Pulse – Rock Music News

Mark Hoppus says he's open to all possibilities concerning a Blink-182 reunion.

His battle with cancer brought him back in touch with former Blink singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge, who split with the trio in 2015.

During his illness, the two of them along with member, Travis Barker, got together for the first time in five years. That was just before he started his regimen of chemotherapy.

Hoppus told Billboard, their relationship is good, "It's actually better than it used to be. There were no lingering grudges. It felt very - back to what it should be: three friends sitting in a room."

Hoppus continues to write new music and is open to the next phase of Blink and is very hopeful for the future. He said, "I'm just d*** glad to be here."

Hoppus has been cancer free for almost a year.

TL;DR:

New Found Glory‘s Chad Gilbert underwent surgery yesterday (Tuesday, August 16th) after doctors found a benign tumor in his spine, according to his Instagram post which included several pictures of his family and friends with him in the hospital. He said that after surgery, he will receive "fancy radiation." Gilbert shared that this all started when he began having "really intense bad back pain on tour."

Last year, Gilbert was treated for cancer and in January, shared that he was cancer-free.

His Instagram post went into detail about some other findings the doctors shared with him which will require further testing. In the meantime, Gilbert writes, "So I ask for all the prayers, hopes, fingers crossed, or whatever you do for people you care about in times like these. For my rock solid angel of a wife @lisacimorelli and our beautiful dream of a baby, Lily Gilbert. Hoping to be home recovering Friday or Saturday!"

NME.com reports that New Found Glory have confirmed they will continue their U.S. tour next month with three headline shows in Philadelphia, Asbury Park and Buffalo.

Rage Against The Machine's recent string of shows at New York City's Madison Square Garden have raised one million dollars for charity. As part of the band's Public Service Announcement Tour, 10 percent of the tickets sold for the five NYC dates were made available at "charity pricing" and cost more than general admission tickets.

In a social media post on Monday (August 15th), the band wrote, "Charity tickets purchased by our fans for our five night Madison Square Garden residency raised $1,000,000. These funds will be distributed to the Immigrant Defense Project and by WhyHunger to Neighbors Together and The Campaign Against Hunger in New York City."

Last weekend's concerts wrapped up Rage Against The Machine's U.S. tour. The band canceled their August and September dates in Europe to allow time for lead singer Zack De La Rocha to heal after suffering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee during their concert in Chicago on July 11th. Since then, De La Rocha has been performing from a stool each night.

Gene Simmons makes no bones about the fact that the Kiss' stage show changed everything that came after it. The band is currently on its extended "End Of The Road" farewell tour and chatted with Classic Rock. Simmons explained, "We wanted to put the band together that we wanted to see on stage. One that had no rules, and a visual element like no one else, and where you could combine Fourth Of July into the show. Why? Because this thing called rock has no rules. So when you go to a wrestling match and you see fireworks shows, or you see Sir Paul McCartney --and I adore the ground he walks on, remember -- and you see fireworks and pyro, where do you think he got that from, the Carpenters?"

When pressed as to what emotions he'll feel stepping off the stage after the tour's absolute final gig, Paul Stanley admitted, "What won't I feel? It's monumental. It's overwhelming. It will be incredibly emotional, trying to absorb the enormity of what we've done, and I'm quite certain, besides the laughter, there's going to be enough tears to go around."

Gene Simmons told us that a Kiss concert provides everything that good entertainment should: "It's uplifting, there's nothing negative -- we don't do political commentary. There are enough problems in the world without guys that wear more makeup and higher heels than your mom waxing poetic and prolific on all sorts of issues. They shouldn't. We make you forget about the traffic jam, and the fight you had with your girlfriend, and, like all the other things, just 'magic time' -- 'electric church.'"

Kiss performs on August 20th in Melbourne, Australia at Rod Laver Arena.

The band's next U.S. show is set for September 21st at West Palm Beach's IThink Financial Amphitheare.

Brantley Gilbert and Five Finger Death Punch are joining forces for a co-headlining tour with special guest Cory Marks. The trek launches on November 9th in Grand Rapids, Michigan and runs through December 17th with a final show in Las Vegas. General tickets go on sale on Friday (August 19th) at 10 a.m. local time at Ticketmaster.com.

Brantley shared the list of dates on social media yesterday (Monday, August 15th) writing, "This is going to be EPIC!!"

