GUITARIST DOUG ALDRICH DEPARTS WHITESNAKE

dougaldrich400 Guitarist Doug Aldrich has announced that he is leaving Whitesnake.

Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale confirmed the departure by posting a photo of he and Aldrich on his twitter account with a caption reading, “All the very best, Brother. What an incredible journey we shared together.

Wishing You Success In Everything You Do :)”

Aldrich has posted the following message on his Facebook page:

“Well I guess news that I have left Whitesnake was leaked…

I planned and hoped DC and I could release a joint statement. We will as soon as possible, but everything happened so fast that we aren’t ready.

Firstly, thanks to my big bro David for such a killer run together!! So many songs, tours, projects, always inspiring and pushing each other!

Mostly I was to thank the loyal WS Choir and fans around the world. You have been so amazing to me and it’s been an honor to play for you with WS.

I love you guys and I’ll see you all again. Thank you so very much for your unending support.

Also, not sure how or where the info started about a solo career, but this is not true or correct information.

I have no plans at this time to go solo 🙂 I’m just not in the Whitesnake/David Coverdale band anymore.

I’ll let you guys know what I’m doing ASAP, but for now please know I very much appreciate your support and will hopefully do a statement with My Brutal Brother DC shortly.

Big love for the Aldrich clan.”

Aldrich joined Whitesnake in 2003 and played on 2008’s Good To Be Bad and 2011’s Forevermore, as well as appearing on several live releases, including 2013’s Made In Japan and Made In Britain/The World Records.

Alrich’s other band, Burning Rain, which also features singer Keith St. John (ex-Montrose), Sean McNabb on bass (ex-Quiet Riot, Dokken, House of Lords) and Mat Starr on drums (Ace Frehley), released their third album, Epic Obsession, a year ago.

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STRYPER FRONTMAN MICHAEL SWEET SAYS THAT HIS COMMENTS ABOUT NIKKI SIXX AND MOTLEY CRUE WEREN’T MEANT TO BE “DISRESPECTFUL”

michaelsweet400 Stryper frontman Michael Sweet has responded to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx’s comments slamming him because he questioned the authenticity of Motley Crue’s book, The Dirt, and Sixx’s tome, The Heroin Diaries.

Sweet posted on his Facebook page:

“I meant no disrespect to @NikkiSixx or @MotleyCrue and certainly not to addicts or recovering addicts. I was simply trying to convey the importance of not believing everything you hear (rumors) and giving my own opinion of some of the over-embellishments (in my opinion) that some autobiographies seem to portray. I’ve never even met Nikki before and I have nothing bad to say about him. I do believe that my words were taken out of context but then again, that happens to all of us from time to time. Here’s what I wrote in my book:

‘If you’ve picked up this book in hopes of reading stories about me hiding in a closet shooting up heroin, buying prostitutes with all my earnings or beating the crap out of a club owner because he looked at me funny, you should probably read the Motley Crue book instead, because you won’t find that here. I’m not better than they are, but my story is different. I’m not an angel, either, and I think you’ll find some pretty eye-opening stories, and I hope—whether you know my music or not—you’ll find them enlightening or at least entertaining.’

Michael Sweet’s autobiography, Honestly: My Life And Stryper Revealed and his new solo album, I’m Not Your Suicide, were released on May 6th.

michaelsweetbookcover640

MichaelSweet I'm Not Your 630

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BASSIST BOB DAISLEY DISCUSSES HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, WRITING LYRICS AND RANDY RHOADS

BobDaisley400 Greg Prato of Songfacts spoke with bassist Bob Dasiley (Ozzy Osbourne, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Gary Moore and Uriah Heep). Excerpts from interview appear below.

Songfacts: Let’s start off by talking about your new book, For Facts Sake. What made you decide to write your autobiography now?

Bob Daisley: Well, the book has been a long time coming. I first got the idea of doing a book probably towards the end of the ’80s. And then through the ’90s, when I’d do interviews or when I’d tell people funny stories and anecdotes and things, so many people used say, “Oh, you’ve got to put that in a book.” So gradually I got round to the idea of, “I’ve got to get serious and do this.”

It was the perfect time. If I’d done it too early, so many important things wouldn’t have been in it, because they hadn’t happened yet. But it was a long time coming and it took a while to do it, as well. I was working on it for four years. The actual writing of it took about another two and a half years, and there were thousands of photographs to go through and narrow those down into hundreds, and then scanning them. I think there’s over 480 photos in the book. And I wanted the photographs within the text, so that if you’re reading about Gary Moore or Ozzy Osbourne, there’s the photos that I’m talking about, so you don’t have to go searching in the photo section. And to do that, my webmaster, Simon, did a brilliant job on doing the photo placement throughout the text, because it’s a really hard job to do. Because you only have to make one a bit smaller or a big bigger or change a bigger text and it throws the whole thing off. It’s like a Rubik’s Cube kind of thing.

