It’s been two days since Ray Manzarek died after a lengthy battle with bile duct cancer and, if you’re anything like us, you’re still coming to grips with his loss. Thankfully, VH1 Classic decided to reshuffle all of its programming tomorrow night, Thursday May 23, in order to pay tribute to the life and legacy of the co-founder and keyboardist of The Doors. Please check out the following press release that just hit the wires for the complete details:
John Oates, one half of the most successful duo in music history, doesn’t feel like there’s much of a place in the world these days. “Don’t get me wrong, I still love the idea of an album, but I don’t know if the world has time for it anymore,” he told us during a recent visit to VH1 headquarters here in New York City. To that end, he’s decided to eschew the traditional method of writing and recording material —hole up in a studio for a few months with a few collaborators, then release 10-12 of those songs packaged together in the LP format— and instead embraced the digital future on his new project, The Good Road To Follow. Starting in June, Oates will begin offering a year-long subscription to fans through his website that will give them access to one single each month, tracks that he has worked on with the likes of Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic), Nathan David Chapman (Taylor Swift), Hot Chelle Rae and more.
There are too many memorable riffs in the Van Halen catalog to list out here, but if we were to make a shortlist of Eddie Van Halen‘s best guitar solos, “Eruption” would definitely be at or near the top of the list. This instrumental track features Eddie’s patented two-hand tapping method, and is widely considered to be one of his most difficult solos to replicate. (Even Eddie himself would agree!) However, a 14 year-old girl named Tina posted this electrifying cover of “Eruption” to her YouTube page yesterday, and we have to admit — it’s prettayyyy, prettayyyy, prittay good!
Tough news to pass along this afternoon. Ray Manzarek, co-founder and keyboardist of The Doors, has passed away at the age of 74.
Today marks the third anniversary of the death of Ronnie James Dio, one of the true greats of heavy metal music. Despite his diminutive stature, he possessed one of rock’s biggest voices and personalities and was loved by nearly everyone who ever came in contact with him, be they bandmates, fellow musicians or fans.
Bon Jovi‘s “Livin’ On A Prayer” was originally released way back in 1986, but the nearly 30 years that have elapsed since its release have done nothing to diminish the song’s cultural significance. On Friday night’s episode of The Tonight Show, one of Jay Leno‘s minions surprised a California man who was pumping gas at a station in Burbank with a simple request: Would he like to do some karaoke while he pumped his gas? The man, who we only know as Will, said yes, and requested to sing “Livin’ On A Prayer.” Does he need the words? “No, I know ‘em, baby!” Well then, sing on!
When thrash titans Metallica took the field at San Francisco’s AT&T Park to play “The Star Spangled Banner” last week, they were but the latest in a long line of high energy decibel dealers putting their rough stamp on our hallowed National Anthem. Ever since Jimi Hendrix serenaded the Woodstock faithful that bleary August morning in 1969 with his electric-fried version of “The Star Spangled Banner,” rockers have been figuring out daring different ways to rock Francis Scott Key’s composition in instrumental form. We now present to you the 10 Most Rocking Versions of The National Anthem. Give us your feedback on vote on where you think they rank and remember to vote early and vote often.
James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica are proud residents of the Bay Area and, as such, were honored by the San Francisco Giants over the weekend with a special Metallica night at AT&T Park. The dudes returned the favor by plugging in their guitars for a bitchin’, two-guitar assault on “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the likes of which Francis Scott Key could’ve never imagined in his wildest dreams.
Jeff Hanneman of Slayer.
Grief and shock rippled through the heavy metal community yesterday at the late-breaking news that founding Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman had died at the age of 49. The band released a terse statement on their official website, Slayer.net, yesterday afternoon saying “Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home. Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure. He is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry, and will be sorely missed. Our Brother Jeff Hanneman, May He Rest In Peace (1964 – 2013)”.
Creators of hard rock’s most recognizable riff, home to some of the best musicians to ever plug into a Marshall stack, Deep Purple are just as important to the development of early heavy metal as their more hallowed brethren Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Like the high speed race cars they sonically emulated, their various lineups are known to fans as Mark I, Mark II and Mark III, but the core through their golden epoch was drumming powerhouse Ian Paice, groundbreaking organist Jon Lord and tempestuous sorcerer of the Stratocaster, Ritchie Blackmore. Read more…
VH1 Presents Mixtape Festival: Train, NKOTB, TLC, The Script + more! Tickets on sale now at MixtapeFestival.com!
