GUITARIST JAKE E. LEE DISCUSSES HOW HE WROTE “BARK AT THE MOON”

Jakelee Guitarist Jake E. Lee (Red Dragon Cartel, Ozzy Osbourne, Badlands) participated in a half-show/half-question-and-answer-session at the Lava Cable stage in Owasso, Oklahoma on March 13th.

Lee, who wrote Bark At The Moon” the title song of Ozzy Osbourne’s 1983 album of the same name, revealed how he wrote the tune to be played originally and how it is consistently wronged by tabs all across the web today. Watch video footage from Lava Cable’s Strike A Chord below.

Jake E. Lee’s new band, Red Dragon Cartel, released their debut album on January 28th and are currently on tour. See dates below.

Red Dragon Cartel Tour Dates:

3 Philadelphia, PA The Legendary Dobbs
4 Amityville, NY Revolutions
6 West Seneca, NY Rock & Roll Heaven

May:

30 Vienna, AUS Szene
31 Munich, GER Backstage

June:

5 Norje Solvesborg, SWE Sweden Rock Festival
15 Donnington, ENG Download Festival
19 Seattle, WA El Corazon
21 Idaho Falls, ID Rock The Falls

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KISS’ PAUL STANLEY ON VINNY VINCENT AND ERIC CARR’S MAKEUP/NEW CHARACTERS: “PEOPLE DIDN’T BUY IT,” PLUS 18 OTHER TIDBITS ABOUT THE BAND

kiss-return Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone reports:

1. KISS may have gotten the idea for their makeup from two other acts. “We loved the New York Dolls,” says Peter Criss, who grew up with the Dolls’ drummer, Jerry Nolan. “But when we tried that, we looked like four old drag queens. Then we saw Alice Cooper one night at the Garden, and thought, wow, he’s the only guy up there wearin’ somethin’ – what would it be like if four guys wore it?”

2. The current and former members disagree over the definition of “rock & roll.” Ace and I were wilder, we were rock & rollers,” says Criss. “We wanted to be at the parties, we wanted a lot of girls, we wanted to cause trouble, we wanted to wreck rooms like Keith Moon. It’s not a science – maybe the chord’s off a little, or maybe you speed up a little, or you maybe you slow down.”

Retorts Paul Stanley, “Once Ace was playing guitar in the studio with rings and a bracelet on that were just hitting the guitar. And I said, ‘Ace, you’ve gotta take that stuff off, it sounds terrible.’ He goes, ‘That’s rock & roll.’ I go, ‘No, there’s rock & roll and then there’s awful.’ You can’t use rock & roll as an excuse for doing something that’s sub-standard or not good or out of tune, or not showing up on time. That’s not rock & roll, that’s just fucking up.”

3. Ace Frehley, who quit the band in the early Eighties, doesn’t like to be lumped in with Peter Criss, who was fired a couple years earlier. “They talk about me as if it’s the same as what happened with Peter,” says Frehley. “I get a bad rap. So a lot of times I’d rather distance myself. I love Peter to death, but, you know, I’m a different guy with a completely different story.”

4. When Gene Simmons was 12 years old, his hero was Jiminy Cricket (he covered When You Wish Upon A Star on his debut solo album): “I saw this little bug singing, ‘Fairy tales can come true, they can happen to you,’ and I’m thinking, ‘Me?’ It was a religious experience. Jiminy Cricket was my Christ. This kind of dawning of consciousness of, ‘I can be great.'”

5. Frehley always knew he would be famous. “By age 16, I knew I was going to be a professional musician and be successful,” he says. “If I wouldn’t have been successful with Kiss, I would’ve been successful with somebody else. Because I just had the drive. I used to go see the Who and Led Zeppelin and Hendrix and there was always a voice in my head saying, ‘You can get up there and do that.’ I used to tell people in my family, I used to tell my friends. And they used to say, ‘What are you, crazy?'”

6. KISS’ founders see the band’s fans as proud outsiders. “I always looked at our fans as the big heavy kids in the back of the room bein’ made fun of,” says Criss. “Or the kid who had long hair in the neighborhood when no one had it. And those are the kids who really needed a hero.”

7. The British band Slade (who recorded Cum on Feel the Noize years before Quiet Riot covered it) are often cited as a major influence on KISS, but Stanley feels that’s exaggerated. “That gets kind of taken out of proportion,” says Stanley. “I loved Slade because of the sing-along directness of their songs. I loved Noddy Holder as a front man. My mirrored guitar came from seeing him with a mirrored top hat. But I don’t believe they were part of the blueprint.”

