SiriusXM's Mark Strigl recently conducted an interview with VAN ZANT, made up of .38 SPECIAL co-founder Donnie Van Zant and LYNYRD SKYNYRD frontman Johnny Van Zant. Topics include the new VAN ZANT album "Always Look Up", their faith, Jesus, Donnie's time in .38 SPECIAL and the future plans for LYNYRD SKYNYRD. Asked about the possibility of new music from LYNYRD SKYNYRD, more than a year and a half after the death of the band's last surviving founding member Gary Rossington, Johnny said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The first thing that we've got coming out… There's a lot that's going on with SKYNYRD, but Gary's last show was recorded at the Ryman Auditorium there in Nashville [in November 2022]. And, man, we're putting that out on CD, vinyl and DVD, I'm sure, probably at the beginning of the year here. And you know what? I just had a meeting, man. There's a movie that we're talking about. And yes, there is a lot of songs that myself, [LYNYRD SKYNYRD guitarist] Rickey [Medlocke] and Gary wrote that, unfortunately, we never got to record. And we've been going back and looking for all of 'em. Gary was a master of holding on to little cassettes. No matter what, even though he had a voicemail on his phone, he'd bring in a cassette player, the one and only guy who had one. So his wife and daughters gave us a box of stuff that he kept. And so we've been going through it. We haven't gotten through the whole thing. But maybe sometime in the future, my thought was to get all these artists that loved him and love SKYNYRD and invite 'em in and do a whole bash to him. And who knows? Maybe we'll write some new stuff."

Rossington's final performance, part of the band's "Big Wheels Keep On Turnin'" tour, was a star-studded affair, with country rapper Jelly Roll, SHINEDOWN vocalist Brent Smith, BROTHERS OSBORNE's John Osborne and Marcus King among the guests who appeared during the show.

A full recording of the concert — "The 50th Anniversary Of Lynyrd Skynyrd" — was screened in movie theaters across the U.S. in July 2023.

If a new LYNYRD SKYNYRD album materializes, it will be the group's first since 2012's "Last Of A Dyin' Breed". The band released a single, "Last Of The Street Survivors", in 2020.

"Last Of The Street Survivors" — which shares its name with what was the time of the song's release supposed to be LYNYRD SKYNYRD's farewell tour — was penned by Rossington alongside Van Zant, Medlocke and songwriter Tom Hambridge, and found the Southern rockers reminiscing about their career and the bandmates they lost.

After four SKYNYRD members were killed in an October 1977 plane crash, Rossington recruited Johnny to fill his brother's shoes a decade later.

Rossington died in March 2023 at his home in Milton, Georgia at the age of 71.

In a new interview with "Rock Of Nations With Dave Kinchen And Shane McEachern", KISS frontman Paul Stanley was asked if it has been "an adjustment" not going back out on tour after the completion of the band's "End Of The Road" farewell trek. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I was gonna use the word 'adjustment'. There's no way to give that up and not feel a sense of, if not lost, kind of disoriented.

"It was time [for KISS to stop touring], and intellectually it made sense, but that doesn't mean that emotionally, it doesn't play a part in it," he continued. "So, yeah, being home, as I am right now, is normal. What's not normal is I'm not going back out.

"KISS remains. We're so involved in what's going on now and the future and this phenomenal, mind-boggling KISS avatar show. But, yeah, to not be up there — I see video from 10 months ago, 11 months ago, and it almost seems like a lifetime ago, because I've kind of come to grips with not doing that again… Star Child [Paul's stage character] is forever — but me up there, that's done."

Stanley also talked about the prospect of stepping down from the stage and not performing in front of an audience ever again, especially as aging affects the singing voice in various ways, including changes in pitch, volume and clarity. He said: "I would be lying to say that I'm the singer I was 20 years ago, 30 years ago. 50 years ago? Of course not. No prize fighter is the fighter that they were, no basketball player.

"I think that we've all earned the right, and always have the right, to decide what we do and for how long," he continued. "An audience has a right to stop coming. But the rest is up to the individual.

"It's always interesting when I hear someone say, 'Oh, I wish so-and-so would retire from sports or from entertainment because I wanna remember them the way they were.' Well, if you wanna do that, stop watching. But to impose that will, it's ludicrous.

"I'm good friends with singers who certainly have gone through similar things where you come to grips with what you still are and what you're not, and then you either find a way to make it work or at some point you say it's time to let go," Paul added.

The technology being used for the KISS avatars, originally developed for ABBA's "Voyage" show in London, will allow KISS to stay "on the road" in retirement.

The KISS avatars were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and were financed and produced by the Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment, which is behind "ABBA Voyage".

Using cutting-edge technology, Pophouse Entertainment Group, which was founded by ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus, will create digital versions of KISS. The project was previewed at the final KISS concert in New York in December 2023.

KISS recently sold its entire music catalog, likeness and brand name to Pophouse. While terms of the deal were not officially announced, Bloomberg and Associated Press said it was worth upwards of $300 million.

METALLICA, JUDAS PRIEST, GOJIRA, KNOCKED LOOSE and SPIRITBOX have been announced as the "Best Metal Performance" nominees at the 67th annual Grammy Awards, which will broadcast live on February 2, 2025 from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on the CBS television network and stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

"Best Metal Performance" nominees:

* GOJIRA, MARINA VIOTTI, VICTOR LE MASNE - "Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça Ira!)"
* JUDAS PRIEST – "Crown Of Horns"
* METALLICA - "Screaming Suicide"
* KNOCKED LOOSE (feat. Poppy) - "Suffocate"
* SPIRITBOX - "Cellar Door"

Before the awards, final round voting will take place from December 12, 2024 to January 3, 2025. The Recording Academy's voting members, composed of music creators, including artists, producers, songwriters, and engineers determine the Grammy winners across all categories revealed on Grammy night. This thorough process underscores the integrity of the Grammy Awards as music's only industry-recognized, peer-voted honor.

This year, the Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammy Awards, introduced several key updates to the annual Grammy Awards process, including adjustments to eligibility criteria and category renaming, which will all go into effect immediately at the 2025 Grammys.

Fans can also look forward to the debut of the "Harry Belafonte Best Song For Social Change Award", which was recently renamed and recategorized in honor of the late entertainment industry icon and social justice champion Harry Belafonte.

All these changes are designed to enhance the integrity and inclusivity of the Grammy Awards and reflect the Recording Academy's commitment to supporting and progressing the evolving music industry.

The Academy's total membership is over 16,000 members, of which more than 13,000 are voting members.

The eligibility period for the 67th annual Grammy Awards is September 16, 2023 through August 30, 2024.

The Recording Academy reportedly received 20,000 entries across 94 categories.

The Grammys voting process begins with members and record companies submitting entries, which are then screened for eligibility and category placement.
BEST METAL PERFORMANCE #GRAMMYs NOMINEES@GojiraMusic, Marina Viotti, Victor Le Manse@judaspriest@knockedloose ft. Poppy@Metallica@spiritboxband

Full coverage: https://t.co/pNRKvSOAJPpic.twitter.com/pBU5srYDQD

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) November 8, 2024

BUTCHER BABIES have just released a new single, "Sincerity", a track rooted in wishful thinking. The lyrics dive into trusting someone to be delicate with your feelings, but rather having used those emotions to feed their own ego and benefit.

"Sincerity" marks BUTCHER BABIES's first release since the departure of co-founding co-vocalist Carla Harvey.

On the new single, BUTCHER BABIES singer Heidi Shepherd states: "Over the last decade and a half, BUTCHER BABIES has become known for our aggression and soaring melodies. This new release is no different. Diving into real-life experiences and expectations while exposing the rawest part of our souls, this single is bound to invoke an emotional rollercoaster between looking toward the future with hope while reminiscing of past losses."

Though a release date has yet to be confirmed, there are more plans for new BUTCHER BABIES music. Future releases will be available via Judge & Jury Records, a powerhouse record label and production company founded by multi-platinum producer Howard Benson (MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, SEETHER, SKILLET, OF MICE & MEN) and Neil Sanderson of THREE DAYS GRACE. The instrumentation was meticulously crafted by Benson and Sanderson at West Valley Recording Studios, Benson's studio in Woodland Hills.

On the signing to Judge & Jury Records, Benson shares: "I have always been a fan of the band and never really thought we'd get a chance to work with them! I especially love Heidi's vocal range and ability to weave compelling stories through her music. Excited Judge & Jury got to do this music together with her and Henry, and for the fans to hear it!"

BUTCHER BABIES is Heidi Shepherd on vocals, Henry Flury on guitar, Ricky Bonazza on bass and Devin Nickles on drums.

BUTCHER BABIES played their first concert since the official departure of Harvey on July 27 at the Stonehenge festival in Steenwijk, The Netherlands.

The band announced Harvey's exit in a social media post on July 20. BUTCHER BABIES wrote: "As you may have already guessed, it is confirmed that Carla Harvey and BUTCHER BABIES have officially parted ways.

"Carla has been an integral part of our journey, bringing her unique talent, passion, and energy to the band. We are grateful for the incredible memories we've made together and the impact she has had on our music and our fans. We will miss her greatly and we wish her all the best in her future endeavors.

"We deeply appreciate your support over the past 15 years," BUTCHER BABIES added. "We feel incredibly fortunate to keep making and playing music as our career, and we are excited for this new era of BUTCHER BABIES!

