Looking Forward To...

There are quite a few albums slated for release in 2007:

Chinese Democracy - Guns N' Roses (but don't hold your breath)
Demo Anthology - Winger
Good to be Bad - Whitesnake
Dominator - W.A.S.P.
Liberated - Velvet Revolver

A new Motley Crue disc (plus the release of The Dirt movie and The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx)
A new Aerosmith disc
A Great White reunion tour and album
KISS tour and DVD

Plus, Dio and Black Sabbath are planning a major tour with album (The Dio Years - Black Sabbath)

Poison frontman Bret Michaels is also slated to star on a new VH1 reality show about rock stars and groupies.

I think about half of these things will happen. I doubt Motley Crue will release a new disc by the end of 2007, and I feel the same way about Aerosmith.

I hope I'm wrong, but only time will tell.

The Chinese Are About to Go Democratic, But Does Anyone Care?

So, as 2006 winds to a close and 2007 just around the corner, Guns N' Roses fans anxiously await the release of Chinese Democracy. The disc is 10 years in the making, with a tentative release date of March 6, 2007.

But does anyone care?

Apparently, the answer is yes considering how many websites and fan forums are dedicated to the GnR album. Some fans even think former Guns guitarist Izzy Stradlin may rejoin the band (he does not perform on the album). Too bad Axl Rose went bonkers and fired the entire band.

To me, no Slash = no Guns N' Roses.

Apparently, Axl (we're on a first name basis) invited Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach over to his home for a listen. Bach (see, we're NOT on a first name basis!) told Rolling Stone magazine that the album is both "mindblowing" and "grand."

Axl is touring right now, which is a good indication that the album is near completion.

I remember reading the 2005 New York Times article about the forthcoming disc. GnR remains on the Geffen label, and executives estimate the production costs to be around 13 million, the most expensive album never released. I was reading that article in the car for whatever reason, and it annoyed me. To this day I'm baffled that Geffen retained GnR but dropped so many of its other (selling) rock acts.

By the way, a quick trip to amazon.com finds that Guns N' Roses greatest hits remains in the top 5o0 sellers in music. That disc was released in March 2004, proving there is still a demand for Axl and his backup singers.

There's also a dedicated search for "Chinese Democracy" but no album information, not a good sign considering the disc is due in just over 2 months.

We shall see.

Down with the Establishment

For whatever reason, the Grammy awards consistently snub some of the most popular - and talented - musicians. I started wondering if any of my beloved glam bands were Grammy winners. Sadly, I'm pretty sure the answer is no. The recording industry introduced the category of Best Hard Rock/Metal Group Performance in 1989. That was the year Motley Crue (Dr. Feelgood)  or Metallica (Metallica)  should have won. Jethro Tull took home the statuette instead.

After the initial snub, Metallica went on to win six Grammy awards. Aerosmith has won four. Black Sabbath has one Grammy, for the re-release of "Iron Man" in the late nineties.

You probably think Def Leppard has at least one Grammy, considering the importance Pyromania had on rock during the 1980s. Hysteria remains one of the highest selling rock albums of all time. Nope, no Grammy awards. Not even for best music video...a category I'm not sure should even exist.

Let's talk about the best video winners. Some glam acts created the most elaborate videos for their time on MTV. The first Grammy for best video was awarded in 1984. It went to Duran Duran for "Hungry Like a Wolf." Other winners for best music video include David Bowie, USA for Africa, Dire Straits, Michael Jackson, and Paula Abdul. As you would guess, U2 also won a Grammy for best video (for Vertigo, no less). What videos do I think deserve a Grammy? "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses (still one of the most expensive videos of all time), "Cryin" by Aerosmith, and "Looks that Kill" by Motley Crue. I know for a fact that at least a few rock acts are recognized voters for the Grammys. It just baffles me that no real rock acts ever win.

Poison? Zip. Motley Crue? Zero. RATT? Zilch.

But don't worry: Led Zeppelin never won either.

Grammy darlings U2 have won more Grammys than any other "rock group." Whatever.

Tune in February 11, 2007 for the 49th annual Grammy awards. I'm sure there will be plenty more snubs to talk about the next day.

At least Milli Vanilli was recognized...

Finally, Some Good News

Attention Aerosmith fans: Bassist Tom Hamilton says he's cancer free.

The legendary rocker was diagnosed with throat cancer last spring. While the rest of the band toured with Motley Crue (Route of All Evil), Hamilton stayed behind, undergoing extensive radiation treatments. Several musicians filled in for Hamilton during the year-long tour.  

Expect a new album from the Bad Boys from Boston in 2007 with another tour.

The Route of All Evils tours was one of the highest grossing live shows of the year. Experts estimate the bands made a million dollars per each show. The bands played about 40 shows in total. That's a lot of dough.

The "Dirt," Indeed.

Finished The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band. Oh, what a read!

The biography of Motley Crue is so good, it makes you want to roll around on the floor. It's one of those rare books that suck you in, and make you obsess about the storyline, characters , plot and eventual outcome. In this case, the stories and characters are real, and knowing this, I'm baffled how the guys in the Crue are still alive.

I've read quite a few music biographies, but this one is so far above the rest. The band doesn't sugarcoat their drug use, and man, did they use drugs. They also don't sugarcoat their sexual exploits, failed marriages, money troubles or rivalries with band members, other musicians, and their inner selves.

