Phil Lewis’s L.A. Guns Sign Cleopatra Deal

The Phil Lewis-led L.A. Guns – not to be confused with the Tracii Gunns version – have signed with Cleopatra Records and will begin recording a new album with legendary producer Andy Johns.

The album will be released on CD and vinyl as well as a digital version with iTunes-exclusive tracks. The band is planning a nine-month world tour to support the album.

The current L.A. Guns lineup is Lewis, Steve Riley, Stacey Blades and Scotty Griffin. “We’ve been waiting a long time to get back in and record,” Lewis says. “Our last album, Tales From the Strip, was incredibly well-received and we’re looking forward to putting out something even better! With today’s uncertain musical landscape, it’s great to have a label like Cleopatra Records behind us. We’ve been friends with Brian Perera (Cleopatra Records owner and founder) for a long time, and are really looking forward to working together on this and many more projects with him in the future.”

In addition to his work with Led Zeppelin, Andy Johns co-produced Van Halen’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, Joe Satriani’s The Extremist and Chickenfoot’s debut. He also produced the last three L.A. Guns albums.

Trent Reznor Plans Nine Inch Nails Return

Trent Reznor plans to return to active service in his old job as Nine Inch Nails this year, after spending most of his time working on soundtracks in recent years.

In an interview with Billboard, Reznor said he was getting ready to work on new NIN material, but was not yet sure what form the music would take. “It’s all kind of hypothetical right now,” Reznor said. “When I sit down with a notebook and a little mini-recorder is when my bluff will be called, and then it might not happen at all.”

Reznor admitted he was at first unsure whether to use the Nine Inch Nails name for the new material. “At the moment it’s going to live in the Nine Inch Nails column, for a few reasons. I enjoy the challenge of moving that kind of brand forward, that identity, shaping it to who I am now instead of who I was a few years ago when I last left off.”

Nine Inch Nails have been in mothballs since 2009. Reznor’s recent works include the soundtracks to the David Fincher films The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as well as his other band, How to Destroy Angels, with wife Mariqueen Maandig and Atticus Ross. How to Destroy Angels’ first full-length album also is due this year. There is no word yet on whether Reznor plans to bring NIN back to the live stage as well.

Ex-Korn Guitarist Open to Reunion

Former Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch said that enough time has passed that he would keep an “open mind” about reuniting with his former bandmates. Head recently spoke to Legendary Rock Interviews (via Blabbermouth), about his feelings about Korn.

When asked about getting back together with Jonathan Davis and the gang, Head replied: “You mean like a big, classic rock, Motley Crue reunion tour thing? [laughs] It would have to be a situation where we all agree on things and be for a real purpose and some concrete, higher-power reason. I’m happy right now doing my stuff and I feel really content doing it and those guys are really busy and content doing their thing. I have no plans to do such a reunion, but if it were for the right reasons and we all felt the same way about it I would definitely keep an open mind about it.”

Head went on to say that he’s on good terms with the guys in Korn, on a personal level.

“I am very happy for those guys and proud of that music and totally past the point of holding an ill will for any of them,” he said. “I just hung out with Jonathan and his wife the whole night a few months back and hung out with Fieldy sometime after that when I was out on tour with my band. It is without a doubt all good. I have nothing but good vibes for them and I’m sure we will always stay in touch.”

Stone Sour Making “an Album That No One Wants Us to Make”

Corey Taylor recently spoke to ARTISTdirect about the progress of the songwriting sessions for Stone Sour’s fourth album. The follow-up to 2010’s Audio Secrecy is due in 2012, but Taylor says it will turn out to be “an album that no one wants us to make.”

According to Taylor, the album likely will be recorded in Iowa with producer David Bottrill, who has previously worked with Tool, Muse and Peter Gabriel, among others.

“I am looking forward to basically becoming a mad scientist in the studio and creating an album that no one wants us to make,” Taylor said. “I pretty much got permission to do whatever I wanted, which means that I’m essentially going against the grain in an age where people are f---ing trying to simply put out singles. We’re looking to do a double concept album and really make it destructive.”

Taylor suggested the album would be a mix of Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Alice in Chains’ Dirt “on steroids – that will give you a taste of what I’m shooting for right now.