"See you on the road."

Carla added in a separate post: "Over the last 6 months You may have noticed my absence from BUTCHER BABIES posts. After 15 years of dedication, I wanted to let you know that I will not be rejoining the band for any future endeavors.

"I am super proud of my work with BUTCHER BABIES…2 EPS, 5 Full lengths albums and countless tours with our metal heroes! To all of our incredible BUTCHER BABIES friends and fans…you have provided me with some of the greatest experiences of my life! I have loved every second of writing and performing all over the world for you! I have loved meeting you. WOW. I still can't believe this kid from Detroit got so lucky.

"I am not done making music and performing. I WILL see you soon".

In the fall of 2023, BUTCHER BABIES completed a European tour without Carla, who sat out the trek in order to undergo emergency surgery on her left eye.

BUTCHER BABIES' three-week 2024 European tour concluded on August 17 at the Czech Republic's Rock Of Sadská festival.

BUTCHER BABIES kicked off a U.S. headlining tour on September 18 in Palmdale, California. Support on the "Good Lord! The Butcher's Ded!" trek is coming from DED, DROPOUT KINGS and FOX LAKE.

This past January, Harvey and ANTHRAX and PANTERA drummer Charlie Benante announced that they were officially engaged.

BUTCHER BABIES released a double album "Eye For An Eye..." and "…'Til The World's Blind", in July 2023. The double album celebrates the tenth anniversary of BUTCHER BABIES' critically acclaimed debut, "Goliath", released on July 9, 2013 via Century Media Records.

BUTCHER BABIES' previous album, 2017's "Lilith" was produced by Steve Evetts (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, SEPULTURA, SUICIDE SILENCE) and marked the band's recording debut with drummer Chase Brickenden, who replaced Chris Warner in 2016.

Photo credit: Jesse Shepherd

In a recent interview with The This Is Metal Show, former GREAT WHITE singer Terry Ilous discussed his friendship with the band's original frontman Jack Russell who died in August at the age of 63. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "First I met Jack in 1990, I believe. XYZ opened for GREAT WHITE at the Santa Monica Civic Center. And I thought he was a terrific singer. I was, like, 'Wow, this guy's got so much energy. He's a great singer — really, really good singer.' And he was nice to me. We did a few shows together, but we never really connected, although we were on the same label; we were on Capitol Records together. So we never really connected back then. And then I joined GREAT WHITE in late 2010; I believe 2010, I joined GREAT WHITE. I was with the band for eight years. And then, after my departure, Jack reached out to me and talked to me. And that's when we became friends. I was a little bit wary at first, I've gotta be honest with you, because the band told me so many horror stories about him — he was a drunk, he was this, he was that. And so I didn't know how to approach him. Plus I was replacing him in GREAT WHITE, so I just didn't know how to feel, to be honest with you. And then I met the guy, and he was a tremendous guy."

Terry continued: "The thing about Jack, Jack was intelligent. He was a very intelligent person. He was funny, had a great sense of humor, a bit sarcastic. And he was a good human being. I mean, he was so nice to other people, not just me. But I've seen how he was treating other people, talking to other people, being kind to everyone, signing an autograph, talking to this guy and that guy, taking the time to say hello. And I realized he was a really good, good person. So, as time went on, we became friends. We used to call each other or chit chat on the phone, text each other. It's just weird that him and I were not friends back in the days, but we became friends after my departure from GREAT WHITE. But I have to say that it was an honor to know the guy, not just because he was a great singer, but because he was a great human being."

In October 2022, Russell and Ilous teamed up to record a semi-acoustic version of "I Won't Back Down", one of the most iconic classic rock songs by TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS. A Tim Sheridan-directed music video for the track was also released.

Back in July 2018, Russell slammed his former bandmates in GREAT WHITE for the "deceitful" way Ilous was kicked out of the group.

Ilous, formerly of '80s L.A. hard rockers XYZ, joined GREAT WHITE in 2010 after replacing touring vocalist Jani Lane (WARRANT).

The Ilous-led GREAT WHITE released two albums, 2012's "Elation" and 2017's "Full Circle", before Terry was shown the door and replaced with Mitch Malloy.

Ilous later released a statement in which he claimed he was blindsided by his dismissal from GREAT WHITE, saying that he "proudly invested" all of his energy and focus "into the GREAT WHITE brand."

Russell, who was himself fired from GREAT WHITE in December 2011 (after being on hiatus from the group since 2009),took to his Facebook page to offer his thoughts on Terry's departure from the band, writing: "I just wanted to express my condolences to Terry Ilous for the deceitful way my X band members dealt with the situation of his termination kind of reminds me of something else. Huh? In the last few months Terry and I have gotten to know each other through Linkedin have become what I would say friends. As far as I'm concerned, he's a great guy and he had an opportunity and he took it. The fact is it was my fault that it all happened to begin with. I was unreliable, unhealthy and my addiction ruled my world. I wouldn't have wanted to play with me either if I were them. The only thing I was very upset about was the way they went about it. But at least Terry got an e-mail where I received nothing not even a phone call or a return message. But this is not about me this is about Terry. I'm sure he will find his way to a better place as he is a great singer and has a lot of talent and I have a lot of respect for him. I wish him well and I hope you will all support him in his future efforts."

Russell sued his onetime bandmates in 2012 over their continued use of the GREAT WHITE name after the singer had taken a leave of absence from the band for medical reasons. A short time later, Russell was countersued by guitarist Mark Kendall, keyboardist/guitarist Michael Lardie and drummer Audie Desbrow, claiming the vocalist's self-destructive behavior was damaging the GREAT WHITE name (they also alleged he was charging promoters less for his own touring version of GREAT WHITE). The parties settled in July 2013 without going to trial, with Russell later performing with a new lineup as JACK RUSSELL'S GREAT WHITE while the others continued as GREAT WHITE.

Back in June 2020, Russell teamed up with Ilous, along with guitarists Robby Lochner and Phil Woodward, for a special acoustic concert on the Monsters Of Rock Cruise Facebook page. The set included acoustic renditions of songs from GREAT WHITE, XYZ and LED ZEPPELIN.

Jack died less than a month after he announced that he was retiring from touring following a diagnosis of Lewy body dementia.

Russell was performing with his version of GREAT WHITE when a pyrotechnics display sparked a nightclub fire that killed 100 people at a 2003 concert in Rhode Island. At the time of the fire, the group that was on the road was called JACK RUSSELL'S GREAT WHITE. Kendall, who founded GREAT WHITE with Russell in 1982, later said he was asked to join Russell and his solo band on the tour to help boost attendance. Guitarist Ty Longley died in the blaze.

In October 2022, GREAT WHITE officially named Brett Carlisle as its new lead singer. Carlisle joined the band as the replacement for Andrew Freeman, who sang for GREAT WHITE for only five months.

In a new interview with Rock Antenne's David Loebe at Guitar Summit 2024, OPETH guitarist Fredrik Åkesson spoke about the September 2022 addition of drummer Waltteri Väyrynen (PARADISE LOST, BLOODBATH, BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT) to the group's ranks. Väyrynen replaced stand-in drummer Sami Karppinen who had been the temporary replacement for Martin "Axe" Axenrot since the fall of 2021.

Fredrik said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, we had a guy that helped us out in between, a guy called Sami, who actually was Axe's drum tech. So he did the two American tours we signed up for, and also the festival summer season. And then we had Waltteri in mind because we saw him play the track 'The Devil's Orchard', which is… He's more of, I would say, an extreme metal drummer, but in OPETH, you need to have a bigger spectra, you need to know the prog, the more calm stuff and tasteful stuff, and he played that track, which is not a death metal track, but he just nailed everything; he really had the entire spectra as a drummer — all the different elements that are required within OPETH, because we kind of switch in between '70s prog rock, hard rock, metal, death metal, progressive metal, blah, blah, blah, etc. Some slightly jazzy stuff as well. But we did three tours with Waltteri before we recorded the [upcoming OPETH] album ['The Last Will And Testament'] with him. So he just nailed everything directly. When we went into the studio, the first track we recorded was one that we released so far, 'Paragraph Three', and he just nailed it on the first take. So, [we went], 'That's it.' But he was, of course, as I would be, 'No. Another one.'"

In August 2022, one of Axenrot's BLOODBATH bandmates, vocalist Nick Holmes (also of PARADISE LOST),told BLABBERMOUTH.NET that the drummer's refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19 led to his exit from OPETH.

Axenrot has not publicly commented on his exit from OPETH and it is not clear if his vaccination status is the only reason he is no longer playing with the band.

Axenrot officially joined OPETH nearly two decades ago as the replacement for Martin Lopez, who left the band in May 2006 after being plagued by illness and anxiety attacks, which forced him to miss several of OPETH's tours.

