In a new interview with Rad Jet, former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman elaborated on his previous comment that "the problem with paying your dues is it never ends, even when you achieve your ultimate goals." Asked if he sometimes still feels that he is paying his dues right now, Marty replied (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Every single day. And that can be in all caps. It just never, never really ends. I'm not complaining about it, but I think it's interesting that you picked up on that because it's an important thing because, myself included, and most people in their teens think once you've made it and you've made a record, you're done, you're set on a trajectory that's just all rocking the whole time. But to maintain things and to continue to do new things and to continue to create new, exciting, influential things, it's constantly, constantly paying your dues and giving up things that would be possibly more fun. It never changes. It's constant. So, yeah, it never, ever ends. [I'm] always paying dues, always being disappointed — disappointed, but not always with everything, but every time something great happens, it only happens because you've been disappointed before it. You know what I mean? If all things good happened all the time, you wouldn't have anything to compare it to. So there's a lot of hardships that go into every good thing that happens, and it's always worth it, but you just can't be surprised that every single thing that comes your way is not always good. It's, like, bad things paved the way for good things, and it's a very manly thing to be able to overcome those things. And I've been very lucky with that, and I haven't had too many streaks of bad luck or anything, but nothing has come terribly easy."

Friedman defined modern guitar playing with Jason Becker in CACOPHONY, was a key element in the wildly successful rise of thrash pioneers MEGADETH, and with his "Marty-esque" improvisations and exotic fusion of Eastern and Western music, has achieved global success with his 15 solo albums.

Friedman left MEGADETH in 2000 due to creative differences and pursued a solo career, having released his most recent album, "Drama", in 2024.

Friedman first visited Japan in the late 1980s with CACOPHONY, and came to Japan regularly with MEGADETH, all the while studying the Japanese language. After he quit the Dave Mustaine-fronted outfit, he moved to Tokyo.

Since also embracing Japanese music and eventually relocating to Japan, Friedman has cemented his image as a unique and unpredictable solo artist while further solidifying his celebrity rock star status. He has earned several top 10 spots on the Japanese charts and has performed in Japan's largest venues — from the Tokyo Dome to Budokan. He has also guested on over 700 television programs, acted in four motion pictures, and appeared in several commercials and TV ad campaigns. On November 4, 2016, the Japanese government named Friedman an "Ambassador Of Japanese Heritage."

Friedman's autobiography "Dreaming Japanese", was made available last December. Written with veteran music journalist Jon Wiederhorn ("Louder Than Hell", "Raising Hell"),"Dreaming Japanese" debuted at No. 1 on Amazon's Heavy Metal Books chart and has received praise from major outlets including Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Decibel and Publishers Marketplace. The autobiography shares Friedman's inspiring journey from landing a gig as the lead guitarist for legendary thrash metal outfit MEGADETH during their peak years to his emigration from the U.S. to Japan, where he became a prominent television figure and Japanese pop culture household name as well as being appointed an official "Ambassador Of Japan Heritage".

In a new interview with Argentina's Rock & Pop 95.9, legendary bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes (DEEP PURPLE, BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION) was asked what it feels like to be called "the voice of rock." He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "Well, it's a very special thing to be called. I've been called this for so long. I'm very honored to be the voice of rock. It's fantastic. But it's something that I'm very thankful and grateful that I have been given this recognition, and so I'm really happy to be here with you again so I can perform."

Regarding how he takes care of his singing voice, Glenn said: "I do a lot of warmup exercises. I do yoga, I do breathing exercises. I get a lot of sleep. I drink a lot of water."

Hughes also talked about his musical influences, saying: "I've been doing it all my life, from [when I was] a teenager. The music I listened to when I was very young is a cross between American and English. And black American music and British hard rock music, when you combine these genres together, you have the soup that is Glenn Hughes. So it's a mixture, again, of American R&B and British blues music. That's who I am."

On the topic of how his music has evolved over the course of the last few decades, Glenn said:  "I think there's a difference in who I am, really. With each year I grow, there's a new version of me that's being created. When I look back at my life, I look back at the whole thing and realize, as a very young man, I had the success I had as a young man. And all through my life I've had things happen to me — good, bad, weird, wonderful, crazy. But I embrace all of it. I'm not ashamed of anything that I've ever done because I am here now talking to you about what is happening now. It's really important."

Asked if there are any new artists that he listens to, Glenn said: "With the new music, I don't hear a new Prince. I don't hear a new Jeff Buckley. I don't hear a new LED ZEPPELIN. I don't hear a new ROLLING STONES. I don't hear anything. So, for me, I'm waiting to hear something special — I mean, really something special. I'm hoping that happens."

