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Fingers crossed for Tony Iommi…he has completed his run of chemotherapy to battle lymphoma.  He says he’s not out of the woods yet – but says his health battle hasn’t got in the way of working on the band’s new album after singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler moved the production operation from the United States to England.

John Mellencamp is hitting the road again this spring and has announced a 15-city tour of Canada. Mellencamp kicks things off on June 14th in Penticton, British Columbia and winds things down on July 15th in Oshawa, Ontario.  Wanna know where he’s going?  Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  Thunder Bay.  Sudbury.  No Winnipeg.  No Regina.  Not even Toronto.

It’s been a long while since there’s been any news from the Soundgarden camp, as the band has quietly been working on new music.  The group played its first tour in 14 years last summer since reuniting, and have talked about recording a new album without any need for a timeline.  Now, Soundgarden have issued a preview of “Live To Rise,” a new single set to be featured in the new movie, “The Avengers.” Listen Here

Yesterday the Crown Estate unveiled a commemorative plaque to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, marking the 40th anniversary of his album, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.   The plaque was unveiled at 23 Heddon Street, just off Regent Street in London, where the photograph on the front cover of the album was taken–a fact little known until now.

In honor of Tim Tebow joining the Jets, Carnegie Deli in New York City has created a new 3.5 pound sandwich they call the “Jetbow.” The sandwich piles corned beef, pastrami, roast beef, American cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo on slices of white bread. Owner Sandy Levine said this is their first celebrity inspired sandwich to be made with white bread and mayo because of Tim Tebow’s all-American image.  Looks freaking AWESOME.

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Aerosmith has announced they are hitting the road this summer with Cheap Trick for the “Global Warming Tour”!  The first leg of the tour has been announced, which takes them to Minneapolis to start the tour June 16, and to Toronto on June 27.  Tickets for those shows will go on sale March 30 and 31 at Ticketmaster.com and LiveNation.com.  The second leg should be announced shortly…I think a stop in Winnipeg is in order!

Wow…it makes you wonder how this would have sounded!  Had he not forged his career with Queen, Brian May would like to have been a member of AC/DC.  He said in an interview over the weekend, “I’d have probably liked to be in AC/DC if Queen hadn’t existed but I’m the wrong sort of size and shape, unfortunately. Because it’s different from Queen. Queen were very eclectic – that’s the word isn’t it? – and we just trampled over every boundary that there was. But AC/DC are in a sense the opposite. They know their style and it’s incredibly pure and I have a great respect for that. And every single note they play is AC/DC completely.”

Despite being eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, and snagging a lone nomination in 2010, KISS have yet to make the final cut… something that clearly remains a sore spot for the group.  Gene Simmons said, “It’s become a joke.  We’ve been thinking about it and the answer is simply, ‘We’ll just buy it and fire everybody.’”  That’s the spirit!

You may soon be able to take Van Halen singer David Lee Roth with you wherever you go; or, at least, Roth’s vocal yelps, whoops and screams. Dave Rogge of Brooklyn has created a new “Roth Scream Box.”  The battery-powered unit is designed to play the isolated vocal tracks of Roth singing “Runnin’ With the Devil”.  No word on whether Rogge will face any copyright infringement issues should he begin actually selling the item, which he says he built in his basement workshop.

The Wolf Pack is gearing up for one more night of forgotten debauchery. Warner Bros. announced that The Hangover franchise will return to theaters one more time, with The Hangover Part III scheduled to release May 24th.  Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis are currently set to reprise their roles, although director Todd Phillips is keeping the plot under wraps.

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KISS and Motley Crue are going on tour together this summer!

And while we’re thinking of KISS, now open is KISS by Monster Mini Golf across from the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas.  It’s a custom-designed, indoor, glow-in-the-dark, 18-hole miniature golf course – which also features a state-of-the-art arcade, the largest KISS gift shop in the world, a KISS Gallery, the “Hotter Than Hell” Wedding Chapel, a private VIP Room, KISS-themed event rooms and the “Rock ‘n’ Roll All Nite” Café.  As Paul Stanley asked, “It’s great to hit a ball through a windmill, but wouldn’t you rather hit it through one of my boots, especially with the black lights and everything glowing? It’s very, very cool.”  Go HERE for details.

The 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony next month is shaping up to be the hottest ceremony in years. Rolling Stone reported that Steve Van Zandt of the E Street band will induct the Small Faces/Faces, John Mellencamp will induct Donovan, Chris Rock will induct the Red Hot Chili Peppers, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill will induct blues legend Freddie King in the Early Influences category, with Carole King inducting Don Kirshner, who’ll receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award for non performers. A presenter has yet-to-be announced for Guns N’ Roses.

