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We’ve nearly arrived again at that most American of holidays: the Fourth of July. In celebration of the country’s independence, and legacy of amazing bands, Gibson.com is counting down the Top 50 American Rock Bands of All Time.

That’s right, we’re celebrating the good, old U.S. of A. with some pre-holiday musical fireworks, sure to ignite a fiery debate over who owns the title of the best American rock band – ever! We enlisted the talents of Gibson.com’s editorial and writing staff, along with you, the readers, to weigh in on this most patriotic of subjects.

Having unveiled #50-41 and #40-31, we’re thrilled to announce #30-21 today. Check back toGibson.com each day, as we reveal 10 more American greats, with the Top 10 coming on Friday.

30. ZZ Top

Known affectionately for years now as that “Little ol’ Band from Texas,” Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill have proved themselves one of the greatest American bands of all time. From their bar-room blues beginnings to arenas, stadiums and conquering the MTV world with slick and witty videos, ZZ Top have never stopped rocking. They’re America’s answer to The Rolling Stones, but with better beards. – Andrew Vaughan

29. Foo Fighters

Who knew? Who knew that it was actually the drummer for Nirvana who was probably the most prodigious singer-songwriter-musician in that band – naturally, this can (and will) be debated for years to come. Dave Grohl’s remarkable musical gifts were a revelation, and he has continued to up his game over the years. Easily one of the biggest rock acts in the world now, Foo Fighters have planted their flag deeply into the bedrock of all-time great American bands. – Sean Patrick Dooley

28. Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers debuted in the mid-’80s, drawing out their funk-metal hybrid successfully through a meld of clear guitars, slapping bass and bold lyrics. Fashioned in the wake of the L.A. punk scene, the cast of players gelled perfectly – largely because of each member’s originality. The Peppers have experienced their share of tragedy (guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988), but they’ve fought to come back and lead the pack with high-octane, funk-punk. – Anne Erickson

27. Big Star

Alternative music would likely have charted a radically different course were it not for the pioneering ways of Big Star. Along with his main songwriting partner, Chris Bell, former Box Tops frontman Alex Chilton crafted exhilarating, riff-based power pop that drew from the best aspects of the ’60s British Invasion. R.E.M and The Replacements are among the countless bands spawned in the ’80s who acknowledged a profound debt to the music Big Star made a decade before. – Russell Hall

26. KISS

“You wanted the best, you got the best! The hottest band in the world… KISS!” And for a while there, they actually were the hottest band in the world – if not through record sales but sheer touring spectacle. KISS’ remarkable, bombastic – outrageous – live shows forever upped the ante, and to this day, they have yet to meet their equal. America’s Fab Four – Paul, Gene, Ace and Peter – created a new paradigm for live concert theatrics, and they changed the game forever. – Sean Patrick Dooley

25. The Replacements

Formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1979, The Replacements, led by singer-songwriter-guitarist Paul Westerberg, shot to underground-alternative superstardom thanks to a slew of critically acclaimed (if not commercially successful) albums and a notoriously unpredictable and rowdy live show, where the band’s very presence and inebriation level were anyone’s best-guess from night to night. Said Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong after seeing The Replacements for the first time: “It changed my whole life. If it wasn’t for that, I might’ve spent my whole time playing in bad speed-metal bands.” – Sean Patrick Dooley

24. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

As members of one of only a handful of leader/band combos whose “and” is as iconic as its proper noun, Heartbreakers Mike Campbell (guitar), Benmont Tench (keys) and Ron Blair (bass) have been just as integral to tracks like “American Girl,” “Breakdown,” and “Refugee” as Mr. Petty. Their most recent album together is 2010’s Mojo, but even when Petty went solo on 1989’s Full Moon Fever, Campbell played on every track and Tench even contributed to a few songs. – Peter Hodgson

23. Sly and the Family Stone

Multi-racial and multi-gendered, Sly and the Family Stone were a “rainbow coalition” long before that phrase entered the American lexicon. The band’s music was rainbow-like as well. Distilling funk, pop and psychedelia into a thrilling mix with universal appeal, frontman Sly Stone embodied the notion that music could bring together people of all colors, classes and inclinations. No less an artist than Prince owes Sly and his band an incalculable stylistic debt. –Russell Hall