"The Last Will And Testament" will be made available on November 22 via Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget. The LP was written by guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt, with lyrics conferred with Klara Rönnqvist Fors (THE HEARD, ex-CRUCIFIED BARBARA). "The Last Will And Testament" was co-produced by Åkerfeldt and Stefan Boman (GHOST, THE HELLACOPTERS),engineered by Boman, Joe Jones (KILLING JOKE, ROBERT PLANT) and OPETH, with Boman, Åkerfeldt and the rest of OPETH mixing at Atlantis and Hammerthorpe Studios in Stockholm. The strings on "The Last Will And Testament" were arranged by Åkerfeldt and returning prog friend Dave Stewart (EGG, KHAN) and conducted by Stewart at Angel Studios in London. Not one to miss a beat, visual artist Travis Smith returns to the fold, crafting his 11th cover, a haunting "photograph" reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's infamous "Overlook Hotel" photograph. Miles Showell (ABBA, QUEEN) also revisits mastering and vinyl lacquer cutting at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Åkerfeldt rolls out the red carpet for storied flautist and JETHRO TULL mainman Ian Anderson. Not only do Anderson's signature notes fly on "§4" and "§7", he narrates on "§1", "§2", "§4", and "§7". Joining Anderson, EUROPE's Joey Tempest lends a backing vocal hand on "§2", while Åkerfeldt's youngest daughter, Mirjam Åkerfeldt, is the disembodied voice in "§1".

"The Last Will And Testament" is a concept album set in the post-World War I era, unfolding the story of a wealthy, conservative patriarch whose last will and testament reveals shocking family secrets. The narrative weaves through the patriarch's confessions, the reactions of his twin children, and the mysterious presence of a polio-ridden girl who the family have taken care of. The album begins with the reading of the father's will in his mansion. Among those in attendance is a young girl, who, despite being an orphan and polio-ridden, has been raised by the family. Her presence at the will reading raises suspicions and questions among the twins.

"The Last Will And Testament" is the darkest and heaviest record OPETH has made in decades, and it is also the band's most fearlessly progressive. A concept album recounting the reading of one recently deceased man's will to an audience of his surviving family members, it brims with haunting melodrama, shocking revelations and some of the wildest and most unpredictable music that Åkerfeldt has ever written.

The follow-up to 2019's widely acclaimed "In Cauda Venenum", "The Last Will And Testament" is set in the shadowy, sepia-stained 1920s. It slowly reveals its secrets like some classic thriller from the distant, cobwebbed past, with each successive song shining more light on the stated machinations of our dead (but definitely not harmless) protagonist. The emotional chaos of the story is perfectly matched by OPETH's vivid but claustrophobic soundtrack, which artfully winds its way towards a crestfallen but sumptuous finale. Masters of their own idiosyncratic musical domain, OPETH have never sounded more unique.

Photo by Terhi Ylimäinen

In a new interview with Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic, MR. BIG singer Eric Martin spoke about the band's upcoming tenth studio album, "Ten", which will be released on July 12 via Frontiers Music Srl. The LP features 11 new original tracks written by Martin and guitarist Paul Gilbert, along with André Pessis and Tony Fanucchi. In a tribute to their late drummer Pat Torpey, Martin, Gilbert and bassist Billy Sheehan have enlisted the exceptional talents of Nick D'Virgilio on drums for "Ten", which was produced by Jay Ruston and MR. BIG.

"Paul and I wrote the majority of the record last November," Eric said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET. "We came off the road. I live in Marin County, San Francisco, and I flew to Portland. And it was about maybe three weeks and I'd come home on the weekends. And we wrote from scratch; we wrote all these songs. And I'm just sitting there playing acoustic guitar and he's playing acoustic or electric and we just kind of write these songs. And I'm singing it really low, and the keys were a little low. And I was hoping that maybe we'd put the key up a little bit… It's not that I'm comfortable in that range like I used to be, but it definitely cuts through on a vocal. But he didn't do that at all. He just made it exactly how we wrote it, in lower keys. I wish we didn't do that. But in a way, you hear that sort of — what do they call it? — mature voice. I mean, it's more my speaking voice. I have this gravel kind of tone. I've had it for years. And it kind of comes across on the record."

Elaborating on the songwriting process for "Ten", Eric said: "On this album, there was pre-production. Me and Paul wrote the songs. We demoed them together. And we just had so much fun writing and recording and even hanging out. I mean, I'll tell you, I don't know — for 30-something years. I mean, our music's been around for 35 years. We haven't been together in the same room for more than 20-something. And back in the day, I've had great conversations with Paul. I've written a lot of songs with him in the past. But when we were on the tour bus, he's got the headphones on. He listened to some music. This is way before he was teaching. I mean, he just kind of lived in his own little world. And I lived at my refrigerator, drinking wine with Billy [Sheehan, bass] or something and just talking about the show and [being] Mr. Party here, I guess, back in the day and just more — I was out there. But Paul was pretty quiet and reserved. And I never really talked to him. I mean, we wrote songs together, but I didn't know him. I knew him as a bandmember and doing radio together and performances and all that, but I didn't know his life. So when we were writing this record in November, I stayed at this Airbnb, like a couple of streets down from his house. And then I woke up in the morning and I had coffee with his wife and their son. A Japanese family. You take your shoes off before you go into the house and into the recording studio. And she'd make Japanese food. I mean, it was really, really cool and comfortable. And I talked to Paul and we had great conversations. It felt good."

Martin added: "Out of a lot of the albums we've done, I've enjoyed this the most since I don't remember — since our first and second albums. We had so much fun just talking about anything in life. And I'm telling him about my life and he's, like, 'I had no idea.' It was really, really sweet."

MR. BIG recently completed the European leg of "The BIG Finish", which sees the veteran band performing MR. BIG's 1991 album, "Lean Into It", in full, along with other cuts from the group's history.

Regarding how the farewell tour has been going so far, Martin told Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire": "It's been a bro love fest… Everybody loves each other. We're going out on top.

"I don't wanna tour like we're touring now," he explained. "I'm okay with it 'cause I've had a couple of weeks break to just chill out, rest the larynx, have a couple of beers and just hang out with my family. And I'm raring to go. We're going to South America, doing the West Coast USA, and I'm looking forward to it. But, man, this is a long-ass tour. It started last year in Asia. Then I did some solo things where I went to Japan, and then I came home and sang the 10 songs or 11 songs that are on the new studio album. But I don't wanna tour like this."

"He added: "We're touring all the way up to August 23rd, I think. And then right after that, I got other projects, but no more MR. BIG. No more MR. BIG touring-wise."

Regarding the possibility of MR. BIG still making new music after the completion of the farewell tour, Eric said: "Everybody was saying, 'Hey, we could still continue to make records.' I'm, like, 'Yeah, that would be fun.' Well, the record was hard to put together because of everybody's scheduling, but it came together pretty quickly. The thing that took the longest was the album cover. Nobody could agree on it. It was ridiculous. I mean, our creative juices were poured out long time ago for any kind of artwork. And Paul Gilbert is kind of a cartoon artist, and I asked him, I go, 'Just draw pictures of us in cartoon form and we'll give it a name.' We couldn't even think of a name. Anyway, that took the longest. So hopefully we'll do another record, but I don't know. The album cover thing was painful."

When MR. BIG announced "The BIG Finish" tour last year, the bandmembers said that it was "time to mark the end of this chapter of their legacy" after Torpey lost his battle with Parkinson's disease in 2018. The first leg kicked off in Japan and Southeast Asia in July and August 2023, where the band performed for hundreds of thousands of loyal fans at 11 sold-out shows including Budokan in Tokyo, Japan.

D'Virgilio will miss most of the final European leg of the band's "The BIG Finish" tour due to his commitments with his band BIG BIG TRAIN. He will be temporarily replaced on the trek by Edu Cominato, an experienced drummer from São Paulo, Brazil who has previously played with Sheehan and Martin, Jeff Scott Soto and Geoff Tate (QUEENSRŸCHE),among others.

As a session musician and touring artist, Nick has worked with many different kinds of artists and bands, from TEARS FOR FEARS, Sheryl Crow and Kevin Gilbert to Peter Gabriel and Eric Burdon and the ANIMALS. In 1996, Nick took Phil Collins's place in GENESIS and played on their "Calling All Stations" album. He has also carved out a major presence in the progressive rock world with his bands, SPOCK'S BEARD and BIG BIG TRAIN.

Before joining the Sweetwater team, Nick spent almost five years touring with Cirque Du Soleil's "Totem" as drummer, vocalist, and assistant bandleader.

Photo credit: Joel Barrios / Photography That Rocks

In a new interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach was asked if he writes songs and lyrics on a regular basis. He responded: "I write all of the time, but I don't ever write. [Laughs] Let me explain what I mean. I've always been a guy who collects things. I collect riffs, I collect lyrics and I collect titles. But mainly riffs. I can make a riff into a song. A riff is a riff. I know what a good riff is.

"I've met songwriters that say, 'I'm going to write a song for Sebastian Bach.' They put all of this time, effort and emotion into it. They try to finish a whole song and give it to me. That rarely works. Because I need to feel it in my bones in order to sing it correctly," Sebastian explained.

"I've always written songs. You know, it's so confusing to people. They say, 'You didn't write [SKID ROW's classic ballad] 'I Remember You'.' Okay, let's go down this logic. As I said, some people will try to write a full song and give it to me. But rarely does that happen. Sometimes it does. [Laughs] Rachel [Bolan, SKID ROW bassist] and Snake [SKID ROW guitarist Dave Sabo] played me 'I Remember You' and I'm going, 'Okay, done. Next? This song's done!'