There’s been a buzz for some time now about new music from Neil Young & Crazy Horse, and now the details have been confirmed.  Neil and Crazy Horse will release their new album “Americana,” on June 5th.   It’s their first album together since 2003′s “Greendale,” and their first album with the full Crazy Horse line-up of Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina and Frank “Poncho” Sampedro since “Broken Arrow” in 1996.

A new live package from Triumph is on the way. The tentatively titled “Live at Sweden Rock Festival” set will consist of a DVD and CD, with a release date targeted for later this spring.  After 20 years apart, the long-awaited Triumph reunion of vocalist/guitarist Rik Emmett, bassist/keyboardist Mike Levine, and vocalist/drummer Gil Moore took place at Sweden Rock Festival, on June 7, 2008.   Now, the band is putting the finishing touches on the DVD of that historic performance. No word on the final track listing.

There is a May 22nd release date for the DVD version of “The Strange Case of Alice Cooper.”  The film was originally released on VHS and hasn’t officially been available for 30 years. According to Amazon, “The Strange Case Of Alice Cooper is more than a concert film. It is the warped tale of one man’s descent into madness, a theatrical rock ‘n’ roll spectacle that could only emerge from the twisted imagination of Alice Cooper.”  It was filmed during a stop on the Madhouse Rock Tour in 1979 and was inspired by Alice’s stay in a New York sanitarium and the people he encountered there. Vincent Price introduces the proceedings as ghoulish doctors and transvestite nurses cross paths with dancing bottles of alcohol. All the while, Alice performs songs off his album From The Inside, as well as many of his most well-known hits.  Here’s a taste:

Coming on May 29th is the Beatles’ legendary 1968 animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, digitally restored for DVD and Blu-ray release — along with it’s long out of print “songtrack” CD.  Due to the delicate nature of the hand-drawn original artwork, no automated software was used in the digital clean-up of the film’s restored photochemical elements. This was all done by hand, frame by frame.  Bonus features include a short making-of documentary titled Mod Odyssey, the film’s original theatrical trailer, storyboard sequences, 29 original pencil drawings and 30 behind-the-scenes photos. Both packages will include reproductions of animation cels from the film, collectible stickers, and a 16-page booklet with a new essay by Yellow Submarine aficionado John Lasseter — the Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.

Pink Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece, “The Dark Side Of The Moon,” has reached a new milestone on the US charts.  Currently sitting at #137 on this week’s Billboard 200, Billboard reports the album has extended its record-setting run to 800 weeks on the chart – roughly the equivalent of about 15 years and five months.  Floyd’s chart record is far ahead of the second place album in this category, “Johnny’s Greatest Hits” by Johnny Mathis – which clocks in at 490 weeks.

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It was 30 years ago today the world lost Randall William Rhodes, aka Randy Rhodes, guitarmaster with Ozzy and Quiet Riot.  He was only 25 years old when he died in the plane crash.  Make sure you join Howard tonight at 9…we’re honouring Randy Rhodes with a side of Ozzy’s Diary of a Madman album. Check out the video of Ozzy hearing a long lost Rhodes guitar solo, 30 years after it was recorded.

On Friday, Alice Cooper delivered the Graduation Commencement Speech to 600 graduates from The Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles.   Alice opened the speech by saying, “First of all, the fact that I am here as your keynote speaker raises a lot of red flags. It shows an obvious lack of judgment on your part.”  Alice also received an Honorary “Doctor of Music” Doctorate from Institute, the second Doctorate award he has received in his career.  Of the award, he says, “One more of these and I can write prescriptions.”  Um…I’m not sure I’d take a prescription from Alice.  Just sayin’.

There is a a June 5th release date for a 3-disc tribute to Ozzy Osbourne.  It will be called  ‘No More Tears: A Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne- 1971-2012′ features rock and metal artists covering Ozzy’s Black Sabbath and solo work.   The track listing features appearances from people like Vince Neil of Motley Crue, Chris Poland of Megadeth, Brad Gillis of Nightranger, Gary Moon from Three Dog Night, Eric Singer of Kiss, and more.

