Motley Crue‘s Final Tour launched July 3rd in in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

MLive reports in a concert wrap up that the early part of Motley Crue’s set ran into some issues. During the song Primal Scream, Tommy Lee broke the head on his kick drum, leaving Mick Mars to play a guitar solo while the crew took care of Lee’s kit repair. Mars did entertain the crowd with a riff on the Jimi Hendrix classic, Little Wing. There were two more early show stoppages due to technical issues, leading Vince Neil to state, “Oh man, first night, s–t, we’re breaking down. At least you guys can always say you were here.” As Nikki Sixx stated via Twitter after the show, “Tons of bugs, mistakes and other opening night stuff, but we had a blast.”

But technical issues aside, this is the Crue and the band still delivered the type of show you would want from a group with a rich history, a massive catalog and playing their final dates. The show kicked off with a raucous rendition of Motherf—er of the Year, leading into the always rocking Wild Side. On With the Show proved to be the night’s first surprise, with Nikki Sixx later commenting via Twitter how much he loved having the song in the set. Another early set highlights was the brand new track All Bad Things Must End, which Motley penned specifically so they would have something fresh to promote during the show. Plus, the band pulled out their cover of the Sex Pistols‘ Anarchy in the U.K. much to the delight of the crowd.

And yes, there was plenty to see. Tommy Lee delivered one of his most eye-catching solos to date as his drum-coaster hovered over the audience while he laid down the licks to a mash-up of familiar songs by acts such as Jay-Z and Bob Marley before launching into Shout at the Devil. Speaking of eye-catching, Nikki Sixx likely surprised a few audience members with his incendiary flame-throwing bass.

A homestretch run of Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away), Live Wire, Dr. Feelgood, Girls, Girls, Girls, Kickstart My Heart and the sky high finale Home Sweet Home found the band finally hitting their groove and leaving audience members on a high note. Watch some fan filmed video from Motley Crue’s opening night of The Final Tour below the set list.

Motley Crue’s Setlist:

Motherf—er of the Year
Wild Side
Primal Scream
Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)
Looks That Kill
On With the Show
Too Fast for Love
All Bad Things
(Guitar Solo)
Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room
Without You
Saints of Los Angeles
Anarchy in the U.K.
Too Young to Fall in Love
(Drum Solo)
Shout at the Devil
Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
Live Wire
Dr. Feelgood
Girls, Girls, Girls
Kickstart My Heart
Home Sweet Home

source: noisecreep.com

On July 4th America will be 238 years old. On that same day, Stryper frontman Michael Sweet will be… well, he’ll be much younger than 238. But it is his birthday so he’s releasing a brand new video for Coming Home, the latest single from his recent solo album ‘I’m Not Your Suicide. This video is dedicated to the men and women who serve our country in the armed forces. Watch it below.

I’m Not Your Suicide was releaseed on May 6th through Big3 Records.

Coming off the heels of 2013′s successful inaugural Stryper Fan Excursion, the group has announced the dates and location for year two. Mark your calendar for October 10th to 12th and plan to be in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Since Stryper reunited in 2002, Raleigh would spend the next 12 years as the headquarters for the band. Their management team, Deep South Entertainment was (and is) in Raleigh. The stryper.com merchandising company (Port Merchandise) is also based in Raleigh. And the band even had a monumental sold-out reunion show at Raleigh’s historic Lincoln Theater on that tour, where part of the ’7 Weeks: Live In America’ album was recorded.

Raleigh has been the single longest standing headquarters for Stryper since they first became a band in the ’80s.

Experience the history of Stryper in what has been the band’s hometown since 2002. Visit the offices where the business of Stryper has taken place for the past 12 years. Tour and shop at the Stryper merchandise warehouse. Experience a full rock concert at a historic North Carolina venue, as well as an intimate acoustic show at Deep South The Bar, a venue whose decorations include rare Stryper memorabilia. And no experience in North Carolina would be complete without an authentic BBQ lunch with the band. They’ve got all this and much, much more being announced on July 7th at stryper.com.

source: sleazeroxx.com

Judas Priest frontman, AKA The Metal God, Rob Halford has laughed off Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson’s critcism about him using an teleprompter on stage.