"If I'm going down this logic, 'You didn't write that', then I should go in there and say, 'Okay, I'm going to change this just to get my fuckin' name on it, because I'm a prick. [Laughs] I don't work like that. A lot of people do. Names that I won't say, they think, 'I'm the songwriter, so I have to write a song.' I don't ever think like that. If my next-door neighbor has a kick-ass riff, I don't care that it's my next-door neighbor. Hey, let's work on this. I'm into the content. I'm not into the form. I don't give a fuck about the logo. I don't care. It means nothing to me. I care about what's inside the record. I care about the riff of [SKID ROW's song] 'Monkey Business', which I wrote with Snake, even though my name's not on there. I crafted that riff with him. I'm into metal. I'm into heavy metal.

"Some fans say, 'Why do Sebastian's albums sound more like the early SKID ROW records than SKID ROW?' Which they do. I'm not bragging — they do. They just do. I have two ears. I can hear," Bach continued. "The reason for that is that I was the guy in the studio for [SKID ROW's second album] 'Slave To The Grind' with [producer] Michael Wagener, sitting next to him, picking the amp sounds, driving around town choosing Marshall amps that we liked. It was me, not anyone else. It was me and Michael Wagener, because we were fans of metal. Like ACCEPT, which he produced. MALICE, which he produced. We were the real heavy metal guys. Some of the guys in that band are into [Bruce] Springsteen and Southside Johnny and that's what their scene is. Some guys are into the RAMONES and punk. I brought the metal. I was the heavy metal fan of that band. When you listen to [Bach's solo records] 'Angel Down' or 'Child Within The Man', they fit with 'Slave To The Grind' seamlessly.

"When I get involved in something, people will say, 'He's hard to work with.' Because nothing comes easily. Nothing. I'm not hard to work with when somebody says, 'Do you like this song?' and the song is 'I Remember You'. That's the easiest fucking day there is, ever. [Laughs]"

In a December 2023 interview with the "Radio Forrest" podcast, Rachel was asked if it's true that 1989's "Skid Row" LP was "completely written and done" before Sebastian came into the group and laid down his vocals on it. Rachel responded: "Yeah, pretty much — all except for a couple things here and there, but I would say about 98 percent were written and done, for sure."

He added: "That's the way it just worked out. Snake [SKID ROW guitarist Dave Sabo] and I, when we first met, we just started writing songs. We each had our own band, and we didn't commit to a band. And we each did our own gigs and whatever, but we'd get together and write songs. And then once we saw, like, 'Wow. These songs are really cool. Let's put something together and just start playing them for people.' And that's how SKID ROW was born. It was kind of like a two- or three-step process. And so Snake and I just ended up the main songwriters. It's not to say that we didn't want anyone else's contributions, 'cause that's not the case."

Bolan continued: "You know as soon as you start playing an idea for the guys whether they like it or not, whether it's a good idea or not. 'Cause sometimes I think that I have the next 'Stairway To Heaven' and I'll bring it to rehearsal and everyone's, like, 'Eh.' And you're just, like, 'Oh, that hurts.' But it is what it is. All five of you have to have to get off on it for it to become a SKID ROW song."

Bach addressed Bolan's comments during his February 24, 2024 solo concert at Palace Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota. After performing the song "Makin A Mess" from "Skid Row", Sebastian told the crowd: "You might read online, you might read online my old bass player, and my old guitar player, 'Oh, we came up with 98 percent of that shit.' Well, if you look in the credits, I co-wrote that last song, I'll have you know. I co-wrote these lyrics. I co-wrote these lyrics. It goes, 'One, two, baby what you do / Three, four, let me show you the door / You're better off dead than makin' a mess of me / Five, six, take your last licks / Seven, eight, I'm gonna give it to you straight.' It's like fucking Shakespeare. Those are some rhyming couplets that I just laid on you."

Bach joined SKID ROW in 1988 as the replacement for the band's original lead singer Matt Fallon, who sang on demo versions of songs that were eventually re-recorded for SKID ROW's multi-platinum 1989 eponymous LP.

Back in June 2021, Bach weighed in on a Twitter discussion between SKID ROW fans in response to the announcement that the band's then-lineup would perform its second album, "Slave To The Grind", in its entirety at a California concert the following month. When one fan wrote that Sebastian "made SKID ROW the band they were," another fan chimed in: "It's hard to say a guy made a band who they were when he didn't write anything on their biggest selling album. You get another good vocalist and you probably have the same result". This prompted Sebastian to write: "Hey stupid you do realize that the songwriting credits are on the album right? Can you read?" When the same Twitter user said that "Fans need to move past ERAs", Bach responded: "Fans have moved past ERAS they started back in 1996 jackass. You can either listen to #AngelDown #KickingandScreaming and #GiveEmHell," referencing his last three solo albums, "or you can listen to 'Rise Of The Damnation Army United World Rebellion Chapter 2'," which was the 2014 post-Bach EP released by SKID ROW. "The choice of songwriters is up to you".

Apparently undeterred, the fan who made the original comment about the alleged lack of Sebastian's songwriting contributions went on to say: "[Bach] wrote NONE of the songs on their biggest selling album which is the comment he is responding to,. I have been corrected on 'Slave To The Grind', I guess he can legitimately sing those 3 songs live". To this, Sebastian replied: "READ THE CREDITS YOU F****** IDIOT I wrote the song 'Makin A Mess' and every single high note on the first SKID ROW Record when I was 19 years old. You think anybody wrote the screams in '18 And Life' other than me? Why don't you go listen to the guy before me sing It on YouTube and go shove that video up your ass".

He continued: "Hey you dumb fuck I co-wrote five songs on 'Slave To The Grind' if you could learn to read you would know this. I co-wrote five songs on 'Subhuman Race' so shove that up your ass too. Go listen to my solo records & the records they make without me and have a gr8 time".

Sebastian added: "Read the credits if you want fact. The fact is u r a lifetime loser and you always will be. You have no clue what you're talking about & can't read liner notes. The albums they wrote without me are the ones that I do not sing on. My solo albums were written without them. Enjoy".

Sebastian's comments came six years after he slammed his former bandmates in SKID ROW for claiming to have written all the songs on the group's early records without him. During an appearance on the "Snider Comments" podcast with host Dee Snider of TWISTED SISTER, Bach said: "The biggest lie that those guys always tell is, 'We wrote all the songs on all the records.' If you listen to my albums and the SKID ROW albums, and then you listen to the SKID ROW albums without me, and then listen to my solo albums, that'll give you all that you need to know about who wrote what. When they say, 'We wrote the song '18 And Life', you [just] sang it.' Okay, let's examine that statement. You can go listen to the original version of that song online, and then you can listen to me doing it, and there's something called a melody line. Okay? Where it goes, [singing] 'Lived nine to five and he worked his fingers to the bone.' Every time my voice goes into the register where you turn it up and go, 'Holy shit! Did you fucking hear that?' Those are the notes that I wrote, okay? Nobody does that in the version before that I didn't fucking… 'Can I sing this note in this part?' 'Yeah, do that, Sebastian. Yeah, do that.'"

He continued: "So I'm nineteen years old, taking these fucking songs and turning them into JUDAS PRIEST songs, as far as… I'm rewriting the melody lines, never thinking anybody was gonna like it, never thinking anybody was gonna buy it. I'm thinking I'm gonna be the next MALICE, not the next BON JOVI. The last thing anybody ever thinks is that somebody is gonna like this shit. That was, like, the last-case scenario. So I'm not in court, saying, 'I wrote this note! I fucking…' I'm not gonna be in litigation when I'm nineteen. You know?! So, [them saying] 'We wrote all the songs' is such a fucking pile of shit."

Asked by Snider if he thinks it's okay for some other singer to come and imitate his vocal and writing style and represent himself as the frontman of SKID ROW, Bach responded: "No. I think they should change the name of the band and leave… Like, VAN HALEN, okay, had Sammy [Hagar]… Well, they had Gary [Cherone]…. [Laughs] I forgot about that. But anyways, I would say, save the name of the band… I'm not saying that for me; I'm saying that for all of rock and roll."

Sebastian also talked about the fact that he believes he is by far the most recognizable member of the classic SKID ROW lineup. He said: "The elephant in the room here is, like, when you [referring to Dee] and me walk down the street, Dee Snider and Sebastian Bach, we are the human beings that other human beings hang out the car window and go, 'Youth gone wild, motherfucker!' 'We're not gonna take it!' There's no other people… There's no other guy… Not one guy in SKID ROW walks down the street and can't walk down the fucking street. I can't walk down the street without people going, 'Fuck! What the fuck!' There's no [other] guy in the band that will ever have that; they never will. The public decides. It's like the show 'American Idol'. 'We're gonna pick an 'American idol'.' No, you're not. America is gonnna pick the fucking idol. America is the people that decide who the band is. You know what I'm saying?!"

Asked in a 2013 interview with Metal Covenant if Bach "actually wrote anything significant on [SKID ROW's early] albums," Sabo responded: "To be totally honest, yeah. I mean, he contributed to things here and there. There is no doubt; you can't deny it. But to the extent that what Rachel and I would put into a song, no. I mean, Rachel and I spent three months on 'Quicksand Jesus'. So to sit there and say that he didn't contribute anything, then I'd be lying. But to sit there and say that he contributed equally as we did, that would be a lie."

In a 2010 interview, Bolan stated about SKID ROW's split with Sebastian: "There was so much tension and so much infighting that it was hard to write songs. Snake and I formed the band, we wrote the songs, and then other people played and sang it. People wanted to break away from what had been working, and that impeded the songwriting."

