Category : LATEST NEWS

FORMER WIFE OF KISS DRUMMER, PETER CRISS, SAYS HIS BOOK IS “NOT ACCURATE”

Greg Prato of Songfacts spoke with original KISS drummer Peter Criss’ ex wife Lydia. Excerpts from interview appear below.

Songfacts: Was Beth about you or the wife of Peter’s bandmate from a pre-KISS band?

Lydia Criss: Originally, the song wasn’t a sweet song like it is now – it was a mean song. It was written about Peter’s guitar player’s wife [when Peter was in a band called Chelsea]. His name was Michael Brand, and her name was Rebecca – and everyone called her “Beck.” You know, Becky. So when the song was written, it was written like, “Beck I hear you calling, but I ain’t coming home right now. Me and the boys are playing.” It’s like, “It’s too bad for you” – that type of song.

I’ll never forget, Peter was so excited when he first wrote the song. We were waiting for him – we were having dinner in a restaurant – and he showed up late. He said, “I couldn’t leave. We were finishing the song, and it came out so great!” He used to tape everything on a little cassette deck that he used to carry with him, so he played us the song in the restaurant. It was on an acoustic guitar and it wasn’t that nice of a song. So it’s like, “Fine. Whatever. We’re hungry, let’s eat.”

He was in Chelsea in 1970 to 1971, then he was in Lips – it was written with one of the guys from Lips, which is Stan Penridge. Then he presented it to KISS, because he wanted to get a song on an album, because basically, all the songs were written by Gene and Paul. So he presented it to them, and they didn’t like it. They said, “We’re not putting a ballad on. We’re not that type of a band.” And [KISS manager] Bill Aucoin insisted that they do it.

So, Gene was a little perplexed. He says, “Well, we can’t call it ‘Beck,’ because of Jeff Beck.” Gene will never give me credit for this, because I know he takes credit for it, but it was me that named the song “Beth,” because it was funny that Becky was a twin, and [head of Casablanca Records] Neil Bogart was married to a Beth, and she was a twin. It just kind of related. It got in my head, and I remember sitting in a limo one day… I don’t think Ace was around and I’m not sure about Paul, but I know Gene and Peter were in the limo, and I was there. And I said, “How about ‘Beth’?” They didn’t say anything…

Songfacts: How would you describe the personalities of the original KISS members?

Lydia: They’re all really nice guys. I know a lot of people say certain ones are a–holes and this and that, but Gene is – as you know – intelligent. He’s very business-oriented. When I would have a conversation with Gene, that’s primarily what it would be about: finances. Paul was a type of guy that was always trying to make people laugh. We’d always talk about blouses and clothing, and the different things that are in style. And then we would also talk about diets and stuff like that. That was how I related to Paul.

But Paul was actually the closest to Peter, because they shared a room – when they had to share rooms at the beginning. And we didn’t live too far from each other. We lived on 30th Street, he lived on 52nd. So it was only about 20 blocks, which is a mile. We went on vacation together and we used to go to clubs together.

As far as Ace goes, Ace is just a happy-go-lucky guy. He was probably my favorite of the band.

Peter is a very sentimental, sweet guy, but yet, if you say something wrong, he’ll snap. I think he even says he’s schizophrenic.

Songfacts: Did you get a chance to read Peter’s book [2012’s Makeup to Breakup: My Life in and Out of KISS]?

Lydia: I did read Peter’s book. I read it – believe it or not – with a highlighter. [Laughs] So everything that was wrong, I highlighted. And let me tell you, there is a lot of highlighted parts. He’s not accurate. He’s also an exaggerator. There were some things that I was a little bit surprised to hear, but kind of felt it always in the back of my mind. I didn’t know a certain part of his life: When he was going through rehab and stuff like that, I wasn’t with him. I heard about it vaguely through my mother, who had a friend that knew someone that was in the rehab place with him. I’d hear drips and drabs of things that were happening, but didn’t really keep in touch with him.

