Sabbath have also announced their first Australian tour in nearly 40 years. The partial reunion of the metal legends � still working without drummer Bill Ward, who continues to sit things out over a contract dispute � will play Australia in April 2013.

During the chat he explained why Chinese Democracy was delayed and how original band members effected his writing ability. Here are the excerpts:

Songwriting slump: Supermodel girlfriend Stephanie Seymour and original Guns guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan "did more damage to my ability as a writer. To those three, it was all crap. It beat me down so much. At the time of the (Use Your Illusion) tours, Slash and Duff said, 'You're an idiot, you're a loser.' I didn't write for years. I felt I was hindered for a very long time. I was also trying to figure out what I wanted to say, when it's right to be venting and when you're digging a bigger hole. Lyrics on Chinese took a long time."

The long wait for Chinese Democracy: "I had to deal with so many other things that don't have to do with music but have to do with the industry. There's such a loss of time. It was more about survival. There wasn't anyone to work with or trust. Someone would come in to help produce and the reality was they just wanted to mix it and get it out the door. They had a different agenda. (The next album) will come out sooner."

Located at Bally's Atlantic City Hotel and Casino since May 2010, the restaurant is only open from May through Labor Day weekend.

The tour have recruited Texas In July, Close To Home and Sea of Treachery to headline legs of the tour and support acts will include Onward To Olympas, We Are Defiance, The Overseer, Creations, From Atlantis, Horizons, One Year Later, Serianna and Auburn.

The band's first album of all-new material in more than 11 years will be released November 6 on Columbia Records but they TV performances kick off today.

Things will kick tonight Thursday, November 1 with the band performing on "The Late Show with David Letterman," with Tyler and Perry sitting down to talk with Letterman as well. The next morning (Friday, November 2), Aerosmith will perform an outdoor concert on NBC's "The Today Show."

The two-day event will take place on May 11th-12th, 2013 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City (outside Tokyo).

The tour will be spread over March and April with 28 shows supported by three of the best local bands in every market.

The film will explore the evolution of the music business over the last decade with interviews from musicians, producers, managers, record labels and more. "We really wanted to take a look at how the changes of the past decade or so have affected people in the industry - the artists, producers, engineers, label employees, managers, etc.," explains Phillips. "This is not about corporations or the faceless entities that the public often perceives the music business to be. This is about the creative, passionate people, both on stage and behind the scenes, that make their living in this industry."

The rapidly expanding trek is set to coincide with the spring 2013 release of the band's latest album, What About Now. I

Just hours before the band drops their new album, the Seattle foursome will take the stage to treat online viewers worldwide to a webcast featuring fan favorites as well as tracks from King Animal.

The DVD features a full length concert from Gregg Allman and his band at The Cannery, Nashville, USA in November 1988.

The two-week trek will feature special guest Huntress as main support, and Hookers as the tour opener.

Last night the band was set to perform in New York City at Brooklyn's new Barclay's Arena for a Halloween show, but due to the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the show was postponed. Details of the new date to be announced soon.

The tour kicks off at the Birmingham o2 Academy on Wednesday November 21st and will span 8 dates.

So, I had been trying to write material for the new record and was coming up with songs, but it all sounded the same to me. Like I just kept rewriting the same songs over and over, and the songs weren't all that great to begin with. I mentioned something to my wife about it and she came up with this idea � step away from the piano (which is typically where I write most of my music) and try to write something on the guitar. That was all it took. I started with the chorus progression and then the verses came, and the lyrics pretty much wrote themselves. I remember it was a Sunday and I was really bummed that I had to go back to work the next day � as most people are on Sunday evenings! So the lyrics took on a sarcastic look at having to spend so much time doing something you really couldn't care less about. The song title is implied in the second verse by suggesting that the blues and alcohol are how we cope with this reality � like I said, very sarcastic!

The song took shape over the next couple of rehearsals. I did a demo that I sent to the rest of the band of me playing it on guitar � power chords and distortion. It wasn't until we started rehearsing it with me on the piano where I started getting the idea for the horns. The horn lines basically wrote themselves. We did another demo of it as the trio and I took that and sequenced the horn parts (it sounded ridiculous!) and wrote some charts which I sent to our horn section to study for the recording. We knew we wanted guitar on the tune as well. My friend Troy Gonyea is probably the best guitarist you could ever meet, and we were honored to get him to play on our record. I sent him all the demos that I had � the one with distortion and power chords and the one without guitar. We never rehearsed the song with him, he just showed up at the studio to lay down his parts. I was expecting something similar to the versions I had sent him, but he pulls out his slide and says that he wants to try something. So we start rolling and he lays down this slide track like he's been playing the song for 10 years. Upon hearing his slide and the horn parts, it suddenly sounded drastically different, but way better. We were thrilled. There's so much going on in the song that the piano part ended up being extremely simple. My goal was to stay out of everything's way!

And one last funny story I remember about this specific tune was that there's two separate lyric parts going on in the chorus. I remember driving to the studio with Pez discussing what we should do in the chorus � up to that point, we only had the background part established and we felt that the chorus should be a bit more distinct. So then we just started coming up with different rhymes that we could involve with lyrics about booze, and ultimately the line "So fill my glass up, I'm pretty hard up". The line in the final chorus � "High balls are back and better than ever" � is an inside joke with Pez and some friends of ours. We were pumped that it fit into one of the choruses!

The set captures the reunited band in concert at London's O2 Arena on December 10, 2007, when they headlined a tribute concert for dear friend and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun.

The project debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, the highest charting for a Skynyrd album since 1977.

"'Non-State Actor' is a song that [bassist] Ben [Shepherd] brought in and I wrote lyrics for," explains guitarist Kim Thayil. "We haven't done that songwriting combination before."

"I want my...I want my...I want my Snake TV!!!!" wrote Coverdale - with a nod to the opening of "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits - when he announced the new online channel on the band's website.

The Stones have played two secret shows in Paris in the past week as they continue rehearsing for their initial 50th Anniversary concerts.