Real Rock Today: September 28, 2015
Don Henley: My voice won’t last much longer. But I’m lucky to have had an amazing career
Called Taylor. The sun beats down from a cloudless sky. A pick-up truck cruises through the deserted main street. Inside the Louie Mueller BBQ restaurant a young woman at a table is wide-eyed with delight. “I can’t believe it,” she says to her husband. “I can’t believe that Don Henley of The Eagles has touched my baby’s hand.”
The baby – a placid infant of nine months – looks unmoved. But both his parents are thrilled. Yet this couple, in their early 30s, wouldn’t have been born when The Eagles split up in 1980. The Eagles cast a long shadow. And here in Texas, Don – drummer, singer, songwriter – is not merely rock royalty, he is one of theirs. And he’s having lunch.
Legendary singer Robert Plant dazzles
Am I mad to go to loathsome Vegas? Is the turbulence I feel as the plane ascends to the heavens a symbol of what awaits me in the desert gambling capital?
Although Las Vegas is close to Phoenix I managed to avoid it until now. Flying through the clouds to see one of the most esteemed rock singers of all time, I recall missing his shows three times with today almost being a fourth. (Had to reschedule my flight when I failed to bring my concert ticket to the airport.) What is up with missing Robert Plant’s concert? Will I ever get to see the self proclaimed “Golden God” of rock?
Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell on Cancer: ‘I’ll Probably Be Dealing With It for the Rest of My Life’
Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell has gone through some highs and lows in his cancer battle over the last couple of years. There was a period where he thought his cancer had passed, but it returned. He also went through a stem cell transplant, feeling that was his best option to keep it from returning the second time around, but it has returned once again. In a new interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, Campbell addresses his current health status.
“The bad news is it keeps coming back,” said Campbell. “The good news is the treatment I’m doing largely continues to work, which is a big, big part of the recovery for me, to be able to continue to do what it is that defines who I am. I’ve had a couple rounds of chemo — actually, three rounds of chemo. And last October I did a stem cell transplant. And I kind of naively thought that’d be it, and I was done with it. I guess given the benefit now of my experiences with this, I kinda realize that I’ll probably be dealing with it for the rest of my life. So we’re trying a new track now.”
Walter Becker’s 11 Tracks Of Whack took chances Steely Dan never did
Any album of the same vintage of Walter Becker’s 11 Tracks of Whack, like a fine wine, can ferment gracefully or go sour.
First, a little background on the album, released on September 27, 1994. After Steely Dan went dark in 1981, Becker spent the 1980s moving to Hawaii and doing some production work, most notably for China Crisis, Michael Franks and Rickie Lee Jones. Other than that, not much is known of the extent of his activities. Somewhere around 1992, he and his old partner Donald Fagen started working together again and when Fagen decided to record his long-awaited follow up to The Nightfly, he chose Walter Becker to produce it, provide some guitar work, and even co-write one tune (“Snowbound”).
Robert Plant Dead? Fake Facebook Page Claims That Led Zeppelin Singer Found Dead
Robert Plant is not dead, but a report of the Led Zeppelin singer’s death still fooled countless fans into thinking he had taken the Stairway to Heaven.
In the last week, a Facebook page began circulating claiming that Plant was found dead on Friday, the IB Times reported. The page, titled RIP Robert Plant, included more fake details about his alleged death.
David Lee Roth Delivers For Van Halen…Mostly
In a provocative article published by Billboard magazine back in June, Eddie Van Halen is quoted as saying of David Lee Roth, “He does not want to be my friend,” and went on to explain that he thinks that Roth should act his age and that Van Halen has not recorded a new album for this tour because, “…there are four people in this band, and three of us like rock and roll. And one of us likes dance music.”
The article had many people speculating that the current Van Halen tour would implode and that Roth would be out of the band again; however, Eddie And Dave are reportedly getting along fine now and put aside any personal differences they may have. At Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Friday night, Van Halen put on an entertaining and energetic live show and the band seemed to share a sense of camaraderie throughout it.
