He reveals the band wanted him to play a "minimal" part in their Download festival headline slot � while another unnamed musician played the rest of the set. And he adds the band asked him to appear at their homecoming gig in Birmingham for free.

The new album is set for release on May 22nd and that night Slash and his bandmates--Myles Kennedy (vocals), Brent Fitz (drums) and Todd Kerns (bass)--will broadcast their live sold-out concert from Irving Plaza in New York City exclusively on the new Livestream. The full concert will air Live on Tuesday, May 22 at 10:15 PM EDT here. Follow the page to be notified when the concert is about to go live.

Gossett tells us that one App has 31 Van Halen Official Videos, called "Van Halen Video Classics" and is here which has the QR code for any Android user to download the app for free. This has all the original Van Halen videos from the rarely seen "You Really Got Me" and "Runnin' With The Devil" official videos from before MTV, through "Loss Of Control" up to the 1984 videos and "Hot For Teacher", all the Sammy Hagar / Van Hagar videos from the "Live Without A Net" 5150 Videos to "Humans Being", the Van Halen 3 videos, even the 2006 Edward Van Halen solo "Catherine" video, and finally, today's Van Halen with "Tattoo" and "She's The Woman"; 31 Van Halen videos in total.

The other App is called "Van Halen Rare Song Vault" and is here and also has a QR code. This has over 170 rare and unreleased as well as live songs. There are now videos of the entire audio of shows from 1978, 1979, 1984, and a 2008 show. All the songs from A Different Kind Of Truth that were old demos (7 of the 13 songs) are there, very complete reviews of all Van Halen albums are there...much more.

Born Ronald James Padavona in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1942, Dio's ascension from trumpet and French horn player, which were his first musical instruments, to heavy metal god is the story of perseverance, passion for rock 'n' roll and undeniable talent.

Dio's musical career began in 1957 with a band called The Vegas Kings, which later changed to Ronnie and the Rumblers, then Ronnie and the Redcaps, then in 1961, Ronnie Dio and the Prophets. In 1967, Dio and Prophets guitarist Nick Pantas formed the Electric Elves, which shortened its name two years later to Elf. The band's success eventually landed them an opening slot for Deep Purple, which exposed Dio's remarkable voice to Deep Purple's guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore, who later recruited Dio and other members of Elf for his new band Rainbow.

After three studio albums and a live album, Dio left Rainbow, and in 1979 he replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath. Dio's first album with Sabbath, the platinum-selling Heaven and Hell, was the shot in the arm Sabbath's flagging career needed. Next up was the album Mob Rules, followed by the live disc Live Evil. Disagreements during the mixing of Live Evil prompted Dio to leave the band and strike out on his own.

The band's first album in seven years will be available at all retailers starting next Tuesday, May 22, 2012.

Artwork was painted by Eliran Kantor who has worked with such bands as Sodom, Atheist, Sigh. Dark Roots of Earth was produced, mixed and mastered once again by the world renowned Andy Sneap (Arch Enemy, Nevermore, Accept, Exodus).

Astbury and Duffy will talk about their new album, Choice of Weapon, that will be out Tuesday, May 22, debut songs from the new release, and take listeners' calls. Fans are invited to speak with the duo by calling 1-800-344-ROCK (7625). For a station near you and for information regarding how to access the Rockline broadcast online, go to www.RocklineRadio.com.

The Strange Case of Alice Cooper features footage of the shock rocker playing songs from his 1978 album, From the Inside, plus a selection of earlier hits. Highlights include Cooper singing "School's Out," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "I'm Eighteen" and "I Never Cry" � all true Alice favorites.

Stephen just released the sauce through High River Sauces in collaboration with Chris Santos from the Chef of the Food Network's highest rated Show "Chopped".

The eighth annual Riot Fest will feature a wide mix of artists ranging from Rise Against, Iggy & The Stooges, Elvis Costello, The Offspring, A Day To Remember, Coheed And Cambria, Descendents, Gogol Bordello, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Dropkick Murphys, Nofx, The Gaslight Anthem, Alkaline Trio, Awolnation, The Promise Ring, Gwar, August Burns Red, Frank Turner, Built To Spill, Less Than Jake, Reverend Horton Heat, Fishbone, Nobunny, A Wilhelm Scream, Screaming Females, Teenage Bottlerocket, Off With Their Heads, Deals Gone Bad, White Mystery, Larry And His Flask, The Story So Far, Japanther.

The band has set a July 24th release date for their new album, Handwritten, and will kick off the album release campaign with the live stream of the Music Hall of Williamsburg show, starting at 9:00 p.m. tonight May 16, here.

The project is a unique collaboration between the Led Zeppelin guitarist and five legendary photographers who have captured iconic images throughout his career.

Produced by Johnny K (Megadeth, Disturbed, 3 Doors Down, Airbourne), the album was recorded in the band's hometown of Chicago.

Here is the description their camp sent out: This is a controversial, uncensored look into the real lives of a new era of rockstars for today's generation as they take over the Sunset Strip. This is the first, but not last collaboration between writer Ash Avildsen and director Frankie Nasso, who together take you on an ambitious visual endeavor that hasn't been strived for in rock since the legendary Guns N' Roses trilogy.

On Saturday, July 6, 1974, Mississippi-Delta bluesman John Lee Hooker was one of the star attractions at an all-day festival attended by 6,000 people. The event in the town of Gardner Massachusetts was called "Down in the Dumps" perhaps the first in what was proposed as a series of musical events to be held in the city landfill area. Luckily, very luckily, Hooker's performance was captured on a three camera shoot and broadcast on cable television in local cities and towns.

The group will play a farewell show for hometown fans on June 16th at The Vera Project in Seattle. Here is the message the band had for fans on Facebook:

The split is set to be released June 26th in Europe and August 16th in North America. The new split will be available as special & limited editions only.

The band rocked an 8-song set of classic songs from their early 90s-era.

The duo of Jack Black and Kyle Gass stopped by the Letterman show Monday night to give fans a taste of new music as they performed a tribute to roadies everywhere with a song called "Roadie."

Teargas Jazz from our album Land of the Freaks might seem as a strange choice for a first single but then again we are not known for walking the obvious path, slightly confused Swedish Vikings as we are. The tune is long, complex at times and based on South Indian, so called carnatic reduction structures. The tonality is from a raga called Pantuvarali, a somewhat harsh mode that I found simply impossible to do anything musical with when first exposed to it. It kept growing on me though and all of a sudden my limited Swedish intellect opened up a bit and a world of beautiful harmony appeared. The Pantuvarali contains the most "blue", dissonant combination of notes one can think of. Yet it is truly lyrical when you get into the nature of it.

During one of our visits to India we ended up in the midst of a public protest that got more and more out of control with Molotov cocktails starting to fly. The provocative drawings in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten of the prophet Muhammad drove Muslims in New Delhi mad. There we were, three Swedish blokes trying to convince the upset we had nothing to do with it. Didn't really work out and we had to throw our pagan butts into a jeep and bloody step on it to get away from the sheer madness.

Later at the concert a riot nearly broke out and we had to stop playing for a while to get the angry, fighting troublemakers out of the venue. I told them they could kill one another in the parking lot but not whilst we play. There were thousands of cool guys and gals around who wanted to rock out and have a good time. It took a while to clear the bad energy in the outdoor arena but when it turned around, it turned around good and we performed one of our most groovy, sweaty gigs ever. Footage of the performance can be seen in the video to Teargas Jazz on YouTube.