Brantley and Five Finger Death Punch previously teamed up in 2019 to remake the rockers' "Blue on Black," which also featured Queen guitarist Brian May and the song's originator, Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The collaboration was a Number One hit and benefitted The Gary Sinise Foundation which assists wounded military veterans.

Five Finger Death Punch will be on tour with Megadeth, The Hu and Fire From the Gods beginning on Friday in Ridgefield, WA through October 15th in West Valley City, UT. Their new album, AfterLife, will be released on Friday.

Corey Feldman claims that Marilyn Manson sabotaged his 2017 The Heavenly Tour by doing such things as planting backup singers who were "purposely singing off-key" and "playing wrong parts," as well as letting Feldman use Manson's tour bus and bus driver which repeatedly broke down. He told Consequence of Sound, "The ‘Heavenly Tour' was definitely the exact opposite of that. It was the ‘Hellish Tour.' But that was due to infiltration. We had people that were sent in that were spies that were not there to be musicians but were there to cause mayhem."

Last year, Feldman accused Manson of "decades long mental and emotional abuse," at one point tweeting, "THE ABUSE THIS PSYCHO HANDS OUT, WAS KNOWN 2 ME BY THE SPIES HE SENT N2 MY LIFE, 2 RUIN MY TOUR." He alleged that Manson was able to "MANIPULATE MY TOUR THRU THESE ‘FALSE ANGELS' INCLUDING PLANTING HIS BUS DRIVER WADE ON MY TOUR."

Feldman admits he doesn't know why Manson would want to ruin his tour saying, "I don't really know the reason. I can't tell you, other than the fact that we just know that he was behind the scenes of a lot of stuff."

On September 23rd Alice In Chains will issue a remastered 30th anniversary two-LP 12-inch black vinyl edition of their second album, Dirt. The album, which was the band's last album to be recorded with the Seattle group's core four founding members -- Jerry Cantrell, Sean Kinney and late-members Mike Starr and Layne Staley.

Dirt was released on September 29th, 1992 and peaked at Number Six on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The set featured such instant classics as "Would?," "Down In A Hole," "Them Bones," "Rooster," and "Angry Chair."

According to the press release:

Alice In Chains will release an exclusive translucent orange variant of the double-LP 12-inch vinyl 30th anniversary edition of Dirt as a D2C offering on the band's website.

The AIC exclusive translucent orange pressing of Dirt will be available as a stand-alone purchase as well as a component in the ultimate Dirt Super Deluxe Package which also includes a resin figurine custom sculpted girl from the album cover as a vinyl topper and magnet, four show posters, a 24-inch square poster featuring the album cover and band photo, four reimagined Dirt album cover prints, and a Dirt hardcover book with never before seen photos.

Also included is a CD with remastered audio, and the album's five seven-inch vinyl singles: "Them Bones," "Down In A Hole," "Rooster," "Angry Chair" and "Would?"

Walmart will be offering customers an exclusive apple red variant pressing of the double-LP 12-inch vinyl LP.

Alice In Chains guitarist/songwriter Jerry Cantrell acknowledged the group didn't fit in neatly with the rest of the Seattle bands: "We definitely didn't fit into the Subpop scene. We were non-existent in that. I guess we were too rock (laughs). We kind of just did our own thing, and we were always outside that whole vibe of what later turned into what was going on with the Seattle sound or whatever. The bands Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, they were all associated at one point with Subpop and that whole scene."

Cantrell said point blank that Alice In Chains always considered themselves to be a force unto themselves: "We were just like kids out of the South End, like f***ing rock heads. We didn't fit in with that. We were always on our own. And that was fine by us. We always had the attitude -- not belligerently -- but if you don't dig us, then f*** you, basically. Y'know, that's cool.'"

Alice In Chains performs tonight (August 16th) in Clarkston, Michigan at Pine Knob Music Theatre.

BLACKPINK, Jack Harlow, Lizzo and Måneskin are the have been added to the lineup for the 2022 VMAs.

The K-Pop sensations will make their U.S. award show debut with the first U.S. performance of "Pink Venom."

Maneskin will also make their VMA debut, while Jack Harlow will hit the MTV stage for his first solo performance.

Lizzo, who is up for four awards this year, will perform "2 Be Loved."

They will join previously announced acts, Anitta, J Balvin, Marshmello x Khalid and Panic! At The Disco live from Prudential Center on Sunday, August 28th at 8PM ET/PT.