22. The White Stripes

The duo’s image led to cynical cries of “gimmickry,” but Jack White’s real reverence for the blues is beyond question. In an era when the likes of John Lee Hooker and Gatemouth Brown passed away, The White Stripes kept raw blues alive with ragged riffs, primitive backbeat and hoary howling. Add a Detroit punk sensibility and genuinely affecting country diversions, and The White Stripes were the best new “old” band of 20 years. “Jack White shook me, The White Stripes in full flood, it was like Zeppelin,” marveled collaborator Jeff Beck. Is that a good enough recommendation? – Michael Leonard

21. The Grateful Dead

The ultimate outsiders’ band, The Dead could never have been born anywhere but San Francisco. Psychedelia, blues, jam-band wig-outs, drugs, death and banjos… the Dead seemed to live in their own universe. Underpinning it all was the supreme guitarmanship of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, the former never truly getting his due because he was in such a unique band. With over 130 albums released, it’s tough for newbies to know where to start but 1970’s mellow American Beauty is just that. What a long strange trip it was… – Michael Leonard

Votes for the Top 50 Covers of All Time were included from Michael Wright, Bryan Wawzenek, Andrew Vaughan, Sean Patrick Dooley, Cesar Acevedo, Paul Burch, Arlen Roth, Ted Drozdowski, Russell Hall, Peter Hodgson, Anne Erickson, Michael Leonard, Paolo Bassotti and the Gibson.com Readers Poll.

Alice Cooper was more than a little impressed by his special guest guitarist at London’s 100 Club on Sunday night. Cooper introduced Johnny Depp as a blues player from Kentucky. According toMusic-news.com, he said:

“So when I introduced ‘Johnny D from Kentucky, a famous blues player’ and he comes up, he had his head down and everyone was like, ‘who’s that guy?’ Then you could see the little light bulbs going on in their heads one by one and the girls at the front were going ‘That’s Johnny Depp!’“

Cooper called the Hollywood actor a great guitarist, saying: “I’d work with him again, I mean, the guy is a valid guitar player. We told him anytime he wants to come up and play, feel free.

“We’ve always given that kind of privilege to any great guitar player, like Brian May. He’s in the same place as Brian May or Slash. He’s a great guitarist.”

It’s possible that Metallica’s July 14 concert in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, might not happen as planned. The Chronicle Herald  (viaBlabbermouth.net) is reporting that the Halifax Regional Municipality is threatening to withhold services for the show, unless promoters pay back a debt that they owe for concerts that were organized in 2010.

Halifax want to be paid back the remaining $359,550 of the $400,000 advanced to MacKay Entertainment last year, due to poor ticket sales in advance of shows. The services in question include police, fire and a permit allowing concessions to be sold.

According to The Chronicle Herald, the Metallica concert might already be done for. A letter specifies that the municipality expected payment by June 14, in order for the show to go on as scheduled on July 14.

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason recently talked about his memories of the first time the guys in Floyd bumped into The Beatles. Mason remembers being wowed by the chance to meet the biggest band in the world, according to Ultimate Classic Rock.

He said the encounter happened in 1967, when Pink Floyd were working on their debut LP, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and the Fab Four were putting together Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

“We were recording in Abbey Road, the temple of greatness, and they were recording ‘Lovely Rita,’” recalled Mason in an interview the Wall Street Journal. “They were God-like figures to us. They all seemed extremely nice, but they were in a strata so far beyond us that they were out of our league.”

The book of Ozzy Osbourne’s popular healthcare advice column from the Sunday Times in London (and reprinted in Rolling Stone) has been given an October release date.Like the regular newspaper and magazine columns, the book, called Trust Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy – Advice from Rock’s Ultimate Survivor, sees Ozzy share his hard-won wisdom on a wide variety of topics. The book will also offer memoir-style survival stories never before published.