Halford was responding to the Iron Maiden singer’s comments that artists should not have to read their own lyrics from a screen. Dickinson was particularly annoyed by Halford apparently using a teleprompter while singing Priest’s classic Breaking The Law.

But Halford insists the pair are friends and has described the controversy as a “storm in a metal teacup.”

He tells 107.7 The Bone: “What we British say is it was just a storm in a teacup. I love Bruce. He’s a great friend of mine. And he’s very outspoken. He’s a great frontman, a great singer from a great band. And, you know, these things are said in many ways, and I’m sure he didn’t mean it in any other way than Bruce sometimes goes off in one of his rants. You know, it’s just the way it goes. But, yes, storm in a teacup. Storm in a metal teacup.”

Judas Priest release their 17th album Redeemer Of Souls on July 8th.

source: classicrockmagazine.com

Def Leppard and Manraze guitarist Phil Collen says that KISS are fully deserving of their place in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame but that he insists he couldn’t care less if Def Leppard are ever inducted.

Collen praises KISS – who are currently on a mammoth co-headlining tour with Leppard – but is adamant he wasn’t bothered about following in their bootprints.

He tells Shmonty And Conklin’s radio show: “I think it’s great that KISS got in there. They should be there. They’re an American band 40 years and they’ve been snubbed.For me, I really don’t care, whatever. The way I look at it, I’ve got two diamond albums sitting on my mantlepiece — that’s 10 times platinum. I’ve got two albums. That means the fans went out and bought it, so that means a lot more to me.”

Def Leppard are touring America with KISS and after a nearly-30-year career packed with huge hits and big selling records the band have almost done it all. But Collen says they still set targets. for everything the band achieve they set themselves another goal.

He adds: “Back in the day, it was getting a gold album, then a platinum album, and they don’t really exist anymore, so that’s passed by. There’s all these other things. You just want your music to translate, for everyone to hear it, which we’re doing — we’re succeeding there. And then with concerts, it’s always been, you wanna play a certain venue — you wanna be at Wembley, Madison Square Garden, the Marquee club, the Budokan in Japan. So they’re all goals and ambitions that we’ve actually succeeded already. But you keep adding more.”

Fans have been waiting six years for a follow up to 2008’s Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, but the wait could be over.

Collen says: “We’ve just written 15 songs for our new album. We’re actually blown away, because it normally takes us about five years to write 10 songs, and we’ve got 15 songs already — we’ve gotta finish them off, but we’re gonna have an album out next year. So for us, that’s our big goal. Next year’s gonna be a really important year. We’ve got this great album. The recording has been really going fast and flowing, so we’re ultra excited about that.”

source: classicrockmagazine.com

In celebration of all the grilling and outdoor cooking that will be happening all over the U.S. this Fourth of July, multi-platinum guitar icon Ted Nugent has unleashed another track–appropriately titled, I Love My BBQ, from his upcoming album, SHUTUP&JAM!, out July 8th on Frontiers Records.

Listen to I Love My BBQ below.

SHUTUP&JAM! marks the first all-new studio album from the Motor City Madman in seven years. Nugent leads the pack of renowned musicians, handling guitar and vocal duties, alongside bassist Greg Smith, drummer Mick Brown and longtime musical cohort guitarist/vocalist Derek St. Holmes. Special guest Sammy Hagar brings his vocal power to the lead single, She’s Gone, for an epic lead vocal duet with Nugent. The song also features a special performance from one of the most respected drummers in rock, Johnny “Bee” Badanjek of the legendary Detroit band Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels. She’s Gone is available for free on iTunes for fans who pre-order the album there (for those who don’t know, this means the song will automatically download to their iTunes once they complete the pre-order purchase).