Regarding the decision to reform SKID ROW in 1999 without Bach, Bolan said: "The blood was so bad after [1995's] 'Subhuman Race' and there was just so much stuff in the press, we knew it wasn't going to work [with Sebastian]. We decided we'd rather go on being happy with what we were doing than get right back into all the tension and dissension. We loved the music, we loved playing, and we knew we could do this and have fun again. So we decided right there to continue without him."

In a new interview with James Wilson-Taylor of Rock Sound, DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott was asked how he has managed to keep his voice going "just as strong" over the course of the band's 40-plus-year career. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The truth is that the older you get, the more difficult it does get. I'm in the singers' union, so I'm on board with every singer that goes, 'Yeah, I've been there, done that.' It doesn't matter how brilliant you are, you're gonna have a bad day because singing is not carpentry. You can't just pick up a tool and have COVID and make a beautiful cabinet because you can still work that kind of work if you're sick. You can't sing or barely talk even if you're sick. So sometimes you get sick and it affects your voice, but as long as you're not sick, there isn't an excuse, depending on how much you want it. And that's what the difference is.

"A lot of singers are born with an amazing voice, so they don't believe they need to bother to try," he continued. "And I understand that, because if I'd have been born with a great voice, I don't think I would have tried as hard either, but the fact that I was not, and I had to develop one, just 'cause I wanted it, I was prepared to do the work. And Vivian [Campbell, DEF LEPPARD guitarist] was the guy that brought Roger Love on board. Roger Love's this L.A.-based vocal coach who's worked with everybody from BEACH BOYS to Iggy Pop. It doesn't matter what kind of singer you are, he doesn't teach you to sing; he teaches you not to lose your voice. That's the key. So you learn to sing a certain way where you protect your voice in certain environments.

"Some of the greatest singers in the world, their voices struggle because of the scheduling," Elliott explained. "And when we used to do six shows a week and people would say, 'You can't sing anymore,' they were probably right. I couldn't sing at the time, was the correct answer, but doing six shows in seven days, when you're playing two hours a night in those registers that I sing in, it was just getting to the point where I said, 'I can't do this.' So I had one of my few hissy fits and said, 'Next tour, this is not happening. I'm not doing any more than two in a row.' And then eventually we, just through scheduling, I think we accidentally did this little run of one on, one off, one on, one off. And by the end of it, I said, 'I'll never sing this well again,' unless we keep this schedule. And we just decided that's how we're gonna do it. So we don't do as many gigs — we don't have 200 shows a year; there's no need. We just did 25 over three months, and it suited me down to the ground, I've gotta be honest, as a singer, because I could rest up.

"You have to remember as well, it's not just me in DEF LEPPARD. We sing — everybody [in the band] except Rick [Allen, DEF LEPPARD drummer] sings. He's got enough to be dealing with, with his kit. So, everybody's voices, especially the backing vocals. Most of the time they do the high harmony stuff, but some of the times I do the high harmony, 'cause I can hit the highest notes. So I actually have to take the harmony in certain parts of the song. And like they say, the bridge in 'Animal', the high harmony, which is Phil [Collen, DEF LEPPARD guitarist] on record is me. Because on record, you can just keep [doing] it until you get it right. Live, it just made more sense to swap. So I took the high one, he took the low one. and we do that quite a bit. We do it on 'Bringin' On The Heartbreak'. I take the high harmony. But most of the time the guys are doing it, so they need rest as well, because we sing a lot. Listen to a DEF LEPPARD record, if you've never heard one, and listen to how much vocalization there is. There's actually more singing than guitars, because that's the way that we structure stuff.

"So looking after my voice, a lot of it is just common sense. At 65 years old, since we came back after COVID, we just made a point of going, 'We can sustain this for 10 years if we don't kill ourselves.' As we saw earlier on this tour, a couple of people, saying, like, 'Oh, DEF LEPPARD, they obviously use all these samples' — I think it was Chris Holmes from W.A.S.P. and some dude [Chuck Billy] from TESTAMENT. It's, like, actually, mates, no, we don't. We actually practice. And maybe the three guys that you think are miming all the backing vocals, maybe they're actually quite good at their jobs… We take it as a compliment. I'm not bitter about it. I mean, they can think what they want, because that's what they're used to. 99 percent of bands, maybe that's what they do. I don't know. I don't judge bands on whether they use samples or not. I just judge them on whether I like them. If I go see a band live, I could be the first to go, 'Yep. That's definitely not live.' There's a keyboard player going, whatever, and he's got the backing vocals there. But not us. It'll be real until it's terrible, and then we'll stop. [Laughs]"

DEF LEPPARD's 23-city trek with JOURNEY kicked off on July 6 in St. Louis, Missouri and continued through September 8 in Denver, Colorado. Along the way, the two Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees brought their show to stadiums in major cities like Chicago, Nashville, Boston, Toronto, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and more. CHEAP TRICK played two shows at the beginning of the tour and two concerts at the end of the trek, while STEVE MILLER BAND joined the bill for the majority of shows.

The DEF LEPPARD/JOURNEY tour was promoted by AEG Entertainment.

DEF LEPPARD's 12th studio album, "Diamond Star Halos", came out in 2022. A year later, the band followed it up with "Drastic Symphonies", a collection of reimagining of some of DEF LEPPARD's greatest hits with London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road. The album spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Current Classical chart.

DEF LEPPARD's latest single, "Just Like 73", arrived on seven-inch vinyl on August 2, 2024 and is available in a special color variant only through the band's D2C store and in black at all retailers.

"Just Like 73" notably marks the first collaboration between the iconic rock titans and the legendary guitarist, sonic innovator and co-founder of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and AUDIOSLAVE. The single revolves around a classic DEF LEPPARD stomp fueled by a robust stadium-size beat, thick riffing, and a signature chant, "Rock with me, just like 73!" Meanwhile, a knockout gang vocal gives way to a signature fret-scorching solo from Morello. The instantly recognizable whammy bar wheezes as he shreds at lightspeed into one last head-nodding hook.

During a recent appearance on "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, BREAKING BENJAMIN founder/frontman Benjamin Burnley was asked about the musical and thematic inspiration for the band's upcoming long-awaited follow-up to 2018's "Ember" album. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, it's been the longest we've ever gone without putting out an album, but the strange thing is, I don't know if it's 'cause of the pandemic or not, but it doesn't seem like it's been that long, to me anyway, but it has been a long time. I think that a lot of that is just that we have, with every album that comes out, there's just another whole album's worth of stuff. We have a lot of songs in our catalog, so it's kind of like it gets to the point of, like, we're not gonna add any more to this just to add more to it. We need to keep true to what this catalog… When I am gone off the earth, and that's all that's left of me behind, is my offspring and music is what I've left behind, I want it to be really solid."

He continued: "I really wish I could tell you what inspires me because if I knew that, I would like really try to break it down and invoke it whenever I wanted to, control it, but I don't know. It's just compulsion, to be inspired. It's just, like, 'Oh, I have this idea,' I have no idea where it came from, but I have this idea. I pull out my phone and then I record it and then I go back and I listen to it and I keep stacking and stacking and stacking on to it until it's something. And that's just kind of how I work. Before I would just grab my phone. I used to have all these little Mead notepads — you know those little ones, little mini ones, little Mead notepads. I have like a hundred of those — probably more — I used to have them in every single pocket of my jacket and my pants and a little silver mini cassette tape recorder thing. So this is before the smartphone. I don't do that anymore; I use my phone. So it's always been that process, to me, to just have something handy, something I could… I haven't written in a really long time, I mean with a pen, like wrote something down. I can't even remember the last time I wrote something down with a pen. So I use my phone and just tap it in there when it hits me, when it comes to me. It could be at the most weirdest time, most awkward time. I'll be talking to somebody and then I'll just stop and be, like, 'Sorry, I don't mean to be rude.' And I'll go in the bathroom and I'll record a little hum into the phone, and they hear me humming. They're, like, 'What the hell is up with this guy?' If I don't get it, I'm scared it'll be gone."

Regarding how spending so much time on road informs the songwriting process for new BREAKING BENJAMIN music, Benjamin said: "Well, with these guys in particular, with this lineup, the way that we write music is really natural together. Nothing is forced. There's never been — which is really weird, now that I'm thinking about it — there's never been a time when anybody has ever had to fight for an idea or push an idea or whatever. We kind of seem to think that they the same things suck, which is really important. You can like the same things, but it's more important to know what the same things that are bad are. And so I think touring — we get together, we have like a chemistry together not just as musicians but as friends and brothers. And when we're together playing, it definitely makes us more excited and motivated to record and make new music together than being apart and not playing together. So that aspect. But as far as where the creative stuff comes from, I've been doing this — thank God, and I'm very thankful for it — but I've been doing this for 22 years now, and I still, to this day, I can't tell anyone like where the songs like come from. Honestly, it's like a compulsion. Like when you're addicted to nicotine and you're like compelled to take a puff of a cigarette — it's like that. It's not like a plan. It's, like, 'I need to do this right now' thing."

