and humanities journalism. Zócalo partners with educational, cultural and philanthropic institutions, as well as public agencies, to present free events and conferences in cities across the U.S. and beyond and to publish original daily journalism that is syndicated to more than 160 media outlets.

Former Accept singer and current Udo frontman Udo Dirkschneider was a guest on the Lokaos Rock Show. Portions of the conversation appear below.

When asked how it feels for him to see Accept continue with a new singer (former TT Quick frontman Mark Tornillo) as his replacement, Udo said, “What can I say? I mean, I was watching a show of Accept in Hamburg, and I was a little bit disappointed. It was without any emotion. For me, there was no band on stage. Playing-wise, it was okay, but it was without any emotion. It was automatic — like, do it and then go.”

Discussing whether he would ever consider reuniting with his former bandmates, Dirkschneider replied, “No.”

When questioned what the difference is between fronting his own band versus being the singer for Accept, he responded, “Let’s say it in this way: With Accept, the name Accept, if I continued with the name Accept, then you have to do something… what the people know under the name Accept..I think with U.D.O., I think I’m more free.”

Speaking with Music Enthusiast Magazine in September 2014 Accept guiarist had this to say about his former singer, “I haven’t heard from him in forever other than indirectly in the press, and honestly none of us are even thinking about him..It’s really not been an issue at all, I mean, we surely put it to rest with this album [discussing Blind Rage]. Clearly it was a big deal the first time around for [2010’s] Blood Of The Nations; a lot of people were asking, ‘Why?’ and ‘What?’ and ‘How come?’ But the story has been told so many times now that it’s clear that we’ve started a new life and Udo didn’t want to be part of it. He made his choice, we’re moving on, and that’s that.”

To listen to Udo’s entire interview with the Lokaos Rock Show, below.