Ozzy’s advice is generally given in the form of an anecdote about misadventures in his younger days, but the columns also have included insight on how he coped when wife Sharon was diagnosed with cancer, and warnings against the risk of cocaine: “[it] puts a lot of stress on that little wotsit that hangs down at the back of your throat – the epiglottis, or the ‘clack,’ as I’ve always called it. In the mid-1970s, I was taking so much coke, I tore my clack in half.”

Ozzy told The Pulse of Radio in 2010 that the column would be written in collaboration with Chris Ayers, who co-wrote Ozzy’s I Am Ozzy autobiography. “He brings me the column things and I just joke about it, you know,” Ozzy said, “’Cause if you believe me, you’ll end up in the lunatic asylum.”

It was not Michael Jackson’s voice that sang “Happy Birthday Lisa” on The Simpsons TV show in 1991. In the episode, “Stark Raving Dad,” Jackson voiced a character who was a mental patient, but was not allowed to sing his own song.According to NME.com, Jackson had written the song especially for the show, but was blocked by his record company, Sony, from actually singing it.

The singing voice belonged to Jackson impersonator Kipp Lennon, who also voiced Jackson in the TV series The Jacksons: An American Dream.

Dave Grohl has spoken of the time he, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and live second guitarist Pat Smear played ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ for the first time in 17 years.

Speaking in today’s Observer (June 26), Grohl recounts the occasion that, during a run-through for a Foo Fighters gig, the ex-Nirvana musicians found themselves revisiting their most famous song.

“Krist is on bass, Pat‘s on guitar. I’m on drums,” Grohl explains. “Krist says, ‘You wanna run through some oldies?’ Me and Pat look at each other. I mean, that’s something I’ve never considered before. I was like ‘OK.’

“Krist says, ‘Fuck it, let’s do ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. And Pat starts playing and we kick into it. I haven’t played that drumbeat in 17 years.”

He concluded, “It was like… a ghost. It was heavy.”

The studio manager was the only other person to hear the rendition, on which nobody sang.

The 20th anniversary of Nirvana‘s album Nevermind will be celebrated with a ‘Super Deluxe Edition’.

The seminal album was originally released on September 24, 1991.

Alice Cooper was joined on stage by Johnny Depp during his intimate show at London‘s 100 Club tonight (June 26). The actor and occasional musician surprised the crowd when he picked up a guitar and played along for ‘I’m Eighteen’ and a mash-up of ’School’s Out’ and Pink Floyd‘s ‘The Wall’.

Cooper introduced the special guest as “Johnny D from Kentucky”. The shock-rocker had hinted towards the appearance earlier in the night on his Twitter page, writing: “Chuck [Garric, bass] and Damon [Johnson, guitar] go over a few notes with tonight’s Special Guest… Oh, you’ll never guess, don’t even bother.”

As Depp left the stage, Cooper joked: “I think we can use another guitar player. If this whole movie thing doesn’t work out, call us.”

The two will be appearing together in a new Tim Burton film, ‘Dark Shadows’, based on the 1960s American soap opera of the same name, due for release in May 2012.

This tiny show was announced less than two weeks ago, and sold out before an official release was announced. According to the band’s publicist, the decision to play the gig came after Sonisphere Bulgaria was canceled due to logistical problems. With a few extra days off in the UK, Cooper decided to treat his fans to the small gig.

The band’s set included a few of their classics, as well as a rendition of new song ‘I’ll Bite Your Face Off’. They also played quite a few covers from the likes of The Yardbirds, The Beatles, The Animals, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks.

“We’ve been featuring bands that were influential to us in high school,” Cooper said of his song selections, citing them as tracks from the “British Invasion”. He’ll be returning to the UK for a series of Halloween shows this October, joined by the New York Dolls.

Alice Cooper played:

‘Train Kept A Rollin’
‘Under My Wheels’
‘No More Mr Nice Guy’
‘Is It My Body?’
‘Brown Sugar’
‘I’ll Bite Your Face Off’
‘Muscle Of Love’
‘Cold Ethyl’
‘Billion Dollar Babies’
‘Back In The USSR’
‘Poison’
‘You Really Got Me’
‘School’s Out’
‘Elected’
‘We Gotta Get Out Of This Place’
‘Fire’