“Re-Machined: A Tribute To Machine Head” will be released on September 25. It’s a tribute to Deep Purple’s landmark album “Machine Head”, and it features a number of artists performing tracks from it. “Smoke On The Water” is handled by  Carlos Santana & Jacoby Shaddix with a second version by the Flaming Lips , “Highway Star”  is covered by  Chickenfoot,  and Iron Maiden deliver “Space Truckin”.

John Lord, former keyboard player for Deep Purple died today (Monday July 16) after suffering a fatal pulmonary embolism following a battle with pancreatic cancer. Last month, he cancelled a scheduled live performance to continue treatment but assured fans he’d be back at work soon. Lord Joined Deep Purple in 1968.  He was also a member of Whitesnake before returning to a  re-formed Deep Purple  and had been enjoying a solo career until his illness became too serious.  He died in London England at the age of 71.

    The legendary Deep Purple are coming back to town for a show at the Civic Centre in Ottawa on February 8th.  The current lineup includes singer Ian Gillan, bassist Roger Glover, and drummer Ian Paice from the classic Purple lineup that produced hits like “Smoke On the Water”, “Hush” and “Space Truckin’”.

     Tickets will be available to the general public starting Saturday December 3rd at 10:00 a.m. For CHEZ nation members, there will be a pre-sale Thursday December 1st between 10:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.  CHEZ will also be giving away tickets every day this week on Doc and Woody’s 6:40 tough question.

     Tickets are available at all ticketmaster locations and at www.ticketmaster.ca

     In an interview with The Mirror, Alice Cooper says he once held a gun to Elvis Presley’s head.  Alice says this happened in 1971, when Elvis was “at the top of his game”.  He was invited to Elvis’ room to meet the King, where Elvis told him to point a loaded gun at his head.  Then Elvis did a flying kick and a karate move, disarming Alice and pinning him to the floor, saying “that’s how you stop a man with a gun”.
     Also in the interview, Cooper says he used to hide from Keith Moon whenever the legendary Who drummer was in town, for fear he would be sucked into a week-long bender that his body simply couldn’t handle.

     Steven Tyler is not making friends in the fly-fishing community.  After the Aerosmith frontman wore decorative feathers in his hair on a couple of episodes of American Idol, female fans started snapping them up immediately.  Hair salons began ordering the feathers from the outlets that make them – fly fishing companies who use the feathers for their lures.  The outfitters haven’t been able to keep up with the demand, and there is now a serious shortage of fly-fishing lures.
     In other Aerosmith news, the band will be back in the studio the first week of July to continue work on their next album.  Now that American Idol is done, Steven Tyler has more time.

     In an interview with Artist Direct, Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell says music’s album format is dying, and he doesn’t think the next Leppard release will be a regular record.  The group just released their first-ever live album, Mirrorball, on Tuesday.  Says Campbell, “I’m not sure if it will be a full-length album. I don’t see the point, since the goalposts have shifted…people aren’t interested in full lengths. It used to be ten to twelve songs that the record company wanted and you’d go into the studio and do it. But there’s so much going on and there are so many things vying for people’s attention that people don’t have time to listen to a full album. Very few will do that. I’d rather put out less music with more quality – we want to give people quality.”

     Rush drummer Neil Peart will appear on The Late Show With David Letterman tonight as part of Letterman’s “drum solo week”.  Peart’s solo will not be the standard one he plays on tour – he had to cut the piece down from eight-and-a-half minutes to just four minutes to fit the TV schedule. 

     Black Country Communion, the “supergroup” featuring Jason Bonham on drums, Joe Bonamassa on guitar, Glenn Hughes on vocals and bass, and Derek Sherinian on keyboards, have debuted their newest video for the song “Man In The Middle”.  Here it is:

     Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover says he is sick of the Metallica comparisons.  Not that Purple is compared to Metallica that often, but that whenever a band decides they want to work with an orchestra, people inevitably say “oh, like Metallica”.  Glover says bands have been doing it long before Metallica did.  (Purple famously worked with an orchestra on keyboardist Jon Lord’s composition Concerto For Group And Orchestra in 1969.)  The current lineup of Deep Purple have just started a tour with a 28-piece orchestra.

     And finally, ZZ Top have debuted their long-awaited new single.  And you could listen to it…if you were in outer space.  The song, “Flying High”, was given to a friend of the band named Michael Fossum.  Fossum is an astronaut, and is currently carrying his copy of “Flying High” aboard a Russian space craft on his way to the International Space Station.

     The debut single, “Out of My Mind” (with “Holy Water”) from WhoCares is being released digitally by Eagle Rock Entertainment today.  WhoCares is a collaboration between singer Ian Gillan (Deep Purple), guitarist Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), bassist Jason Newstead (Metallica), drummer Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden), keyboard player Jon Lord (Deep Purple), and guitarist Mikko Lindstrom (HIM).

     The group was formed to raise money for a music school in Armenia, and they plan to raise money through the release of this single – which will be coming out as a physical CD June 27th.  The CD single will contain both songs, this video clip, and a 40-minute documentary about Gillan and Iommi and their connection to the Armenian cause over the years.