Judas Priest Dream Deceivers Trial Documentary Finally Released

Film synopsis: "Just before Christmas, 1985, 19-year-old James Vance watched his best friend Ray Belknap shoot himself to death with a .12 gauge shotgun in a churchyard outside Reno, Nevada. Then Vance pulled the trigger on himself. He survived but was severely disfigured. Vance later claimed his actions had been influenced by the heavy metal music of Judas Priest, prompting his family to sue the band. The drama of the ensuing trial provides the framework for David Van Taylor's disturbing look at teenagers today."

According to the Center For Media And Social Impact (CMSI), the delay in releasing "Dream Deceivers" was due to "a copyright nightmare" due to the music and lyrics of Judas Priest appearing throughout the film. Van Taylor, conforming to the "clearance culture" of the era, diligently sought the rights from Sony to it all.

"We cleared things that, even then, we shouldn't have," said Van Taylor. "People reciting lyrics in the court room, snippets of songs being played backward--everything."

Check out clips here.

Billy Joel Rocks AC/DC Classic

Stevens was enjoying the show in the crowd before Joel surprised the singer. "My first time at the Garden and I wasn't expecting to be asked up onstage," Stevens later posted on Facebook. ".. talk about intense."

The August 7th show is part of Joel's ongoing residency at the famed venue, where he plays one show each month. Stevens began his lengthy music career as a pop star in New Zealand during the 1970s before moving to Australia to front the Sydney band Noiseworks in the 1980s.

Read more and watch the video here.

Ozzy Osbourne Plays First Solo Concert In Two Years

Ozzy's 14-song set featured five Black Sabbath tracks mixed with solo favourites like "Bark At The Moon", "I Don't Know" and "Crazy Train." The rocker recently wrapped up a world tour with Black Sabbath in support of their latest album, "13."

Osbourne will release two career-spanning "Memoirs Of A Madman" collections on October 7th. The "Memoirs Of A Madman" CD features 17 of Ozzy's greatest hit singles compiled in one place for the first time, and will be available in a single CD, 2-LP set and 2-LP picture disc set configurations.

Watch video from the show here.

Metallica Play Final By Request Summer Show

The band topped the bill on the opening day of the weekend event at Parc Jean-Drapeau, which also saw performances by Anthrax, the Offspring, Voivod, the Dropkick Murphys and more.

Metallica's 18-song set included the fan-voted song of the day, "The Four Horsemen", from their 1983 debut album, "Kill 'Em All." The group's only North American show of 2014 came on the heels of an extensive, 2-month tour across Europe.

Watch video here.

Twisted Sister Movie Trailer Goes Online

Frontman Dee Snider is proud that the result isn't just a "piece of propaganda." He says: "This is independently done, which is the way a documentary of this kind should be. It's for people who are original fans, hardcore fans, true fans - or want to know more about this band."

Horn adds: "Twisted were the Grand Funk of glam and the New York Dolls of metal - channeling youthful fury and a wicked sense of humor into blue-collar performance art, attracting audiences of up to 2-5000 a night. It was both a great living and a dead end, offering no future outside the suburban enclave."

Read more and watch the trailer here.

New Jon Lord DVD Preview Video Goes Online

Last week EarMusic launched a video detailing the half of the April concert dedicated to Lord's "Rock Legend" career, including performances by Deep Purple, Bruce Dickinson, Glenn Hughes, Rick Wakeman, Micky Moody and others.

The new teaser concentrates on his life as a classical composer and features a section of his piece All Those Years Ago, which had never previously been performed.

Celebrating Jon Lord will be launched on September 26 containing a Blu-ray of the April concert, three CDs, two seven-inch vinyl singles, a shirt, a replica of a page of Lord's score for Sarabande and a reproduction of the concert program. Separate Blur-ray, 2DVD, CD and download editions will also be available. Check out the preview here.

ZZ Top Release Video From Live At Montreux 2013

Available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital formats, the set captures the Texas trio in concert at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland on July 10, 2013.

The set features a blend of tracks from classic early '70s ZZ Top albums such as "Tres Hombres" and "Fandango" through their '80s blockbuster period with "Eliminator" and "Afterburner", up to their most recent release and return to their blues roots with 2012's "La Futura."

Watch the video here.

Classic Bee Gees Interview Gets Animated

What do you think of when you think of the Bee Gees? The Beatles-eque young lads of "New York Mining Disaster 1941″ fame? How about the guys who did the definitive version of "To Love Somebody," later to be covered by Rod Stewart, Janis Joplin and Gram Parsons?

Let's be real: you think of the white suits, feathered hair, and disco jams. Today, "Stayin' Alive," one of their monster smashes from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is a much celebrated classic that even Bruce Springsteen has covered. But the post-disco era was very much an anti-disco era, and the brothers Gibb were smarting from the backlash.

"We are songwriters, mostly," Maurice said. "We are performers secondly."

"And," he added, "We don't deal in trends and images."

Robin noted, "We didn't even write them for the movie." The band were recording their next album in France, and Robert Stigwood, their record label head and manager asked to use three of the songs for a film he was producing. "We were R&B," he said, as opposed to a disco act like Donna Summer or Chic.

Not mentioned in this excerpt was their more ill-fated decision to co-star with Peter Frampton in a disastrous film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. By 1988 when this interview was conducted, the stink was still on them, a decade down the road.

But, years later, all was forgiven. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. And "Stayin' Alive" was one of the songs they performed at the ceremony.

