Today's Day in Rock Stories

George Michael Dies From Reported Heart Failure At 53

"We are truly devastated to have to announce that Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt has passed away at lunchtime today," said the Parfitt family and Status Quo manager Simon Porter in a joint statement. "He died in hospital in Marbella, Spain as a result of a severe infection, having been admitted to hospital on Thursday evening following complications to a shoulder injury incurred by a previous fall. This tragic news comes at a time when Rick was hugely looking forward to launching a solo career with an album and autobiography planned for 2017 following his departure from Status Quo's touring activities on medical advice.

The group's November 22, 2009 concert at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, NY was a three-and-a-half-hour, 35-song marathon that included a rare performance of Springsteen's 1973 debut, "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.", in its entirety.

In addition to Clemons' last arena show with the E Street Band, the event also marked the final date on the group's tour in support of the singer's sixteenth album, "Working On A Dream."

In our first Day In Report of the year we saw Axl playing down rumors that the he would once again perform with the two other icons of the classic era of the band.

We reported: Axl Rose has issued his first public response to rumors of an impending announcement regarding a Guns N' Roses reunion. Rose tweeted on Friday: "The only thing I know 'confirmed' is my LOVE of Taco Bell! Mmmmm.... Taco Bell!! Happy New Years!!" Read the original report here.

But things quickly changed for the next day's report with the confirmation that that Rose, Slash and McKagan would be reuniting and would headline the Coachella Music Festival.

We had this to say at the time "The original lead guitarist and original bass player posted images on social media featuring the classic two-guns wrapped in roses Guns N' Roses logo over a backdrop of the festival site with "Coachella" written in the bottom corner.

Fans learned the say news via the following post on Bowie's Facebook and Twitter accounts, "January 10 2016 - David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family's privacy during their time of grief."

Bowie released his latest album Blackstar just a few days before on January 8, which was also his birthday. The man who shot to international superstardom with The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars in 1972 and frequently changed with the times had kept his illness a secret to everyone other than his family.

Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne offered the following tribute "It knocked the sh*t out of me. I had no idea that he was so ill. I don't think anybody knew how sick he was. I'd heard the reason he stopped touring was because he had two heart attacks or something. But apparently it was cancer.

The live audio clip of what Renoff calls a rock opera was captured during a live performance at Pasadena High School on April 25th, 1975 and features the two-songs "Eyes Of The Night - Forced Entry".

On Jan 4th reported: A public memorial service for Lemmy will be held at the late rocker's favorite bar and hangout, The Rainbow Bar & Grill in West Hollywood.

"Join us Saturday, January 9th as we say goodbye a dear friend and loved one," announced the bar. "We will open our doors at 2:00pm. Come celebrate the life of Lemmy Kilmister. Legends never die."

"It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our comrade, Eagles founder, Glenn Frey, in New York City on Monday, January 18th, 2016," said the band in a statement. "Glenn fought a courageous battle for the past several weeks but, sadly, succumbed to complications from Rheumatoid Arthritis, Acute Ulcerative Colitis and Pneumonia.

"The Frey family would like to thank everyone who joined Glenn to fight this fight and hoped and prayed for his recovery. Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us, his family, the music community & millions of fans worldwide."

The Eagles postponed plans to attend the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors last month as Frey underwent major surgery for the health issue. "He was like a brother to me; we were family, and like most families, there was some dysfunction," said Eagles drummer and vocalist Don Henley. "But, the bond we forged 45 years ago was never broken, even during the 14 years that the Eagles were dissolved. We were two young men who made the pilgrimage to Los Angeles with the same dream: to make our mark in the music industry -- and with perseverance, a deep love of music, our alliance with other great musicians and our manager, Irving Azoff, we built something that has lasted longer than anyone could have dreamed.

"But, Glenn was the one who started it all. He was the spark plug, the man with the plan. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music and a work ethic that wouldn't quit. He was funny, bullheaded, mercurial, generous, deeply talented and driven. He loved is wife and kids more than anything.

"We are all in a state of shock, disbelief and profound sorrow. We brought our two-year 'History of the Eagles Tour' to a triumphant close at the end of July and now he is gone.

"I'm not sure I believe in fate, but I know that crossing paths with Glenn Lewis Frey in 1970 changed my life forever, and it eventually had an impact on the lives of millions of other people all over the planet. It will be very strange going forward in a world without him in it. But, I will be grateful, every day, that he was in my life.

Rockin' 1000 followed up their massive debut with another video on Monday. This time, the band covered Foo Fighters' "Saint Cecilia," off the band's most recent EP by the same name. Rather than perform together, as they did with their last cover, Rockin' 1000 gathered musicians the world over to contribute.

"Jimmy's struggles with his demons were well documented through the years, but over the last 18 months he had finally won that battle and he was bright and lucid and motivated throughout the writing and recording of the new record. He leaves behind him a rich legacy of work from Rainbow, through Wild Horses, Dio, and finally, Last In Line. Jimmy was immensely proud of our new album and his input to it was immeasurable."

Their driver Greg Hoke died, along with the driver of the other vehicle involved, Steven Cunningham. Guitarist Zach Johnson, frontman Jonathan Vigil and Tkaczyk were airlifted to hospital and were in a critical condition.

