Robert Cianflone, Getty Images – Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler dishes on the band’s ’13′ album and their tour plans. [ Loudwire ] – Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted goes in depth about his current self-titled band’s ‘Metal’ EP and James Hetfield ‘s influence in our new interview. [ Loudwire ] – Alice in Chains and Limp Bizkit have signed on to headline the 2013 Welcome to Rockville festival. [ Loudwire ] – Headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers lead the rock representation at the 2013 Coachella festival. [ Loudwire ] – It’s time to turn up the heat with the 15 Sexiest Rock Music Videos. [ Loudwire ] – Geoff Tate has revealed a few changes in his Queensryche lineup. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – Tom Petty has enjoyed an outstanding career. Check out some of his best work with Ultimate Classic Rock’s 10 Best Tom Petty Songs. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – Iggy and the Stooges are set tot return with a new album ‘Ready to Die.’ [ Diffuser.fm ] – You know them! You love them! And you can likely pick them out the moment they open their mouth. Check out Diffuser.fm’s list of the 10 Most Distinctive Voices in Rock. [ Diffuser.fm ]
Kevin Winter, Getty Images The world of metal seems to constantly house some strange stories. Although the real stories are often more inconceivable than the fake ones, wrestler Hulk Hogan has finally given a statement about the rumor that he was once asked by drummer Lars Ulrich to become Metallica ‘s bassist. Early last year, Hogan claimed that he was at one point a serious candidate to play bass for the iconic band. “I used to be a session musician before I was a wrestler,” Hogan states. “I played bass guitar. I was big pals with Lars Ulrich and he asked me if I wanted to play bass with Metallica in their early days but it didn’t work out.” Soon after, during an appearance on the Howard Stern Show, Ulrich claimed to have no recollection of asking Hulk to join the band. “That one, when that showed up two or three months ago, I was scratching my head over that one,” states the drummer. “I don’t know Hulk Hogan, I don’t know enough about him… I’m not a huge wrestling [fan]… I certainly have no recollection of doing anything with quote Hulk Hogan endquote.” Almost a year after Hogan’s initial statement, the wrestling legend cleared the air during an interview with Kerrang! : That has rumor has been turned and twisted and thrown in so many different directions — that I auditioned and that I lied and that I never auditioned and they weren’t interested. The truth is I played music for many years before I ever got into wrestling, and when I heard Metallica was looking for a bass player, I would have quit wrestling like that [snaps fingers] to get into Metallica. When I heard they were looking for a bass player, I got my tapes together from the old band, got a couple of tapes together that Simon Cowell produced with me — Green Jelly, and I did an old Gary Glitter song, ‘Leader Of The Gang’, with Simon, back in the day, before he got his break with all the wrestling music and became a huge monster. But I got all that stuff together to send it to Metallica and never heard a word. So they never responded to me. They either thought I was a joke or they thought it was a joke, and it wasn’t me, or I was no good, but I never heard back from them … I tried — but I never did audition for Metallica. I wish I would have. But the bass player they got was so good. My God! Case closed? Check out video of Hulk Hogan talking about Metallica in the new interview with Kerrang! in the clip below: Hulk Hogan Talks to Kerrang! [button href=”http://loudwire.com/top-wrestling-entrance-themes/” title=”Top 10 Wrestling Entrance Themes” align=”center”]
Lava Records / Universal Republic With relentless voting by fans, Black Veil Brides and their song ‘In the End,’ off of their new album ‘Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones,’ has made it to the Loudwire Cage Match Hall of Fame with their fifth and final victory. Not to mention, Black Veil Brides have become the first band to enter the Cage Match Hall of Fame twice. They first entered the Hall of Fame for their tune ‘Broken.’ Black Veil Brides and their BVB Army took down their final challenger Bullet for My Valentine after beating out heavy hitters Asking Alexandria , Coheed and Cambria , HIM and Halestorm along the way. Congrats to Black Veil Brides and their fans, whose unrelenting votes helped get their track ‘In the End’ to join songs from bands such as Papa Roach, Avenged Sevenfold, Motionless In White, Korn, and many more in Loudwire’s Cage Match Hall of Fame. Be sure to catch Black Veil Brides on their current U.S. tour. For a full list of dates and cities, go here . Black Veil Brides, ‘In the End’ [button href=”http://loudwire.com/black-veil-brides-singer-andy-biersack-everybody-is-wretched-and-divine/” title=”Read Loudwire’s Exclusive Interview With BVB Singer Andy Biersack” align=”center”]
Gary Miller, Getty Images Although Maynard James Keenan no longer writes a bi-weekly column for the Phoenix New Times, the Tool / A Perfect Circle / Puscifer vocalist recently spoke to the publication about a ton of different topics. Keenan not only gives extra details on Puscifer’s upcoming EP, ‘Donkey Punch the Night,’ but info on his upcoming autobiography and the overall state of the music industry. Speaking to the Phoenix New Times about ‘Donkey Punch the Night’ Keenan describes why the musical collective are releasing an EP rather than another full-length. “The general approach to [Puscifer] has always been to do a couple songs at a time and put them out,” says Keenan. “Traditionally, back in the mid-1900s, a vinyl single would go to a radio station. You’d buy somebody’s sheet music and record a song in a studio and take it to radio stations and sell the single. [You would] sell that song. Then you’d have a B-side on it, and beyond that, if you had a couple more songs and you were feeling kind of froggy, you would do an extended play, an EP … [The ‘Conditions of My Parole’ full-length] was us on a roll. We were going to do a couple songs, and all of the sudden it became something completely different.” In