Metallica will commemorate the terrorist attack at France’s Bataclan venue with the release of a live album recorded there in 2003.
The charity title is their contribution to this year’s Record Store Day, which takes place on April 16th – and they’ve been named global ambassadors for the event.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, Metallica! was recorded at the Paris club in 2003, 12 years before 89 people were killed as the Eagles Of Death Metal performed there. All proceeds from the release will be donated to the Give For France fund.
Drummer Lars Ulrich says, “Independent record stores are part of Metallica’s DNA. They have been pivotal in shaping each one of us into the music fanatics we’ve all become. We could not be any prouder to be Record Store Day Ambassadors for 2016 – we’re looking forward to screaming from every rooftop about everything independent record store and beyond.”
Their 2015 offering, a replica of their No Life Til Leather demo cassette, was 2015’s biggest-selling RSD item. Find out more on this year’s event.
Greg Prato of Alternative Nation spoke with Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen about his side project, Delta Deep, with Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Robert DeLeo and his favorite STP tunes. The interview appears in its entirety below.
Alternative Nation: How did the idea come up to play with Robert DeLeo?
Phil Collen: A friend of mine, Chris Epting, who I had wrote a book with [Adrenalized: Life, Def Leppard, and Beyond], he said, “Do you know Robert DeLeo?” And I said, “No, but I’m a huge fan! A huge STP fan. Loved the songs, loved the songwriting, and everything he did.” He says, “Well, he’s a disciple of Motown-James Jamerson and those guys. That’s really what he does. And funk and blues and jazz. That’s really his thing.” He introduced us, I played him the demos for Delta Deep, and he said, “Oh man. This is going to be great.” And that was it, really. And the same deal with Forrest Robinson, the drummer-he used to play with India.Arie and TLC and the Crusaders and all these other acts. And hip-hop stuff in Atlanta, he had done a bunch of that, as well. It just fit perfectly. And I loved Robert’s songwriting, as well, which is another thing that hopefully we’ll get to do on the next Delta Deep album – we’ve got a bunch of stuff written already, but we haven’t written anything together. So that’s going to be a blast.
Alternative Nation: How it playing with Robert, stylistically?
Phil Collen: Obviously, because he’s in a rock band…the big difference is it’s like, funk on steroids. It’s not your typical soul or groove or blues band, because me and Robert are from hard rock bands. Alternative, metal, whatever you want to call it. And what’s really interesting about Forrest Robinson is the fact that he’s from Memphis, he’s played with all these…the Crusaders is a jazz group. But when I first met him, what he said, “All I really want to play is double kick drum metal.” I said, “Really?!” Never judge a book by its cover. Because I thought he was like a groove guy, which he is, but that’s what he loves playing. So when Debbi [Blackwell] gets out and sings over the top of it, it reminds me of early Zeppelin. It’s got a feel like that. I didn’t really expect that – I thought it was going to be more subdued, it was going to be a bit of a groove and bluesy, but it turned into this other thing. It’s got element of Zeppelin, Def Leppard, STP – only it’s this soulful, funky, rock thing. It’s a very muscular version of that. Like I said, playing with Robert is a joy. We’re basically a three-piece – guitar, bass, and drums. And there’s so much going on that you’ll fill all of the gaps – and not just all with notes, but with aggression. And that’s the one thing that I always love. I have another band, Man-Raze, and we’ve got two albums out. Paul Cook is the drummer, and he’s the drummer from the Sex Pistols. I loved Paul Cook’s drumming. I loved the Sex Pistols album [Never Mind the Bollocks…]. I always wanted that aggression in something. So we pretty much got that down, and again, with Man-Raze, it was that thing, it was the aggression. A lot of people miss out on that. It’s like a lot of rock bands are kind of wimpy or whatever and don’t quite have that thing. But this is…steroidal and muscular are the only words to describe it!
Alternative Nation: What are some of your favorite STP songs or albums?
I love the Purple album. I think that’s just great. Obviously, Interstate Love Song is such a great song. But even when I first heard them, when I heard Sex Type Thing and Wicked Garden, I just loved the vibe of it, it was just amazing. All the way up the last album, actually. Even stuff like Sour Girl. I loved the fact that they were so different and had this very artistic frontman, and they actually combined elements of Zeppelin and the Beatles, and still made it sound fresh – not like a karaoke band. A lot of people go, “I’m influenced by the Beatles and Zeppelin,” and they just sound like a karaoke. But, STP sounded like STP, but you could still hear those influences. It’s amazing.