Watch the Minimation here.

Pharrell Gets Signature Burger

What exactly goes into a Pharrell burger? A seasoned patty, melted cheese, a thick tomato slice, mustard-based sauce and chopped onions between two gigantic buns.

It's somewhat surprising that the producer, singer and designer, who's now known as much for his music as his fashion risks, didn't go with a bolder combination, but if Pharrell has shown us anything over the past year, it's that there's no way to predict his next move. More on this story.

Accept Release Another New Album Preview Video

The German axeman believes he has a unique approach to the creative process. He says: "I'm a gut player - I just play what I feel. I'm not somebody who sits down and practices all day long, and waits for a nice melody to come his way.

"I do the opposite. I sit and think, 'What could the song really need?' as if it was a vocal idea, then I work it out that way. I sing it to myself first, then teach myself how to play it."

Hoffman also discusses some of the artists who influenced him, name checking Ritchie Blackmore and describing Uli Jon Roth as "probably the best of them all."

Watch the video here.

Ella Henderson Is Coming For America

"[Tedder] was sending my label emails of excitement and swear words," she told Radio.com over the phone while in New York City gearing up for her American television debut on Good Morning America. Henderson still thinks it's funny that he was so taken aback by her cover, which had her mashing Drizzy up with John Newman's song "Love Me Again."

"I just thought, 'Why don't I try to put them together?' They're both the same chords," she said rather nonchalantly. "I will sometimes record something and someone will hear it somehow and all of a sudden it ends up online. Sometimes, it's the things I do just messing around that end up being the things people love."

Her song "Five Tattoos" falls into this category. The stripped-down track was just something she was playing around with until her A&R guy heard it and told her to record it. That demo of Henderson and her piano will be on her upcoming debut, Chapter One, out later this year.

Henderson eventually met up with Tedder in a studio in Denver, CO on her birthday where they spent the day figuring out if they were musically compatible. Though, in Henderson's retelling of the meeting, it was really to see if the OneRepublic frontman wanted to make the time to work with her. "He gets to pick and choose who he works with," Henderson said of the in-demand songwriter. "Like, he's written for Beyonce and Adele. He only writes hits."

But the two immediately got along and ended up writing "Ghost" on the piano that very same day in just twenty minutes. It ended up being the track the British singer was waiting for. Henderson had actually finished her debut last year, but felt like she didn't have that first song that she wanted the world to hear. That is until she finished "Ghost," which in her words is a "soulful song with a twist."

"It's about this someone or something that just has a hold over you, tormenting you, you're trying to run away from it, but you just can't," she said. "And I think a lot of people can relate in so many different ways."

Henderson is a rather relatable character herself. In 2012, a 16-year-old Henderson was the contestant Cher, Adele, Leona Lewis and actress Chloe Grace Moretz were rooting for to win UK's The X Factor. Though Henderson was an early favorite to win, she ended up coming in sixth. But for the shy musician who grew up listening to jazz records on Saturday mornings with her grandfather - "Ella Fitzgerald's 'God Bless The Child' was such a big part of my childhood, always takes me back to a nice place," she said - the show brought her out of her shell. Performing for an average of 8.9 million viewers a night certainly has that effect. More on this story.

Singled Out: Legs Electric's Illicit Love

Ama Quinsee (vocals) - Some of the lyrics included in "Illicit Love" were written 10 years ago when I was fresh out of high school and deep into a spiritual phase of my life where I discovered meditation, spirituality and sanctuary. It was a song titled "All Illusions;" I was very "green" back in those days, and extremely trusting about the world. The remaining lyrics were inspired from an experience I had years later with astral projection, which is an interpretation of out-of-body experience where the astral body separates from the physical body. Some believe in it and some don't, but I am a firm believer and this is ultimately the focus of "Illicit Love."

I had my first out of body experience at a friend's house whilst jamming, it was very sudden and also very frightening. I had slipped out of my physical body and was looking back at it; this is the inspiration behind the lyrics "I'm in a peaceful disposition, I'm on the outside looking in". What I believe happened was my soul had escaped my body and I could see my physical form. As I was completely unprepared for an experience of this nature, I started to hyperventilate and my friends gave me a bag to help slow down my breathing and calm me. Eventually I felt my soul return to my physical form and crawl back into my body. After this I had a spiritual awakening like no other and have considered this to be close to a near death experience. I'm not superstitious but there is no doubt in my mind now that when we die our souls do transcend from our bodies to another place and I believe I felt it that day. Experiencing astral projection first hand I thought I would write a song about it after being so moved, and some of my lyrics from 10 years ago were also included due to the spiritual nature of the song. Some people still think I'm crazy when I talk of this story but it's one I'll never forget. I just knew as soon as the girls showed me that first riff that these lyrics would be the perfect fit.

Kylie Soanes (drummer) - I came up with the song's verse riff and bridge 3 years ago. The initial riff that you hear was stuck in my head for ages, and so I worked out the structure on guitar. I am not a great guitarist, so it didn't sound as polished as you hear it now. I showed Laura (guitar) what I had come up with and we continued to work on it for a few weeks and she came up with the powerful chorus riff. The song is very guitar driven, so we constructed the bridge with a breakdown that showcases our bass player Abby and gives her some room to solo. We are all really influenced by 70's rock, and that loose feel - bands like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and the Stones. That's what we were going for in this song.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself as you watch the video here, learn more about the band here and get a copy of the EP on iTunes right here!

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