Great White frontman Jack Russell is filming a documentary about the infamous fire that killed 100 people during a 2003 performance at a club in Rhode Island, The Associated Press reports.
“It’s a story of my life intertwined with the story of the fire,” Russell said of the film during an interview on Portland radio station 105.9 the Brew. “It’s really hard, you know, but it’s going to give me a chance to apologize and say how I feel about it. I never had the chance to say, ‘I’m sorry.'”
The fire at the Station club in West Warwick, Rhode Island broke out when the band’s pyrotechnics display ignited flammable soundproofing foam installed in the venue. Over 200 people were injured, with Great White guitarist Ty Longley being among the 100 fatalities.
While Russell was not charged, he and Great White did settle a $1 million lawsuit with victims of the fire, which was part of an overall $176 million settlement fund. Those who were indicted included Great White’s tour manager, Daniel Michael Biechele — who was operating the pyrotechnics without a permit — and Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, the brothers who owned the Station. All three struck plea deals, with Biechele and Michael Derderian serving prison time.
“It was like the 9/11 of rock and roll,” Russell told the Brew. “I have this survivor’s guilt, like, why did I get to live when so many other people didn’t? I feel guilty for people coming to see me play and losing their lives. It’s really hard to deal with it. It’s not like I had anything personally to do … It was just a horrible accident.”
Russell said he was anxious to tell his side of the story through the documentary partly because in the immediate aftermath, his lawyers advised him not to apologize, as it would imply guilt. While Russell hoped making the film would help bring him some closure, some friends and family of the Station fire victims were angered by his remarks.
When hair metal bands reigned supreme in the ’80s, Poison definitely did their share…Before his band took off, frontman Bret Michaels admits to making some of the same questionable fashion choices that many fell prey to in the decade. “I have a lot of great memories of that era. I have a lot of memories of me wearing the powder blue tux that I thought looked good. That’s all I’m going to say,” he tells Billboard.
In addition to his work with Poison, the singer has proven to be a Renaissance man with a successful resume that includes solo albums and tours, reality TV shows, a line of pet products — Pets Rock by Bret Michaels — and winning Celebrity Apprentice in 2010. Here Michaels serves up his list of favorite hair metal bands:
1. Guns N’ Roses
“To me, one of the best Rock N’ Roll records ever is Appetite For Destruction. It’s still part of my party bus iPod.”
2. Def Leppard
“Because I’ve toured with them, I love them as people. They still have two of the best-produced records in history — Hysteria and Pyromania. Mutt Lange did them and Mutt Lange is a production guru.”
3. Bon Jovi
“Because he just writes damn good songs.”
4. Mötley Crüe
“I’ve toured with Mötley Crüe. I just think in the end they’ve got great rock songs.”
Legendary rock giants Guns N’ Roses are ”days away” from announcing a world reunion tour next year, Dish Nation is exclusively reporting.
Guitarist Slash has confirmed that he and lead singer Axl Rose have reconciled after almost a decade of arguments and now Los Angeles music insiders close to the band say they have tentatively agreed to perform together again in 2016.
It’s expected that they will headline several festivals across Europe and the United States before heading out on a staggered world tour that will coincide with their 30th anniversary.
“Slash and Axl have verbally agreed to get things together again and reform the original band. The live shows is where they can show the world what they had and also make the greatest earnings,” a music insider exclusively told Dish.
“Promoters are quietly working away to land opportunities. Details of the reunion are expected to leak out in the next few days. Everyone is expecting huge demand for tickets, but the boys are very humble and are not sure what to expect.”
Reports have recently come out saying that the band has been offered gigs in Australia, Sweden and Portugal — although reps for the band have refused to comment.
Last month a friend close to Slash confirmed that he and Axl are now talking again and a comeback tour is close to being revealed.
Marketing experts say that the American band are on course to bank a whopping $100 million thanks to ticket sales, CD revenue, licensing and merchandising.
“I know that he and Axl talking again is a really good sign, because we all grew up loving Guns N’ Roses. I mean I am an LA kid and I remember when they were playing the Sunset Strip,” Slash’s close friend John Murdy told the UK’s Mirror.
“It is so cool to see these guys back when they have been around so long.”