Delta Deep will be embarking on their 2016 Sugar Shack Tour. See the dates below and to hear a sample of Delta Deep’s, Bang The Lid, click here.
Track Listing for their Live Album:
Black Dog
Bang The Lid
Miss Me
Treat Her Like Candy
Black Coffee
Burnt Sally/Rock Me
Whiskey
Shuffle Sweet
Private Number
Take Me Home For Xmas
Mistreated
Down in the Delta
Feelit
Delta Deep’s East Coast Sugar Shack Tour itinerary:
March 28 Howard Theatre Washington, DC
March 29 Ortlieb’s Lounge Philadelphia, PA
March 30 Wonder Bar Asbury Park, NJ
March 31 Iron Horse Music Hall Northampton, MA
April 3 BB Kings New York, NY
April 5 Cavern Club at Hard Rock Café Boston, MA
April 6 Daryl’s House Pawling, NY
April 8 YMCA Boulton Center Bay Shore, NY
The accolades for Joe Satriani continue to pour in as Vintage Guitar Magazine, which is celebrating 30 years of publication, has announced the winners of this year’s Readers’ Choice Awards, including Satriani as “Artist of the Year.” Winners are featured in the magazine’s April issue, available now.
In late November, Joe attended the 11th Annual Classic Rock Roll of Honour Award ceremony in London where he took home the award for “The Maestro” and was honored to present Brian May of Queen with the “Living Legends” award as well. Then, in January, Guitar World magazine announced their annual “Readers Poll” for which fans chose Satch as “Best Shredder” as well as presenting his 15th studio album, Shockwave Supernova with the “Best Shred Album of the Year.”
Released this past August, Shockwave Supernova scored the guitarist his highest chart debut at number 19 on Billboard’s Top 200 Current Albums Chart. In addition, the album also debuted at number three on the Billboard Rock Chart and ranks as the highest charting all-instrumental rock album on Billboard’s Top 200 in the SoundScan era.
Satriani’s touring band remains Marco Minnemann on drums, Bryan Beller on bass and Mike Keneally on keys & guitar. The North American Surfing to Shockwave Tour begins this week, on February 25th in Seattle, WA and continues through April 24th where it will wrap up in Vancouver, BC, see all tour dates below
Tickets and exclusive Joe Satriani meet & greet and VIP packages are available now, for details please visit satriani.com.
In other Satriani news, the guitarist recently confirmed that Chickenfoot, the band that also includes singer Sammy Hagar, bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Chad Smith, have recorded a new song and are set to play a one-off concert in the US in May. Read more here.
Surfing to Shockwave tour itinerary:
February:
25 Paramount Theatre Seattle, WA
26 Historic Elsinore Theatre Salem, OR
27 Grand Sierra Theatre Reno, NV
28 Fox Theater Oakland, CA
March:
1 Balboa Theatre San Diego, CA
2 Fox Tucson Theatre Tuscon, AZ
3 Fox Performing Arts Center Riverside, CA
4 Pearl Concert Theater @ Palms Casino Las Vegas, NV
5 Talking Stick Resort Ballroom Scottsdale, AZ
7 Historic Paramount Theatre Denver, CO
8 Abraham Chavez Theatre El Paso, TX
9 The Majestic Theatre Dallas, TX
10 House of Blues Houston, TX
11 Laurie Auditorium San Antonio, TX
12 Orpheum Theater New Orleans, LA
14 Iron City Birmingham, AL
15 Saenger Theatre Pensacola, FL
16 Parker Playhouse Ft. Lauderdale, FL
17 Ruth Eckerd Hall Clearwater, FL
18 Hard Rock Live Orlando, FL
19 Florida Theatre Jacksonville, FL
21 Carolina Theatre Durham, NC
22 Knight Theater Charlotte, NC
23 Symphony Hall Atlanta, GA
24 The National Richmond, VA
25 Sandler Center Virginia Beach, VA
26 Orpheum Theatre Boston, MA
29 College Street Music Hall New Haven, CT
30 Capitol Theatre Port Chester, NY
31 The Vets Providence, RI
April:
1 Tilles Center Brookville, LI
2 Lincoln Theatre Washington, DC
4 Count Basie Theatre Red Bank, NJ
6 Keswick Theatre Glenside, PA *
8 Danforth Music Hall Toronto, Ontario
9 UAB Center for the Arts Buffalo, NY
10 Hard Rock Cleveland, OH
12 Carnegie Music Hall Pittsburgh, PA
13 Fillmore Detroit Detroit, MI
14 Pabst Theatre Milwaukee, WI
15 Chicago Theatre Chicago, IL
16 The Fitzgerald Theatre St. Paul, MN
21 Grey Eagle Event Centre Calgary
22 River Cree Casino Enoch, AB
24 Venue to be announced Vancouver, BC
Now, Hagar explains why he decided to extend an olive branch, to his former bandmate. He tells Classic Rock Report, through kshe95, that the recent deaths of rock icons Glenn Frey and David Bowie were the motivating factor.