SHUTUP&JAM! is available now for pre-order at Amazon and iTunes. In the U.S., fans can pick up a special edition of SHUTUP&JAM!–featuring the exclusive bonus track Johnny B. Goode Forever–only at Best Buy starting July 8th.

To coincide with the release of SHUTUP&JAM!, TED kicks off his national headlining tour today (7/3) in Wichita Falls, TX (full tour itinerary below). Ticket info for all shows is available at tednugent.com.

Check out Ted Nugent’s SHUTUP&JAM! Tour in the following cities:

July:

3 Wichita Falls, TX Wichita Falls Memorial Auditorium
4 Santa Fe, NM Camel Rock Casino
5 Oklahoma City, OK Starlight Amphitheater at Frontier City
6 New Braunfels, TX River Road Ice House
8 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre
9 Ramona, CA Ramona Mainstage
10 Prescott Valley, AZ Tim’s Toyota Center
11 The Canyon Club Agoura Hills, CA
12 Las Vegas, NV Orleans Hotel & Casino
14 Anaheim, CA City National Grove of Anaheim
17 Council Bluffs, IA Mid-America Center*
18 Merrillville, IN Star Plaza Theatre
19 Detroit, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
21 Huntington, NY The Paramount
22 Montclair, NJ The Wellmont Theater
23 Jim Thorpe, PA Penn’s Peak
24 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
25 Morgantown, WV MountainFest at Mylan Park
26 Oshkosh, WI Leach Amphitheater at Riverside Park
27 Medina, MN Medina Entertainment Center
29 Kansas City, MO Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland
30 Englewood, CO Gothic Theatre
31 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot

August:

1 Sheridan, WY Trails End Concert Park
2 Tacoma, WA Emerald Queen Casino
3 Tacoma, WA Emerald Queen Casino
6 Sturgis, SD Full Throttle Saloon
8 Maumee, OH NW Ohio Rib-Off at Lucas County Fairgrounds
9 Oxford, OH Indian Creek Amphitheatre
11 North Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues
12 Lake Buena Vista, FL House of Blues
14 Houston, TX House of Blues
15 Biloxi, MS Hard Rock Live
16 Fort Worth, TX Billy Bob’s Texas

*denotes opening for Hank Williams Jr.

Graham Finney of Planet Loud spoke with Skid Row guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo. Excerpts from the interview appear below.

Planet Loud: Twenty five years has passed since the first Skid Row album so who is the Skid Row audience today?

Dave Sabo: It runs the gamut from the people who grew up coming to our shows and they’re turning their kids onto us so we’ll see them as well. I think because of that, in certain areas, we’re getting a younger audience that you wouldn’t expect to be into Skid Row and it amazes me. I’ll look out and see the usual suspects and that’s fuckin’ cool then, all of a sudden, I’ll see a 21 year old kid in a Slayer shirt and that’s really something.

Planet Loud: A large percentage of your audience will want to hear a certain era of the band’s material. Is it hard to get the balance right?

Dave Sabo: Of course they will but I don’t think it’s difficult getting that balance right. A lot of bands either do the classics and nothing else or shy away from it. We’re really proud of our history. We’ve been a band for twenty-seven years and been releasing records for twenty-four. We’re proud of all of it – every incarnation of the band has had something to say and you’ve got to stand behind that. I’m really proud of all those songs.

Planet Loud: It must be a good feeling to know that people still want to hear those songs?

Dave Sabo: You know, it bums me out when I hear people saying they hate playing a certain song because they’ve been playing it for thirty years. It amazes me that songs we wrote all that time ago are songs that people have taken as their own. It humbles me. Going back to your previous question though, one of the things about this band is that we love playing live even if we have been the underdogs at time so I don’t think it’s difficult to please everybody because we give it all to ‘em!

Planet Loud: Playing to seventy-five thousand people in Russia, the Bon Jovi tour, the Motley Crue tour. How much of a headfuck was that?