I was pleased with the final product. I wanted a good quality product and I think I’ve got that.

Songfacts: As far as songwriting, how do you find that you write your best songs?

Bob Dasiley: That sort of thing varies. It depends on who I’m with. I find writing with other people more inspiring, where you bounce ideas off of each other, and somebody might say, “Well, I’ve got this riff,” and I might say, “I’ve got the perfect bit that will go with that.”

And then with lyrics, you know, I’ve written a lot of lyrics in my time. Sometimes the ideas just come to me, so I’ll jot them down in a book and then I’ve got different lines that might not be even related, but I have lots of little jottings in my book that come in handy when I start writing.

But I always try to have a message in a song or have something a little bit philosophical. There’s nothing wrong with a good love song, but it’s been done to death – I could put an album on of many different bands and all’s you hear is, “I love you, baby,” or “Don’t leave me, baby,” or that sort of stuff. [Laughing] I wanted to avoid that kind of thing. There is the odd one here and there that I’ve written, a love song or that kind of thing, but I prefer to lean more towards the philosophical.

Songfacts: What are some of your favorite lyrics that you’ve written over the years?

Bob Dasiley: One of the recent albums that I did was with Jon Lord-The Hoochie Koochie Men (2007). The album is called Danger: White Men Dancing, and there are a few songs on there that I like the lyrics.

But I suppose the real classic stuff is the stuff that I get the most feedback from people on: the Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman albums. I get lots of comments from people saying, “Oh, this song or that song helped me through a difficult time or inspired me when I was feeling a bit down. I listened to that all the way through college and I got a lot out of it.” And that makes it all worthwhile. If you can reach people on that level, then I think you’ve achieved something special. The whole point of music and lyrics is to make people emote, and if you get some emotion out of them, then you’ve done your job.

But I suppose I get a lot of comments about the song Diary of a Madman, which was more of a personal thing for me. It wasn’t about Ozzy. When I came up with the title of the album, we still didn’t have a song called Diary of a Madman. I came up with the title, and I thought it would be a good title for an Ozzy Osbourne album because he’s got the reputation of being one of the madmen of rock & roll.

But the actual song was really about me. It was more of a personal think.

Songfacts: And as far as collaborating with others, who would you say are some of your favorite collaborators?

Bob Daisley: Randy Rhoads has to be mentioned, for sure. He was a brilliant guitarist and a thoughtful writer, and it was a pleasure to work with him. Randy and I used to just sit on a chair opposite each other and come up with ideas. A lot of the main riffs were his, but sometimes I’d say, “Well, I’ve got a bit that will go with that.” Some stuff was from way back in my past, from the early days, and they ended up on Diary of a Madman. But yeah, Randy, he’s up there, for sure.

Jeff Watson, the guitarist with Mother’s Army [and formerly of Night Ranger], I like working with Jeff. We’ve come up with a lot of good stuff together. There’s been so many – Jake E. Lee, Zakk Wylde – they’re some of the favorites.

Songfacts: Something that I don’t think a lot of people realize is that you had the opportunity to collaborate with both Ozzy and also Tony Iommi, because you played on the Eternal Idol album from Black Sabbath [Tony Martin was their vocalist on that one]. So how would you compare writing with Ozzy to writing with Tony Iommi?

Bob Daisley: Well, Ozzy being a vocalist, he was the one with the melodies. Ozzy doesn’t really play an instrument. I mean, he plays a little bit of harmonica, but I wouldn’t say he’s a virtuoso on the harmonica, either. But he was always good with the vocal melodies.

Tony’s a riffmeister. He’s a master of the riffs, and he has riffs coming out of his ears. He’s got so many musical ideas and riff ideas, and they’re all good. People could knock out riffs and you’d say, “Yeah, that’s all right,” but Tony, when he writes riffs, they’re always good. They’re catchy, they’re clever, they’re trademark Tony Iommi riffs. He’s great like that.

But it is different writing with a guitarist. Usually when you write with a guitarist, it’s more the musical side of things, and if you’re writing with a vocalist, that’s when the lyrics come in more. It would have been nice to do something with Tony and Ozzy together, but that couldn’t happen at that stage.

Songfacts: Before, you mentioned Randy Rhoads. I’ve always thought he was a very underrated songwriter, because lot of people focus on his great guitar playing.

