Metallica has teamed up with mega-brewery Budweiser for a limited-run of Metallica themed beer cans.
The good news? The branded cans are set to be in stores September 28th. The bad news? It’s only available in Quebec. Make sure to check eBay or contact that old friend in the icy north to snag one of the 91,000 cans.
additional source: q1043.com/onair/ken-dashow
Richard Bienstock of Rolling Stone spoke with Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
RS: How has the summer tour been going?
JE: Very good, thank you. Ticket sales have been insane. We’ve been doing some really outrageous numbers. Birmingham, Alabama, was 18,000 people. Dallas was 20,000. So it’s been a great tour. But it’s also been a hot one — it was 122 in the shade in Austin. When you’re onstage under the lights and in full regalia, and there’s audience members passing out just from watching you, it makes you wonder how you get through. Fortunately, we love playing.
RS: Let’s Go, the lead track on Def Leppard as well as the first single, is clearly about that love for playing. You sing, “Welcome to the party/Welcome to the edge of your seat.”
JE: It’s a call to arms, you know? Rick Savage wrote 80 percent of the song. I wrote the verses, he wrote all the music and the choruses. He came in with it, and we knew it was a classic Def Leppard song. It’s that three-minute pop-rock stuff with big chunky guitars and a big chorus. And it has that swaggering, mid-tempo rhythm, like Sugar, and Rock of Ages. The idea was, we wanted something familiar. I mean, when AC/DC comes back after years away, you’re not going to get Bohemian Rhapsody from ’em, you know? And you don’t want it, either — you want Back in Black, or something like it. For us, this is what we do. And it’s something we enjoy doing.
RS: That said, there’s also a lot of variety on the album.
JE: It’s got everything from Bowie to Queen to Zeppelin to, well, Def Leppard. And, yeah, Let’s Go could be the long-lost cousin of Sugar. And Dangerous sounds a little like Photograph. We know that. We’re aware of it. But that’s only part of the picture. There’s 14 tracks, and there are things like Invincible, which kind of sounds like a cross between Billy Idol and the Psychedelic Furs. We don’t shy away from an idea because it’s not in our typical bandwidth.
The thing is, we’ve never been a straight-ahead metal band that’s gonna sound like Megadeth or Metallica or something like that. We’ve just got too much melody in our heads. We like too much variety. We like the acoustic guitar. We like the keyboard. We like the Mellotron. We like the Beatles and the Stones. We like Slade and Sweet and T. Rex. We didn’t just grow up on Black Sabbath.
RS: There’s a story about how when Mutt Lange was producing Hysteria, he made a comment early on in the recording process that he wanted to create something that could have the same type of crossover appeal as, and also the broad success of, Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Do you recall that?
JE: I didn’t have the actual conversation, but, yeah, the guys were talking about the fact that Mutt did say, “I see no reason why a white rock band can’t do what Michael Jackson did.” And we probably looked at him like he had three heads!
RS: Do you feel fortunate that Def Leppard came up in a different era?
JE: I’m so glad we were who we were, when we were. The Eighties are mocked by everyone in the media, mostly for mullets and stupid shell suits and that kind of stuff. But there was more to the decade than meets the eye. And maybe in time, people will look at it the way they look at the Sixties and Seventies.
The fact is, it was the golden age. We had MTV. If you had a decent song, everybody knew it within five minutes, all over the country. And whether it was me leaping off the drum riser in slow motion wearing the Union Jack, or ZZ Top’s cars and furry, spinning guitars, or Simon Le Bon sitting on the front of that yacht, you just don’t forget those things. For that generation, it’s burned into the DNA. I don’t see the same thing in the next generation, with bands like Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. And it dissipates even more the further along you go. And, sure, artists are still doing those things, but now everything’s insular. People are watching on their laptop with their headphones on. There’s no commonality.
To listen to Def Leppard’s new song, Let’s Go, and to read the interview in its entirety, please visit Rolling Stone.
To view the track listing and cover art for, Def Leppard, please go here.
source: rollingstone.com
KISS, now celebrating its 40th anniversary, has earned more gold album record awards than any American band in the history of the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) gold and platinum awards certifications.