He continued: "I'm very logically minded, kind of annoyingly so, actually. People find it annoying how logically minded I am. When I break things down, they're, like, 'Just go with it. You don't need to analyze everything' or whatever. But logically wise, I really wish I knew what influenced songwriting, what influenced it to happen, because then I would break that down logically and try to evoke it whenever I wanted to. I just can't, because I don't know where that compulsion comes from. So, to answer your question in the long way around, of course, I think just physically being together and playing music together sparks us to be… 'Cause when we're at home, we don't eat, sleep and breathe music. I'm a dad, most of us are dads, and so we're doing that — we're doing that stuff, the same thing that everybody else does. You kind of forget that you're a musician. You kind of forget that you're in a band. Sometimes I'll go into like a bar to get chicken wings, not to drink, mind you, but to get chicken wings, and somebody will start talking to me and I'm, like, 'Why are you talking [to me]?' And I'm, like, 'Oh, yeah, that thing,' because I'm living normal life, taking my kid to school. So being out on tour and being together as a band, it just reminds us all that we're in a band. [Laughs]"

In a separate interview with Josh Klinger of Chicago's Rock 95.5 radio station, Burnley was asked when fans can expect to hear BREAKING BENJAMIN's next studio album. He responded: "Well, we're working on it… It's the same thing as before. Back in the day, we were on a climb, we wanted things, and now we're all just so blessed to be here, period. And so there isn't necessarily, I wouldn't say like a climb, but there's definitely like a maintenance to stay where we are. But that being said, when there's a climb, you're really rushing yourself, you're hungry, you wanna get it. And we are still hungry and we do wanna get stuff too. But I think it's a little more relaxed now where we really only work on stuff when we're genuinely inspired to. And I feel like that's like — when I listen to the songs that are rushed from back in those days, when I listen to stuff now, I have more peace of mind listening to the newer stuff, because I know that nothing, not any part of it exists because it was rushed. It's all intentional. It's all done in a great setting and in a great mindset. And so that's kind of what takes a while, 'cause you can't like just take a pill and and be inspired. So that's what we're doing. And the record, we have the bones for the whole thing. And it's just a matter of when we're feeling it, 'cause that's going to be the best result anyway, is when you're feeling that, and so that when those moments come by, we work on it. And then when they go away, we don't."

Earlier in the month, BREAKING BENJAMIN released a new single, "Awaken". You can now check it out below.

BREAKING BENJAMIN's first new music since 2018 is being made available via the band's new global recordings agreement with BMG. The partnership with BMG also marks the group's first new label home since releasing their debut album over 20 years ago.

BREAKING BENJAMIN guitarist Jasen Rauch said about "Awaken": "Working on this song has been something new and exciting for all of us, I believe. We've been able to explore more of who we are traditionally while at the same time push boundaries and try things we haven't done in the past. Musically we've tried hard to stay true to what BREAKING BENJAMIN is, but offer a new take as well."

BREAKING BENJAMIN have consistently dominated the rock charts since their debut album in 2002, "Saturate". With 10 No. 1 hits, platinum albums, 8.5 billion streams globally, and a social following of over 6.5 million, they've solidified their global influence and a strong devoted fan base. Their last release, "Aurora", earned them their tenth No. 1 rock radio hit with "Far Away" (featuring Scooter Ward).

Their previous album, "Ember", debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, marking their fourth Top 5 debut. Their track record includes No. 1 hits like "Red Cold River" and "Torn In Two". Both "Aurora" and "Ember" achieved Top 10 status in multiple countries, and No. 1 spots across various charts, including Billboard's Top Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Top Hard Rock Albums and Top Digital Albums.

In a statement, the band said: "Working on these new songs has been a fresh experience for all of us. We've stayed true to the core of who BREAKING BENJAMIN is, but we've also pushed ourselves creatively, exploring new sounds and ideas that we haven't tapped into before. It's been about striking that balance between honoring our roots while introducing a fresh take on what our music can be."

Sean Heydorn, SVP, head of rock and Rise Records, said: "BREAKING BENJAMIN has consistently pushed the boundaries of rock music with their raw energy, powerful songwriting, and a connection with fans that's both intense and enduring. We're incredibly proud to support them as they embark on their next chapter with us at BMG."

Over the course of the group's career, BREAKING BENJAMIN have earned three platinum albums, two gold albums, one four-times-platinum single, one three-times-platinum single, one two-times-platinum single, three platinum singles, and six gold singles, making them one of rock music's most highly anticipated torch bearers of new music.

Photo credit: Dominique D'Costa (courtesy of BMG)

Former CANDLEMASS singer Messiah Marcolin and LION'S SHARE guitarist Lars Chriss joined Canadian metallers ANVIL on stage last night (Saturday, October 26) at the Encore venue in Sundbyberg, Sweden to perform the classic ANVIL song "Forged In Fire". Fan-filmed video of their appearance can be found below.

Lars later told BLABBERMOUTH.NET: "It was awesome and great fun to play with these guys I was a fan of from the first album in 1981."

In a July 2024 interview with Victor Ruiz of Signals From Mars, ANVIL frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow addressed the fact that his band never quite hit it big despite being musically ahead of their time, due to a combination of poor management, shady record labels and bad luck. He said in part: "How do you think it looked to [ANVIL drummer] Robb [Reiner] and I to watch, in 1983, the whole world pick up on what we did and leave us behind? We were doing it before… Metal didn't exist in North America. They didn't call it metal. We were doing something that they were doing in England, and we were one of the very first metal bands to play in America. Yeah, you've got hard rock, but there was a difference. There was a difference between hard rock and metal because hard rock was still attached to rock and roll. It still used rock and roll progressions. Metal used more of a prog attitude. You had songs that were much more complicated than just rock and roll. Certainly, IRON MAIDEN's 'Phantom Of The Opera' and songs like that, or ANVIL's 'Mothra'. It's not rock and roll. It's a form of it, but it's metal, that turned it into metal, what we call metal. And riff rock. That's what it is. And you can put titles on it, but you can also talk about it in musicality, what things we're actually doing. So that's how I kind of see it. So there was a difference. And some of the problems that I've been faced with is that I'm kind of the bridge between hard rock and heavy metal, because I was one of the pioneering bands that created that bridge. So I had songs — I still have songs that venture back into the rock and roll world, but at the same time, there are songs that are not rock and roll."

Lips continued: "We can sit and discuss how hard rock became metal and certainly BLACK SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE and LED ZEPPELIN were the forerunners of all of it, really. Because that's the biggest influence after [Jimi] Hendrix, the use of distorted guitars and stuff, and all of a sudden, everybody's doing it. Nothing stays sacred. Everything is stolen by the next generation and regurgitated in a new fashion. And that's what's been going on in the music industry for decades now. But I think we might've gone the full circle. You certainly can't go much further with guitar. The guitar's done its thing, man. It's done. And that's part of where the downslide for the interest in it went. Once you got to the point where the guitar playing is so phenomenal that everybody starts sounding the same — you can't tell one guitar player from the next — it's done. It's over. The race is finished. You know what I mean? For many, many years in hard rock and metal, it was who had the best guitar player in their band. Everything was revolved around the lead guitar. I mean, otherwise what would VAN HALEN mean without Eddie Van Halen? It's centered around the guitar, which we all know, obviously. We all know that. But we're at a point in history that they've done everything. Every possible way of playing lead guitar has been done. So what do you do? What is there left to do? Write good songs. That's all that's left. It's not about the guitar solo anymore. It's about the fricking song. The riffs last forever. The solos are here temporarily. It's the way it is, man."

ANVIL released its 20th studio album "One And Only", on June 28 via AFM Records. The effort was recorded in the summer of 2023 with longtime producer Martin "Mattes" Pfeiffer and Jörg Uken at Uken's Soundlodge studios in Germany. The same production team was responsible for ANVIL's last four albums, "Anvil Is Anvil" (2016),"Pounding The Pavement" (2018),"Legal At Last" (2019) and "Impact Is Imminent" (2022).

Released in 2008, the ANVIL rockumentary "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" was the directorial debut of screenwriter Sacha Gervasi ("The Terminal") and was produced by Rebecca Yeldham ("The Kite Runner" and "The Motorcycle Diaries"). The film follows Kudlow and Reiner and their band, ANVIL, which released one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982's "Metal on Metal". The album influenced an entire musical generation of rock bands, including METALLICA, SLAYER and ANTHRAX, who all went on to sell millions of records. ANVIL, on the other hand, took a different path — straight to obscurity. The film was both entertaining and touching as it followed their last-ditch quest for the fame and fortune that has been so elusive to them.



Anvil....fy satan va bra!

Posted by Mikael Skallen Johansson on Saturday, October 26, 2024

W.A.S.P. kicked off its fall 2024 North American tour, dubbed "Album ONE Alive", on Saturday, October 26 at Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be viewed below.

2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of W.A.S.P.'s first album. To celebrate this classic metal LP, W.A.S.P. is, for the first time in 40 years, playing the entire effort from top to bottom, start to finish, on the "Album ONE Alive" tour. Support on the trek is coming from ARMORED SAINT.

Along with bassist Mike Duda and lead guitarist Doug Blair, whose tenures in the band are 29 and 26 years respectively, W.A.S.P. is joined by longtime drummer extraordinaire Aquiles Priester.

The 39-city run will make stops across North America in Vancouver, British Columbia; Toronto, Ontario; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Dallas, Texas; New York City; Orlando, Florida; and more before wrapping up on Saturday, December 14 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California.

W.A.S.P. is again offering fans VIP tickets that give fans a chance to meet W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless, get a personal photo with Blackie, autographs and take part in a very personal question-and-answer session with Blackie. VIP tickets can be purchased at waspnation.myshopify.com.

