Metal Hammer-Read sections of ex-Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver guitarist’s memoirs Page extracts from ex Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarists Slash’s memoir, ‘Slash’, due out on 30th October through Harper Entertainment, are available here.The guitarist, who now plays with Velvet Revolver, claims he has tried to make sure his new book, ‘Slash’, is as even-handed as possible.

He says, “This is not a vehicle for me to vent. It’s not to lambast Axl or to talk shit about anybody else. It’s just telling the story as I knew it.”

In a recent interview with E! Online, Slash said the book will include a bunch of stuff about his years with GUNS ‘N’ ROSES, but not necessarily because he was feeling nostalgic on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of “Appetite for Destruction”.

Puddlegum.net-As consumers, we seem to feel entitled to have full access to music, and we wince at the thought of paying for it. But when you consider the costs that fall onto the shoulders of artists and record labels, it’s understandable why bit BitTorrent sites are caught in litigation.

Imagine spending twelve months working on your new album. You shape the song structures a certain way to convey the emotion of each song, everything is precise.

Your independent label pays for you to record the album at a professional studio, costing them $30,000, with a contract saying that you will repay the recording and reproduction costs if the album doesn’t sell fifteen thousands copies.

Read more »

Blabbermouth.net-New York Post‘s Page Six reports that former JANE’S ADDICTION guitarist Dave Navarro is biting the hand that fed him for so many years, dismissing the music industry as shallow and predictable.

In Michael Grecco‘s new book, “Naked Ambition: An R-rated Look at an X-rated Industry”, Navarro, who recently directed a feature-length adult movie called “Broken”, says: “Rock and porn exist to break taboos. Rock used to have that rebellious ‘up against the world’ creed . . . That doesn’t exist anymore in the music world — but it’s alive and well in the adult industry.”

He adds: “It’s heartening to feel kin to a group of freewheeling individuals who don’t give a [bleep] about approval.” Navarro, once married to Carmen Electra, also slams music execs as “narrow-sighted dinosaurs,” noting, “Maybe that explains why porn is growing bigger and bigger and rock seems to be getting smaller and smaller.”

Blabbermouth – San Antonio cult STUF-TV show “Robb’s MetalWorks” has launched a new “Archival Series” via the web.

The first release in this special series is an interview with Vinnie Paul Abbott and Pat Lachman of DAMAGEPLAN conducted on January 28, 2004 in Boerne, Texas, a couple of weeks before the release of the band’s debut album, “New Found Power”.

The interview highlights much of the band’s feelings on its formation and music and sees the group in great spirits (with “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and Bob Zilla mustering in the background) after having just signed over 1,500 autographs for fans in the San Antonio region.

Watch the interview below.

“Dimebag” Darrell Abbott was co-founder and lead guitarist for PANTERA. When PANTERA broke up in 2003, Dimebag and his brother Vinnie Paul formed DAMAGEPLAN. On Dec. 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by Nathan Gale. He was 38 years old.

Mark Carras of RockMyMonkey.com recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH bassist James Lomenzo. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Rock My Monkey: This CD does have a few songs on it with very strong political lyrics. Did you have any input in that at all?

James Lomenzo: Just occasionally standing up and applauding and sitting down and keeping my mouth shut. (Laughs) This is off the typewriter of Dave Mustaine, and I got to say, you know, interestingly enough, I listened to some of the lyrics, “Amerikhastan”, when he first wrote them, and my initial reaction was, “You’re going to get yourself in a lot of trouble here.” But then I started reading a little deeper into it, and I started to think, and I asked him this a few times, I said, “You’re not really sitting on one position here, are you? You’re just kind of weaving this tapestry of popular notion and ideas.” He didn’t agree with me on that, either, but that’s kind of the way I interpreted it, anyway. So yeah, I mean, I felt very comfortable getting behind this stuff after I kind of read through it a few times and figured out exactly what was going on. For the most part I can’t imagine too many people who are that continually enchanted with the current administration across the board.
Read more »

The Associated Press reports that a 14-year-old suspended student, wearing a black MARILYN MANSON concert shirt, black jeans and black-painted finger nails, opened fire in his downtown high school Wednesday, wounding four people as terrified schoolmates hid in closets and bathrooms and huddled under laboratory desks. He then killed himself.

A fellow student at SuccessTech Academy alternative school said Asa H. Coon, who was suspended for fighting two days earlier, had made threats in front of students and teachers last week.

“He’s crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody,” Doneisha LeVert said. “We didn’t think nothing of it.”

Coon was armed with two .38 caliber revolvers, and police found a duffel bag stocked with ammunition and three knives in a bathroom, officials said. Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with metal detectors that students said were intermittently used.

Officials said two teachers and two students were shot, and that a 14-year-old girl fell and hurt her knee while running out of the school.

Read more from The Associated Press.

UK’s Rock Sound recently conducted an interview with MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn for the cover of the magazine’s 102nd issue — the first time MACHINE HEAD has graced the front page of the publication. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Rock Sound: How do you look back on [the Eighties when Flynn dabbled in drugs]?

Flynn: They were great times, it was not a self-destructive thing; we were just partying a lot and I was doing a lot of speed. We were seventeen-year-old kids going to thrash shows and everyone did speed there; it gave you balls to go crazy and go stagedive. All our idols and all the bands were doing it and it got to a point where it became bad for me but it did not ruin my life.
Read more »

Three years after the release of ‘We The Living’ auckland band ‘Cold By Winter’ are taking an indefinite hiatus.

With increasng demands upon all the members it has become too difficult to keep the band going and therefore the best thing to do was to take a long term, possibly permanent break.

Cold By Winter have one final show saturday December 1st at Kings Arms, more details to be announced.

“Thank you to all who supported us for the past four years and please join us December 1st for one last blast”

Check myspace for more details

www.myspace.com/coldbywinternz