He explained: "Today, with A.I., I think it's very fake. I don't think it's organic. I think behind the scenes, it's not real. It's not the way it should be. What I would like to hear is someone with a piano and a vocal or a guitar and a vocal, and nothing else. Just something very simple, three minutes long, something very organic and something that grabs you immediately, like it used to be. Look, I don't talk about 'like it used to be' for me; I'm thinking it would be better if we could just have something really original and very melodic."

Hughes recently announced a 2026 spring tour across the USA. The trek will kick off on March 27 at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, California and wrap up on May 10 at The Marquee in Tempe, Arizona.

"The Chosen Years" show promises to be a dynamic, turn-back-the-clocks, two-hour live extravaganza paying homage to Glenn's illustrious career spanning five decades in music — featuring songs from TRAPEZE, DEEP PURPLE, HUGHES/THRALL, IOMMI/HUGHES and BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, some of music history's most seminal and influential rock and roll groups. Not only that, the shows will also feature brand new music from Glenn's latest solo album, "Chosen".

Joining Glenn on lead vocals and bass guitar will be Søren Andersen on guitar and Ash Sheehan on drums.

"Chosen" came out on September 5 via Frontiers Music Srl.

This year will also saw Hughes busy touring across Europe and South America, with "The Chosen Years" tour starting in Zoetermeer, Netherlands, on September 2 and ending on November 29 in Bogota, Colombia.

Glenn, a native of Cannock, England, absorbed all kinds of influences, including early British hard rock, THE BEATLES and, most importantly, American soul and R&B. The sleek Motown sound from Detroit and the gritty Stax/Volt sound from Memphis left their mark on him.

Hughes first found success in the early '70s with the band TRAPEZE before joining DEEP PURPLE in 1973 during a pivotal lineup change that introduced him and David Coverdale to the group. Despite initial skepticism, the revamped band silenced critics with the release of "Burn" (1974),a powerful album that revitalized PURPLE's sound and remains a classic. During this era, the band headlined the iconic California Jam in front of over 300,000 fans, toured the world aboard their private jet The Starship, and released two more studio albums, "Stormbringer" and "Come Taste The Band", before disbanding in 1976.

Glenn's first solo album "Play Me Out" was released in 1977. He joined former Pat Travers guitarist Pat Thrall to form HUGHES/THRALL, which released an acclaimed self-titled album in 1982. Throughout the '80s and '90s, Glenn Hughes made countless guest appearances (both credited and un-credited) as a vocalist, bass guitarist or songwriter on other artists' albums. The endless list includes — among others — Gary Moore, John Norum and Tony Iommi of BLACK SABBATH.

Since 1992, Glenn has started a prolific solo career with a dozen studio albums where he explored all the different sides of his songwriting and influences: from hard rock to funk and more contemporary sounds. He collaborated — among others — with such musicians as Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS),Dave Navarro, John Frusciante and many others. He also founded or took part in some amazing musical alliances such as CALIFORNIA BREED (with Jason Bonham and Andrew Watt),BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION (with Joe Bonamassa and Jason Bonham) and THE DEAD DAISIES.

Glenn has collaborated with Robbie Williams on his new single "Rocket", which was released on May 22, 2025. The track also features a collaboration from Iommi and will be the first time Glenn has been featured on a record with Tony since 2005, when they released "Fused" together.

Glenn also recently joined forces with SATCHVAI, a new collaboration by legendary guitar icons Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, by writing and singing on their new single "I Wanna Play My Guitar".

During a recent appearance on "The Jasta Show", the video podcast hosted by HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta, CROWBAR guitarist/vocalist Kirk Windstein spoke about the fact that he was sitting down during the band's late summer 2025 U.S. co-headlining tour with EYEHATEGOD due to what he has previously described as "either a bad sciatica flare-up or potentially a ruptured disc" in his "lower spine". Regarding how he got through the tour in his condition, he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "I'll say one thing: I appreciate it, but I've never had enough people offer me pain pills and get me weed because I don't smoke. I don't even need edibles or anything. So I'd be, like, 'Thanks, man.' I'd have a whole bunch of shit and I'd just give it to Tommy [Buckley, CROWBAR drummer] and Matt [Brunson, CROWBAR guitarist]. And Pat [Bruders, CROWBAR bassist] smokes too. I'm, like, 'Whatever, man. Y'all have fun. All I did was I tried to drink a lot… Some people are, like, 'Well, you really ought to not drink beer.' I'm, like, 'I get it. I shouldn't.' But that was my pain pill. But I really just did electrolytes and a lot of water every morning and all day. And I took four Ibuprofen at one time, maybe in mid-afternoon, and as far as pain medication, that was it."

