Greg Prato of Bravewords spoke with Wendy Dio. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
BraveWords: How is Ronnie’s autobiography coming along?
Wendy Dio: It’s coming along slowly. It’s one of the things I have to get done this year, but we’ve been, so, so busy with a big surprise I will tell you about later on.
BraveWords: Do you agree that Ronnie’s music is as popular as it’s ever been?
Wendy Dio: I would think so, absolutely. Our fanbase for the past six years, we have 2.5 million people on our Facebook page. My whole thing is to keep Ronnie’s music and his legacy alive. I think that also, Ronnie is one of the innovators, and all the innovators are getting older, passing away, or retiring. Really, you can’t reinvent the wheel that many times. All these bands – Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden – when they’re gone, there’s not that much coming up to take their place.
Axl Rose says he’s presented his Guns N’ Roses bandmates Slash and Duff McKagan with new material.
The GN’R frontman also hints he might collaborate with his current AC/DC colleague Angus Young. The band hired him to replace Brian Johnson in April, after the singer was advised by doctors to stop performing or risk total hearing loss.
Axl says, “We are working on new stuff. I got a lot of stuff together and I played some stuff for Slash and Duff and they liked it, they might be on it…we don’t know. Angus and I are talking about working together.”
The vocalist also discussed his chemistry with Angus Young, saying he felt “protective” of him.
He adds, “It’s great. I can’t really explain it. I feel protective, like I do not want to let this guy down, more than almost anybody I’ve ever met – and I don’t know why.
He’s very responsive to me. And they said they hadn’t seen him this happy, they hadn’t seen him moving around between songs as much before. So that’s kind of a neat thing between musicians.”
AC/DC and Rose are currently touring in support of their latest album Rock Or Bust. Guns N’ Roses hit the road on their Not In This Lifetime tour later this month.
“In the desire to have my drumming spirit continue to live, I’m pleased to say that I’ve helped to create a new three-piece band called “Day of Errors,” accompanied by two guest musicians playing keyboards and percussion. We play loud, hard, with overtures of gut-kicking heavy, heavy parts.
Day of Errors lineup is:
Joe Amodea – Guitar/Vocals
Nick Diltz – Bass/Lead Vocals
Bill Ward – Drums/Vocals
Guest Musicians:
Walter Earl – Percussion
Aron Ward – Kybd
More information will follow.”
Ward’s new group arrives as his old one, Black Sabbath, prepares to embark on their last set of live dates. The drummer and band acrimoniously split in 2012 before Sabbath recorded their final album, 13, replacing Ward with Rage Against the Machine’s Brad Wilk.
Ward’s latest effort was a solo album titled, Accountable Beasts, released in 2015.
GRAMMY Award®-nominated, gold-certified Danish hard rock outfit VOLBEAT unleashed their anxiously awaited sixth full-length album, Seal The Deal & Let’s Boogie [Republic Records], this past Friday in stores and at all digital retailers and can be ordered here. Upon release, the record stormed up the charts hitting #1 in over 15 countries, #1 on the U.S. Rock Albums Chart, and U.S. Metal Albums Chart.
In addition, Volbeat just announced a massive North American tour kicking off at Rise Above Festival in Bangor, ME and including appearing with Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold at the first ever rock show in the brand new U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN as well as appearances at Heavy MTL in Montreal, High Elevation Fest in Denver, CO and Rock Allegiance Festival in Philadelphia, PA.
Special guests Killswitch Engage and Black Wizard will be supporting the band throughout the tour. Additionally, the tickets for the Volbeat headline dates will include a copy of Seal The Deal & Let’s Boogie in your choice of digital download or CD (plus postage). If you’ve already purchased the album, you’ll also have the option of gifting your free copy. Pre-sales begin tomorrow at 10AM local time at volbeat.dk/us/. See the full itinerary below.
Seal The Deal & Let’s Boogie track listing:
1. The Devil’s Bleeding Crown
2. Marie Laveau
3. The Bliss
4. The Gates of Babylon
5. Let It Burn
6. Black Rose
7. Rebound
8. Mary Jane Kelly
9. Goodbye Forever
10. Seal The Deal
11. Battleship Chains
12. You Will Know
13. The Loa’s Crossroad
2016 U.S. and Canada Tour Dates:
8/6 Bangor, ME Rise Above Festival
8/7 Montreal, QC Heavy MTL
8/8 Brooklyn, NY The Amphitheater At Coney Island Boardwalk*
8/11 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE*
8/12 Detroit, MI Masonic Temple#
8/13 Columbus, OH LC Pavilion – Blitz Summer Smoke Out
8/15 Tulsa, OK Brady Theater*
8/16 Dallas, TX Bomb Factory*
8/18 Springfield, IL Illinois State Fair*
8/19 Omaha, NE Westfair Amphitheater*
8/20 Minneapolis, MN U.S. Bank Stadium^
8/21 Madison, WI Expo Hall*
8/23 Des Moines, IA 7 Flags Event Center*
8/24 Brookings, SD Swiftel Center*
8/25 Fargo, ND Scheels Arena*
8/27 Edmonton, AB Rexall*
8/28 Regina, SK Evraz Place*
8/30 Calgary, AB Grey Eagle Event Center*
9/2 Palmer, AK Alaska State Fair
9/5 Seattle, WA WaMu Theater*
9/6 Spokane, WA Star Theater at Spokane Arena*
9/7 Boise, ID Taco Bell Arena*
9/9 Salt Lake City, UT The Complex*
9/10 Denver, CO High Elevation Festival
9/18 Chester, PA Rock Allegiance Festival
^With Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold
*Support from Killswitch Engage and Black Wizard
#Support from Black Wizard
Assembling as a politically-charged response to 2016’s tumultuous election year, the newly-formed Prophets Of Rage, features Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, Brad Wilk, Chuck D, B-Real and DJ Lord.