Guns N’ Roses keyboard player Dizzy Reed recently hinted a band comeback is close, too.
“And that’s fine, things will come out when they’re ready and we’ll go on tour when we’re ready…”
Even Slash, who refused to speak with Axl, has painted the singer in a more positive light.
“There’s no animosity. Over time we all just got sick and tired of the black cloud,” Slash said in an interview with CBS.
“The biggest thing that happens when you have a break up that is less than harmonious, you build up a bad energy because of the distance. The bad feelings get exaggerated.”
It has been over two decades since Slash, Axl, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin and drummer Matt Sorum all stood on stage together to perform on their “Use Your Illusion” tour.
It wrapped July 17, 1993 in Argentina, and since then Axl has only since brought Duff and Izzy onto the stage with his new Guns N’ Roses band. However, he refused to appear at the 2012 Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Museum induction.
The band — which started in a Hollywood deli and were signed in 1986 — sold over 100 million albums worldwide.
Delores Rhoads, the mother of guitar legend Randy Rhoads, has died at the age of 95.
Bassist Rudy Sarzo, who played with Rhoads in Quiet Riot shared the news wrote on his Facebook page, “The world today has lost one of the most gracious and sweetest ladies I’m blessed to have known, Delores Rhoads. Please keep her and the Rhoads family in your prayers.”
Delores Rhoads graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor’s degree in music and founded the Musonia School of Music in North Hollywood, Calif., in 1949. After receiving his first guitar at the age of six-and-a-half, Randy began taking lessons at Musonia.
Randy’s brother Kelle told Patch.com, “She plays 15 instruments; her main instruments were trumpet and cornet. She primarily excelled in brass. She changed a policy at UCLA when she was a music student there. A woman couldn’t sit first-chair in the brass section. Until my mom. My mom challenged this because she was so much better than the guys. So they had a little contest, she smoked them, and she was the very first woman that got to sit first-chair in a brass section. In the very early ’40s. She graduated in 1944 and got married. Plays piano, violin, flute, flugelhorn.”
When discussing Randy once, Delores stated, “Randy grew up musically in my school. I am sure he was influenced by this in many ways. He started when he was so young, he was somewhere between six-and-a-half and seven when he started lessons. In those days, way back then, we started them with the folk guitar where they learned the chords and a few pop songs.”
But she also made sure that he learned that being able to play simple pop songs was only a small part of the equation. “To play in my little group that I had even way back then,” she continued, “he had to read [music notation], because he couldn’t play in the group unless he read. And then I worked with him when he was very young. I gave him some piano lessons, so he had to learn to read. I always make my students count very accurately and read properly and do everything the right way, so he had some help in that.”
Rhoads’ 50-second classical guitar interlude from Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz, Dee was written as a tribute to her.
Huge response to part 1 of my podcast with Billy Squier from my archives. Part 2 goes up tomorrow. As usual it is free worldwide via Itunes or www.podcastone.com . Just search The Eddie Trunk Podcast. Upcoming podcasts include Richie Kotzen, Rickey Medlocke, Michael Monroe and more.
I’ll be premiering a brand new track from The Last In Line this Monday on my SiriusXM show. The band is the original Dio band with singer Andrew Freeman. Very good new album from these guys. Much like Black Star Riders who were born out of Thin Lizzy, TLIL will play classic Dio but also has some killer new music as you are about to hear. Thrilled to have the US premiere this Monday. The album is out in Feb and the band played the Def Leppard Cruise in Jan which I will be hosting.
The benefit I’m hosting for Tony Macalpine in LA is on sale now. Tom Morello has just been added to the jam. This is going to be a special night for a great cause. Please come out if in the LA area 12/12 to The Wiltern. Then the next night is Lemmy’s 70th! 12/14 it’s Trunk Nation live again from LA on SiriusXM!
Just had a great meeting with my agent and the producer for TMS. Hope to have some news for you about future episodes soon. Won’t be before early next year however. Enjoy the replays in the meantime on VH1 C and thanks for your support and interest in the show. When I know you’ll know.
Orders for signed copies of either of my books as holiday gifts are coming in. Hit the Books tab or banner on this site for order info and remember to put Vol 1 or 2 with the order. US shipping only.