As for where his health stands right now, Kirk said: "[My wife] Robin found a guy that a bunch of friends suggested for an MRI and to check everything out, because the hope is that through diet, exercise and mainly… The biggest thing you see is stretching. My thing now is I'm extremely limited in the gym in lifting. I can't press anything overhead. I can only lift sitting down, only exercises sitting down. So dumbbells, seated dumbbell curls and things like that for biceps. It's very limited. I don't stand up for any of the exercises. I can do like lap pulldowns and rows and things, but I completely changed things from the high-intensity training, which is less sets, low reps but to complete failure, to three sets of… Maybe the first set will be 20 down to the last set… I still go pretty close to failure, but I had to just change the whole thing around. I'm really just trying to stay mobile. I had a lot of muscle atrophy in my legs from not walking correctly for fucking six weeks or something. I mean, the difference from… Like today, for instance, or yesterday. Yesterday I did four and a half miles, 30 minutes on the… I have to do the seated Life Cycle [exercise bike] — not the one you ride like a bicycle. You sit down with back support, and the pedals are in front of you. So I'll do 30 minutes of that, and then I did 15 minutes of stretching, and when I walked out of the place, I felt amazing. Today I did some lifting and then 18 minutes on the Life Cycle, and then stretching for another 15, 20 minutes. So on the days that I do lift, and it's very limited, like I said, the lifting portion takes about 30 minutes and then the cycle and stretching thing takes another 30. So it's an hour, and then I'll extend the Life Cycle and do more stretching on days that I don't lift at all, when I walk right in and get on the Life Cycle. And with that even, there's a lot of settings. I do the manual setting on level one. I do the lowest thing possible because I can't put any stress on my back. But in general, I wake up in the morning, and my legs… That's the weird thing, is it's a dull pain in your back. But the real pain shoots down the back of your legs. So I've tried just simple things. It's more on my right leg, but balancing on one foot and trying to count to 10. I was at the grocery store earlier getting deli meat and I'm, like, getting some, whatever, turkey meat, and I let the basket go and I'm trying to stand on it… Every day is just improvements. I haven't been drinking at all. [I'm following a] really clean diet and I gotta just pretty much stick to it."

CROWBAR's U.S. co-headlining tour with EYEHATEGOD kicked off on August 7 at Conduit in Orlando, Florida and wrapped up on August 31 in Pensacola, Florida.

When Windstein revealed in August that he would be sitting down during the early part of the trek, he explained in a statement:  "I don't call in sick. I'm there to give y'all a hundred percent and please the fans the best I can. So I'm probably gonna have to start this tour …. sitting down, but we'll be singing and playing top-notch the best I can do. I can't walk right now, and that's the truth. I've got a cane, I've got a walker, and I've never had this kind of pain in my life. I'm 60 years old, and I've never had this pain in my life. But anyway, I think positive; I don't think negative. So it's gonna be great, and we're gonna kick ass every night. So thank y'all so much."

In a 2020 interview with Kerrang! magazine, Windstein said that he finally addressed his substance abuse issues around 10 years earlier. "I started drinking at home instead of going out to bars, because it was easier for me to avoid cocaine if I didn't go out to where it would be," he explained. "I erased all the dealers from my phone. I quit drinking hard liquor for the most part, but I had a little hangout room where I would watch sports, play guitar and drink beer. Before that, I would go to a bar, not realize how I'd got home, pass out on the couch and wake up with two bags of coke. Then, of course, I'd go to the store to buy beer, because if I've got cocaine, I've got to have beer. And vice versa — if I went to a bar, I'd have two beers, then I'd be calling a guy trying to score. It was an ugly thing to go through, but they say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and I really do believe that to be true."

Back in 2011, Windstein told the San Antonio Metal Music Examiner that he didn't go to rehab to beat his addiction. "I was in a downward spiral for years and years and years, and you know, you get to a point of, 'This is enough,'" he said. "I always make damn sure to say this: If I was a regular guy working at Home Depot and had a drinking problem, people wouldn't talk about it. But because I'm in a band... For me, I'm in a good place and take it a day at a time. It's a lifestyle change in general, not just about alcohol. It's about getting my life in order, eating right, working out right, getting out of debt, and try to be the best father I can be, the best musician. You live and you learn…. I never want to be back to where I was, let's put it that way. It hits you like a hammer, and it's not a good thing where you're a physical slave to drinking. You need to do a lot of soul-searching and find what works for you."

Windstein told Metal Hammer magazine that the support from his peers in the music industry "has been great. They all understand it," he said. "Everyone I've met in this business, they all understand it. It's part of it. It's like an occupational hazard. It's in your face 24⁄7, and what used to be fun, partying and cutting up with the guys became a really bad thing. Enough is enough. That's it."

CROWBAR released its most recent studio offering, the critically lauded "Zero And Below", in April 2022 via MNRK Heavy.

