Them Crooked Vultures features a host of rock's most notable names, including Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters/Nirvana), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin).

The event is to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Clapton pulled out the event because the removal of gallstones. Clapton "will spend time recuperating at home in the UK and is very sorry to disappoint the fans and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," a statement said.

The tour will touch down next summer in Anaheim; Denver; Oakland; Seattle; Edmonton; East Lansing; Miami; Philadelphia and Montreal. U2 360� will also return for one night only in Toronto and Chicago before finishing the North American leg in New York at the New Meadowlands Stadium. On U2 360� the band currently play 22 live tracks, the first time fans have heard tracks from No Line On the Horizon, one of the best selling albums globally this year..

"Mental health diseases are unpredictable," says Furstenfeld. "And on the eve of this tour in support of a cause that means the world to me, I am in need of time to heal from a setback in my own personal life, which is severe enough for me to seek hospitalization. I hope that my action to seek the strength and safety of treatment will inspire others that are suffering to do the same."

The Pick Up The Phone Tour was to benefit suicide prevention and was created through a partnership between the non-profit organizations To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA), Postsecret.com, Synclive.com, and 1-800-SUICIDE�The National Hopeline Network.

The tour will feature Switchfoot playing Hello Hurricane in its entirety, followed by fan favorites from its previous records. The band will be collecting donations for local food banks along the tour route, so fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable items to the shows. (See below for tour itinerary and a list of food banks that will receive donations.)

As a result, we will begin our mission to raise significant funds to help ensure Chi's recovery by playing a benefit show at the Avalon in Hollywood, CA on 11/19. Tickets will go on-sale for our fans this Wednesday, 10/28 with a general on-sale to follow on Friday, 10/30. All proceeds will go to the Chi Ling Cheng Special Needs Trust that has been set up by the Cheng family to help pay for the growing medical costs required for Chi's survival and recovery.

In the event that you do not live in Los Angeles, or you don't end up getting a ticket for the show, we will be launching a series of online auctions, an online store and making available other opportunities for you to make a donation to the Trust. More details will come soon. We have the best fans in the world and Chi values all of you greatly. Please continue to show your unwavering support by helping with this very important cause. More details on this coming tomorrow.

The app separates itself from the pack with an impressive level of interactivity; its custom-built functionality allows fans to interact with each of the album's 11 tracks via a touch, drag and hold feature that reveals hidden visual gems.

This huge announcement comes on the heels of the band being handed picked by Megadeth for select North American dates in December. The band received the news as they were playing headline dates on route to kick off a lengthy U.S. trek with Vader, Decrepit Birth, The Amenta, Augury and Swashbuckle Nov. 4 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Beginning January 7, in Washington, DC at the 9:30 Club, the tour includes stops in New York at Webster Hall and Chicago at the Metro, before wrapping up in Los Angeles at the Henry Fonda Theatre.

The song "Sunrise on Avenue C" began about 6 years ago when I wrote a song called "Broken" which had that verse melody which I really loved but the rest of the song, the chorus, the bridge and really the whole recording of "Broken " didn't really survive more than a few months. It was ok but I just forgot about it but always loved that verse melody. So id always be fooling around with it.

Fast forward a few years and I'm living in New York and having plenty of late nights in the east village. Coming out of Nublu or Speakeasy's at 6am, having tied one on in no uncertain terms. Well, my relationship with Avenue C was sealed! Ok, so on a visit to the UK in the summer of 2006 I was staying with my friend in Brighton when I was suddenly visited by the line "Sunrise on Avenue C" It came to me in a flash and I thought it was
pretty, so it stuck. I toyed with Avenue B for a while but C won out!

Anyway, I started to play that old "Broken" melody and came up with a few lines around that idea. Being in the east village at a ridiculous hour and feeling messed up and how it might feel to be on this adventure of having just arrived in New York with your girlfriend and trying to make a life here.
The song began to take shape. I re wrote the lyrics many, many times. In fact I have almost an entire book full of different versions of it. Tweaking it till I felt it was ok. In fact I even rewrote the 2nd verse after id recorded it because someone pointed out that it wasn't quite satisfying the way it was and I agreed with him. It needed a more personal lyric. One that fleshed out the relationship between the 2 characters, so I wrote the verse "We came to make this place our home" etc. Now a few things about the recording. I was rehearsing the song with Leslie Mendelson and she was playing the piano here in my Chinatown apartment and as I remember it, she kind of played that intro line and I just jumped on it and said "Do that again" and that was it! We had the intro counter melody thing which sets the song up so nicely. What else can I say? Well originally, I didn't have the "Sunrise, Sunrise" bit but after playing the song to JW Johnson when he worked at Razor and Tie he suggested it needed another section so I came up with that and that's how it ended up.

One last thing that I really want to add is that I wanted to conjure up a feeling that I had one time while crashing on someone's floor after a night of over indulgence on First Avenue and 6th street. I'm half asleep, its probably 7am, there are maybe 6 or 7 people lying all over the place at my friend Pats apartment. Its quiet and everyone is just still and trying to sleep. Then in the far distance, what sounds like half a mile away, out in the street, I hear the wonderful sound of a brass instrument playing the old gospel song " A close walk with thee" It sounds so beautiful and crystal clear that I think I'm in a dream. What is this beautiful sound? Where is it coming from? Who is playing it? Then I slowly realize that it's coming not from outside but from right here in this room. As I drifted back to full consciousness I looked over and saw it was Clarke Gayton quietly, so quietly, so perfectly. Playing that song on his trombone and I swear it was so beautiful I could hardly
believe it.

And that's kind of the feeling I wanted to get on the song and that's why he is playing that solo at the end of the song. So that's it. That's the story of "Sunrise on Avenue C"