Rob Halford Once Joined Black Sabbath

antiMusic: We talked about this in our last interview but for those who don't know about it, tell us about how close you came to being a member of Black Sabbath.

Prophet: Well this is a good story because a lot of bands will say, if you get offered a Monday night show or whatever, they'll say "Oh that show doesn't matter." But one day Franco Gagliano who owns The Mason Jar in Phoenix which was the Whiskey-A-Go-Go of Arizona...it was the most famous metal club ever. It's gone now which is really sad. But everybody played The Mason Jar including members of Black Sabbath.

So Franco calls one day and get Marge on the phone and says, "Can you do me a favour? I had a band pull out on me this coming Monday. Is there any way you guys can come down and play?" And because we love Franco so much...because we didn't play Mondays anymore. It was always Fridays or Saturdays. But we said, "Franco as a favour to you, of course we'll do it."

So we go and there's probably 30 people in the whole place. We were lucky to have that on a Monday, I thought. And we do our show and afterwards I'm sitting with my then-girlfriend and I'm smoking a cigar --- you could smoke in the clubs back then --- and I'm covered in blood and face paint. Marge comes running up to me and says, "Pat, you have to come with me right now. There's a man who wants to talk to you and it's something big."

So I get up and start walking towards the bar. Franco cuts me off and looks at me and says, "Pat, you listen to me. This guy who wants to talk to you. He's real and he's interested in you." And Franco was so excited. So now I'm really like, what the hell is going on? So I walk up to this guy and I don't recognize him. He shakes my hand and says, "Hi, I'm John Baxter. I manage Rob Halford." And I'm just in my mind like woah, Rob Halford? He goes, "You've got a hell of a band there. The problem is, I'm not looking for a band." I said, "Well, what are you looking for?" And he says, "A vocalist." And I'm thinking, well you already have Rob Halford, what the f*ck do you need? You've got THAT guy. He's the guy."

So I say, "Well for what?" And he says, "Black Sabbath." And immediately I could feel all the blood rush out of my legs and I said, "Could you repeat that?" And he goes, "For Black Sabbath." This was around January of 1997. And he says to me, "A lot of people don't know this but Rob actually joined Black Sabbath and they were planning a world tour and they were going to write an album but six months ago, Rob and Tony Iommi had a falling out. So now Tony Iommi has been auditioning guys for about six months. He hates every one of them. Doesn't like any of them. And I came out tonight just to hang out and I looked up there and I can see that you sound a bit like Ozzy and you move a bit like Ozzy. Do you think you could cover Black Sabbath music?"

I say, "Oh yeah. They're one of my favourite bands of all time."

He says, "I think I can get you an audition. Would you be interested in auditioning for Black Sabbath?"

And I say, "Well yeah. Sure. I would be glad to do it." So he says...and this is the truth what this man told me...he said, "I think you're the guy. I believe if you audition with them, they're going to take you because I know what Tony likes and you're the guy. And if you get the gig, then you're going to be doing me a favour too because you're going to put me and Rob in Tony's good graces again because we helped him find a singer."

So he gave me his card and he says call me on Friday. So the next four days I barely slept (laughs) and don't know how much I ate but I was pretty jazzed up. So I called him on the Friday and he immediately said, "Pat, you're not going to believe what just happened. Ozzy has literally just agreed to rejoin Sabbath and they're planning a world tour."

And half of me was jumping up and down going "Ozzy's back in Sabbath. F*ck yeah!!" And the other half of me was doing the 'ol Maxwell Smart thing, 'Missed it by that much.' Now I'm not saying I would have got the gig because I don't know what would have happened but it sure would have been an honour to go in there and play a song with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler and hopefully Bill Ward. But you know what, just having Rob Halford's manager approach me and think that I was good enough to audition for Sabbath is like someone just handing me a Grammy. I was so honoured by that. I never take any of that stuff lightly, Morley. Every little thing...or big thing...that's come to our band, I never take it lightly because here today, gone later today like David Lee Roth says.