Van Halen’s “A Different Kind Of Truth” tour hit Montreal last week for the first of a series of Canadian dates and video of the full concert is streaming online.  The band delivered its 24-song show with high energy, opening with their 1981 classic, “Unchained.”  VH have been changing up rare tracks in the set throughout the tour, and Montreal fans were treated to 1979′s “Outta Love Again,” as well as “Hear About It Later” from “Fair Warning.”  Check out the videos HERE.  And remember, if you’re an All Access VIP, you can win tickets to the Van Halen show here in Winnipeg on May 13…

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Another loss in the world of rock…the drummer of The Doobie Brothers, Michael Hossack, died on Monday (March 12th) at his home in Dubois, Wyoming at age 65 following a battle with cancer. Back in January, the band had issued a statement saying that Hossack was “improving slowly.” He is survived by his son and daughter.  Hossack’s drum and percussion work was featured on such Doobies classics as “Jesus Is Just Alright,” “Listen To The Music,” “Rockin’ Down The Highway,” “Long Train Runnin’” and “China Grove.”

Courtney Love believes Kermit the Frog and his gang of Muppet friends “raped” the memory of her ex-husband Kurt Cobain — by bastardizing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in their latest  movie without her permission.   Courtney says she has the absolute power to approve or nix the use of Kurt’s music for commercial purposes, and she never gave the OK for the use of the song for the 2011 Muppets movie.  But there’s another side to this…apparently Courtney sold off half of her rights to Kurt’s music to a company called Primary Wave Music. But wait, there’s more…Courtney also gave Primary Wave the exclusive right to distribute Nirvana’s ENTIRE catalog.  As far as “Smells Like Teen Spirit” goes, not only did Primary Wave approve the use in the Muppet’s movie, they got permission from the two surviving Nirvana members — Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic. And Dave is even in the movie.  Courtney…just STAY DOWN!

On this day in 1983 (March 14), Jon Bon Jovi formed the band Bon Jovi.  When Jon was seventeen, his cousin Tony gave him a job sweeping the floors at his recording studio. A year later, in 1980, Tony recommended that Jon sing on a song on the album Christmas in the Stars: The Star Wars Christmas Album. Jon’s first-ever professional recording credit (under the name John Bongiovi) was for singing “R2-D2 We Wish You a Very Merry Christmas.”  In 1983, Jon recorded “Runaway,” a song he’d written during his days sweeping the floors at The Power Station studio. He enlisted the help of studio musicians for the session.  After getting signed to a major label, Jon called up Richie Sambora. Richie was familiar with Jon and agreed to join him. Jon also contacted his old bandmate, keyboardist David Bryan, who at the time was studying music at Julliard; Bryan quickly dropped out to join Jon and Richie. Experienced local drummer Tico Torres and bassist Alec John Such also got the call – and on this day in 1983, Bon Jovi, the biggest-selling American band in history, was formed.

Some bits and bites:

—Stephen Hawking reportedly filmed a cameo appearance on The Big Bang Theory. GossipCop.com reported that the famous theoretical physicist will have a “run-in” with Sheldon, the scientist character played by Jim Parsons. The episode will reportedly air on April 5th.

—Rush will be honored with The Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award at the 4th annual Revolver Golden God Awards in April.  Rush, who will release their 19th studio album, “Clockwork Angels,” in May, join a list of past honorees that includes Motley Crue, Lemmy Kilmister of MOTÖRHEAD and Ozzy Osbourne.

—Iron Maiden have offered up a preview of their new live package, “En Vivo!” which arrives on March 27.  Maiden were filmed live on April 10, 2011 in Santiago during the Round The World In 66 Days leg of The Final Frontier World Tour.  You can now check out “Blood Brothers,” the first clip released from the package here.

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Amazon has posted a May 29th release date for “Clockwork Angels,” the forthcoming new album by Rush.  The band’s 20th studio effort is also set for a May 23rd release in Japan, according to online music retail sites in that country.

Thinking of a fall trip to a hot destination?  Sammy Hagar has announced the dates for his annual series of birthday shows in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  The Cabo Wabo Cantina will be rocking to celebrate Sammy’s 65th birthday this fall, with shows on October 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th.   Further details will be announced as the dates get closer.

Metallica are making progress on their upcoming Metallica 3D feature film.   Their camp sent over these details: The film will be a marriage of narrative and concert and will star the five members of Metallica: James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo, and the fans. It will begin shooting this August and will be released in the summer of 2013.

Charitybuzz is holding the John Varvatos Stuart House Online Auction featuring Alice Cooper, Slash, Green Day, Joe Perry, Jimmy Page and more.  Metal legend and golf monster Alice Cooper tops the auction with a package to hit the links with him in Phoenix, AZ. Cooper has donated the chance for a lucky winner and guest to join him for golf… as long as they have less than a 20 handicap!  All proceeds benefit Stuart House, an organization dedicated to serving and protecting childhood sexual abuse victims.  Go HERE for details.