He explains, “It just makes you stop and think that, you know, with my relationship with Eddie Van Halen and stuff that’s always been in the toilet, it makes you say, ‘I don’t want to be buried with any regrets or bad vibes like that.’ It makes you want to be just friends with everybody and say, ‘Hey, look, forget it.’ Even if you don’t want to be in a band together, just let’s be friends. No more enemies for me. You don’t want to go to your grave with enemies. So that’s what it’s done for me. It woke me up and said, ‘no more enemies.’ And before I die, I won’t have any, if I have my way.”
Hagar remains busy with several projects, including The Circle and Chickenfoot, both of which also feature ex-Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony.
Former Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner was a recent guest on Eddie Trunk’s Sirius/XM show, Eddie Trunk Live, where he discussed his former bandmate Ritchie Blackmore. Excerpts from the interview appear below as transcribed by blabbermouth.net.
The singer criticized Blackmore by stating that he is “making a mistake” by using replacement musicians at this summer’s [Rainbow] concerts and arguing that “a man of [Blackmore’s] status, an icon, really deserves a lot more.”
When asked by Eddie if Blackmore’s announcement that Turner would not be involved with the Rainbiw comeback “stung” him at all, the singer said, “Well, I was shocked, only because for over a year… See, the truth is I wanted an authentic lineup for Rainbow. I think the way that it should have gone down is an authentic lineup. I was talking to [bassist] Bob Daisley, [drummer Bobby] Rondinelli, [bassist] Roger Glover, [keyboardist] Don Airey… There’s a whole bunch of guys out there that were really willing to sort of get involved with this… open up their schedules and get involved. And, apparently, Ritchie didn’t wanna do that. So I spent a good year of my time working that out with Carole Stevens, his manager. And I was shocked, because I’ll tell you why. She was putting my name out there — and I have all the e-mails to prove this, by the way — she was putting my name out there, and it was… even in German, with a big agency out there in Germany, saying, ‘Joe Lynn Turner and Ritchie Blackmore this June, 2016, together again. The perfect pair. Blah blah blah.’ And she was getting feedback from it.”
He continued, “I’m honestly flabbergasted, because it made so much sense, especially with the deal that was presented to him. It made so much sense… number one, for the fans. You know, I’ve read a couple of things he said. He said he was doing it for nostalgia. Well, if he was doing it for nostalgia, why wouldn’t he do it the right way? So I don’t understand that contradiction sometimes. If we were gonna do it for nostalgia, we would have done it with an aggregate of guys that were authentic. And, to me, that’s the way to come out. We would have honored Ronnie Dio’s era [Rainbow vocalist from 1975 until 1979], we would have gotten Graham Bonnet [Rainbow vocalist from 1979 until 1980] up there, Doogie White [Rainbow vocalist from 1994 until 1997] up there. To me, it was gonna be a Rainbow extravaganza, and it was all set. A few songs from these guys, a few songs from those guys… It would have been great. We would have [Ritchie’s son] Jürgen Blackmore out on guitar… family. It was just gonna be a big party, and he just didn’t go for it. So I’m still scratching my head.”