8. Frehley believes he had a Keith Richards-like ability to function under the influence. “No matter how crazy or fucked up I was, I could still deliver,” he says. “I knew I could get drunk in the afternoon and snort a couple lines of coke and then I’d be fine for the show. It wasn’t the healthiest thing to do, but I didn’t want to let down the fans!”

9. But now Frehley is proud to be an example of sobriety. “My greatest days are when I’m doing an autograph session and a guy walks up to me and he says, ‘Hey, I got six months sober because of you.’ Because I used to get fan letters from kids, and they’d say, ‘We heard you smashed up your car. I smashed my car up last week, Ace! What do you think of that?'”

10. Criss had to re-learn the band’s catalog from scratch when KISS reunited in 1996 ­­– but he says anyone would’ve had to do the same. “I really forgot all the songs after 17 years,” he says. “I was so frustrated at needing to relearn Peter Criss. Like, why did I put that intricate part in there? And now I’ve got to redo that part! I would go home, I kid you not, and watch old shows from the Seventies like a football player.”

11. Simmons has little sympathy for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. “I don’t think it’s sad at all,” he says. “He was white in this racist world. He was fuckin’ rich. And he was a movie star. If you wanna take your life, good luck to you. You know what’s sad? A loving husband or mother who crosses the street and gets run over by a truck. That’s sad. Because you didn’t have anything to do with it.”

12. For all their hard living, both Frehley and Criss are in good health. “I just got the cleanest bill of health I’ve had in 10 years,” says Frehley, 62. “I don’t have any damage to my internal organs. I’m the luckiest guy. As long as I stay sober, I’m good for easily another 20, 25 years.”

Adds Criss, 68, “I’ve never been in better shape. I take no blood pressure medicine. I don’t have diabetes, thank you, Jesus. I don’t have cancer anymore. Recently, I had a hernia finally taken out after 15 years ’cause it was like an alien, you know the movie Alien?”

13. Stanley has long had a gift in mind for Simmons: “My joke used to be that for a birthday present, I was going to have a device made for him that was headphones with a mirror and a microphone so that he could watch himself talk all the time.”

14. The band thought their infamous mess of a concept album, Music From The Elder ­was a masterpiece – until they started playing it for people. “We were so off course that we really thought we were creating genius,” says Stanley. “The record company heard it, and it was like a scene from The Producers. We might as well have been singing Springtime for Hitler, you know? So we were delusional. And we spent the better part of a decade saying ‘We’re sorry’ to the fans. And they don’t forgive you that easily.”

15. Stanley thinks it was a mistake to try to introduce new characters in the band – in a short-lived Eighties incarnation of KISS, guitarist Vinnie Vincent was the Ankh Warrior, and the late drummer Eric Carr was the Fox. “People didn’t buy it,” he says. “And that was another reason that the fan base started to dissipate. It lost its believability. It became a menagerie – we could have had Snail Man. And we saw a decline that started gradually, but quickly we fell off the edge of the cliff. To go from doing multiple nights in an arena to, next tour, not being able to sell out a theater, is stark.”

16. Stanley loved taking off the makeup in 1983. “I wanted that recognition,” he says. “It was a big disappointment in the Seventies when I realized that going without makeup meant we couldn’t go to, like, awards shows. It was like I was living this dual life, and just sitting on my sofa at home.”

17. During one of the band’s reunion tours, Ace Frehley punched the band’s then-road manager, Tommy Thayer, who would go on to take Frehley’s place as Kiss’ guitarist (and wear his Spaceman makeup). “In his book he says he decked me or knocked me out or something, which is far from the truth, really,” says Thayer, who had chastised Frehley for breaking band rules by having his girlfriend in the band’s dressing room after a gig. “Ace said ‘fuck you,’ and under my breath I said something like ‘you’re an asshole,’ and I turned around and started walking away. He came up and just, like, hit me in the back of the head, just took a cheap shot, and I kind of lost my balance a little bit. And from then on, things really took a turn for the worse.”

18. With some help from Rob Zombie’s guitarist, John 5, Peter Criss has resumed work on a solo album he put aside in 2008 after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. “It’s heavier than anything I’ve ever touched,” he says. “My music always owed more to R&B because I grew up on Motown. But this is different. I really went for what they’ve been wantin’ from me forever, with a heavier approach, big guitars. And they’ll still hate it, and then they’ll go, “Why don’t you go back and do the pop?” [Laughs] Trust me, I’ve got the craziest fans on the planet earth!”

source: rollingstone.com

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ACCEPT’S “BLIND RAGE” TO BE RELEASED ON JULY 18TH

accept400 Hardly any other band has influenced the Heavy Metal genre as much as German legends Accept. Classics albums such as Restless And Wild (1982), Balls To The Wall (1983) and Metal Heart (1985), have inspired generations of new bands, and this has continued since their reunion in 2009. Both Blood Of The Nations (2010) and Stalingrad (2012) entered the charts globally and underline the premiere league status Accept still have today.