Peter put in the beginning of the book – which kind of saves his ass – “The names have been changed to protect the innocent.” He talks about something that happened with Bill Aucoin, but yet, he says it was Sean Delany – or vice-versa. The thing is, the people he really says bad things about aren’t around anymore, so they can’t defend themselves and they can’t sue him – like Sean Delany and Bill Aucoin.

Songfacts: I really believe that your Sealed with a KISS book is one of the best books on KISS out there, and I have a feeling it is one of more accurate books, as well.

Lydia: It is the most honest and it’s the most accurate. I wrote down a lot of things. I had a little bit that was a diary when we went to Europe, but then I had a composition notebook, which there is a picture of in my book, where I kept all of the records of Peter’s shows before he was in KISS. And some of the stuff that is on the list is also KISS before Bill Aucoin. So it’s some of the Daisy and the Diplomat and the Coventry – those shows.

It’s accurate with how long they played, what they played – I actually have what their salaries were, but I didn’t put that in the book, because it was a joke. [Laughs] They were lucky if they got paid that night, after they would pay some of their little help. They had a couple of road guys: Peter’s brother, Bobby McAdams, and Eddie Sloan. If they got $35, that was a lot. I kept records of everything, because my background was bookkeeping. I never planned on doing the book, but for some reason, it helped.

Songfacts: And there is a newer revised version of the book, right?

Lydia: The thing is, by the time I was finishing my book, I was practically on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It took me a whole year, without seeing any of my relatives. I would stay up until 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, the sun would come up, I would go to sleep, get up at 2:00, and start all over again. I got to the point where I was going to put the list of all of Peter’s shows and some extra photos, and I just said, “I’m going to leave it out. I’m not going to put it in the book.” It already had 368 pages.

I wanted to get the book out for Christmas, so you have to get it out in the summer – before the fall. So I successfully got it out – I think it was the beginning of September – and then when I finally sold out of the book, I was a little calmer by then, and I said, “Let me put what I didn’t put in the first book in the second printing.” So that’s what I did.

Read more at Songfacts.

source: songfacts.com

THE SCORPIONS TO RELEASE A TOUR EDITION OF “RETURN TO FOREVER” IN APRIL

The Scorpions will release a tour edition of 2015’s, Return To Forever, on April 22nd, in North America.

The expanded version features seven bonus songs along side the original record, plus two brand new live DVD’s presenting two complete concerts from last year. One from the French Hellfest, and the other from the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn.

The April release coincides with The Scorpions Las Vegas residency this Spring.

Blacked Out In Vegas is a five night run at The Joint at the Hard Rock Casino in May, with special guest, Queensryche.

source: hennemusic.com

LITA FORD DISHES ON TONY IOMMI, JON BON JOVI, RICHIE SAMBORA, AND OTHERS, IN HER BOOK, “LIVING LIKE A RUNAWAY”

Larry Getlen of the New York Post has written a feature article about guitarist Lita Ford’s new memoir, Living Like a Runaway. Excerpts from the article appear below.

No one lived larger than sexy heavy-metal guitarist and singer Lita Ford.

When Ford recorded her 1984 album, Dancin’ on the Edge, in New York, Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora were ­recording nearby, and would ­often hang out.

After a night out at the club Traxx — with Ford’s best friend Toni and keyboardist Aldo Nova also in tow — Ford brought the crew back to her room at the Broadway Plaza Hotel.

Ford and Bon Jovi were making out in one bed and Sambora and Toni on another, as Nova “watched, sipping his red wine, as we tried to fit him in, too.”

All the wine got to Bon Jovi, who “began puking in the corner, right on the bedroom carpet.”

At that point, Toni felt generous. “Toni hopped off Richie,” Ford writes, “as if to say, ‘Here, Lita. Try mine.’ So I got in bed with Richie.”

The room then turned into a scene from “Caligula.”

