Glenn Hughes (Black Country Communion, Deep Purple), John 5 (Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson), Jack Russell (Great White), Jeff Pilson (Dokken, T&N), Jeff Young (Megadeth) among others, came together to support longtime friend and publicist Nancy Sayle, who was struck with primary progressive MS in 2009. The Rock Against MS benefit concert was held on March 27th at the Whisky A Go-Go in West Hollywood, California and was hosted by Bob Coburn and Gary Moore of KLOS.
Fan filled footage of some of the performances can be viewed below.
Glenn Hughes-Mistreated:
Jeff Pilson/Chas West/Jeff Young-Tooth & Nail:
Jack Russell-Save All Your Love:
Billy Morrison (Billy Idol), Orianthi (Alice Cooper, M.Jackson), Gilby Clarke (GNR), Brian Tichy, Brett Scallions (Fuel), Phil Buckman (Filter)-Stone Temple Pilot’s Vasoline:
Skid Row guitarist Dave “The Snake” Sabo was a guest on March 25th edition Eddie’s XM show, Eddie Trunk Live. Portions of the interview appear below as transcribed by blabbermouth.net.
Discussing the band’s split with former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach:
“Basically, in all honesty, it just didn’t work out anymore. It worked for awhile, and then it didn’t work. I’ve always said this: he’s a great singer, a great frontman. The two of us, or maybe all of us, stopped getting along.
I’ve always been the one, personally, that I live my life a certain way where if it’s not fun anymore and not enjoyable, I have to get away from it. Life is too short — I want positivity in my life — and I’m sure he felt the same way. I think that we just got to a point where we did what we would do up until that particular point and it was time to go different ways.
I have no animosity towards him whatsoever, I wish him all the best, I hope he does wonderful things; he’s done well for himself. But, for me, my main focus is right now, with Skid Row. I have a relationship with the other four members in my band that I’m really proud of and really happy of, and I’m happy to be creating new music and promoting it.”
Speaking about being photographed hanging out with Bach on October 15th, 2012 at the Duff McKagan’s Loaded concert at the Viper Room in West Hollywood, California (see below):
“In all honesty, it wasn’t a bad thing [seeing Sebastian]. The situation was Duff McKagan was playing, and I manage Duff, and so I was at the show. A person from my office, that works with me with Duff, had told me when I got there that Sebastian was there with his girl. And I was, like, ‘That’s cool. Whatever. If we see each other, great.’ Again, I have no animosity. I don’t have any ill will or anything like that; that’s just not my nature. Man, I love life too much to carry that with me; it’s a burden and it weighs you down and I don’t want that.
So when he happened to be standing by the dressing room, I was inside the dressing room, and we saw each other, we kind of walked over to each other, shook each other’s hand. And it was good to see him. That’s not to say we’re putting the band back together or anything like that, but it was good to see him. I mean, he was cool — he wasn’t over the top or crazy or anything like that. I mean, he had his girl [with him]; she was very nice. We talked for about ten or fifteen minutes, and I told him about what was going on with my personal life as well. And that was really the extent of it. I told him I was happy for him, whatever he was doing, going out and touring and making new music, and it really didn’t go beyond that. Except for taking the picture, which, of course, in this day and age, you put that out there and it just uncovers tons of speculation and [talk about] ‘what could be?’ [and] ‘what might be?’ … whatever. But, to me, it was just…
I’ve never ran away from our past at all — I embrace it, I think we have created some amazing stuff together throughout the first ten years of the band, but there’s also… I’m in this band here and now, and that’s what I concentrate on.”
On how he and his fellow Skid Row bandmates, including current singer Johnny Solinger, cope with Sebastian Bach’s name always being brought up in connection with the group:
“I think that at the very beginning, when Johnny got in the band and that same sort of question was posed, but it was posed in, ‘How do you fill your old singer’s shoes?’ And he was, like, ‘I wear my own shoes.’ And that’s kind of the approach that we’ve taken all along.
No one wanted Johnny to be, or attempt to be, Sebastian No. 2. I mean, Sebastian is his own entity in his own right, and Johnny is as well. I’m actually pretty amazed that after all this time, people still talk about it; I mean, it was a long time…
Again, I look at all of it as a blessing. I mean, I look at those records we made with Sebastian as a blessing. I look at the music and the records that we’re making with Johnny in the same light. We might not sell the same amount of records, obviously; it’s a different day and age and we’re a lot older. But I’ve always predicated my life on how much happiness I get out of what I do.
