The Smashing Pumpkins will launch their Shiny And Oh So Bright North American tour July 12th in Glendale, Arizona, and wrap the run September 9th in Edmonton. Earlier this month, the group released "Solara," the first recording in over 18 years to feature founding members Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin.
Foo Fighters will celebrate their 25th anniversary next year. They've had lots and lots of acts open for them, so when Dave Grohl says he has a favorite, it must mean something.
In an interview with Britain's Radio X, Grohl called The Struts, who will open 11 U.S. shows for them in July, "the best opening band we’ve ever had." He's particularly impressed by Luke Spiller, saying, "It’s unbelievable. He’ll walk out in front of an audience in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where nobody has ever heard of them and by the end of the show he’ll have the entire audience in the palm of his hand." Grohl says he loves seeing a frontman turn an audience into fans -- and it's not easy.
Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton has made his Parkinson's Disease into a positive by forming the Glenn Tipton Parkinson's Foundation.
Diagnosed with the neurological disorder four years ago, Tipton says, "It was the band that suggested we start a foundation which, although in my name, is really a Judas Priest foundation. We are selling T-shirts with the slogan 'No Surrender' (a track off the latest album, Firepower), which is very appropriate considering the determination you have to summon up to get on with life and beat this illness."
He's 70 now, and no longer able to perform with the band.