In a June 2024 interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Lawless once again spoke about complaints from some of the band's fans about the use of backing tracks during the group's live performances. Asked about some fans' belief that none of W.A.S.P. concerts are actually live, he responded: "Well, if they're crazy enough to believe it, that's their business. But if they genuinely feel like that, then don't go.

"Listen, God blessed me with this foghorn in my throat. Like anybody who's got one, we like showing 'em off — and I'm no different.

"I'm sorry if this sounds arrogant, but there will be times where I'm up there and I hear what's coming out of me, when I'm sustaining a note or something. I'm thinking to myself, 'Wow, that's pretty cool,'" he continued. "I'm not sure most people would have the opportunity to experience something like that in their lives. So from my perspective, I'm pretty appreciative of it. As I said, when you've got this thing that really not a lot of people can do, you like to show it. [Laughs]

"Let me add one more thing. I grew up listening to 'Live At Leeds' [by THE WHO]. Even though I didn't realize it at the time, there are overdubs on it. But it's pretty raw. It sounds like it was done by a three-piece band. For the most part, it's pretty realistic. But they don't do it like that anymore. What they were doing was giving you a reflection of 1970. They were giving you a snapshot of that timeframe. And that's what bands did. But when technology changed and we had the ability to make it sound bigger and better, who's not going to do that? I mean, you can do the 'Live At Leeds' version. We used to. Was it good? It was okay for what it was. But you know, if I'm going to see a show — and this is my personal opinion — I want that thing to sound like the record. I don't care what QUEEN says, or any of these other bands, 'Oh, we're doing that live.' No, you don't have 20 guys behind that stage singing. [Laughs] You just don't. They're all getting help out there. The bottom line is to give the audience a good show. Who cares how it gets there?"

Lawless added: "There's the argument that some of these girl singers out here now, they don't sing a note and they probably don't. Hey, listen, if I'm going to go see Yngwie [Malmsteen], I want to see Yngwie play. But there are some guys in some rock bands that if they didn't play and it was recorded, it wouldn't bother me one iota. Because I'm not going there to see that. I would be going to see the songs. But if somebody's got a dangerous instrument that they're really good at and can do something that few people can do? Yeah, I wanna hear 'em do it. So in my opinion, I'm giving them that, but I'm also giving them the best of both worlds."

This past June, Lawless was asked by Chris Akin Presents… if he would be open to any of the former W.A.S.P. members who played on the "W.A.S.P." album — guitarist Chris Holmes, guitarist Randy Piper and drummer Tony Richards — making guest appearances at any of the shows on the current tour. Blackie said: "I remember specifically having this conversation with someone who had been through the same thing. And he had basically lost his original band and had to rebuild it with studio musicians. And I remember him telling me at that point, he goes, 'These guys are ringers. They're killers, these musicians.' And it wasn't until years went by that I began to understand what he was saying and would compare his original band to what he had built later on with really ringers, musicians. And he was right.

"Here's what happened to us," Blackie continued. "When we started, and this goes back to what we were saying earlier on in the conversation about crafting your skill as a songwriter, getting better as a musician, learning how to use the studio as a tool, all those things you learn, the records get better, but the records get more complex. You reach a point where the musicianship starts to grow. Not everybody in the original incarnation of a band grows together, or do they grow in the same direction.

"Everybody's heard the age-old adage about, 'Well, we broke up because of musical differences,' and as corny as that may sound, a lot of times there is truth to that. And you really find people either growing in different directions or some guys can't keep up with the rest of the class. And so, for one reason or another, if nothing else, just attrition will start to weed guys out, especially when you start getting into more complicated material.

"You can't really compare the band… As much as whatever the first record that we did, the magic that is on that, and I recognize that not as a fan, but as the person who created it," Lawless added. "Again, you're never gonna see it like the average audience member does, because you can't — you're in a bubble. You cannot see it the way they see it. And you have to really open your ears and listen to them when they talk. Whether you agree or not, you have to listen and you have to try to take what they're saying into consideration. But when you reach a point where that band grows — in our particular case, you go from the first record to [1989's fourth album] '[The] Headless [Children]', the band that created that first record could not create 'Headless'. It was impossible. The musicianship that was required to make 'Headless' was vastly different than what created that first album. That first album was done with attitude and snot and spit. That was an angry record made by an angry band. But it kind of reminds me of… In the movie 'Rocky 3', where Rocky wants to fight Mr. T and Burgess Meredith, who plays his manager Mickey, he tells him, he goes, 'You can't,' he goes, 'You can't fight Mr. T. You can't win.' And Rocky goes, 'Yeah, I can. Yeah, I can.' He goes, 'Listen, kid.' He goes, 'Every fighter thinks they got one more good one in 'em.' He goes, 'The worst thing that could ever happen to a fighter happened to you. You got civilized.' That happens to rock bands.

"You mentioned early on in this conversation about the first five years of bands together. If you go back and you look at most bands that you like, their bones were made the first five years they were together," Blackie explained. "Almost every band fits that description. There are a few exceptions. And that doesn't mean that they cannot go on to make great records after that five-year period, but their bones are made those first five years they're together, and then they start moving and growing in different directions and it changes and it morphs.

"I appreciate the energy level that came out of that first [W.A.S.P.] record — I really do. But how do I go back to guys I've been playing with for 25 years and say, 'Your tenure in this band has been five times as long as the guys that I worked with originally, but you can't play on this tour.' I cannot do that. And secondly, we're gonna do the show in two halves. The first half is the first record in its entirety. The second half is like a best-of set. The band that's gonna play that first set has to be able to play that second set as well.

"Listen, I totally get the idea of the romance that people have in people's heads about what an original lineup could be, but me as the person who's on stage has to understand that no matter how much the audience may want that to be the way it was, my responsibility to them as ticket buyers, I have to give you the best show possible. I have that responsibility to you. No matter what you think it is you may want, I know I have to deliver for you. And again, especially when people have been out of the game for a long time, for us to do what is being suggested, that the original band do it, I would think that that would be pretty much an impossibility. Forget the marriage/divorce scenario that you first suggested [about reuniting the original lineup being akin to going on a family vacation with an ex-wife to make the kids happy], which is not altogether untrue, because there is a lot to be said for that, but as time goes on, unless you stay in this game and you stay active, you start to lose it. And we've all seen situations of something we thought would be great and then when you see it, you realize, no, it can never be what it once was. Unless you're working with people who have stayed constant, who stayed in shape, that have done whatever it is they need to do to keep that edge, they're gonna go out there and it's not gonna be very good. And I cannot do that to our fanbase."

Because of the extensive back injuries Lawless suffered during the European leg of W.A.S.P.'s 40th-anniversary tour, the band's previously announced 2023 U.S. tour was canceled.

W.A.S.P.'s massive European leg of the 40th-anniversary world tour wrapped on May 18, 2023 in Sofia, Bulgaria at Universidada Sports Hall.

W.A.S.P. wrapped up its first U.S. tour in 10 years with a sold-out show on December 11, 2022 at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. This marked the 18th sold-out shows for the U.S. tour, which kicked off in late October 2022. W.A.S.P.'s performances included the return of the band's classic song "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)", which hadn't been played live in over 15 years.

W.A.S.P.'s latest release was "ReIdolized (The Soundtrack To The Crimson Idol)", which came out in February 2018. It was a new version of the band's classic 1992 album "The Crimson Idol", which was re-recorded to accompany the movie of the same name to mark the 25th anniversary of the original LP's release. The re-recorded version also features four songs missing from the original album.

W.A.S.P.'s most recent studio album of all-new original material was 2015's "Golgotha".

First look at some of the W.A.S.P. tour merchandise.

#waspnation #wasp #blackielawless #hardrock #heavymetal #80smetal...

Posted by W.A.S.P. Nation (Official) on Saturday, October 26, 2024

Veteran midwest metal outfit, Conquest, returned with their latest album, Paradox, on April 19, and have just unleashed their latest single and video from it, "Devils Creed". Additionally, the band has announced several upcoming performances: October 26 at This N That in Vandalia Illinois, December 7 at Pops Country Club in Sauget, Illinois, and December 21 at Diamond Music Hall in St Peters, Missouri.


The "Devils Creed" video can be viewed below.


"Very cool track about always being haunted in the mine as someone running from the devil, with a strong aggressive rhythm section breakdown," says the band about their latest single/video. "The opening track on the Paradox record, it has super strong drums and great guitar leads, aggressive bass playing and strong aggressive vocals. Old school meets modern metal!"







Paradox is available as two vinyl records or a single CD (plus available on all streaming services), the album continues in the same direction as their previous studio offerings, as evidenced by such standout tracks as "Walking Dead" and "The Writings on the Wall" (both of which have already been issued as music videos), as well as a cover of the Rainbow classic, "Man On The Silver Mountain”.


Order here.


Comprised of Derrick Brumley: Lead Vocals and Guitar, Mike Crook: Vocals and Guitar, Rob Boyer: Vocals and Bass, and Lee Skyles: Vocals and Drums, Paradox was also produced and mixed by Derrick (and engineered by Adam Long), the band's latest album is getting rave reviews via metal media.


Having already shared concert stages with the likes of Slayer, Rob Halford, Testament, Iron Maiden, and Yngwie Malmsteen, the band can certainly deliver the goods on stage. And fans will get a chance to experience Conquest live on stage on the upcoming October 26, December 7, and December 21 performances.