Let's start with the drugs. I mentioned before that Nikki Sixx has a planned biography called The Heroin Diaries. When I was first learning about that book project, I was confused. I didn't think there would be enough material for two books considering The Dirt  is so complete. I'll go ahead and assume that I'm wrong. The human body is truly amazing and resilient. And life, like always, ironic. Here are these four men, who are literally (and openly) trying to commit slow suicide through drugs, alcohol and a berserk lifestyle. Fast forward a decade, singer Vince Neil has a daughter that dies from cancer when she's just four. All the money and medical treatments couldn't save her, so Neil drinks even heavier after her death. She had a pure body, he shoots his full of poison. There's a brief moment in the book that hints at this revelation, although I'm not sure Neil really gets it. After all, it was just a few months ago he was so drunk he nearly stumbled off a stage during a solo gig.

The money issues confused me the most in the book. This is one area that didn't have a lot of explanation, just comments like "his wife took all his money," etc. There is one section that talks about Sixx and the amount he blows on, well, blow. It's something like a thousand a day for years and years on top of a 40 thousand dollar a month mortgage. At one point, Neil was so broke, the band would do special shows just so he could pay his bills. Another time, during a poorly received tour, Mick Mars was so broke he couldn't contribute 75 thousand to help the band. Being a poor nobody makes me sick when I think how much money these guys wasted when so many people are starving to death in this country.

Now to the enigma of the book and the band: Mick Mars. He has the fewest chapters, and they have a completely different tone then the rest of the book. He suffers from a rare disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis that basically destroys your spine and makes living very painful. So, during the book, Mars doesn't really dwell on his disease, except to say that he feels guilty for not being able to move around on stage like the other guys. Plus, he's way older, so he wasn't really into the wild debauchery the other three always seemed to enjoy. According to the book, he didn't cheat when he was married and never fell off the sobriety wagon. He was just the outsider, trying to fit in. Now that I think about it, no other band member mentioned Mars'  rare condition. All through the book, Tommy says "silence equals death," and they were never really there for each other, including when Mars was at his sickest.

So, that's the final point. While the men acted as a party unit to create havoc in the world, they never really considered themselves more than a band. When you're with the same four people for more than 25 years, you have to start thinking of each others as more than coworkers and more like family. Or, at the very least, friends.

Hello, Mr. Brownstone.

Does the prevalence of drug use in the 80s correlate to the success of hair bands?

Think about this: 60s and the summer of love, drug use among musicians was common. The  music wasn't heavy, except in tone and message. In the 70s, the drugs got a little harder, and so did the music.

Led Zeppelin, perhaps the greatest rock band of all time, preferred acid, cocaine and alcohol as their poison of choice.

Then came the 1980s. The decade of decadence. It seemed like every rock band on the Sunset Strip and beyond were into every designer (and non-designer) drug under the sun.

This drug use shaped the music and the way bands were marketed.

Once thought of as the drug of junkies, 80s musicians (and not just hair band types) turned to heroin as a way to escape "normal" life. Under the guise of a numb stupor, some of the best rock anthems were born. And then every star (if they wanted to survive) had to kick the habit, undergo some rehab, and suffer all over again.

Musicians destroyed their bodies, their brains, and the chemical balances that keep people from murdering a room full of innocent strangers.

So they turned back to music as an outlet. And most fell off the wagon. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The harder the drugs, the harder the rock.

Think about it. Listen to music over the past four decades. As the riffs get harder and harder, the drugs get easier  to obtain. Is that a coincidence? Of course not. Am I condoning drug use? Absolutely not. In fact, I'm vehemently opposed to drug use. But that doesn't change the fact that people - millions of people - turn to drugs everyday.

What we have here is a jumping off point. This could be a major cultural study in both psychology and irony.

First, irony. Anti-drug campaigns were bigger in the 1980s than any other time in history, but musicians were pretty open about addiction and the party lifestyle.

I'm leaving psychology for another day because I have another entire entry for this topic.

BREAKING NEWS: Tawny Kitaen enters drug rehab program. Back in May,  police nabbed Kitaen with 15 grams of cocaine. She was charged with felony possession. Kitaen pleaded guilty, and will be allowed to change her initial plea of guilty to not guilty in exchange for time in rehab.

You might recall her famous roles in the Whitesnake videos, and her marriage to the band's lead singer David Coverdale.

When Love and Hate Collide

I truly have a love/hate relationship with VH1 Classic. I enjoy watching my hair band videos. I enjoy the rock documentaries and learn how classic albums were produced. What I hate is the constant repetition, the endless commercials and  worthless promotion.

Or the errors. Errors about music history on a music channel are unforgivable.

During metal week, the channel aired a countdown of the 100 best hard rock groups of all time. Def Leppard came in at number 31. During the short biography that came with the entry, the announcer said "the highs were highs, and the lows were even lower. Drummer Rick Allen lost his arm and guitarist Steve Clark died of alcohol abuse in 1988." That's all well and good except the band on was on tour in support of Hysteria in 1988, and Steve Clark was along for the ride. He died in 1991, while working on the Adrenalize album. There were other mistakes, but this one is the most unforgivable.

The channel also has a bad habit of ":selling" a pet album within fake shows. The series, "Hanging With" is nothing more than a 30 minute infomercial featuring musicians.

Not that musicians don't deserve promotion or air time, but relentless commercial tactics just drive fans nuts.  It's annoying when you can feel a commercial coming. I get it. Commercials pay bills, and networks don't come cheap. But constant commercial and merchandising doesn't just settle salaries; they also cheapen the overall product.

On VH1 Classic, the product is music.

Oh, how unfortunate.