Best described by Morello as an, “elite task force of revolutionary musicians determined to confront this mountain of election year bullshit,” the group combines the sonic firepower of Rage Against The Machine, Public Enemy and Cypress Hill. The band has said that “dangerous times demand dangerous songs” and has fans using #MakeAmericaRAGEAgain and #TakeThePowerBack to engage across social media. In what the LA Times headlined simply as “Revolutionary,” the band’s mission is clear, promising “No Sleep till Cleveland,” the home of the 2016 Republican National Convention this July, where they have a planned performance on July 19th.
Following two sold-out shows at The Whisky and The Hollywood Palladium that had thousands of hopeful fans lined up in Los Angeles this week, and a sold-out show in Brooklyn at Warsaw Ballroom, the group has announced a national 35+ city North American tour, bringing their raging messages to the masses. The Make America Rage Again Tour, will begin in Cleveland, OH on July 19th, in tandem with the Republican National Convention. From there the tour will include stops in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Chicago, Nashville and Atlanta before concluding in San Diego, mere weeks before 2016 Election Day. A portion of the proceeds from each show will benefit a local homeless charity.
Ticket on-sales begin Friday, June 10th at Live Nation (www.livenation.com), check local listings for timing.
Prophets Of Rage tour dates:
July 19 Cleveland, OH TBD
Aug. 19 Fairfax, VA EagleBank Arena
Aug. 20 Camden, NJ BB&T Pavilion
Aug. 21 Mansfield, MA Xfinity Center
Aug. 23 Hartford, CT The Xfinity Theatre
Aug. 24 Toronto, ON Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
Aug. 26 Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Arts Center
Aug. 27 Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center
Aug. 28 Wantagh, NY Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
Aug. 30 Noblesville, IN Klipsch Music Center
Aug. 31 Burgettstown, PA First Niagara Pavilion
Sept. 1 Clarkston, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
Sept. 3 Tinley Park, IL Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Sept. 4 St. Louis, MO Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Sept. 5 Kansas City, MO Providence Medical Center Amphitheater
Sept. 7 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Sept. 10 Auburn, WA White River Amphitheatre
Sept. 11 Ridgefield, WA Sunlight Supply Amphitheatre
Sept. 13 Mt. View, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre
Sept. 15 Los Angeles, CA The Forum
Sept. 17 Phoenix, AZ Ak-Chin Pavilion
Sept. 25 Dallas, TX Gexa Energy Pavilion
Sept. 27 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
Sept. 29 VA Beach, VA Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
Oct. 1 Tampa, FL MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater at Encore Park
Oct. 2 West Palm Beach, FL Perfect Vodka Amp
Oct. 4 Alpharetta, GA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Oct. 5 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center
Oct. 7 Tulsa, OK BOK Center
Oct. 8 Houston, TX Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Oct. 9 San Antonio, TX AT&T Center
Oct. 11 El Paso, TX El Paso County Coliseum
Oct. 12 Albuquerque, NM Isleta Amphitheatre
Oct. 14 Las Vegas, NV Mandalay Bay Event Center
Oct. 16 Chula Vista, CA Sleep Train Amphitheatre
Melinda Newman of Billboard spoke with Christopher Duddy, who directed Duff McKagan’s documentary, It’s So Easy and Other Lies. Portions of the interview appear below.
Billboard: You and Duff met in the least rock and roll way possible: walking your kids to school.
Duddy: We had moved in to a nice neighborhood in Sherman Oaks [in Los Angeles], and unbeknownst to me, Duff lived about three houses up from us. We became fast friends. We’d watch NFL games together. We saw each other every day. It was cool to see somebody like that was super down to earth, a guy you’d want to hang out with.
Billboard: How did you go from friends to helming the documentary?
Duddy: We all know Duff from Guns N’ Roses forward. I didn’t know much about his backstory. The book struck a chord with me so I approached him [about] a documentary. He said no, he didn’t want to do that, he thought the book was good enough. I just didn’t give up on it.
Billboard: The documentary spends little time on Guns N’ Roses. Duff talks about the first time he hears Axl sing, but there’s no footage of them in the studio or mention of their breaking up. Why?
Duddy: Duff was real adamant from the beginning that he didn’t want this to be a Guns N’ Roses documentary. I didn’t either, because it’s a story about his journey through life and successes and darkness. During the course of us making the movie, the talks started about the reunion tour and Duff wanted to be real sensitive about that and not convolute anything with that going on.
Billboard: Guns N’ Roses members Slash and Matt Sorum are in it. Did you ask Axl to participate?
Duddy: We reached out gently. He can be a volatile guy, so we really didn’t want to disrupt anything with his camp and with the talk of this reunion tour. I sent his manager a rough cut of the movie. I didn’t want to push too hard on that. It is what it is.
Billboard: This was shot over a three-year period?
Duddy: It was shot in spurts over three years. Before the [Guns N’ Roses] reunion, Duff’s been in like five bands. He was constantly going on tour and I would lose him for a month at a time. I’ve never seen anybody as busy as that guy.
Billboard: Are you tying in with the Guns N’ Roses reunion tour or is this timing just coincidence?
Duddy: It’s pretty much lucky coincidence for the filmmakers and producers. This movie was done a year ago. Not in our wildest dreams did we know this movie was going to hit the same summer they’re doing this monster tour. That was just luck of the draw. That’s the silver lining at the end of this very long process.