Tracklisting:


“Of The Devil’s Creed”
“Walking Dead”
“Save Me”
“He Shall Return”
“Celtic Mist”
“Love Amplified”
“Valley Of The Damned”
“Dying To Live”
“World Of Hate”
“The Writing's On The Wall”
“King Of The World”
“In The Heavens”
“Babylon America”
“The Killing Time”
“Last Goodbye”
“Man On The Silver Mountain” (Rainbow cover)


“The Writing's On The Wall” video:

In a new interview with Tommy London, host of SiriusXM's Classic Rewind, original FOREIGNER singer Lou Gramm reflected on his decision to leave the band more than two decades ago. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "In the late '90s, early 2000s, Mick [Jones, FOREIGNER guitarist and main songwriter] and I began writing. And we put some really, really good ideas together… I think we had about seven songs complete. And we were hoping to finish with about three or four more songs and put out a new FOREIGNER album, which there hadn't been a new FOREIGNER album in over a decade. We were also touring. We were playing something called 'Night Of The Proms' [in October 2002]. It was done in Brussels, Belgium, and they had a huge indoor tennis arena where there could be four games of tennis going on at once. It held 80,000 people. And after that series of shows, I left the band…. I just had enough."

Elaborating on the tension between him and Jones that led to his departure from FOREIGNER, Lou said: "[Mick is] the founder of the band, he's the leader of the band, but he wasn't necessarily doing the job the way he used to do it, and he was suppressing a lot of my creativity. 'Just sing your parts, Lou.' And after contributing to just about every hit song that the band had released in 20-some years, to be reduced to just a non-creative part, just the singer, didn't sit well with me. So, after that 'Night Of The Proms', we all flew back to the States [and] I informed the management that I was leaving the band. [They said], 'Why? What could be wrong? Everything's going so good.' I said, 'It's not going good.' I said, 'I'm being shut out creatively, which is extremely important to me.' I said, 'I'm not just a singer. I'm a songwriter.' I said, 'And I always have been, even before FOREIGNER.' So I left the band. And I've never had any regrets about it since."

Gramm was the voice on FOREIGNER's biggest hits, including "Feels Like The First Time" and "Cold As Ice" from the band's eponymous debut in 1977, and later songs like "Hot Blooded" and "I Want to Know What Love Is".

The 74-year-old Gramm left FOREIGNER for good in 2002 and has battled health issues in recent years, including the removal of a non-cancerous tumor. He told the Democrat & Chronicle in 2018 that he was planning to retire, but still reunited with FOREIGNER for several shows that year to celebrate the band's 40th anniversary.

FOREIGNER replaced Gramm with Kelly Hansen in 2005. Jones, the only remaining original member of FOREIGNER, suffered from some health issues beginning in 2011, eventually resulting in heart surgery in 2012.

This past February, Jones revealed on social media that he was battling Parkinson's disease, which explained his absence from FOREIGNER's live shows since 2022.

Gramm and Jones's June 2013 performance of "I Want To Know What Love Is" and "Juke Box Hero" at the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in New York City marked the first time the pair performed together in a decade after Gramm left FOREIGNER for a second time. Hansen has fronted the group for the past 18 years.

In October 2023, Gramm once again said that greed was the reason he wasn't listed as one of the songwriters for FOREIGNER's's smash hit song "I Want To Know What Love Is". The power ballad, which is credited solely to Jones, was released in November 1984 as the lead single from the group's fifth album, "Agent Provocateur".

Gramm discussed his supposed lack of contribution to the track during an interview with Justin Young of Monsters, Madness And Magic. Speaking about his involvement with the songwriting process on "Agent Provocateur", he said: " For me, the sticking points were when we started writing songs. Nine out of 10 ideas that Mick showed me, he was playing keyboard and they were midtempo, somewhat rock songs — not heavy or anything. They were nice, they were good songs and the music was nice, but it wasn't dynamic in any stretch of the imagination the way FOREIGNER '4' was. And then, then there was 'I Want To Know What Love Is'. He played me the idea for that song and I liked it. And I was not a ballad guy, but that song was very special. And we worked on that song. He had a house about 20 minutes from my house, so I was over his house at least five out of seven nights a week having dinner and working till one or two in the morning with him on that song specifically. And we would just hit creative dead ends and walk away from it frustrated. But we kept plugging away, and we ended up getting the body of the song correct, and the chorus, lyrics and melody the way we wanted it, and we were set to go in and record it. Mick had a friend, a young black guy, who he knew from years ago, and he heard the song and told Mick that he had been working for a gospel label the past few years. And he says, 'I know what the song needs.' He says, 'It needs a gospel choir in the choruses.' And Mick kind of was taken aback and he thought about it and he goes, 'You could be right.' And his friend says, 'I have just the choir for you. It's New Jersey Mass Choir.' He says, 'They've had hits on their own in the gospel charts.' So on the day that they came down to sing the choruses, I was in one studio next door to where they were — just myself and an engineer. I was singing the lead vocal to the song, which hadn't been done yet. So Mick was consumed with the choir and making sure that that they sounded the way they should, and I was in the next studio over singing the lead vocal. Usually when I would sing the lead vocal, Mick wouldn't be more than three feet away from me offering suggestions, little criticisms and making sure it came out the way he wanted it. When I walked in there to sing that lead vocal, I didn't see him for four hours. And when I saw him, I handed him the tape and I said, 'I'm done'. And he looked at me, like, 'What do you mean you're done? I haven't even heard it yet.' He didn't say that, but then with the gospel choir there in front of the mics, he played my version with my lead vocals on it and my vocals on the chorus too. And the choir sang along with the choruses. And I got goosebumps and chills all over my body. And I looked over at Mick, and he was crying."

Elaborating on the disagreement over songwriting credits for "I Want To Know What Love Is", Gramm continued: "When we were recording that album, at the end of completion of every song, Mick and I would sit down at a table, and on a little piece of paper we would write out what we thought the split was for the song between the two of us as writers, and we'd done that from album one. So, like, 'Hot Blooded' was 50-50, 'Double Vision' was 60 for Mick, 40 for me. And other songs had different, different splits. And I wrote 60 for Mick, 40 for me, and I slid that piece of paper over to him, and he slid one over to me. So I saw him look at my piece of paper, and he didn't smile or anything; he had stone face on. And I picked up my piece of paper. You know what he had on it? 95-5 for him. We had worked on that song since it was just a little tiny idea for weeks and weeks and weeks until it became a song. I was involved in the melody, in the arrangement of the song, and plus I sang the ad-libs and I sang the hell out of the song. And his best offer was 95-5. I was insulted, I was angry and I knew right away why it was. Because he knew that song was gonna be Number One and he wanted it all for himself. But he would sacrifice five percent. I tore the piece of paper up and I says, 'Mick, I know why you're doing this.' I says, 'You want the song for yourself, so it just says 'Jones' under writers.' I says, 'You do that.' I said, 'I don't want any part of it.' So he did. The song went to Number One. The song itself sold millions — millions and millions of songs. I think it went two and a half times platinum just for the single. It was immediately re-recorded by Wynonna Judd. She re-recorded it and had a worldwide hit with it. So it was a Number One hit for three other artists. He made millions and millions of dollars off just that song. I didn't see a nickel."

In the latest edition of My Weekly Mixtape, blues guitar legend Joe Bonamassa dives into the stories behind the songs from throughout his entire discography. He also discusses his collection of over 650 vintage guitars, his approach to cover-songs such as "Sloe Gin" (originally written by Bob Ezrin & recorded by actor & singer Tim Curry) and "Prisoner" (originally recorded by Barbara Stresiand); his latest release Live At The Hollywood Bowl w/ Orchestra, his release of "Better The Devil You Know" (a song he co-wrote with Journey’s Jonathan Cain) to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of his Different Shades Of Blue album, and more.


On His Next Studio Album


Bonamassa: "The world doesn't need another Joe Bonamassa record right away. So we got the Hollywood Bowl. We had Blues Deluxe last year. We'll put out some singles this year, or maybe next year, and then we'll just see. I mean, I don't know how many albums I have left.




I mean, it's like how many... I'm not even sure if the album format is going to be relevant in 10 years, it's like, who's making CDs? Who has a CD player? I'm on a tour bus... a music tour bus. There's no CD player in here. You don't even have them in the new cars, so the concept of a 12 song, 59 min record, I'm seeing it become less and less relevant. I think we're back to A and B-side singles, because even the general notion, when you're dealing with a streaming kind of business, you're releasing 10 of the 11 songs anyway, before the album comes out to keep the algorithm or whatever the Spotify thing is. And so you're basically just churning out singles. And then the 12th song or the 11th song is your... that is a full length album. But like, who cares at that point? They've heard most of it. And you're gonna dump the junk at the end. And you're gonna put the good songs first, I mean that's just how it's gonna work. So I don't know. I don't know when the next one is."


On Retiring From Music


Bonamassa: "I don't have many years left in this thing. I'd like maybe a decade before I just retire. I've done this 36 years. We're taking this thing up to, maybe a 45 year career, and that's great enough. You know, let me go enjoy my life and not work every single day. And everybody goes 'No, you're still a young man. You can go for another 35, 40 years.' That's not me. That is not gonna happen. There's only so many pitches in this arm and use them wisely from here on out."


Check out the interview below or via Spotify here.


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