“We’ve already got 14 tunes done, and we’re looking to get another 15 ready to go. The stuff we have right now is nuclear. It’s pretty much going to go all the way. It’s dark as s--t. There’s so much balls-out rock on it as well as some good headpunchers and some really cool dark pieces. I’m really excited about it.”

Velvet Revolver Reunite, Cover Pink Floyd

Velvet Revolver reunited Thursday night at the House of Blues in West Hollywood for a one-off, charity performance. The supergroup played together for the first time since singer Scott Weiland left the band in 2008, according to Spin.

The event was organized by VR guitarist Dave Kushner to help the widow of his friend, composer and music supervisor John O’Brien. Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, Kushner and Weiland delivered four songs, three Velvet Revolver originals (“Sucker Train Blues,” “She Builds Quick Machines” and “Slither”) and a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.”

Alice in Chains Back with New Album

Now that guitarist Jerry Cantrell has recovered from shoulder surgery, Alice in Chains are preparing to record again.

Cantrell told Rolling Stone: “I had shoulder surgery. I had to get some bone spurs and torn cartilage taken care of, so that put me back a little bit. But we’ve been writing through the whole process.”

Cantrell also talked about his thrill at having Elton John guest on the band’s previous CD, Black Gives Way to Blue.

“That’s just the universe lining up right,” he said. “I had nothing to do with that other than asking. What he is, beyond anything else, is an [expletive] amazing musician. And he’s the guy who inspired me to start playing music, so to have him play on one of our records – especially such a meaningful record, where we’re restarting our musical careers and saying goodbye and honoring our buddy – it’s a tremendous thing.”

DJ Ashba: New Guns N’ Roses Album is ‘Absolutely Our Main Priority’

One of rock’s most anticipated upcoming albums is the new set from hard rock titans Guns N’ Roses. Fresh off a North American arena tour, the gents of GN’R are poised to bring raw, gritty rock and roll back to popular music’s forefront.

According to Guns N’ Roses and Sixx:A.M. guitarist DJ Ashba, getting out a new stream of songs is the band’s “main priority.”

“I can’t give anybody a definite date, because I’m not gonna give anybody false hope. But what I can say is making a new album absolutely is our main priority,” Ashba said. “And I cannot wait to get working on the album.

He went on to reveal that GN’R frontman Axl Rose already has loads of tracks recorded for the new LP. “I mean, Axl has tons and tons of stuff recorded as it is. I mean, he sits there in his hotel room and he’ll play me hours of stuff. And I’ve written over 10 songs – I think 12 songs now – for him that he really likes,” he said. “And I think now that we’re off tour, we’re gonna kind of start talking about, ‘Hey, let’s start piecing together what we feel would be the next best Guns N’ Roses record.’ It’s absolutely everybody’s goal to get out an album within a reasonable amount of time. That is everybody’s focus.”

Zakk Wylde: Guitar Gives Me ‘a Reason to Get Out of Bed Every Day’

There’s no question that Black Label Society frontman Zakk Wylde lives to make music. Hence, it’s hardly a shocker that in a recent chat with the AU Review, Wylde explained that without guitar, he’d have virtually no reason to get up in the morning.

“You have to have a reason to get out of bed every day, man,” he said. “You really do. Like, when my dad retired from General Motors, that was like the worst thing that ever happened to him. He was like lost. Once he got a job up at a gas station and he was back talking with people again, he had a reason to get up.

“I mean, if you and me opened up a lemonade stand, we’d have the one lemonade stand so let’s open up another one down the road and this and that, the whole thing is we gotta get more cups, we gotta get more stuff; it’s all about keeping our business going… ”

Wylde feels grateful that he gets to concoct hard-hitting metal music for a living. “I thank the good Lord every day,” he said. “I thank him when I wake up and when I go to bed. I thank him in the middle of the day. I’m definitely grateful for everything I have. Hands down.

“I don’t need a tragedy to happen to realize how blessed I am. I don’t need that. I don’t need to beat up an 80-year-old grandmother and do six years in jail to realize that beating up elderly people and stealing their money is really not a good thing.”