Gene Simmons gave the blueprint of how the Kiss brand may live on after the band wraps its ongoing "End Of The Road " tour. Blabbermouth transcribed some of the bassist's comment while appearing on Dean Delray's Let There Be Talk podcast, where he touched on the final Kiss concert: "We don't know if it's (going to be in) New York. I have good reasons why it should be, but the important thing is when it's the last show, it'll be the last show. Kiss the touring band will stop. But the touring band. Kiss will continue in other ways. I have no problems with four deserving 20-year-olds sticking the makeup back on and hiding their identity."

Regarding the Kiss brand living on beyond the touring shelf life of the group, Simmons explained, "Kiss will continue in ways that even I haven't thought of. But I can conceive of. . . Y'know, the Blue Man Group and Phantom Of The Opera tours around the world with different personnel. There could and should be a Kiss show, kind of live on stage with effects and everything else, but also semi-autobiographical thing about four knuckleheads off the streets of New York that ends with the last third as a full-blown celebration, a full-on performance. Not with us. Although not a problem stepping in every once in a while."

Although Gene Simmons will miss the nightly connection Kiss gets when performing among the band's die-hard fans -- he's not shedding tears over the band quitting the road: "This is not a sad occasion. We couldn't think of a happier way to end it than with the people who put us here in the first place -- our bosses, the fans. Y'know, they've made all our dreams come true, and we're blessed and feel very fortunate and thankful for giving us this life."

Kiss performs on August 20th in Melbourne, Australia at Rod Laver Arena.

Their next U.S. show is set for September 21st at West Palm Beach's IThink Financial Amphitheare.

It's been reported that Metallica frontman James Hatfield has filed for divorce from his wife Francesca of 25 years. TMZ first reported the news, which cited it was Hetfield that filed the papers in California earlier this year.

The couple, who met in 1992, married on August 17th, 1997 and share three adult children -- 24-year-old Cali, 22-year-old Castor -- the drummer for Bastardane, and 20-year-old Marcella.

In 2019, the long-sober Hetfield relapsed and went back into rehab. A while back, he recalled how his wife played a major part in leading him to sobriety in the early-2000's: "My wife threw me out of the house and I went to rehearsal, and she could not believe that I had done that, and said, 'You've got to check yourself in somewhere,' and I said, 'Nah, no way, I'm the singer for Metallica, I can't get help. I don't need help.' A lot of denial. She was very adamant about me seeking the help and I went in, I think, for her and for my family."

Metallica next performs on September 24th in New York City at the Global Citizen Festival at Central Park.

Five Finger Death Punch's Ivan Moody is very grateful to have gotten the chance to open for Metallica in Europe last month. In a video interview on the Five Finger Death Punch YouTube channel he said the experience was "the apex, this is the climax, this is the top of the f**king hill," adding, "It's amazing to me that we've been on tour for almost 15 years and never crossed paths with this band. And I've gotta tell you, they paved the road for any of us, and anyone that argues that fact is out of their fucking mind. The one and only Metallica."

Five Finger Death Punch will release their new album, AfterLife, on Friday (August 19th).

Rage Against The Machine's Zack De La Rocha is suffering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee, according to reports. The injury allegedly happened during the band's concert in Chicago on July 11th, and it has forced De La Rocha to perform sitting down and be carried on and off stage each night by stagehands.

Rage Against The Machine has not officially commented on De La Rocha's injury, however acclaimed photographer Glen E. Friedman revealed via an Instagram post on Friday (August 12th) that a torn ACL is the reason for Zack's inability to move around the stage, according to blabbermouth.net.

Last week, the band canceled the August and September 2022 European leg of their tour so De La Rocha can heal. They wrapped up their U.S. tour last night (Sunday, August 14th) at Madison Square Garden in NYC.

Tommy Lee really gave fans something to look at early yesterday (Thursday, August 11th) morning on social media. He posted a full-frontal nude picture of himself seemingly raised up out of the bathtub on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter with the caption "Ooooopppsss." The image has since been deleted from Insta and Facebook but remained on Twitter at press time.

According to Loudwire.com, 1.4 million followers saw the picture and/or commented on it before it was removed from Instagram at 8 a.m. ET yesterday.

Lee's wife Brittany Furlan commented on the post simply writing, "OH MY GOD."

Travis Barker, who was hospitalized for life-threatening pancreatitis in June, has returned to the stage against doctor's orders.