I’ll be in Buffalo (for the first time in 30 years) and Syracuse (for the first time ever!) this weekend with Don & Jim. Hope to see you at The Waiting Room or Palace Theater if in these areas. Info on the home page.
And THANK YOU to the REAL rock stars, our Veterans! Appreciate your service!
All roads have led to this. Forty-one years in the making, the R40 Live tour took a very real journey back through time. Beginning with the grand design: a state-of-the-art stage set that pivots, rolls and dives, and brings Clockwork Angels in to bombastic, colorful life before marching stridently back in time (through theater stages, a panoply of band and fan shots, the accrued memories of a life spent playing live) to a mocked-up school gym and the band playing there; a solitary bass amp set on the chair behind Geddy Lee, a mirror ball spiraling crazily above, casting thin rods of light like a light rain across the crowd, Working Man coming to a shuddering halt as the band’s beginning becomes their end.
Rush recorded and filmed R40 Live over two sold-out shows in the band’s hometown of Toronto at the Air Canada Centre on June 17th & 19th, 2015 in the middle of their R40 Live 35-date North American tour.
R40 Live had the trio of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart, performing a career-spanning live retrospective, celebrating their 40+ years together. The epic live shows by the Rock Hall of Famers were captured with 14 cameras to present the band feature-film style.
The center-point of this tour was the remarkable setlist, coupled with their idea of a “de-evolution” set design. When the band opened the show with cuts Headlong Flight and The Anarchist from their most recent studio recording, 2012’s Clockwork Angels, they did so with all the bells and whistles from that extensive tour. They worked backwards through their catalog as the show progressed, the innovative set design making for constant visual eye-candy, as stagehands exchanged the gear and props on stage to resemble the era-correct tour staging in accordance with the songs being played.
The first set featured the infamous dryers on stage while they played Roll The Bones, Subdivisions, and for the first time ever live, Losing It featuring violinist Ben Mink, who appeared on the original studio recording from 1982’s Signals.
The second set opened with classics Tom Sawyer, followed by crowd favorite, The Spirit of Radio, but also included Jacob’s Ladder, which hasn’t been performed live since 1980 on their Permanent Waves tour.
The last few songs of the R40 were set against the persimmon curtained theatre-looking stage, with the crowd raising their lighters and camera phones to Closer to the Heart, and then Alex and Geddy appeared with their signature doubleneck guitars as they played Xanadu, into the epic 2112 and encored with Lakeside Park/Anthem and What You’re Doing/Working Man.
The concert film also includes the the band’s renowned tour videos, highlighted by Roll The Bones (R40 Live), that features an array of special guests in the rap part of the song: Jay Baruchel (She’s Out Of My League), Les Claypool (Primus), Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), The Trailer Park Boys, and Jason Segel & Paul Rudd (I Love You, Man). It is the first time the band put the song back in the setlist since the R30 tour, a full decade ago. During the R40 Live tour, Roll The Bones gained new life and became a fan-favorite with an arena sing-along to the chorus “Why are we here? Because we’re here – Roll The Bones.”
Singer/Bassist Geddy Lee explained how the large group of cameo appearances came about, “We had this older video of an animated skeleton doing the “rap” part of Roll The Bones, and felt it was time to update the concept for this tour. So, after a lot of joking around with our show design team, we thought it would fun if we called upon some of our well-known pals and see if they wanted to have some fun with the lyrics. There were so many good and funny moments that it was hard to choose, some really hilarious and outrageous stuff. I’m so glad it worked out as it brought a big smile to the faces in the audience (and to us) every single night!”
R40 Live audio was produced by Rush & David Botrill, and mixed by David Botrill (Tool, Muse); the film was directed by Dale Heslip, and produced by Allan Weinrib. The live photograph on the cover of R40 was shot by baseball Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, who captured the band in a rare moment when both Geddy Lee and Alex LIfeson were on Neil Peart’s drum kit riser. “As a friend and fan of Rush, and the passion I have for photography to capture moments, it’s great that both can blend together in a lasting impression, here for the world to see,” commented the self-described ‘6”10 ninja in the photo pit,” who was on a portion of the tour in his new role as photographer.
