According to TMZ, toxicology reports disclose what ultimately caused the death of former Stone Temple Pilots, Scott Weiland, passed away in his sleep on December 3rd on a tour stop in Bloomington, Minnesota.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner says the results show he overdosed on a combination of cocaine, MDA (which is old school Ecstasy) and alcohol.
The report revealed that heart disease and asthma were “significant” conditions. The test results also revealed that the singer’s “multi-substance dependence” was also a factor.
Questions and rumors were always swirling around the singer’s sobriety, unfortunately, the tests prove that many of his friend’s concerns of relapse, were justified.
Prior to the announcement today (December 17th), that Deep Purple will be inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, drummer Ian Paice said there could be tension at the reception.
He told Classic Rock, “Well, who would they induct? There have been so many members of this band, even if they say it will be core members, who would it be?
“You also have to bear in mind, that if some people are inducted together, it could end in a punch up. I don’t need to tell anyone certain key members and former members of this band do not get on. Personally, I think they would be better off inducting us individually. That avoids the problem.”
Again prior to the announcement, Paice said, “As for playing live, again who would be involved? You’d have the same situation as for an induction. This one won’t play with that one – it could be a mess. The Hall Of Fame should be embarrassed for not inducting us already. Look at some of the non-entities who’ve got in. I won’t name them, but just have a look at some of those names, and you’ll know who I mean. What have they ever done for rock’n’roll? Nothing. Having these artists in before Deep Purple undermines what it is supposed to represent.”
Paice’s opinion of the Rock Hall matches that of Purple’s frontman Ian Gillan, who branded the organisation “bloody arrogant and rude” in October.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has officially announced next year’s inductees and they include: Deep Purple, Cheap Trick, Chicago, N.W.A and Steve Miller will all join the class of 2016. They will be inducted on April 8th during a ceremony at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, with tickets going on sale to the public in February. HBO will broadcast the show in the spring.
Deep Purple Ian Paice tells Rolling Stone, “With so many lineups, it’s a minefield. If I was running the Hall of Fame, I wouldn’t have known how to do it…But it looks like we’re in and I’m very pleased.
Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen said, “Usually, I’m a man of many words, but this has got me in a tizzy here. I’m verklempt … Live at Budokan wasn’t too bad. Getting our first record deal wasn’t too bad. Doing 5,000 shows, not too bad. But this might get moved right to the top of our résumé.”
Every act besides N.W.A has a current touring band, and they all have former members that may join them on the big evening. Of particular interest to metal fans will be the status of Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, who hasn’t played with the group since his departure in 1993. Drummer Ian Paice says he doesn’t know if he will even show up, let alone play with them. “He can confuse you sometimes,” he says. “You think he’ll do one thing and he’ll do the other. I wouldn’t put money either way on that one.”
Paice says that any decision regarding the performance will be made in conjunction with all the current members. “We don’t have salaried guys with [keyboardist] Don [Airey] and [guitarist] Steve [Morse]. They are fully accredited members of the band and they share in everything, and into decisions as well. They will have to be consulted and see how they feel about anything that the three of us originals think we would or wouldn’t like to do.”
Cheap Trick fans also might get to see the group play again with original drummer Bun E. Carlos, who left the band in 2010. Does Nielsen think that might happen despite the legal issues the two camps have had in recent years? “I’m sure he’ll be invited,” he says. “Do I know if he will? I don’t know. Why not?”
Poison drummer Rikki Rockett guest on Eddie’s Sirius/XM show, Eddie Trunk Live, on December 14th. The drummer discussed being diagnosed with oral cancer this past summer. Excerpts from the interview appear below as transcribed by Blabbermouth.net.
On how he was diagnosed:
“[In] June, I kind of got sick. I had this horrible cold, sore-throat thing, and they were scoping me and they were doing biopsies, and nothing was coming up. And finally a doctor at USC did a biopsy and took a look and he said, ‘I believe you have oral cancer.’ And what it was is a tumor at the base of my tongue… This is very similar to Bruce Dickinson [Iron Maiden], very similar to [actor] Michael Douglas, similar to Tom Hamilton [Aeromsith], as far as I know; I don’t know the details of his. And two adjacent lymph nodes that it kind of… Normally, it does spread to the lymph nodes; that’s typical. That’s how you find out you have it ninety percent of the time.”