Dave Sabo: Honestly, not much of one because I’ve always been fairly grounded because of my upbringing. I never viewed anything as if I was owed it, I always viewed it as a gift and was always very thankful for what I’ve achieved.

Planet Loud: Would you agree that timing had a big part in your success as every song on your debut album was perfect for that era?

Dave Sabo: Absolutely. It’s weird because you really can’t tell what is going to happen. I’ve seen bands put out material and expect it to do really well and it hasn’t and they can’t figure out why. We put the record out and just couldn’t believe the opportunities we were getting to take the music we had written out to some of these places. You can’t predict that sort of thing. Sales are just numbers though, the thing for me is when you travel to a place and you see somebody sing that song back at you, I get choked up every night seeing that. It means that I was part of something that has affected somebody on an emotional level.

Planet Loud: [Your] second record [Slave to the Grind] seemed to be a bit of a ‘fuck-you’ to everybody?

Dave Sabo: It was and it was important for us to make that record. That is my favorite record and it was important for us in so many different ways. The fact that it shocked a lot of people and we also lost a lot of people because of it – the screaming sixteen year old girls disappeared but I know that we gained a lot of respect amongst our peers and it opened a whole load of new doors for us – like having Pantera on tour with us, having Soundgarden on tour with us. That wouldn’t have happened if we’d not made that record.

Planet Loud: The debut album came out twenty-five years ago – anything special planned?

Dave Sabo: You know, I haven’t even thought about it. We’re constantly asked about a reunion and have been since the twentieth anniversary and the offers have been phenomenal but, for me, I don’t know, at this point I don’t have an interest in it. Again, it’s not like I have any hatred for it or anything like that, I’m where I’m at right now and it feels really good.

Read more at Planet Loud.

Sid Row will be releasing Rise Of The Damnation Army – United World Rebellion: Chapter Two on August 4th in Europe and August 5th in the US. Watch a teaser for the album here.

source: planet-loud.com

Judas Priest have been previewing and streaming full versions of songs from their upcoming album Redeemer of Souls, which will be released July 8th. Below is a preview of the song, Sword Of Damocles, with commentary from the Metal God himself, Rob Halford. Watch it below.

The band is also streaming the entire album on on iTunes Radio.

To hear other songs and previews from Redeemer of Souls, click on the highlighted song titles:

Redeemer of Souls
March of the Damned
Halls Of Valhalla
Crossfire
Dragonaut
Battle Cry
Metalizer

Redeemer of Souls is due July 8th through Epic Records.

New England will be performing a reunion concert the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA on August 15th. This is the first time all four original members have performed together since 1983. Tickets for this event can be purchased here.

New England is a four-piece rock and roll band hailing from Boston, MA. John Fannon (guitar & vocals), Hirsh Gardner (drums and vocals), Jimmy Waldo (keyboards and vocals) and Gary Shea (bass) broke out of the local scene with the release of their self-titled album on Infinity/MCA in 1979. The first single, Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya (see video below), became an AOR smash and even cracked the Top 40. The album was produced by Mike Stone and Paul Stanley of Kiss, with whom New England toured for much of 1979 and 1980.

For their sophomore effort, entitled Explorer Suite, the foursome once again called upon veteran knob-twirler Mike Stone. Highlights from this album are the orchestral title track, It’s Never Too Late, and Conversation, which features New England’s trademark lush background vocals. The touring never let up for the boys from Boston as they split their time on the Explorer Suite tour between headlining large clubs and sharing arena billing with Journey, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, and Kiss among others.

For the third album, Walking Wild, the legendary Todd Rundgren was at the helm. The results of these sessions were hard-driving anthemic tunes such as Don’t Ever Let Me Go, L-5 (co-written by Fannon, Waldo & Rundgren) and the kick-ass rocker Holdin’ Out On Me, which features Hirsh Gardner on lead vocals. The frustration over the lack of label support grew and the band parted ways. While Fannon & Gardner went on to successful careers as producers and Shea & Waldo formed Alcatrazz with Graham Bonnet
& Yngwie Malmsteen, nothing seemed to match the excitement of New England. The real strength of New England was the combination of four strong & diverse individuals: Fannon’s lead vocals & songwriting, Waldo’s whirling keyboards, Gardner’s driving skin-pounding and high-pitched vocals and Shea’s thunderous bass lines.