It looks another KISS inspired movie is heading to the silver screen. And like the band’s last big screen adventure, “Detroit Rock City,” the new film will be based in Michigan.  KISS Online reports: “Cadillac High,” a feature film based on the KISS’s 1975 celebratory tour to the city of Cadillac, has received conditional approval for incentives to shoot the movie in Michigan.  In 1974, the Cadillac High School Vikings, playing KISS albums in the locker room before and after games, won seven straight games and wound up conference co-champs. Word spread to the band, who visited Cadillac the next year for the most raucous Homecoming weekend on record.

Vince Neil of Motley Crue will open a topless nightclub, Vince Neil’s Girls, Girls, Girls, later this month in Las Vegas. Regarding the kind of entertainment that will be available at Vince Neil’s Girls, Girls, Girls, Neil told the Las Vegas Sun, “First, the girls will be edgier. Tattoos won’t be banned. They will look like they stepped out of a music video. Hot, provocative and edgy. I know it all comes down to G-strings in the end, but they’ll start out with much sexier outfits than you find elsewhere. Second, the music isn’t going to be boring. None of that house, generic strip club music. This will be full-on rock and roll.”

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Yesterday the world lost Davy Jones of The Monkees.  I get it, we don’t play them…they’re kinda dorky, wannabe Beatles…but they were a lot more instrumental in shaping music than maybe you would think.  They were the band that gave Jimi Hendrix his first US shows back in 1967…he opened up for the in July of that year, but the teenage girls didn’t LIKE Jimi’s sound, so at one point he gave the crowd the finger and quit the tour.  Gene Roddenberry was inspired to introduce the character of Chekov in Star Trek in response to the popularity of Davy Jones, complete with hairstyle and appearance mimicking that of Jones.  Also, remember on the show they would put their music to funny clips of them riding bikes or running on the beach or just “monkeying around” (snicker)?  You know…what we call a MUSIC VIDEO today?  They were among the first to do that.  Would we have music videos if we didn’t have The Monkees?  In 1979, Michael Nesmith created a show called Pop Clips which would show early music videos on Nickelodean from The Stones and The Police and Thin Lizzy.  The following year, Nesmith sold the rights to the show to Time Warner, who then turned Pop Clips into MTV.  So, in essence, Micheal Nesmith of The Monkees created MTV.  AND they had Frank Zappa on the show…which is pretty farking cool.

While we’re thinking of musicians who have left us too soon, a new list was released this week of the top musicians who died before their time.  These artists are ranked not only by how great their music was at the time of their death, but what their future might have meant to the world of music.  You won’t find Davy Jones on this list, but according to them, the most significant loss to the music industry was Jimi Hendrix, followed by John Lennon and Jim Morrison. Rounding out the top five are Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain.  The full list of “Rock Stars Whose Deaths Were The Most Untimely” may be viewed on Ranker.com.

I think it’s about time that Robert Plant decides that he should get back together with the remaining members of Led Zeppelin.  He announced earlier this week that will debut his new band, the Sensational Space Shifters, in July at the UK’s Womad Festival , and the band will feature members of Plant’s pre-Band Of Joy group, Strange Sensation.  Okay, fine.  But THEN it was announced that, when Led Zeppelin got back together in 2007 for the Ertegun concert at the O2 Arena in London, that show raised almost $42 MILLION which was donated yesterday to Oxford University for scholarships, etc.  Can you IMAGINE Led Zeppelin getting back together and, instead of KEEPING the money (because I’m pretty positive they don’t NEED it) they donated it to a charity in each city they played?  Heck they could balance the books of those cities and maybe get a third world country out of debt!!  Think about it, Robert.

Although nothing’s set in stone, it looks as though the proposed Buffalo Springfield reunion tour is permanently on ice.  Last July, Neil Young decided to indefinitely postpone the 30-date fall 2011 tour with surviving members Stephen Stills and Richie Furray — which was to follow the band’s string of sold out dates on their first outing since 1968. At the time it was said that the band would instead be hitting the road sometime in 2012.  Well, according to Furray, that probably won’t be happening.  He says, “Y’know, Neil is just fickle and even though it boils down to all three of us making a decision . . . without the three of us, really there can’t be anything that would even resemble a Buffalo Springfield. I gotta say that we probably lost a little bit of our momentum; that isn’t to say it couldn’t be picked up again, but I certainly don’t see anything happening this year.”

And Zumba…have you heard of this?  It’s a crazy-ass dance workout that can be pretty darn sexy…until you get the WWE legends “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart doing it.  TMZ tells the story of what the heck is going on…

Apparently the footage is for an upcoming reality show.  The show still doesn’t have a home, but we’re told the WWE is hoping to run it on its upcoming network.

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