“Holy s–t,” Ford writes in her new memoir, Living Like a Runaway (Dey Street). “Richie Sambora is the king of swing, I must say. Jon recovered from puking and Aldo finally made his way into the action, and it turned into girl-on-guy fun at the Broadway Plaza Hotel.”

Lita Ford was a rarity then, and now — a female solo artist in hard rock, a style of music that enthralled her early on…Ford, who began playing guitar at ten and writes that she mastered Led Zeppelin’s licks by age thirteen.

…Throughout the book, Ford details a series of mentors and lovers — often the same person — that reads like a who’s who of rock royalty.

She got crabs from Dee Dee Ramone and freaked out Who bassist John Entwistle when, after removing her pants, she had black and blue marks along her legs. While “John was looking at me like I was into sadomaso­chism or something,” the bruises had come from horseback riding, and ultimately gave Entwistle no pause about spending the night.

Her friends with benefits ­included Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore and Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton, both of whom she describes as perfect gentlemen, and Edward — not Eddie — Van Halen, as she says he actually disliked his commonly used nickname.

Ford shares the time in 1980 that she and Van Halen were drinking vodka and trying on each other’s clothes in her living room. Ford had a T-shirt that read, in part, “Beat me. Bite me. Whip me. F–k me,” among other such sentiments. They were fooling around on the floor when she felt someone kicking her ankle, and found Mark, a large man she had recently broken up with, staring down at them. He had “climbed up the balconies and came through the sliding-glass door.”

Van Halen, drunk, freaked out. He “backed his way toward the bathroom and said, ‘Well, if you’re going to kill me, just bury me with my guitar.’ Then he slammed shut the bathroom door and locked it.”

Ford got Mark to leave, but when she checked the bathroom, Van Halen was gone, despite the only exit being one “tiny, tiny window” over the shower.

He had, in fact, “managed to squeeze his body through that window, scraping up his entire stomach, [and] dropped down four stories.”

At the height of his fame, he had to borrow a dime from a kid on the street — while wearing Ford’s T-shirt — to call 911.

Years later, Ford…got to open for Black Sabbath, and spent time after with her idol, [guitarist] Tony Iommi. “He seemed so charming, confident and handsome,” she writes. “I would later find out that looks are deceiving.”

They “fooled around a bit” that night, but “that’s as far as he was able to get because he was so high,” she writes, having noted the copious amounts of cocaine present.

“He was impotent from his constant drug use, and he was very embarrassed. I felt bad for him and didn’t really know what to do. Eventually, I got him off.”

They stayed in touch, the relationship progressed and she was thrilled when Iommi invited her to England to meet his “mum.”

The couple were on the plane, and as soon as it started moving, Iommi, “out of nowhere . . . hauled off and punched me in the eye.”

She was now stranded on a 10-hour flight with a man who had just mysteriously transitioned from lover to abuser, and spent the entire 10 hours in the flight attendants’ station. She planned to fly right back to LA when they landed, but Iommi acted like nothing had happened, and she decided to stay, she writes, “like a moron.”

Iommi’s mother saw her black eye, and Ford learned that abuse ran in the family, as the guitarist’s father used to do the same.

She and Iommi were eventually engaged, and he would go on to physically abuse her four or five times during their relationship. The worst came shortly after he gave her the ring.

“After snorting tons of blow, he got angry and choked me unconscious,” she writes. “When I woke up, I saw him holding a chair above my head. It was a big, heavy leather chair with studs around the arms, and he was about to smash it over my face. I rolled over, and luckily I moved fast enough that he missed me and the chair smashed into the ground.”

She ran outside and thought of the safest place she could go. Eliminating her parents’ house, since her fathered would have “murdered” Iommi, she drove to the home of ex-boyfriend Nikki Sixx from ­Mötley Crüe.

Sixx told her, “I’ll be right back. I have something that will help make you feel better.” He drove, Ford writes, to the home of Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby, and returned with heroin. While not her drug, Sixx told her it would take the pain away. She snorted some and fell asleep.

She broke with Iommi — who, in a final indignity, recruited her band to work with him instead behind her back — but he wouldn’t be the worst she would face.