Bob Daisley: Well, Randy as a songwriter, he had lots of influences. There was the definite sort of “basic rock thing,” there were the guitarists that he’d listen to like Ritchie Blackmore and Hendrix and Clapton and the blues influence, Jeff Beck, for sure. And I know he listened a lot to Uriah Heep, the Demons and Wizards album in particular. And he had his classical thing, too. He was very into classical music and came from that background. His mother had the music school and he grew up in that environment, so he had that classical ingredient, and he wanted to pursue that even more so.

To be honest with you, I don’t think Randy would have completely got away from rock & roll. It was too much a part of him. But I know he wanted out of the Osbourne camp. He wanted to pursue his studies and go to UCLA and then get a masters degree in Europe. That was his big thing. So that combination of things, the rock and the blues and even, I suppose, to a point, some poppy sort of stuff. But the classical ingredient gave his writing a different character.

I know Randy liked the classical influence in Deep Purple – Ritchie Blackmore was very much into classical and so was Jon Lord, so that was a big influence on some of their big, powerful music. I know Randy liked that classical influence in music.

Randy’s got the reputation of being an amazing guitarist, and he was, rightly so. He should have that reputation; he certainly was up there with all the best. But he was a clever writer, too. He knew a lot about the technicalities of music, having come from that environment with his mom having a music school and studying the classical music, as well.

Songfacts: Since there’s not that much material of Randy that’s been released, I’m surprised [that demos] weren’t released as part of a boxed set or something.

Bob: Well, a couple of years ago when they planned to release the boxed set for the 30th anniversary, I went to Sharon’s accountant who handles all her affairs and handles the publishing company and all that. I said, “Well, I’ve got these demos and I’ve got tapes of this recording, outtakes, I’ve got rehearsal takes, I’ve got us just chatting, clowning about, songwriting tapes,” I said, “I’ve got loads of stuff, I’ve got hours of it. Why don’t you include that on the boxed set?”

And I said, “Well, I’m not just giving it away, I’m the only one that’s got this stuff. So I want a royalty on it.” She wouldn’t do it. She just wanted to buy it off me for a pittance and I said no. I’m not doing that again. I’ve been screwed enough.

Songfacts: If the opportunity ever came up again, would you consider collaborating with Ozzy Osbourne on music?

Bob Daisley: I never say never, but there has been some dirty water gone under the bridge. I always enjoyed working with Ozzy because I liked him as a mate. We were friends, and it’s sad that we don’t have that friendship anymore, because we had such a laugh together, too. Ozzy’s got a great sense of humor. We had such a good laugh so often, and that’s probably why the working relationship was productive, because we enjoyed it. We had a good time together.

And I think if you’re enjoying something, it comes out in the music. You can hear the enjoyment in it. There’s been many a time where I think, “Oh, it’s very sad that I miss him and I miss what we had.” And it was all so unnecessary. There was plenty to go around. People get greedy and they get power hungry and they get egotistical and whatever else. I’d never say never, but put it this way, it’s probably not likely, but if it was possible, if things could be put right, I would consider it.

Read Bob Daisley’s interview at Songfacts.

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source: songfacts.com

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SINGER ROBERT PLANT IS NOT TOO KEEN ON THE IDEA OF A LED ZEPPELIN REUNION, SAYS “I’M NOT PART OF A JUKEBOX”

robertPlant Andy Greene of Rolling Stone reports:

It could have been the biggest tour in the history of rock & roll, a stadium juggernaut to dwarf even recent efforts by U2, Roger Waters and the Rolling Stones. Had they agreed to a two-year trek, taken on sponsors and charged exorbitant rates for tickets and merchandise, Led Zeppelin could possibly have been the first act ever to gross $1 billion on a single tour. They spent nearly a year prepping for their reunion show at London’s O2 Arena in December of 2007, but just when his bandmates, concert promoters and fans all over the world were practically salivating over the thought of the group’s first tour since 1980, Robert Plant walked away from the group, and nothing was going to change his mind.

You’re going back to the same old shit,” Robert Plant says. “A tour would have been an absolute menagerie of vested interests and the very essence of everything that’s shitty about about big-time stadium rock. We were surrounded by a circus of people that would have had our souls on the fire. I’m not part of a jukebox!”

Nearly all of Plant’s peers are happy to deal with such a circus considering the insane financial rewards. “Good luck to them,” he sneers. “I hope they’re having a real riveting and wonderful late middle age. Somehow I don’t think they are.”

When Robert Plant walked away from the group after the O2 show, Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham continued to rehearse together in England, even auditioning singers for a possible Plant-free tour. Most names have remained secret, but Steven Tyler and Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy have both admitted to spending a few days playing with the group.