Wylde recently chatted with Gibson.com about his love for the Gibson name, and he also gave some tips for aspiring guitarists: “Learn the instrument and practice. What you put in, you’ll get back tenfold. If you practice for a half an hour, you’ll get a half an hour better.”

Steven Tyler Talks New Aerosmith Album

Rock legend and reality TV star Steven Tyler has been talking to the press to promote the upcoming season of American Idol. The talent competition’s new season (the second to feature the singer) begins next Wednesday, January 18.

But Tyler’s also been discussing his other project – that little band known as Aerosmith. Speaking at a Television Critics Association press conference, Tyler talked about the progress being made on the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers’ new album.

“All of it’s been written, but I gotta lay lyrics on it and I haven’t had a lot of time,” he said, according to Blabbermouth. “But what I’ve listened to so far just knocked me out. I know a good song, I know what’s gonna get played on the radio, I’m not that pretentious to say I think we’ve got hits, but I think we’ve got something, and that’s all that matters.”

Previously, the album was rumored to be coming out this spring.

Dave Grohl: ‘We Don’t Feel Like the Biggest, Best Band in the World’

Nearly two decades after forming Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl continues to view the group as “a really simple band.” In a wide-ranging interview with Billboard.com, the Foos frontman said, “We [still] think we suck and we try really hard to make good records and we practice. We don’t feel like the biggest, best band in the world. We just feel like the same five dorks that were touring in a van 17 years ago.”

Asked about the current state of rock and roll, Grohl seemed optimistic, although he assessed that, in America, “rock and roll isn’t as much in the forefront of the mainstream as it is the rest of the world.”

“The thing that will never go away is that connection you make with a band or a song where you’re moved by the fact that it’s real people making music,” Grohl said. “You make that human connection with a song like ‘Let It Be’ or ‘The Long and Winding Road,’ or a song like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ or ‘Roxanne.’ They sound like people making [real] music.”

Grohl went on to say that today’s musical climate reminds him of 1991, the year grunge broke.

“The late ’80s was full of over-produced pop that kids had nothing to grab hold of,” Grohl said. “They had no way of connecting to a hair metal band singing about strippers in a limousine on Sunset Boulevard. Who can relate to that? Then you had a bunch of formulaic pop songstress [stuff], and music was boring. And then a bunch of bands with dirty kids got on MTV and rock and roll became huge again. And I feel like that's about to happen.”

Charlie Watts on Rolling Stones 2012 Tour

With rumors buzzing that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have been warming to the idea of a 2012 Stones tour to mark the band’s 50th anniversary, drummer Charlie Watts has chipped in with his thoughts.

Watts told BBC 6Music: “It would be lovely next year to do some shows because it will be 50 years. Ronnie plays, I still play, Mick sings, he can do it anyway, I think Keith is doing some records.”

Watts, however, also explained that such a tour is a vast undertaking, saying: “It would be great if we did, we are just getting to an age where it’s getting a bit difficult to get it together and it’s such a bloody performance getting us together.”

Velvet Revolver’s Dave Kushner Talks About Reunion Show

Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner has revealed that the idea for the band’s one-off reunion show, set for next Thursday (January 12) at L.A.’s House of Blues, was triggered by the death of his best friend, musician John O’Brien. In a just-published interview with Rolling Stone, Kushner said all the members of Velvet Revolver readily agreed to do the show – a testament to the great affection his bandmates had for O’Brien.

“We did a benefit show for this thing called ‘Road Recovery’ – me, Duff [McKagan], Slash and Matt [Sorum] – in New York, and that’s when I asked those guys individually if they would agree to do it,” Kushner said. "Once they said [yes], I got in touch with Scott [Weiland], and he agreed.”

In addition to Velvet Revolver, the concert will feature Maroon 5, Sheryl Crow, Tom Morello and other guests. All proceeds will go to O’Brien’s widow and children. Each performer, including Velvet Revolver, will perform a three-song set. Kushner said he realizes that all eyes will be on Velvet Revolver, who will be performing with Weiland for the first time in four years. “I knew from the beginning it would be newsworthy, and that was kind of the plan,” Kushner said. “If you’re gonna do this, and you want to raise some serious money, then you [have to] put all caution aside.”