Now Accept announce the release of their new studio album: “Something happened to us, something subliminal and impetuous,” commented main composer Wolf Hoffmann. “It is wild and scary and it’s called Blind Rage!”

Blind Rage, just like its two predecessors has been produced, mixed and mastered by Andy Sneap. On July 18th, 2014 Blind Rage will be released worldwide. “The cover artwork done by Daniel Goldsworthy shows the beast coming over us – in blind rage – all over the planet. Wherever we go, whenever you turn on the TV – there is blind rage in the works – either natural catastrophes or man-made madness”, the axe man of Accept states.

acceptblindrage640

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GUITARIST GARY HOLT SAYS EXODUS’ NEW MATERIAL IS “F’ING CRUSHING”

GaryHolt Greg Prato of Bravewords spoke with Exodus and Slayer guitarist Gary Holt. Highlights from the Q&A appear below.

BraveWords: How far along is the new Exodus album?

Gary Holt: As soon as this interview’s done, I’m on my way to start guitars today!

BraveWords: How would you describe the material?

Gary Holt: It’s fucking crushing. I put it like this, everybody is usually patting themselves on the back-“This new album is the new Master of Puppets, or the new Bonded by Blood, or the new Back in Black.” It’s fucking killer. I’ll let everyone else make comparisons, but it’s amazing.

BraveWords: What about a new Slayer album?

Gary Holt: I haven’t talked to Kerry [King] for a little bit. I think he’s still writing. I don’t know what’s up – they haven’t started recording yet, but when they do and they need me to lay down some leads, I’m ready.

BraveWords: So you’d say Exodus’ album is further along than Slayer’s?

Gary Holt: Well, we’ve started recording. [Laughs] Song-wise, to the best of my knowledge, the Slayer album is complete. I know Kerry is continuing to write, so I think he’s got a lot of stuff. I think they’re just waiting for the right time to begin.

BraveWords: Will you have any writing credits on Slayer’s album?

Gary Holt: No, it’s all them. That’s their game, their thing. If in the future they want some additional help, I’ve got no shortage of riffs. But right now, they’re all dedicated to this record.

BraveWords: Do you think that playing in Slayer may affect the material on the new Exodus album at all?

Gary Holt: No, because I write the way I write. I’m flexible-I could write for fuckin’ Bon Jovi if I had to. Not that I want to, although the publishing check would be good, but it’s like I do things my own way and I always have. And I still write the same way I did in 1985.

BraveWords: And what about touring plans for Exodus?

Gary Holt: We’ve got six shows coming up in May with Suicidal Tendencies and Slayer – so I’ll be doing double duty on those. Then I’m busy for the summer with Slayer. When that ends, hopefully we’ll be ready to start up with Exodus.

Read more at Bravewords.

source: bravewords.com

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KISS’ PAUL STANLEY COMMENTS ON ACE FREHLEY’S AND PETER CRISS’ AUTOBIOGRAPHIES STATING “THE FEW BITS I READ WERE SO RIDICULOUS THAT IT WAS FRIGHTENING TO THINK THAT EITHER OF THEM BELIEVE IT”

paulstanley400 Brian Aberback from NJ’s Steppin’ Out magazine recently spoke with KISS’ Paul Stanley. An excerpt can be read below.

Steppin’ Out: What is the main message you want people to take from your book?

Paul Stanley: I wanted to be able to write a book that shows how you can go through unsettling times and turmoil and come out on top. There’s no substitute for determination and drive. My life has a happy ending. I thought my story was something people could benefit from. My 19-year-old read the book and I got the response I hoped for. He thought it was fabulous and very inspiring.

Steppin’ Out: From the very beginning you were faced with obstacles. You were born with microtia, a birth defect in which part of your right ear is missing, and you’re also deaf in that ear. How did that affect your musical ambitions?

Paul Stanley: It never affected my music. It affected my social interactions, how I was seen and sometimes ridiculed. Music became my refuge. Although I may not hear music the same way that someone who has hearing in both ears hears it, I never missed anything because I don’t know what things would have sounded like otherwise.

Steppin’ Out: You’re the last of the original members of KISS to write a book. Have you read the other guys’ books?

Paul Stanley: Gene’s book is understandably written from him being in the center of everything, because that’s what he’s like. The other two [by guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss] go from being questionable to absurd. When people’s recollections are tainted by substance abuse they’re not usually people an attorney wants to put on a witness stand. The few bits I read were so ridiculous that it was frightening to think that either of them believe it. For a lot of reasons I feel I’m more objective.