“Singers were being thrown at us from here and there,” says Page. “The material we were coming up with was really, really good. Obviously, other people wanted to just get us out on the road quickly. I wasn’t feeling comfortable. Going out with the three members from the 02 show and another singer might have looked like trying to jam a square peg into a round hole. I wanted to see what we could come up with musically.”

Plant refuses to make a statement forever ruling out the possibility of him fronting Zeppelin again. “I don’t think there’s any reason for me to do that,” he says. “Otherwise we’ve got nothing to be mystic about…Everything will develop as it develops. All doors are open. All phone lines are open. I don’t hear from anybody. Talk is cheap…But I just think everything has to be new. Then you can incorporate history.”

Does that mean he’s open to the idea of recording new songs with Zeppelin? “You can’t be the marriage guidance clinic here,” he says, clearly irritated by this line of questioning.

Strangely, he’s among the few people who felt it was a good idea for Zeppelin to carry in without him. “They kept rehearsing after O2 and they had a singer,” Plant says. “I don’t know what happened. It seemed like a great idea to me.”

Plant stands up to leave, but turns on his heel. “Do you know why the Eagles said they’d reunite when ‘hell freezes over,’ but they did it anyway and keep touring?” he asks. “It’s not because they were paid a fortune. It’s not about the money. It’s because they’re bored. I’m not bored.”

Read more at Rolling Stone.

source: rollingstone.com

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SCORPIONS DRUMMER JAMES KOTTAK RETURNS TO THE STATES AFTER BEING JAILED IN DUBAI FOR A MONTH

scorpions640 The Scorpions have posted the following messages on their Facebook page:

“[Drummer] James Kottak boarded a plane out of Dubai and arrived in the US last night. He will have to find the time to sort out his problems… Scorpions.”

“Dear fans, at this point we want to hear personally from James what happened in Dubai…we let you know…Hopefully there will be better days ….. Scorpions.”

Scorpions drummer James Kottack was reportedly convicted of insulting Islam, raising his middle finger, and being under the influence of alcohol while in transit at Dubai airport.

Addtionally according to The National, the drummer consumed five glasses of wine on a flight from Moscow to Dubai. He was in transit to Bahrain to perform at the country’s Formula One grand prix about 11pm on April 3rd.

He said he and a friend had taken a wrong turn and enter-ed the transit hall. Kottak was arrested for being drunk and became angry, witnesses said.

They said he started swearing and talking about “non-educated Muslims,” then flashed his middle finger at Pakistani passengers. Police said he also exposed his behind.

Policeman A said he heard Kottak say, “What is this disgusting smell?” before he insulted Islam.

“I didn’t see anything else but I heard him. I then informed my supervisor, who came and took the defendant away,” A said.

A customer service employee at the airport, said: “When he saw the Pakistani and Afghan passengers, he covered his nose and said that there was no way he will travel with them.”

The drummer has been detained in Dubai since April 3rd, but according to the Scorpions’ Facebook post above, has been freed and now back in the States.

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ROCK AGAINST MS ONLINE ROCK AUCTION ANNOUNCED: BID ON A SIGNED SCHECTER BASS, SIGNED SCHECTER & DAISY ROCK GUITARS AND SIGNED EVANS DRUM HEADS

rockagainstms400 We are honored to have so many amazing supporters for Rock Against MS. The latest being three donations-one from a private donor of this amazing Schecter Bass signed by John 5, Jerry Cantrell, Scott Ian, Mike Inez, Pearl Aday and Rita Haney.

The other two guitars are donated by Schecter Guitars and Daisy Rock Guitars – Both are signed by the artists that performed at the March 26th, 2014 Rock Against MS concert at the Whisky A Go-Go featuring Robby Krieger (The Doors), Lita Ford, Steve Stevens (Billy Idol), Cherie Currie (The Runaways), Bruce Kulick, Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction), Kenny Aronoff, James Lomenzo, Gilby Clarke (GN’R), Jack Russell and more.

Click to bid on the bass.
Click to bid on the Schecter guitar.
Click to bid on the Daisy Rock guitar.
Click to buy all-star drum head.

About Multiple Sclerosis:

Every hour in the United States, someone is newly diagnosed with MS, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system.
MS interrupts the flow of information from the brain to the body and stops people from moving.
Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. The advancement, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are moving us closer to a world free of MS.
Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with more than twice as many women as men being diagnosed with the disease.

MS affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S. and 2.1 million worldwide.

For more information on Rock Against MS Foundation click here.

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