Turner added, “I thought it was a classless thing to do that Ritchie by announcing in [the French newspaper] Le Parisien [that he was going out and playing Rainbow and Deep Purple songs with a new singer]. I had to laugh. [Ritchie] said [to Le Parisien], ‘[Joe Lynn Turner] doesn’t know it yet.’ And the first thing I said was, ‘Well, I think he’s making a mistake, but he doesn’t know it yet.’ What I mean by that is, Ritchie’s allowed to do whatever he wants to do, and he always does. I have no sour grapes about this, so let that be told. But I think a man of his status, an icon, really deserves a lot more. And what we were trying to put together, and we had a turnkey operation with Live Nation, the biggest festivals of the summer; we had UMG — that’s Universal Music Group, for those out there that don’t know — we had Universal [express an interest in releasing] box sets; we also had Rock Fuel Media, a huge video company, going to put out a DVD and the whole thing. I wanted to do a new album — at least four cuts — and maybe redo some other, older cuts in a new way, sort of update them. So this was a huge package and it was gonna be a big deal. And apparently he didn’t wanna do that. So it was a shock to me that somebody would turn down not only an incredible way to, sort of, go out in style, but also to make a whole bunch of money for himself, because he was set to make quite a bit of money on this one. So I wish him well. Like I said, I’ve got no sour grapes. I’m very busy and very fortunate and blessed, and I thank everyone out there for that love and support all these years that keeps me going. But I really wish he had done it a different way for the fans. I think the fans deserve better than a cover band.”
…The singer also revealed that he has had no communication with the guitrist since Rainbow’s return was officially announced. He said, “No, I haven’t spoken to him since then. You’ve gotta understand something: he doesn’t talk to people; he talks through people. I talked to Dr. Drew Thompson, I talked to Carole Stevens… I talked to these people instead of him. He always puts them in front of him so he doesn’t have to actually converse with me — or converse with anyone, for that matter.”
He continued, “The one thing I will say I’d like to defend a bit is the fact that everybody thought I was delusional, and I know I wasn’t delusional at all; I was talking to [Ritchie’s] camp, and they were telling me this was gonna happen. So all these people that came out and said, ‘Oh, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’ And, ‘It’s all wishful thinking.’ No. That’s not the truth at all. This really was going down, and as people can see, it is going down.”
Blackmore is scheduled to perform Rainbow and Deep Purple material at three shows this year in Europe. The U.K. concert will take place on Saturday, June 25th at the Genting Arena in Birmingham. The performance will be Blackmore’s first U.K. rock show in over 20 years. The two concerts in Germany will take place at the Monsters Of Rock festival on Friday, June 17th at Freilichtbühne in Loreley and on Saturday, June 18th at Festplatz am Viadukt in Bietigheim-Bissingen. Blackmore said more shows might be added, depending on the success of the booked dates.
Shut Up & Rock On conducted an interview with Eddie and touched on topics such as his career, the future of That Metal Show and the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame. Highlights from Q&A appear below.
Shut Up & Rock On: What first made you want to pursue music as a career?
Eddie Trunk: Well, for me it was all about how can I share music that I love with other people. That’s all that mattered to me, it wasn’t about trying to become well known or anything. It was how can I take the music I love- that I thought was being very under appreciated- and get it exposed to more people. So when I was in high school I started writing stories in my high school newspaper, working in a record store, working for a management company, working for a record company and started in radio all in my first couple years out of high school. And basically, it was just all these things that I could do, all these different avenues that I could take the music I cared about and deliver it to other people and tell them that it existed…it’s still about anything I can do to sell and push the music, but I also have to keep in mind that yes I also make a living…and support a family, so I have to make sure that I’m also working as well. But that was the number one driver from the beginning…to elevate the bar, give this music the respect it deserves and maybe get away from some of the clichés that come with it too- that always kind of bothered me. I think there’s a lot more people into this music than people would know, but because they think they can figure it out just by how you look, it’s not really the truth so I was trying to break down some of those walls.
Shut Up & Rock On: Now you went to college, but you didn’t graduate right?
Eddie Trunk: I barely went to college.
Shut Up & Rock On: Did you go for music or something else?
No I didn’t go to college for anything. I went to a community college by my house and I lasted about two months, and I got a job working at a record store which at the time was like my dream job and so I was like ‘that’s it!,’ back then record stores were really something. I just decided that. I was never really good in school, and it wasn’t that I wasn’t smart, it was because unless it was something that interests me I didn’t apply myself at all. So what happened was I got the job that I always wanted, working in a record store, and I wasn’t really into going to college and I started to get into radio [a] little bit and then my parents we’re like ‘we don’t want to waste money if you’re not really gonna get into it.’ So, they said if you’re gonna go and really apply yourself then we’ll help you how ever we can, but when they saw that I was really only half into it I think that’s when they realized, you know, at that point I’m just going to kind of go on my own path. And I have to be careful when I say that because I don’t say that to discourage anyone from going to college, I just say that because for me it…it wasn’t something I really wanted to pursue. I didn’t feel that what I wanted to ultimately do for a living you could learn in school- which you can’t. You have to do it through experience.