He continued, “I went down to USC, to all the doctors down there, and the first doctor I went to sat me down, looked me in the eyes, and he said, ‘You’ve had pretty good health all your life.’ He goes, ‘You picked one of hell of a cancer to get.’ He said, ‘It is very treatable, it’s very curable, but it is a son of a bitch to treat, and I’m gonna hurt you.’ And it scared the hell out of me. And I’m, like,’ What are you talking about?’ he goes, ‘About fifty percent of my patients wind up hospitalized through the treatments, ’cause you’ve gotta do chemo and radiation at the same time, or you’ve gotta do surgery. And sometimes when you do surgery, you still have to do chemo and radiation. So we’re gonna try chemo and radiation.’ So I wound up doing the chemo. I did nine rounds of chemo of cetuximab…and it’s a targeted immunotherapy, so it’s not like the typical chemical that just kills everything. But they said one problem it does have is you get a rash. And I’m, like, ‘A rash?’ They’re, like, ‘Yeah, you’re gonna look like a kid with really bad acne.’ So I started to get it on my face and on my chest and on my back and shoulders and a little bit on my trunk, and then, bam, in two weeks, it just calmed down for some reason. So I was very lucky with that. But then I started radiation, and I did thirty-five rounds of radiation; it was five days a week for seven weeks, and that kicks your dick into the dirt. But I went, ‘Okay, this is what I’m gonna do. I wanna beat it, so I’m just gonna go head first into this. I’m gonna set myself up where every single day, I do something positive for my health. I’m gonna work out one day, I’m gonna go to therapy one day.’ I go to this occupational therapy where they do swallowing and speech and stuff like that, to keep your neck going. Regular therapy, acupuncture…”
Discussing his current diagnosis:
“Where I’m at now is I went last week for my follow-up. Both doctors said I’m doing excellent, and they both have excellent prognosis. In early February, I get my PET scan, and that’s the end-all; that tells you if there’s any activity. They both said they suspect that there won’t be. And so I’ve got fingers crossed. But I’m just gonna try to put that out of my mind for now and just continue to get better and feel better. There’s nothing that looks like it’s there anymore. They’ve gone down, they’ve looked at my throat… But it’s swelled up and it’s hard to tell, but it looks like it’s in remission.”
Speaking about why he believes he got oral cancer:
“[HVP-human papilloma virus],it is the number one leading cause of oral cancer these days. There’s less and less of the truck drivers that chew tobacco for thirty years getting it, because people are more aware that that kind of stuff isn’t good. So we are getting marathon runners and all these elite athletes with this. I have a friend that’s a therapist, and five years ago, it was five percent of the people she treated, and now it’s close to ninety percent…It can be spread sexually, but now they’re saying that it can spread [through] deep-kissing and actually hand to mouth. I mean, if you see the Olympic swimmers, they swim and they smack their hand on the side of the pool for each lap, and their hands are full of warts and stuff from HPV. Now the wart kind of HPV is not the same as the strain that causes cancer, but it is spread almost identically. For men, you can’t tell if you have it. For women, you can get a papsmear. But the doctor estimated probably it was fifteen [or] twenty years ago [when I contracted it], and my body probably got rid of it, but it mutated itself and my body would probably see that again and get rid of it. But there’s no way to tell who got it. I mean, I know a couple that’s been married for fifteen years and they’ve never cheated on each other, and they’re pointing their finger at each other [after one of them was diagnosed with oral cancer], and it turned into a thing until the doctor sat ’em down and went, ‘Look, you can get this so many ways.'”
As previously reported, founding Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, has announced that he will be playing three rock shows in Europe under the name of Ricthie Blackmore’s Rainbow.
Now the guitarist is saying if things go well, he may be open to doing other shows. Speaking with Rich Davenport’s Rock Show about balancing Rainbow and Blackmore’s Night commitments, he said, “Blackmore’s Night will go on, and this is just a brief intermission of playing some good old rock, but with some good friends and some good musicians. And hopefully everybody’s there for the same reason, which is it’s good music and it’s nostalgia, and hopefully everything goes well. And if it works, we’ll do, obviously, more dates. We’re only doing three this first time. But, like I said, if it works, we’ll do more later on.”
Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and guests are scheduled to play at two Monsters Of Rock festivals in Germany on June 17th and 18th and one UK show on June 25th in England at Birmingham Genting Arena. More dates are expected to be announced. Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow will perform “the classic rock anthems of Rainbow and Deep Purple,” according to show announcements. Blackmore reportedly plans to film and record the performances for future release.
American dates for the next leg of AC/DC’s Rock or Bust World Tour were announced today through the band’s official website.
The American dates kick begin February 2nd in Tacoma, WA at the Tacoma Dome and run through April 4th in New York, NY at Madison Square Garden (see below for a full list of dates). Tickets are on sale starting Friday, December 18th. For more information visit ACDC.com.
The American Tour date announcement comes after a massive year for the band, with them kicking off the 57th annual Grammy Awards, headlining at Coachella, and completing 28 shows in Europe, 14 shows in North America and 11 shows in Australia/New Zealand.
AC/DC North American Tour Dates:
February:
2 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome
5 Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Arena
8 Denver, CO Pepsi Center
11 Fargo, ND Fargo Dome
14 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
17 Chicago, IL United Center
20 St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center
23 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
26 Houston, TX Toyota Center
29 Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
March:
8 Atlanta, GA Phillips Arena
11 Ft. Lauderdale, FL BB&T Center
14 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum
17 Washington, DC Verizon Center
20 Detroit, MI The Palace
23 Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
26 Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
29 Buffalo, NY First Niagara Center
April:
1 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
4 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
, that Deep Purple will be inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame, drummer Ian Paice said there could be tension at the reception. He told Classic ... )