Keith Richards Doing Well After Undergoing Eye Surgery

Keith Richards is said to be doing well after undergoing laser eye surgery to correct his deteriorating vision, a spokeswoman for the Rolling Stones guitarist has revealed. According to London’s Daily Mirror, the veteran rocker underwent the procedure prior to Christmas, in London.

A source close to Richards said, “He’s music’s ultimate survivor but not even the seemingly immortal Keith Richards can stop the march of time. It was a harmless, quick procedure and he’s very happy with the results.”

It’s speculated that Richards may have had the surgery in preparation for a Rolling Stones 50th anniversary tour, a possibility that’s been heavily rumored but not confirmed. Richards and Mick Jagger have reportedly put aside recent differences and are in talks with promoters about the viability of such a project. The very first Rolling Stones show took place at London’s Marquee Club on July 12, 1962.

Stone Sour’s Corey Taylor Loves Stephen King Horror Novels

Stone Sour and Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor knows a thing or two about writing. After all, he recently penned an autobiography, Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Good, that landed on the New York Times bestseller list.

Taylor recently chatted with Artist Direct about his favorite reads, and he said Stephen King’s The Stand is at the top of the list. C’mon, are you surprised?

“I’d have to say the unabridged version of The Stand with the extra 150,000 words,” he said when asked to rattle off his No. 1 pick. “I pretty much read that once a year, and I have since I was … 20-years-old. It's one of my all-time favorite books, and it’s such an adventure that it’s almost like reading the script to a fantastic movie that you know will never get made. The Stand is definitely a favorite. How stoked do you think I was when Slipknot got mentioned in Stephen King’s Cell?”

Taylor’s other favorites include Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Legs McNeil’s Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, the latter which he says is a must-read “if you’re into music history and you want to know where real punk music came from.”

In more Taylor news, he’s currently working on a new album with Stone Sour that’s expected to arrive in 2012.

Chili Peppers’ Flea and Blur’s Damon Albarn Talk New Group

It may be an unlikely liaison, but Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and Blur frontman Damon Albarn have recorded an album and are rehearsing for live shows. The third key member of Rocketjuice and the Moon is Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen. There are also guest appearances from Erykah Badu, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and many others.

“We met on a plane in 2008,” bassist/trumpeter Flea told Mojo magazine. “The three of us were going to Lagos as part of Damon’s Africa Express Collective. I’m a huge Fela Kuti fan and Tony [Allen] is one of my favourite drummers, so to get to talk and play with him was phenomenal. The way I approach rhythm and groove is very similar to the way he does, and I feel with him a special something that is hard to put into words… but it’s a beautiful thing.”

“We were going to meet someday,” added Allen. “It feels like I’ve been playing with Flea for many years.”

Albarn agreed that, “Everything just fell into place. It felt special being in a room together.”

Rocketjuice and the Moon’s self-titled debut album is due for release in March and has been recorded in London with overdubs in Paris, Berlin and Chicago. What on earth will it sound like? “It is all funk,” Allen told Mojo.

Albarn and his Blur bandmates will receive an Outstanding Contribution Award at February 2012’s BRITs ceremony in London. Flea, meanwhile, will also be playing festival shows with Red Hot Chili Peppers in summer 2012.

Metallica Go Beyond Magnetic on CD

Metallica will release their four-track Beyond Magnetic EP as a physical edition at the end of January, after the album was made available via digital retailers last month.

The four songs are rough mixes of leftover songs from the Death Magnetic recording sessions of 2007 and 2008. Each of the songs was performed live during Metallica’s four-night 30th anniversary stint in San Francisco in December, then released to the band’s fan club members that evening.

The four songs are “Hate Train,” “Just a Bullet Away,” “Hell and Back” and “Rebel of Babylon.” They were the only four leftover songs from the sessions. “We kept them in the vault and decided to pull them just for this special celebration, so here are the four leftover tracks from the Death Magnetic sessions,” the band said. “They are ROUGH mixes, unfinished to their original degree of mixing from March ’08.”

The digital release of Beyond Magnetic sold around 36,000 copies in its first week, reaching #32 on the Billboard charts. Beyond Magnetic will be released on CD on January 31 in North America and January 30 in the rest of the world