Shut Up & Rock On: When you were younger, like back then, did you ever think you would end up, career wise, where you are right now?
Eddie Trunk: I thought I would just be a big music fan, that I would always love music and support music and be around it as much as I could. Go to as many shows as I could and be involved in it where I could. I figured maybe it will be a part time job when I got into radio- like I said to myself ‘okay, well maybe I’ll be able to do radio on the weekends and have my full time job, whatever that ends up being, during the week’. But I never really thought of the music being my sole career until my radio show moved from New Jersey into New York City, and that was in ‘94. And then that was when things opened up a lot more, that’s when I started to get a lot more interest and reach to a lot more people and started making better money. Then when that happened I said ‘okay maybe I’m going to just stay with music, maybe I’m actually going to make a career just doing this music thing’. And that’s fortunately how it’s been ever since. Very different things, you know, my world is very up and down as far as money, there’s not traditional hours, there’s nothing traditional about it. But I’m an independent contractor on everything that I do, but at the same token you know, if you are good with managing yourself and managing money and everything it’s okay. So I found a way to make it work, but I am very lucky to have taken my passion and made it my career.
Shut Up & Rock On: What made you want to start a podcast?
Eddie Trunk: I had resisted doing a podcast for a long time. The reason why is because I said ‘well I already have two radio shows a week what am I going to go on a podcast? How is it going to be different?’ I also was concerned that if I’m going to interview somebody, do I need to do the interview 3 times now for the same thing? It would be redundant. But a company came to me about a year and a half ago called PodcastOne…and they told me that they really don’t care what I do as long as you give us new content one time a week, I said okay I’ll give it a shot. So I started it, I guess it’s about a little over a year and half ago and it’s done tremendously well. I mean it’s amazing how many people listen to it and download it and I hear from people all over the world and it’s really cool. You know I can’t play music on the podcast because of publishing issue- but it’s cool how just hearing me talk about something or recommend something is enough to get someone to go out and buy it.
Shut Up & Rock On: I assume you still don’t know that much about what’s happening with That Metal Show. In the case that it doesn’t get renewed, what do you think you’ll be doing?
Eddie Trunk: We’re hoping to know what the future of the show is in the next month or so and we’re certainly hoping that we continue with VH1 classic or we find a new home for it. When we know that we’ll go to the next step but you know, nothing lasts forever and one day the show will go away. And if it’s now or in five years we don’t know…but when the day comes that the show does end- and I told everybody the same thing. I’ve been working in the music industry for twenty five years before That Metal Show even existed, nothing’s gonna change for me, I’m gonna keep doing what I always do. Keep doing my radio shows, keep doing my podcast and keep looking for new opportunities in TV or radio or whatever. So, nothing will change I’ll just keep fighting the fight and seeing where it takes me. It’s all I can do.
Shut Up & Rock On: How do you feel now that you’ve gotten to vote for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Eddie Trunk: Well, they are well aware of me screaming about them for a long time. And I think that, um, my take is that they really are starting to want to make some changes. I really do want to try to make it better and they’ve shown some signs of doing that. And there’s a bunch of people that are on the inside and part of the committee there and everything that had been pushing them for a long time to bring me on as a voting member. So, the last guy to actually really push and put my name in was Tom Morello and I got a call from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s office just before this voting panel and they said ‘we were referred to you by Tom Morello and we would like to see if you would like to be a voter’. But, you know I thought about it for a second and really for me yelling and screaming about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it would have been pretty idiotic for me to turn it down because here’s the opportunity for me to actually help make a change and I’m saying no? That would be just dumb, so I thought about it for a second and I said ‘yeah, sure!’ Just to be clear on it, I don’t pick who is eligible, I pick from the list they make of eligible artists- the eleven or twelve people each year- and I vote from there. So, this was the first year I got to vote and three of the five people I voted for made it, so that’s a pretty good ratio. I wish I could pick the football games that well.