About 50 pages before the book’s end, Ford includes an Author’s Note, stating that, “out of respect for my children, I have chosen not to write in detail about their father, my husband of almost 18 years.”

Ford was married to Jim Gillette — she refers to him in the book by his last name only — who previously sang for an impossibly screechy ’80s metal band called ­Nitro.

She strongly implies that many of the changes in her life — from a move to Turks & Caicos, which she hated, to her getting four tattoos that paid tribute to her husband, to the release of a 2009 comeback ­album, Wicked Wonderland, that was quickly regarded as her worst — were happening under coercion.

At one point, Ford flew to LA to meet with TLC about a possible ­reality show for the family. She claims in the book that upon her return, both her husband and her two young sons refused to speak to her. That was six years ago, and her sons have not spoken to her since. She’s now divorced.

…Lita Ford will appear Monday, Feb. 22, at Word Bookstore at St. Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, and Tuesday, Feb. 23, at Barnes & Noble in Tribeca, both at 7 p.m.

Read more at the New York Post.

[Dana’s note: Thank you to Michael, for passing this along.]

source: nypost.com

ACE FREHLEY STREAMS HIS COVER OF CREAM’S “WHITE ROOM” ONLINE

As previously reported, guitarist Ace Frehley will be releasing his covers album, Origins Vol. 1, on April 15th. To hear Frehley’s cover of Cream’s, White Room, please go here.

To read more about Origins Vol. 1, please click here.

Ace will be on tour later this month and wind his trek down in April, please see his itinerary below.

Ace Frehley Tour Dates:

February 26 – Houston, TX @ Scout Bar
February 27 – San Antonio, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
February 28 – Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory

March 2 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
March 4 – San Miguel, CA @ The Ranch
March 5 – Beverly Hills, CA @ Saban Theatre
March 6 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl – Las Vegas

April 1 – Ponte Vedra, FL @ Ponte Vedra Concert Hall
April 2 – Clearwater, FL @ Capitol Theatre
April 3 – Sunrise, FL @ Markham Park – Rockfest 80’s
April 5 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
April 7 – Danville, VA @ Carrington Pavilion
April 9 – New Hope, PA @ Havana New Hope
April 11 – New York, NY @ BB King’s Blues Club
April 12 – New York, NY @ BB King’s Blues Club
April 13 – Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
April 15 – Wilkes Barre, PA @ The F.M. Kirby Center
April 16 – Poughkeepsie, NY @ The Chance

GLENN HUGHES RESCHEDULES SOLO HEADLINING TOUR OF THE U.S. DUE TO DELAYS RECOVERING FROM DOUBLE KNEE REPLACEMENT SURGERIES

Rock and roll legend Glenn Hughes is rescheduling his recently announced US headline tour. The tour that was originally set to begin on March 2nd in San Jose, CA is now set to begin on August 9th in Annapolis, MD. The 64-year old icon recently underwent dual knee replacement last month and delays in the recovery from those operations are the reason for the reschedule of the tour.

“I am sorry to say that some recent setbacks in my recovery from knee operations are the reason that I can’t get out to see everyone as soon as I had hoped,” states Hughes. “I want to make sure I give my fans the best live experience possible and promise it will be worth the wait. I can’t wait to see everyone at the shows.”

The “Voice of Rock” will be performing a collection of music from his extensive career, including selections from Trapeze, Deep Purple, Hughes/Thrall, and Black Country Communion as well as his solo material. Backing Hughes on this incredible tour will be guitarist Søren Andersen and drummer Pontus Engborg. The tour will be making stops in cities such as New York, NY; Detroit, MI; and two shows in Chicago, IL before wrapping up at the legendary Whisky in Los Angeles, CA on September 3rd. More tour dates to be announced in the future. British blues songstress, Joanne Shaw Taylor, has been tapped to open the shows. Tickets are currently available and links to the rescheduled dates can be found on www.glennhughes.com. All tickets remain valid for the rescheduled dates and fans can reach out to their local promoters and venues with questions about the new dates. For questions regarding VIP Upgrade packages, please contact On The List Presents at vip@otlpresents.com.