If you've got good things going on, be grateful. And stay a little bit humble. Humility goes a long way in this world. There's nothing worse than someone who's all into themselves. It's one thing when fans call you a legend or the king of metal or whatever, but when the artists start calling themselves that, it's a turn-off. It's important to keep humility because that's what keeps us teachable. When we stop being humble, we stop being teachable because we think we know everything.

So any award or gig we've played.....I mean, I said before that I was a huge Van Halen fan and we actually got to open for Van Halen a few years back. It was when they had Gary Cherone and I wasn't into at all but it was still playing for Eddie, Alex & Michael. They were playing with Monster Magnet and our stage was right near theirs. As our last note was ending, they were just starting it up. I could look over my shoulder and they were right there. What an honour!

I've got to do so many cool things in my life, Morley. Gosh, I could die right now and I've had a very full life in music.

Read the full interview here.

Stevie Nicks Streaming New Album Online

"Most of these songs were written between 1969 and 1987," Nicks said in a press release. "One was written in 1994 and one in 1995. I included them because they seemed to belong to this special group.

"Each song is a lifetime. Each song has a soul. Each song has a purpose. Each song is a love story," she added. "They represent my life behind the scenes, the secrets, the broken hearts, the broken hearted and the survivors. These songs are the memories - the 24 karat gold rings in the blue box. These songs are for you."

More including the stream link here.

Roger Daltrey Previews Helter Skelter From McCartney Tribute

Due November 17 (Nov 18 in North America), the project features a variety of artists joining McCartney's long time band to perform songs from the bassist's legendary songwriting catalog.

Guests include Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, The Cure, Brian Wilson, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, Dr John, Yusuf, Barry Gibb, Jamie Cullum, KISS, Chrissie Hynde, ELO's Jeff Lynne, and many more.

"The Art Of McCartney" has been compiled by Los Angeles producer Ralph Sall, who worked with the former Beatle in 2003. Check out the preview here.

Gene Simmons Demonstrates The 5-Second Rule

Simmons was speaking with paparazzi as he wandered through the terminal when the incident was caught on tape. KISS will follow in the footsteps of several rockers when they play their first Las Vegas residency this fall.

After reviewing the viability of successful extended Vegas runs by Carlos Santana, Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Rod Stewart and Meat Loaf, among others, "KISS Rocks Vegas" will see the band perform 9 shows at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino between November 5th and 23rd.

Watch video here.

Dave Grohl Talks Punk In New Film Trailer

He and Fugazi mainman MacKaye are among the stars interviewed for Salad Days, which investigates the Washington DC hardcore punk scene that spawned Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Void, Henry Rollins' State Of Alert and many others. It focuses on the music, people and records that changed the course of music history.

In the trailer, Grohl says: "I have heroes that I would get nervous around. I know Ian and HR are just normal dudes, but those f***ing people changed my life."

Watch the trailer here.

Bush Release The Only Way Out Video

"It's a good gateway into the record," singer Gavin Rossdale recently told USA Today. "The record gets a bit wider and probably a little darker. This is just the right way in."

Due October 21,, the band's sixth release was produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Alice In Chains, Foo Fighters, Mastadon) at Studio 606, the Northridge, California-based studio owned by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl.

"I thought he would never let me get to sentimental, sonically or lyrically," Rossdale says of Raskulinecz. "I thought he would keep it muscular, live and animalistic, which is what I really wanted."

Watch the video here.

Billy Talent Streaming New Single Kingdom Of Zod

The band say in a statement: "We seemed to have caused some confusion with us releasing a greatest hits record. So we're here to clarify a few things. We are not breaking up - this is not the end of Billy Talent, it's quite the opposite. It's more of a celebration of the songs we've released over the years for our loyal fans to reminisce over.

"As for the two new songs, we just thought it would be a nice way to show the beginning of our career to where we are now. They are really cool and we hope you dig them."