a second article posted by the newspaper, Keenan goes on to remind us all that, in fact, had spent a long time on this Earth before becoming a celebrated musician. “I think there are a lot of misconceptions with some people that, all of a sudden, I was born when my first band came out,” Keenan says. “I actually had a life before that, and there were a lot of accomplishments. [The book] will kind of chronicle why it is I got to where I am, and why I got to where you knew about me.” The sonic mastermind also tackles the issue of illegal downloading. “There’s a disconnect between people not buying music and not understanding why [bands] go away,” Keenan says. “There are people who are like monkeys in a cage just hitting the coke button. They don’t really get that for [musicians and artists] to do these things, they have to fund them. They have to have something to pay the rent.” Puscifer’s upcoming ‘Donkey Punch the Night’ EP is set for a Feb. 19 release date. Puscifer, ‘Donkey Punch the Night’ EP Preview [button href=”http://loudwire.com/puscifer-practice-for-upcoming-tour-dates-exclusive-video-premiere/” title=”Puscifer Practice for Upcoming Tour Dates – Exclusive Video Premiere” align=”center”]
YouTube There’s something to be said for moving on from heartbreak, and Otherwise capture that spirit in their most recent single, ‘I Don’t Apologize (1000 Pictures).’ If you didn’t get that from hearing the lyrics initially, the band has now provided a video that spells it out even further. The new clip for ‘I Don’t Apologize’ features a man who has taken a trip to the desert where there’s a lone, solitary leafless tree. As he stands by himself, he begins thumbing through photos taken with his ex, reflecting on some of the good times had and with each photo, he places it with a clothespin on one of the brittle branches. But as we see, the good times didn’t last and the love of his life was cheating on him, so each photo placed upon the tree serves as a way of shedding his past and moving on. If you follow the lyrics of the song, you can guess the fate of the aforementioned tree and the photos that adorn it. Otherwise are currently touring in support of their debut album, ‘True Love Never Dies.’ The band can be seen opening shows for Stone Sour and Papa Roach on their current North American tour leg. Watch Otherwise’s ‘I Don’t Apologize (1000 Pictures)’ [button href=”http://loudwire.com/otherwise-true-love-never-dies-album-review/” title=”Next: Read our Review of Otherwise’s ‘True Love Never Dies’ Album” align=”center”]
Super Bowl XLVII, featuring the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Baltimore Ravens, is just around the corner, and we’ve got football fever. And what goes better with some bone-crushing, hard-hitting gridiron action that some truly amped-up, adrenaline-fueled riffing and rocking. That’s what you’ll find in the 2013 Loudwire Rock Bowl, where we pit 16 football-ready tracks into a matchup to determine which song gets you hyped for some pigskin action the most. With only 16 songs, there will be some tough choices made. There are a number of tracks in our first round that are already stadium anthems and there’s no shortage of big name acts vying for gridiron domination. There are rock vets like Metallica and Pantera seeking a Loudwire Rock Bowl victory with some of their classic songs, but they’ll have to get past next generation cuts from Five Finger Death Punch , Avenged Sevenfold and Volbeat . What songs will emerge victorious? That’s for you to decide. You can vote in each of the eight first round matches every hour until Sunday, Jan. 27 at 11:59PM ET. After a few more rounds, the 2013 Loudwire Rock Bowl winner will be crowned Feb. 4 — the day after Super Bowl XLVII. Click on the button below to start voting in the eight Round 1 matchups: [button href=”http://loudwire.com/metallica-vs-volbeat-2013-loudwire-rock-bowl-round-1/” title=”Start Voting in the 2013 Loudwire Rock Bowl Here” align=”center”]
Theo Wargo, Getty Images You can never get too much of a good thing and Dave Grohl knows that the magic provided by the Sound City Players is something that music fans need to see. After an epic performance at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this month and another scheduled show at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles Jan. 31, Grohl says he’s open to staging more of the star-studded concerts. The ‘ Sound City ‘ director that gathered all the talent in the first place tells Billboard , “We plan to do shows all over the world. When I came up with the idea of taking all these performers to the live stage a few months ago, my idea [was] to have video presentations between each performance. We’ll have that at the next shows.” The first two Sound City Players dates have included guest appearances from Stevie Nicks , John Fogerty , Cheap Trick ‘s Rick Nielsen , Slipknot ‘s Corey Taylor , Fear’s Lee Ving, Rick Springfield and members of Rage Against the Machine , Nirvana , Queens of the Stone Age and more. Fan-shot video of the Sound City Players featuring Corey Taylor and Rick Nielsen covering Cheap Trick’s ‘Surrender’ may be seen below. The concerts are helping to promote Grohl’s ‘Sound City’ documentary, which not only tells the story of the legendary Los Angeles recording studio but also serves as a love letter by some of rock’s greats to the idea of collaboration in a room and the bonds formed playing live music together. Grohl says, “I knew I didn’t want it to be a retrospective documentary, the history of the studio. [The story] has an emotion quality to it and it had some relevance … ‘Sound City’ has been home to so many influential albums, but also to so many beautiful stories about people and their relationships. It’s such a deeper story than a ‘Behind the Music’ that would talk about ‘Damn the Torpedoes.’ The film will screen in theaters around the world on Jan. 31, with additional screenings set up throughout the month of February. Sound City Players Featuring Corey Taylor and Rick Nielsen Perform ‘Surrender’ [button href=”http://loudwire.com/dave-grohl-admiration-sound-city-collaborators-corey-taylor-paul-mccartney/” title=”Next: Dave Grohl Shares Admiration for Paul McCartney + Corey Taylor” align=”center”]