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Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner recently revealed on the Fueled By Death podcast that the band actually did hire a new vocalist for a brief time after parting ways with Scott Weiland in 2008. That vocalist was Los Angeles-based musician Franky Perez, whose involvement with the band was not widely known at the time. Perez gave a statement to Loudwire this week about his time in the group, saying, “Dave Kushner is a close friend, everything he said in regard to me is true and actually vindicating. Before his interview no one even knew I had been considered, not to mention hired.” Story source: Loudwire
Stone Sour has shared a trailer for its upcoming EP, Hydrograd Acoustic Sessions. The set will be released this Saturday (April 21st) and sold in independent record stores around the country as part of that day’s Record Store Day festivities. The disc will contain acoustic renditions of “Song #3,” “Mercy,” “Rose Red Violent Blue” and “The Witness Trees,” all songs from the band’s latest LP, Hydrograd. Story source: The PRP
Pearl Jam announced on Wednesday (April 18th) that its sold-out show at Missoula, Montana’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium on August 13th will be an official Rock2Vote event. Pearl Jam bassist and Montana native Jeff Ament said, “The band is super excited to come to Missoula and help energize the voters as we believe it’s a critical time in our democracy. Every vote is important. We’ll be doing what we do, supporting the issues we believe in, and we want our fans to join us by voting and participating in the election and coming to a big rock show at Washington-Griz Stadium.” Story source: Alternative Nation
A Perfect Circle‘s ban on mobile phones and other devices that could be used to film the band’s live show could not defeat fans at last weekend’s Coachella Festival in Indio, California. During the band’s set this past weekend, either the crowd was too big or festival organizers just didn’t enforce the group’s policy. As a result, the band’s entire set was filmed and posted online — although it has since been taken down. Story source: MetalSucks
Cheech & Chong are back with a 40th anniversary multimedia celebration of their 1978 film, Up In Smoke. The new deluxe edition includes the Blu-ray disc, original soundtrack CD, vinyl LP — along with a newly recorded “2018 Version” of “Up In Smoke.” We caught up with Tommy Chong and he recalled the recording session for Cheech & Chong’s classic “Basketball Jones” from their 1973 Los Chochinos album, which famously featured George Harrison.