They add: "We are knee-deep working on songs for our new record and it's going to kick ass. We've no timelines yet, but it's going better than we could have ever imagined."

Listen to the song here.

Philip Sayce Streams New Song Fade Into You

Sayce says: "This song is definitely one of the heaviest songs, if not the heaviest song on the album. It comes from a very hurt, sad, dark place. It's about being screwed over in the music business."

Born in Wales, Sayce moved to Toronto as a child and reveals seeing Eric Clapton live at the city's Maple Leaf Gardens had a huge influence on him.

He continues: "This groovy version of Crossroads had such an impact on me. It was that musicianship which laid the foundation for me. What Clapton did was very different from what many younger artists do today. It's about spilling your heart out."

Checkout the video here.

The Verve Pipe Looks Back At The Freshmen

Radio.com: There's a lot of conflicting accounts online to what you've said the song's about. If I list them, can you tell me if they're true or false? Brian Vander Ark: Sure, whatever you like.

One Verve Pipe fan site says it was inspired by a conversation you heard at a party? Yeah. How much of that made into the song? What was that about?

Well, it was a combination of a lot of different things. When I'm writing something, usually the initial burst of creativity could come from anywhere. Whether that be at a party or talking in a conversation with someone could be a particular part of that song�it's really just a matter of me carrying a notebook around and writing little things here and there-which is what I do, I still do that today. Whether it makes it into a song or not, it all depends if the song comes together melodically and if I feel like it's valid. I wrote the song back in 1988, whatever I heard that sparked the initial�that particular moment could've been the first few lines. It's hard to tell.

The actual story is that I went out with a girl and my buddy went out with the girl, and we passed her back and forth. And then he got her pregnant and she ended up committing suicide. But she didn't commit suicide, [that was] poetic license to make it sound more dramatic. I mean, little bits and pieces come from everywhere. "She was touching her face" was me watching�I had the television on while I was writing the song and the Divinyls song "I Touch Myself" comes on. She was touching her face, I'll put that in there, that sounds interesting. It's not like I sit down and write a story all in one sitting. The lyrics for that were written in my car driving from job to job, gig to gig, while stringing tennis racquets in a sporting goods store.

Around when did you tell the press that it was about an actual ex-girlfriend's suicide? Or did that not happen? Yeah, I don't know. The person it was written about did not commit suicide, so that was fabricated. So whether I said that or not, I don't know.

Read more here.

Aeon Zen Release The Entity Video

Vocalist Andi Kravljaca says: "The Entity is the perfect vehicle for the sound of Aeon Zen. Dripping with eight-string goodness, it sets the stage for Ephemera's story."

The Algorithm's remix of the track appeared as the B-side to last month's single Unite. The follow-up to 2012's Enigma is on sale now. Aeon Zen play at ProgPower Europe on October 4, then at the Barfly in London alongside Voyager and Agent. Further live dates will be announced in due course.

Watch the video here.

Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx Sells Home For $2.4 Million

Sixx and new wife, model Courtney Bingham, put the property on the market after buying an expansive mansion in Westlake Village for $4.125 million.

Set on a third-acre corner lot and designed for entertaining, the stone-clad Calabasas house features wood floors, an office with built-ins, a loft, a music room/home theater, four bedrooms and five bathrooms. A waterfall sits in the garden courtyard.

Read more here.

Singled Out: The Lost Brothers' Gold and Silver

This song began on a beach in Spain and took many forms before we put it in a box for a couple of years. For some reason bill Ryder Jones remembered it from a long time ago and suggested we bring it back to life. So now it lives there on the album, among the book of songs.

Lyrically... Tortilla Flat by Steinbeck is a book that was on our bookshelves at that time, which might have influenced the song. Or maybe not. Take from the song what you will.

We have a rough idea of what it's about but the listener breathes new life and new meaning into the song. It means something different each time we play it. We often much prefer when someone looks into our window and tells us what they've seen.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself here and learn more about the album right here!

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