I’m not one to sit there and partake in things that are gonna be detrimental to my happiness; I won’t do it. And I’ve walked away from stuff… I walked away from the Skid Row thing where we were making a lot of money, and I just said… And a lot of people felt the same way, in the band and outside of our band, business [people that we were working with], that it just wasn’t fun anymore; it lost a lot of its… well, you lose the innocence, but it lost a lot of the fervor, just the fun of creating. We became different people. Success will do that to people. Adversity will do that to people.
People say adversity builds character. I think that’s bullshit. I think adversity reveals character. And so when that character is revealed, and when you’re down in the trenches, then you get to know each other on a real level, man, and you realize that, maybe we’re not that compatible, maybe we had a moment in time, and we should be thankful for that moment in time, but now that time has passed and it’s time to move on.”
Skid Row’s new release United World Rebellion – Chapter One is the first of three plus EPs that will be made available over the next 18 months.
Release dates are as follows:
North America: April 16th
European Union: May 24th
United Kingdom: May 27th
Rest of the world: May 27th
Drummer Mike Portnoy (Adrenaline Mob, Flying Colors, ex-Dream Theater), bassist Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, David Lee Roth, Talas) and guitarist Richie Kotzen (ex-Poison, ex-Mr. Big) have chosen the name The Winery Dogs for their new band. View their official facebook page here.
An official debut album release for Japan via Victor Entertainment has been confirmed for May, with other territories due to be announced soon.
Watch a video of Mike Portnoy interviewing Richie Kotzen below.
Alice In Chains have released the song list for their forthcoming album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, which will be released on May 27th.
The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here track list:
Hollow
Pretty Done
Stone
Voices
The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Lab Monkey
Low Ceiling
Breath On A Window
Scalpel
Phantom Limb
Hung On A Hook
Choke
The album will serve as the follow-up to 2009’s, Black Gives Way To Blue, which was their first album without Layne Stayley and the first to feature William DuVall.
Australia’s Triple M recently conducted a short interview with Eddie and Alex Van Halen. Read it below.
Triple M: Eddie is it true your dad gave you a shot of vodka and a cigarette when you were 12-years-old to help combat nerves?
Eddie: Yes, to help calm my nerves. Worked for him and worked for me for a lot of years, but those days are over now. I quit smoking and quit drinking about five or six years ago. There goes the neighborhood.”
Triple M: Alex, you are an ordained minister?
Alex: I don’t promote it but I don’t deny it. I’m in a rock band so you have to take everything with a grain of salt.
Triple M: Van Halen are actually the band KISS without make-up?
Alex: I think we’re much better looking.
Triple M: Of course, Van Halen hit Australia this April with the old dog, David Lee Roth on vocals. Is it good to have Diamond Dave back in the band?
Alex: It’s like you walk into the studio and we haven’t been together for a while and there’s this overwhelming sense of ‘coming home.’ That’s the best way I can describe it.
All the time we were apart was if it hadn’t existed and we picked up the fisti-cuffs right away. It’s like a pair of jeans that just fit right.
Triple M: Eddie’s son Wolfgang has been playing bass in the band for the past seven years, after replacing original bassist Michael Anthony in 2006.
Eddie: Of course it’s exciting, and he keeps us young.
Alex: It’s good to have a different perspective on the music we recorded 35 years ago. We’re really happy the music has stood the test time and I think having a different generation involved with it gives us a different perspective.
Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer has posted a video for the song Solid Ground, from his solo album, The Way Life Goes, online. Watch it below.
The Way Life Goes will be released on April 30th through Merovee Records.
The Way Life Goes track listing:
1. Solid Ground
2. A Different Light
3. It’s Not Enough
4. Cold Day In Hell
5. Thick And Thin
6. Ask Me Yesterday
7. Fools Paradise
8. The Flower Song
9. Mood Elevator
10. Welcome To My Mind
11. You Showed Me
12. Ain’t That A Bitch
13. The Way Life Goes
14. Babylon
, John 5 (Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson), Jack Russell (Great White), Jeff Pilson (Dokken, T&N), Jeff Young (Megadeth) among others, came together to ... )
, bassist Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, David Lee Roth, Talas) and guitarist Richie Kotzen (ex-Poison, ex-Mr. Big) have chosen the name ... )
