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Quick Takes: Sammy Hagar, Def Leppard, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Allman Betts Band, Blind Melon

By Music News Jun 25, 2020 | 7:00 PM
  • Contrary to the quote Sammy Hagar offered up to Rolling Stone this week regarding hitting the road despite the pandemic — The “Red Rocker” has backtracked on his “Covid-be-damned” response. Hagar explained to the magazine: “I did that interview May 8th when we were already several weeks into the stay-at-home, which my family and I took very seriously, and things were starting to look up, the curve was beginning flattening. So when I was asked if I’d be comfortable enough to get back on stage before a vaccine was out, I was cautiously optimistic. I said, 'Yeah, not too soon. I want to make sure it’s not escalating. When it’s declining and seems to be going away.'”
  • Hagar went on to add: “Big picture, it’s about getting back to work in a safe and responsible way and getting this economy rolling again. I will do my part. I stand by that. I employ 200 people directly and when we tour even more. Like everything today, it’s a watch and see over the next few months but we remain cautiously optimistic that with the right improvements and safety measures in place, we might be able to play shows this year. That said, as things change, for the better or worse, we will appropriately adjust our plans.” (Rolling Stone)
  • Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott revealed that back in 2016, following an illness; he lost his voice and battled long and hard to regain it. During a chat with The London Express, he recalled, “When I got pneumonia and I got the hundred day cough, it totally destroyed my vocal cords, to the point where my throat doctor said to me, 'If you weren’t you I’d tell you to retire because this is never going to get better.'”
  • Elliott, who's now long since been back to full vocal strength said, “I took a five-day break thinking, 'This has always sorted me out in the past.' It didn’t and we had to cancel a tour and I had to take five months of working every single day for an hour or two with my vocal coach who’s also a shrink in many respects. He tells you, 'You can do this' — and you start to believe it when you see results. But it took me a long, long, long time.”(The Express)
  • A new list of the “12 Most Underrated Rolling Stones Songs Of All Time” has been posted by LocalSpins.com.
    • The 12 tunes singled out are:
      1. “Ventilator Blues” – Exile On Main St. – 1972
      2. “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” – Goats Head Soup – 1973
      3. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” – Sticky Fingers – 1971
      4. “Bitch” – Sticky Fingers – 1971
      5. “Monkey Man” – Let It Bleed – 1969
      6. “Stray Cat Blues” – Beggars Banquet – 1968
      7. “The Last Time” – Out Of Out Heads – 1965
      8. TIE: “Heart of Stone”/”What A Shame” – Single – 1965
      9. “Good Times, Bad Times” – 12 x 5 -1964
      10. “Blue & Lonesome” – Blue & Lonesome – 2016
      11. “When The Whip Comes Down” – Some Girls – 1978
      12. “Slave” – Tattoo You – 1981
  • Set for release on July 3rd is the latest posthumous David Bowie live collection, titled, Ouvrez Le Chien (Live Dallas 95). The set was captured on October 13th, 1995 at Dallas' Starplex Amphitheatre in front of a crowd of 20,000. The trek, which was in support of his Outside album, featured special guests Nine Inch Nails. The album's cover photo was shot by Bowie's wife, supermodel, Iman.
    • The album's tracklisting is: “Look Back In Anger,” “The Hearts Filthy Lesson,” “The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty),” “I Have Not Been To Oxford Town,” “Outside,” “Andy Warhol,” “Breaking Glass,” “The Man Who Sold The World,” “We Prick You,” “I’m Deranged,” “Joe The Lion,” “Nite Flights,” “Under Pressure,” and “Teenage Wildlife.” (Press release)
  • The Allman Betts Band will releases its second studio set, titled, Bless Your Heart, on August 28th, with the video for the album's first single — “Magnolia Road” already online. The band is led by the late-Gregg Allman's son Devon, Dickey Betts' son Duane, and the late-Berry Oakley's son Berry Duane Oakley. (Best Classic Bands)
  • Out Friday (June 26th) is All I Can Say, a documentary about the late Blind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon. The “No Rain” singer, who died in 1995 from a drug overdose at the age of 28, filmed hundreds of hours of footage of himself with a video camera between 1990 and 1995, much of which has made it into the movie. The autobiographical film documents Hoon's life, family, creative process, his band’s rise to fame and his struggle with addiction. (NME)

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