In an Instagram post, Tkaczyk reveals he lost a leg as a result of the crash and also details a string of other injuries. But he insists he'll play the drums again. Tkaczyk says: "So the rumors are true everyone. Unfortunately I did lose my leg in this accident.

"This is one injury among many others such as fractures in my ribs, spine, and hip along with some ligament tears in my rotator cuff and labrum. I have remained in positive and good spirits since I woke up from a 10-day coma in November to the sight of my missing leg. Not going to let it stop me.

Classic Rock reported at the time, the alleged incident took place at the couple's Upper East Side apartment. Fagen, 67, was accused of shoving Libby Titus onto a marble window frame.

Ward - who participated in the initial rehearsals for the "13" album and tour - has always maintained that he sat out a reunion over contractual issues while the band says the drummer was not physically fit to take on the road, bringing in Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk for the studio sessions and Tommy Clufetos of Ozzy Osbourne's solo band to handle live shows.

As recent as the summer of 2015, Ward said he still wanted to regroup with his bandmates for another tour but an apology from Ozzy for remarks in recent years was a necessary first step to a full reunion.

Butler echoed Osbourne's comments about Ward's health issues in an interview with Classic Rock Revisited that brought an immediate public response from the drummer.

"We started out with Bill on the 13 tour," explains Butler. "That is the way we all thought it was going to be, that Bill was going to be part of this whole thing. It just turned out that is wasn't to be. His health has to come first before anything.

"It's beyond the money thing. It is not really anything to do with that. It is whether he's capable of touring or not. On the 13 tour, he was not on that tour. About a week after we started he had to go into the hospital for major surgery. We would have had to cancel the tour if Bill was still with us."

"He hasn't been well for a long time," Butler continued. "He's had a couple of heart attacks. You have to face facts when you get to our age and you're not in great, great health rather you can go out on the road for two years, or whatever. It is a hard life to do. The easy part is when you're on stage playing. It is all of the traveling and everything else that comes with it that is the hard part.

"I think Ozzy, in particular, didn't think Bill would get through it. He certainly wouldn't have got through the first part as he was in the hospital. We can't keep cancelling tours just because the drummer can't play."

hennemusic reported at the time: As part of The Book of Souls World Tour, the band will perform at Beijing's LeSports Center on April 24 and Shanghai's Mercedes-Benz Arena on April 26.

According to a press release the 16-track album features Santana's classic line-up of keyboardist and vocalist Gregg Rolie, Journey guitarist Neal Schon, percussionist Michael Carabello and drummer Michael Shrieve.

"It was magical," Santana says of the sessions. "We didn't have to try to force the vibe - it was immense. From there, we then needed to come up with a balance of songs and jams that people would immediately identify as Santana."

The legal papers were delivered to FitzRay's, a venue in London, Ontario, where Sandman were due to perform at the weekend. It reads: "We are kindly writing to request that Sandman stop using the name Metallica, the phonetic equivalent of Metallica or any of Metallica's logos on or to identify or promote live musical performances."

Di Taranto posted an image of the front page of the letter on Facebook, adding: "So as some of you may or may not know, in my spare time from Warmachine, I play in a couple of tribute acts - one being a ?Metallica tribute called Sandman.

"Last night when we arrived at the venue for our show in London, we were served with cease and desist papers courtesy of Metallica's lawyers. Quite funny."

"Many years ago I had a friend by the slightly unusual name of Bleu Ocean," recalls the Dream Theater keyboard maestro. "He was a very good drummer; I believe he had been one of the studio drummers for The Monkees, playing with them behind the scenes. Anyway, Bleu got the job of assembling a marching band that would appear on the song Bring The Boys Back Home.

"I was hanging out at Bleu's home one day and he said, 'Come on man, come to the studio and watch the recording of the track. You could even be a part of it'. Well, I wasn't a drummer - by that point I'd have been around 18 years old and had long since decided that keyboards would be my life - but I'd played some very basic snare drum when I was in Third Grade.

"So I went with him to the session. I walked in, someone gave me a drum and some sticks. I'm playing along and having a really good time but as I'm doing so I become aware that Bob Ezrin [producer] is looking at me across the room, eyebrow slightly askew and finally he says: 'I don't think so'.

"After he'd picked me out I went and sat in the control room and long before anyone else we got to hear a playback of that track, though of course we had no idea of what it meant or where it would fit in the overall puzzle of Pink Floyd's album." Read more here.

But under an amendment to the law introduced in the 1980s, record companies can claim lost profits on uncompleted albums, which is what Warner Brothers intends to do, according to Billboard.

A7X's lawyer Howard E King says: "Avenged Sevenfold recently exercised the rights given them by this law and ended its recording agreement with Warner Bros Records.

He acrimoniously split with the group in 1996 and has been critical of the band since, saying they were "allergic to cash" and claimed Rachel Bolan and co turned down $500,000 for two reunion shows.

Skid Row have insisted there would be no reunion following the departure of singer Tony Harnell - but Bach thinks it's now time for both parties to put the past behind them. The vocalist says in response to a fan tweet, "Only way a Skid Row Reunion could happen is if we somehow tried2 bury a 20 year hatchet between us. Would love the chance to do so."