The Blink-182 musician joined Machine Gun Kelly once again on his Mainstream Sellout tour this week.

MGK told fans about it on Instagram and announced that Barker also has a broken thumb.

Kelly shared a photo of Barker holding up his bandaged thumb. Then, Barker added on his socials that - he also had torn tendons.

Barker doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. Earlier this week, he posted photos of himself out in the water, learning to wake surf.

TL;DR:

• Travis Barker, who was hospitalized for life-threatening pancreatitis in June, has returned to the stage against doctor's orders.
• He joined Machine Gun Kelly on tour this week.
• Barker also has a broken thumb.

Weezer's scheduled residency at The Broadway Theatre in New York City this fall has been canceled. The band was set to perform their entire SZNZ project over the course of five nights beginning on September 13th, however Rivers Cuomo posted a message on his Discord server explaining that the shows have been axed "due to low tickets sales and unbelievably high expenses."

The entire message on Cuomo's Mr. River's Neighborhood account reads, "I just learned that our Broadway shows have been cancelled (due to low ticket sales and unbelievably high expenses.) I'm very sorry to be telling you this now after we've already invested so much time, thought, and emotion. Extra apologies to those of you who cleared schedules and made travel plans to be with us. Thanks to @Broadway Producer for all your hard work and great ideas. I loved where we were going and I hope we can find a way to resurrect our vision."

The band as a whole have not issued a statement confirming the cancellation.

A 25 foot inflatable Ozzy Osbourne has embarked on a cross country promotional tour in support of Osbourne's new album Patient Number 9. The album is due out on September 9th.

The month-long tour kicked off with three stops in Los Angeles and will close out in New York City the week of the album's release. Some locations will be revealed 24 hours in advance, while others will be a surprise appearances.

Out today is Chaos In Bloom, the 13th studio set from Goo Goo Dolls. The Goos are currently out on the road through the end of September and play tonight (August 12th) at Bridgeport, Connecticut's Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater.

We caught up with leader John Rzeznik, who told us this time out in the studio, he needed complete autonomy over his songs and the sound of the band: "There were couple of other guys that did production on the album, as well. But, I started the project, and I was just like, 'Y'know, I don't want anyone getting in the way of what I wanna do right now.' I felt like the last few albums I did I would do, like, three songs with one producer, three songs with another producer -- y'know, whatever. I can't do a whole record with one producer, because I just, I just go nuts. And that's how I did it and then I was just like, well, I'm at a point in my life and my career that I'm just kind of like, well, I'm just gonna do what I wanna do and I don't want anyone's input until I'm ready for it."

Marcus Mumford's upcoming solo album reveals a lot more than just new music. The opening track, called "Cannibal," shares that Mumford was sexually abused as a child. He was six years old at the time, but his mother didn't learn about the traumatic experience until she heard the song.

Mumford told GQ, "I hadn't told anyone about it for 30 years . . . Once we get through the trauma of that moment for her, as a mother, hearing that and her wanting to protect and help and all that stuff, it's objectively f**king hilarious (how she found out)."

Mumford explained that his abuser was neither a family member nor in the church.

He said, "That thing that happened when I was 6, that was the first of a string of really unusual, unhealthy sexual experiences at a really early age. (I did a) string of really unhealthy sh*t when I was under the age of 12, which set my brain up in a way to deal with stuff later on in life in an imbalanced way. So the last three years has just been trying to look at that and correct some balance."

Mumford's new album, called Self-Titled, will be released on September 16th.

Slash is adamant that despite it being the flavor of the month -- there will never be a Guns N' Roses biopic. While promoting the horror film, The Breach, which he scored, Slash spoke to MovieMaker.com and gave his frank and honest thoughts about a possible Guns movie: "Yeah. That's a funny one. People come to make the Guns N' Roses movie. And then I have people coming to me about doing a movie -- I think it was after I wrote my book. It's just not something that -- collectively we're sort of just not interested."

He went on to say, "I can't imagine trying to find some actors that can portray the band properly. I mean, rock n' roll movies suffer from being just super, super corny and unrealistic anyway, as a whole. There's very few really good rock n' roll movies. So I would hate to sell us out ourselves out with some sort of script that's supposed to depict our history. I don't see it happening."