Steppin’ Out: You’re being inducted into the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, and you’re furious with the Hall. Why is that?

Paul Stanley: They are only inducting the original members. It’s disrespectful. We never could have started without [original guitarist and drummer] Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, but this band has a 40-year history that should not be ignored. The Hall of Fame people said that inducting other members who were in the band for decades and played on multi-platinum albums like [guitarist] Bruce Kulick and [late drummer] Eric Carr was a non-starter. That’s not how it has worked with other bands. There’s a commune of Grateful Dead members in there including a writer who never played an instrument and a bass player in Metallica who had only been in the band for 7 years when they were inducted. We are in the Hall of Fame not because those people want us there but because it began to look absurd not having us there. To have a band that many pop bands site as an influence and to be ignored year after year takes a lot of effort. They also wanted to strong arm us into playing with the original guys onlhy in gear and makeup and that was a nonstarter. I’ve been doing this 40 years with total pride and confidence and it would be rolling the dice.Whether it’s official or not I will be there to celebrate 40 years of this band.

The entire interview runs April 9th at so-mag.com.

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ORIGINAL GUNS N’ ROSES BASSIST DUFF MCKAGAN TO FILL IN FOR TOMMY STINSON ON THE BAND’S REMAINING SOUTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES

axlroseandtommystinson Gary Graff of Billboard reports:

Re-joining Guns N’ Roses for five shows in South America is just Duff McKagan’s way of being “a good buddy” according to current GNR bassist Tommy Stinson.

After McKagan tweeted a hint to that effect on Monday, the GNR camp confirmed that the group’s founding bassist will fill in for Stinson, who was already locked into Replacements reunion dates, starting April 6th in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and for the balance of the South American tour, including shows in Asuncion, Paraguay on April 9th, La Paz, Bolivia on April 12th, Recife, Brazil on April 15th and Fortaleza, Brazil on April 17th. GNR opens the tour on Tuesday in Florianapolis, Brazil, and also plays April 3rd in Porto Alegre, Brazil, with Stinson, who will be back in the GNR bass saddle on May 13th in Bethlehem, Pa.

“I had those Replacement shows come up the same time the (South American) tour came up, and it got to be a scheduling issue right out of the gate,” Stinson tells Billboard. “I didn’t want to fuck anyone up in Guns by saying, ‘Hey, I can’t do this tour’ or anything like that. Luckily someone was able to reach out to Duff and he was amenable to the idea and was into doing it. It’s Duff being the kind of good sport he is, trying to help Axl (Rose) out. So I’m like, ‘Thanks dude, for covering my ass on this one.’ I think people are gonna be really stoked about it. It’s gonna be fun for everyone.”

For his part, McKagan relayed through GNR’s publicist that, “It’s pretty great to play these songs again, and looking forward to playing some gigs with my pal again. South America is always a radical place for rock n roll…and I’m honored to be doing this thing, in that place.”

McKagan, who was part of GNR from 1985-1993, has always been the member of the original lineup who’s kept closest ties to Rose’s current incarnation of the band. He joined the group for three songs on October 14th, 2010 at London’s O2 Arena, and twice again that December when his band Loaded opened two GNR shows in North America. And, of course, McKagan played with other former GNR members during the group’s 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, which Rose (and guitarist Izzy Stradlin) skipped.

“I don’t know that Duff and Axl ever even had bad blood,” Stinson says. “I don’t really know the whole story. But he came up and played with us a couple years back, and they got along great. Whatever their history is, they’re certainly fine now — I means, as fine as you can be after knowing someone for 30-plus years.”

Stinson says McKagan joined GNR for rehearsals in Los Angeles last month and will likely run through the set again before the Buenos Aires show, but Stinson notes that, “He’s a fucking great bass player. It’s gonna be a breeze. The only bummer is I don’t get to see one of the shows he plays, especially after playing his fucking parts for 17 years. It would be interesting to see how he plays them. There’s a couple things I could use some pointers on.”

GNR will also be playing at the Rock on the Range festival on May 13th in Columbus, Ohio, then they start a nine-show residency on May 21st at the The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. “There’s rumblings of other things to come,” Stinson says, “but I’m not sure what those would be at this point.” Would one of those be some new GNR music, perhaps a follow-up to 2008’s Chinese Democracy? “I hope we would fucking throw ourselves in the studio and make another record,” the bassist says. “A bunch of us have been writing stuff, so hopefully we’ll get something going.”

source: billboard.com

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