Glenn Hughes will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the Mark III line up of Deep Purple on April 8th. He spent key years of his career as the beloved bassist and vocalist of the group, recording on the classic albums: Burn, Stormbringer, and Come Taste the Band. Hughes and other members of Deep Purple will be in attendance to receive the honor. This will mark the first time in 30 years that all the members have been in the same room together, some have never even met. Other inductees include Cheap Trick, Chicago, N.W.A, and Steve Miller. The ceremony will take place at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, NY and will be recorded and broadcast via HBO at a later date.

Vocalist/bass guitarist/songwriter Glenn Hughes is a true original. No other rock musician has carved such a distinctive style blending the finest elements of hard rock, soul and funk. Stevie Wonder once called Hughes his favorite white singer. The first important band Hughes was a member of that achieved notable success was Trapeze. In 1973, Hughes joined Deep Purple. The trailblazing hard-rock legends had just weathered the departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bass guitarist Roger Glover, but guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, keyboardist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice continued with the addition of Hughes and David Coverdale. Since 1992, Hughes has toured extensively in Europe, Japan and South America in support of solo albums, but more recently has been involved with award winning supergroups’, Black Country Communion with guitar star Joe Bonamassa, keyboard player Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater) and drummer Jason Bonham, son of the late Led Zeppelin legend John Bonham and California Breed, who also featured both Hughes and drummer Jason Bonham.

Glenn Hughes on the web:

glennhughes.com
twitter.com/glenn_hughes

DELTA DEEP, FEATURING DEF LEPPARD’S PHIL COLLEN AND STONE TEMPLE PILOT’S ROBERT DELEO SET OUT ON EAST COAST “SUGAR SHACK” TOUR

Delta Deep, the critically acclaimed blues-based band featuring Phil Collen (lead guitarist of Def Leppard) and Robert DeLeo (bassist for Stone Temple Pilots), in addition to Debbi Blackwell-Cook (back-up vocalist for such artists as Michael Buble & Gregory Hines) and Forrest Robinson (drummer for India.Arie, Joe Sample & The Crusaders, TLC), are set to continue their 2016 Sugar Shack Tour with a run up the East Coast this Spring. Beginning on March 28th in Washington, DC the quartet will hit Philly, Asbury Park, Northampton, MA before heading into NYC, Boston and finishing up with a spot at Daryl’s House, the venue owned by Hall & Oates’ Darryl Hall. The east coast leg of the Sugar Shack tour ends on April 8th in Bay Shore, NY with more dates to be announced shortly.

Delta Deep will be touring in support of their soon to be released live album, featuring songs recorded during the inaugural January Sugar Shack west coast run. The January run featured sold-out shows with fans and critics’ alike raving about the bands live show. Elmore Magazine declared, “Delta Deep is a rocking force due to bring down any house– historical or modern.” While San Francisco’s BAM Magazine said, “the live experience for Delta Deep is one not to be missed…Debbi Blackwell-Cook is mesmerizing!”

Collen initially started Delta Deep in 2012 after jamming over the course of a year with friend and relative, Debbi Blackwell-Cook. What started as a casual pairing singing Motown and classic blues staples quickly became a quartet who share a love for soul, funk and the blues when they added STP’s DeLeo and drummer Forrest Robinson.

AXS Entertainment proclaims, “The goal of (Delta Deep) is to create music that revives an appreciation for blues music. Mission accomplished.” Glide Magazine says, “Collen has used the blues as a base, a foundation, on which to build his songs up from, adding in textures of R&B, soul and down & dirty rock & roll.” LA Music Blog declares “(Delta Deep’s) style of rock and blues is unique and consistently entertaining,”

Click here to sample Bang The Lid.

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

Track Listing for 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

For more information, visit deltadeep.net.