In the last 41 years, KISS has earned 30 gold albums (26 KISS albums and four solo albums that were all released simultaneously — a feat never before achieved by any band). KISS has 14 platinum albums, with three albums being multi-platinum.
“Congratulations to KISS — the new gold standard for albums by American bands,” said Cary Sherman, Chairman and CEO, RIAA. “What an extraordinary achievement for an enduring band. Forty years later and the band is still rocking. Congratulations to KISS on their gold album milestone and continued success.”
KISS remains one of the most influential bands in the history of rock and roll. Decades of record-breaking tours around the globe have included high-profile appearances at Super Bowl XXXIII, the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the Rockin’ The Corps concert dedicated to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, special guest appearance on the 2009 “American Idol” finale that boasted 30 million viewers and a 2010 Dr. Pepper Super Bowl commercial and advertising campaign in support of their Hottest Show On Earth tour.
Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, with longtime members, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, are stronger than ever with a legacy that continues to grow, generation after generation. Their last album, Monster, proved that they are still at the top of their game with impressive sales and topping the charts worldwide debuting at number three in the U.S. on The Billboard 200 album chart and Top 10 in twenty other countries. The unparalleled devotion and loyalty of the KISS Army to the “Hottest Band in the World” is a striking testament to the band’s unbreakable bond with its fans.
KISS is currently celebrating two other major milestones, their induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April of 2014, as well as the band’s 40th anniversary.KISS 40“, an album celebrating 40 years of rock and roll is available now.
 gold and platinum ... )
Def Leppard have revealed the track listing and album cover for their forthcoming self titled album tentatively scheduled for release on October 30th.
Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott explained the reasoning behind releasing a self-titled album at this point in the band’s career, saying, “It’s just called ‘Def Leppard’ because that’s what it sounds like. It doesn’t sounds like any one specific era of Def Leppard. It’s got everything.”
That “everything,” Elliott argued, includes bits of Def Leppard’s many influences. “You’ll listen and you go ‘Oh, that sounds like Def Leppard’ or you’ll go ‘That is Leppard, but sounds a bit like Led Zeppelin or Queen but you can hear the AC/DC or the Crosby, Stills and Nash coming through,” he predicted. “We have not shied away from anything that’s influenced us in our growing up periods of our life. Just because we’ve made the kind of music we’ve made doesn’t mean to say we don’t like all of this other stuff.”
Def Leppard Track Listing:
Let’s Go
Dangerous
Man Enough
We Belong
Invincible
Sea of Love
Energized
All Time High
Battle of My Own
Broke N’ Brokenhearted
Forever Young
Last Dance
Wings of an Angel
Blind Faith
Read More: ultimateclassicrock.com
Guitarist Tony MacAlpine’s team has released the following message:
“It is with regret that we announce the cancellation of Tony’s European tour which was slated for October/November.
Tony’s condition has not improved since the surgery to remove a tumor from his intestine, and he will need further treatment.
We are incredibly disappointed that the world tour dates are being postponed indefinitely, but Tony needs to focus completely on his recovery at this time.
Thank you to everyone who has reached out to provide words of love, encouragement and support to Tony. It’s deeply appreciated. We will post further updates soon.”
On August 24th, MacAlpine posted on his Facebook page that his doctors discovered a large mass in his intestine and that they suspected it was malignant forcing him to cancel his Australian tour. At the time of the posting, Tony was hoping that he would be able to keep his European commitment. Read more here.
MacAlpine’s last release was Concrete Gardens.
During tonight’s Yahoo live stream from Barclays in Brooklyn, you may have noticed legendary rockers Scorpions were joined by a very special guest– 12 year old guitarist Brandon Niederauer. The third generation Scorpions fan accompanied his favorite band for a rousing performance of No One Like You.
As Niederauer headed to the stage, he shared, “Rock You Like A Hurricane was the first song, and solo, I ever learned and played in my first performance at age 8. The Scorpions’ music is a big influence on my playing.”
Niederauer hails from Long Island where he spent his formative years playing his Gibson Les Paul – he became a fan of Scorpions while playing video games. The prodigal guitarist will grace the Broadway stage this fall in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock launching November 9th.
To watch a video of this performance, please click here.