While the records speak for themselves, the fans are the reason New England lives: Waldo explains,“I would tour all over the world with Alcatrazz and every country we’d go to people would have New England albums for me to sign. It really shows you the power of music. We have fans all over Europe & Japan, places we never even toured. It’s amazing.”

Watch the video for Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya below.

Listen to their self titled debut album below.

Kory Grow of Rolling Stone spoke with singer King Diamond (Mercyful Fate, King Diamond) about his forthcoming North American tour. Excerpts from the interview appear below.

Rolling Stone: What sorts of freaky things can fans expect on your North American tour?

King Diamond: It’s a very dark show. King Diamond was always more Satanic than Mercyful Fate. And I’m not saying anything bad about Mercyful Fate – I love that band but sometimes people forget that King Diamond is the Satanic philosophy through and through. I was made an eternal member of the Church of Satan by Anton LeVey himself in 1988.

Rolling Stone: Where did you get the bones for the microphone stand you made out of a femur and tibia?

King Diamond: My younger brother’s schoolmate’s dad was a surgeon. He taught students how to operate on donated bodies, and when they were done, they would strip the skin off the bodies and put the bones in barrels. He took a couple of bones home to his son, and my brother convinced him to give it to him. I feel like the person who they belonged to is now getting to see the world in a different way. I don’t mean that in a sick way at all.

Rolling Stone: What is life like for you, since your surgery? [The singer had triple-bypass surgery in 2010]

King Diamond: I have a braided, metal wire going down the middle of my chest, underneath my skin. I saw it on an X-ray of it; it looks like a piece of jewelry. When they sawed me open to do the operation, my ribcage was like a double door, to be blunt. They put the wire in to help it grow back together. I’m lucky. You can barely see where I was glued together. I can’t take painkillers, because they thin my blood. So when I have pain, I have to live with it. But that’s how it is. To get a second chance is amazing.

King Diamond: So you’re working on a new album?

King Diamond: We’ve done a lot of stuff. We are going in some new ways that are going to be amazing. I’ve been building a studio so I can do my vocals at home. Once it’s completed, we can start recording. I have a title for a new record, but I won’t say it. [The record] will encompass the things I need to write about after what I went through. But I can’t say much about it because I haven’t talked to the rest of the band about it.

Read more at Rolling Stone.

source: rollingstone.com

OverkillL has debuted an all new music video for their newest single Armorist exclusively through Noisey Music today. Directed by long time collaborator Kevin J. Custer, the video depicts the raw power that emulates from the bands viscous live show. “We had a head banging riot working with Kevin Custer, he has an eye for the performance and the fast editing hand. Just what the doctor ordered for a face-melting, thrash-a-thon!,” says frontman Bobby Blitz.

This is the third time Custer has worked with the band. Prior to Armorist he was directed Bring Me The Night, from Ironbound in 2010 and Electric Rattlesnake from The Electric Age in 2012. Blitz continues, “I was quite blown away with his use of natural light in Armorist, as if he let the sun in through the windows, then controlled how it was used. Horns up Kids, here comes the Overkill/Custer, Armorist!” Watch the video below.

Overkill will release White Devil Armory on July 22nd through eOne Music in North America, and July 18th overseas via Nuclear Blast. The effort is the follow up to the critically acclaimed The Electric Age released in 2012. Pre-order on iTunes here.

White Devil Armory track listing:

1. XDM
2. Armorist
3. Down To The Bone
4. PIG
5. Bitter Pill
6. Where There’s Smoke
7. Freedom Rings
8. Another Day To Die
9. King Of The Rat Bastards
10. It’s All Yours
11. In The Name