While women, drugs and alcohol used to be major components of life for Slash and the other members of Guns N' Roses, he told us a while back that the lifestyle eventually grew stale: "It was a pretty hard, fast-paced life that we've all been through, and there's certain aspects of it that just get a little bit boring, a little bit tedious. Some of the kind of circles that you surround yourself in to be able to sort of keep your high going or whatever -- it just gets old after a while. And y'know, the underlying thing that's always been sort of maintained was just, as long as you can play, and it just, everything sort of fell by the wayside."

Guns N' Roses kicks off their 16-date South American tour on September 1st, in Manaus, Brazil at Arena da Amazonia.

The one-night-only Flannel Nation Festival in San Pedro, California has been scrapped. The show, set for this Saturday at San Pedro, California's Port of Los Angeles, was to feature Everclear, Candlebox, Sugar Ray, Soul Asylum, Filter, Cracker, Fastball, Sponge, Star Zero, and X Wire.

Blabbermouth posted the announcement from the show's promoters stating: "We regret to announce that due to ongoing problems and logistical setbacks, putting on Flannel Nation as intended has become infeasible, therefore we are forced to make the tough decision to cancel this weekend's event. Our goal is to retool and reschedule the event and tickets will be honored for the new date when announced."

On Tuesday, Everclear explained why they were bowing out of appearing telling fans on Instagram: "It has been brought to our attention within the past week that the event organizers of Flannel Nation Festival in San Pedro, CA, scheduled for this Saturday, August 13th, do not have the adequate means to provide the level of experience our fans expect and deserve while attending an Everclear show. With this in consideration, we have decided to pull out of the festival. Please stay tuned in the coming weeks as we will be announcing a proper Los Angeles performance where we plan to deliver the type of performance that exceeds our fans' expectations. Refunds may be requested at the point of purchase."

Looking back, Cracker guitarist Johnny Hickman told us that writing songs for the band has always been a relatively simple process. In fact, he says, it's kind of like a casual conversation among two friends: "The songs that David (Lowery) and I have done together are very much a dialogue. As David puts it, I'll make a big noise on the guitar and then he´ll rant and rave for a little bit, then I make another noise, then he rants and raves again. And then we rant and rave and do the guitar together. Y'know, it's sort of (laughs). . . it's just the way we work together. That's sort of Cracker in a nutshell."

COHEED AND CAMBRIA RELEASES MUSIC VIDEO FOR THEIR NEW SINGLE 'A DISAPPEARING ACT': Coheed and Cambria have released an official music video for their new single "A Disappearing Act." The song is off their new album and story Vaxis - Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind. The band is currently on their 2022 North American headline tour with special guests Alkaline Trio and Mothica.

LAMB OF GOD SHARES BEHIND THE SCENES FOOTAGE FROM MAKING OF 'OMENS' MUSIC VIDEO: Lamb of God shared behind the scenes footage from the making of the video for "Omens," the title track of their upcoming album. Frontman D. Randall Blythe stated about the track, "I think a lot of the messes human beings find ourselves in could be very easily prevented simply by paying attention to obvious repeating patterns, both in our personal lives and in a broader sociohistorical context. What some call 'omens' are really just manifestations of the fact that there is nothing new under the sun. It's foolish to ignore this, but we all do it." Omens, the album, will be released on October 7th.

BRIGHT EYES ANNOUNCE THREE NEW 'COMPANION' REISSUES OF EARLY ALBUMS: Bright Eyes has announced three new "companion" reissues of early albums. The band previously released three "companion" records for 'Fevers And Mirrors', 'Letting Off The Happiness' and more earlier this year.

Halestorm drummer Arejay Hale says the band now plays their shows with a different attitude and perspective post-Covid. He told Oklahoma City's Rock 100.5, "Live shows were — poof! — taken away from us for so long, and I think a lot of us didn't realize how important it was for our collective mental health, so I think that we're at this new mental state where we're, like, let's go up on stage and give it our all every night. 'Cause who knows — it could all be gone tomorrow, so let's play every show like it's our last."

Halestorm continues on their summer tour with The Pretty Reckless, but they make every effort to stay Covid-free. Hale explained, "We're all trying to be very, very safe and just make sure that we don't have to postpone any dates. So we're still kind of doing a very 'bubble'-esque type of tour where we're not hanging out with people after the show. We have to put meet-and-greets on hold for a little bit, just to make sure that we can continue to do shows and we don't have to stop our tour for any reason. But it's honestly fine."

The tour rolls on to Rogers, AR tonight (Wednesday, August 10th).