During a recent appearance on Billy Corgan's podcast "The Magnificent Others", rock legend Simon Kirke — founding drummer of BAD COMPANY and FREE — reflected on the period when BAD COMPANY was fronted by Brian Howe. Howe was the singer of BAD COMPANY between 1986 and 1994 and provided vocals on hit albums including 1988's "Dangerous Age" and 1990's "Holy Water". Asked how he feels about the Howe-fronted version of BAD COMPANY three decades later, he said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think it's kind of a two- or three-pronged answer because number one, what people maybe don't realize or tend to forget is that I really loved Mick [Ralphs, BAD COMPANY guitarist] and Boz [original BAD COMPANY bassist Raymond Burrell] and I didn't wanna start another band with unknowns. Sure, we had a high platform or a high profile because of the success of BAD COMPANY. But to go out and go with someone else and audition and start again… And I really loved Mick and Boz, and I didn't wanna start again. So when Brian Howe came on the horizon and he auditioned, and he was pretty damn good, it kind of… You have to like someone to live with them, especially on the road. And I was hoping that that piece of the jigsaw, Brian Howe, would fit with the other three. We hoped that. It wasn't there from the get-go, and it didn't; it kind of got worse as the years went by. And I don't wanna speak ill of someone who's passed away, but we started butting heads, and he started doing this monologue in the beginning of 'Bad Company', which is the piano intro. And he would take it for, like, three minutes, and he'd go on this political rant. I go, 'What the…?' And at one point I went, boom, on the bass drum. And it physically, you could see him jerk. He said, 'What was all that?' in the dressing room. [I said], 'Don't you use this band as a political forum.' He was a little red around the neck, shall we say. And it just got worse and worse. It's 'Spinal Tap' — it is. So we politely asked him to leave. He'll say he left, but we did ask him to leave. And it's a shame because I know that his heart was in the right place. And when someone passes away, particularly at a relatively young age, I felt for him and his family."

Kirke went on to say that there were other issues with Howe which made it increasingly difficult for them to continue their working relationship. "[Brian] had this alliance with this producer called Terry Thomas, and they started writing all the songs," the drummer recalled. "And we left [manager] Peter Grant, because the whole ZEPPELIN-Grant thing just dissolved, and we went with this other manager who managed FOREIGNER, called Bud Prager. And FOREIGNER were enjoying this huge success. And Brian and Terry started writing these pretty commercial songs that FOREIGNER could have done or JOURNEY could have done. It was drifting further and further away from the original BAD COMPANY. So, Mick, being one of the prime writers of the original BAD COMPANY, started getting left out in the cold, which only exacerbated this distance between us three and Brian. And then Boz said, 'I'm out.' And he went… So, we languished and then we got in Robert Hart, who was much more like Paul Rodgers — a great soul singer — but by then I was well and truly done. And I check myself into rehab. Mick was having his own troubles, and we just said, 'Enough. That's it. Enough.' And that was middle of '90s. And then Paul Rodgers came back in 1999."

Howe died in May 2020 at the age of 66. Brian passed away at his home in Florida after suffering cardiac arrest. He had a history of heart issues, having previously had a heart attack in 2017.

The English-born singer, who previously worked with Ted Nugent, was openly bitter that his contribution to the band's legacy was not recognized, telling Rock Candy magazine in 2018: "It's as if my time with BAD COMPANY has been airbrushed out of history. Those guys live in a cocoon where it's permanently 1974 and they've purposefully removed anything I ever had to do with them."

Howe was involved in albums that sold over a million copies and yet felt he never received the credit he deserves for his contribution to the seminal band.

"I know how much work I put into making those albums work," he said. "And how little help I received from Mick and Simon. It was a dreadful situation to be in."

Howe left BAD COMPANY after recording four albums, and believed the band "haven't released anything worthwhile since. And certainly nothing that's sold as well as the albums I was involved in. Those records gave BAD COMPANY a new lease of life."

But Howe reserved his harshest words for Paul Rodgers, the man he replaced in BAD COMPANY. "I don't like him as a person," he said. "And if he's such a brilliant artist and if he's really regarded as the only person ever to have sung with BAD COMPANY, then why haven't they recorded anything new in the last 10 years?"

Earlier this month, Howe's family issued a statement expressing their disappointment that the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame chose not to induct Brian with the rest of the BAD COMPANY members at this year's induction ceremony.

"That the Rock Hall chooses to discount the recordings with Brian Howe as lead vocalist and prolific songwriter (between 1986 and 1994) is a distortion of the band's history," the statement read in part. "Brian was for this time the charismatic singer of the band. He was the continuum of their success. An entire generation grew up with 'Dangerous Age', 'Holy Water' and 'Here Comes Trouble' and millions of fans would want these songs to be enshrined into the full BAD COMPANY catalog."