JEFF BECK, FOOS, ARCADE FIRE TO BACK JAGGER ON 'SNL'

Foo Fighters with Jeff Beck will perform as one of two backing bands for Mick Jagger on the 37th season finale of Saturday Night Live, which is scheduled to air on May 19th. According to Entertainment Weekly, Jagger -- who will also serve as host and musical guest -- will also be backed by Canadian alternative rockers Arcade Fire. There's no word yet on what songs he intends to play.

Rumors have been circulating for days that the rest of the Rolling Stones themselves would be joining Jagger on the show, with sources saying that the band was rehearsing in either Manhattan or New Jersey. Those reports have yet to be officially confirmed.

The May 19th show will be Foo Fighters main man Dave Grohl's 11th appearance on Saturday Night Live, including performances with Nirvana, the Foos, Them Crooked Vultures and one time behind the drums for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Playing with classic rock legends is nothing new for the Foos as a group either. The band has been joined onstage in the past by members of Queen, Rush and Led Zeppelin, and recently backed Pink Floyd's Roger Waters during a performance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Van Halen Expand North American Tour

Van Halen have added more dates to their "A Different Kind Of Truth" North American tour.

Five new shows have been announced, including stops in Sacramento, CA, Fresno, CA, Reno, NV, Salt Lake City, UT and Wichita, KS.

The new dates are a part of the second leg of the tour, which Van Halen announced last month. The full series of summer shows start July 7 in Uncasville, CT.

No AC/DC Album For Some Time

Malcolm Young revealed to Classic Rock Magazine that the band would be taking an extended break following a grueling Black Ice World Tour which saw them on the road for the better part of two years.

He dismissed recent comments from frontman Brian Johnson that they would be looking to go back to the studio and that there may be new material next year.

"You know what Brian’s like," said Young. "He just says things and then walks away. It’ll be a little while – a year or two anyway.

"I’ve been doing some jamming on some song ideas but I do that all the time, as do the rest of the band. We are still working. But we had a long rest between Stiff Upper Lip and Black Ice, so I think we need a couple of years to recuperate and work on it a bit more.”

THE EAGLES HONORED BY BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC

The Eagles were on hand on Saturday (May 12th) when the band received honorary degrees from Boston's Berklee College of Music, according to Vintage Vinyl News. Also honored was bluegrass Grammy winner Alison Krauss and Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke.

The Eagles -- Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit -- sat in the third row while the school's musicians played a selection of their best-loved songs from both the songwriters' band and solo careers, including "Take It Easy," "Desperado," "Hotel California," "Heartache Tonight," "I Can't Tell You Why," "Funk #49, "Keep On Trying," The Heart Of The Matter," and "The Heat Is On."

Joe Walsh Unveils New Video

Joe Walsh has released another live performance of a track from his forthcoming new album, Analog Man.

The new video sees the Eagles guitarist performing his latest single, 'Lucky That Way', which he has described as a "sequel of sorts" to his classic 'Life's Been Good.'

Did Hendrix Really Plan to Join ELP?

Greg Lake has revealed the truth behind rumors stating Jimi Hendrix was planning to collaborate with Emerson, Lake and Palmer shortly before his death.

Currently on his ‘Songs Of A Lifetime‘ solo tour, Lake spoke with the Phoenix New Times about a musical union that never quite materialized between himself and Hendrix:

“Jimi used to come and watch King Crimson,” Lake said, “When Keith [Emerson] and I got together we went looking for a drummer. The first person I talked to was Mitch Mitchell because the Experience had just broken up and Jimi was off doing this Band of Gypsies thing. Mitch was available at the time, and he said maybe we should get Jimi together. He’ll be finished with this band of Gypsies thing in a few weeks, and we can get together and maybe the four of us should play. I said, ‘fair enough,’ and that’s how we left it.”

“A couple of days later,” he continues, “we got a call from Roger Stigwood (Bee Gees and Cream manager), who said ‘Look, I’ve got the perfect drummer for you. A guy called Carl Palmer.’  We played together, it was instantaneously obvious that the chemistry was right. That was the band we were looking for. And so that was it really. We made a decision on the spot. A short while after Jimi was found dead in an apartment in London. The press got a hold of the story that we might jam with Jimi, and speculated that the group would be called HELP. But, alas, it was just a rumor.”

Author Discusses Rush' Clockwork Angels Novel

Colorado-based sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson has teamed up with Rush drummer Neil Peart to create a novelization of the new Rush album, “Clockwork Angels.”

"Most of you are aware of my long-standing friendship with Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist from the legendary rock band Rush, as well as how much Rush has influenced my work,” announced Anderson a few months ago. “My first novel, 'Resurrection, Inc.', was closely inspired by the Rush album 'Grace Under Pressure', and I can point to dozens of other novels and stories that bear a clear Rush influence."

"For more than twenty years, Neil and I have wanted to collaborate on something MAJOR, a way we could tie together our imaginations, and at last that's happening.”

"I'm writing the novelization of Rush's forthcoming album, 'Clockwork Angels', their first new CD in five years. Imagine if someone had written the novel of 'The Wall', 'Tommy', or 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' when those classic albums were released. For Rush fans, 'Clockwork Angels' is that project.”

Amazon has listed a September 1 date for the release of “Clockwork Angels; The Novel.”

BON JOVI: Sambora’s Solo Release on Indie Label

Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora is going to release his third solo album on a very unlikely label. The self-titled album -- due out in the late summer -- will be coming out on the indie imprint Dangerbird Records.

The label is home to Silversun Pickups, Fitz and the Tantrums and Minus the Bear, bands that are pretty far away from Bon Jovi's sound.

Sambora tells L.A. Weekly, "My record doesn't sound like Bon Jovi at all. It's got different musicians and I have a different point of view. There will be a lot of jamming on there."

Sambora says he and Jon Bon Jovi have been writing recently and aim to have a new Bon Jovi album out early next year.

Jon Bon Jovi will appear on ABC's food-centered talk show The Chew on Friday.

Paul McCartney Gives Beatles Classic A Mexican Twist

Paul McCartney gave Beatles classic "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" a Mexican twist when he performed in Mexico City last week - by bringing out a mariachi band to join him on the track.

McCartney staged a free concert for an estimated 250,000 people at Zocalo - the city's most historic venue which has drawn audiences since the Aztec period - and delighted fans by jamming for three hours.

During the gig, McCartney showed his love for the country by waiving a Mexican flag and he admits he was moved by the turnout.

He says, "It was quite emotional and exciting that people who might not be able to afford to come to our shows could come to this. It was like Beatlemania all over again.

When you visit places that you don't often come to, like South America, they've been saving up the excitement so when you get there they let it all go."

The free Mexico City date marked the end of McCartney's North American tour.

Ringo Loses Beatles Pics

Ringo Starr has revealed to Rolling Stone Magazine that he has misplaced his huge collection of personal photographs which he took in the 60s.

He revealed that he was a prolific photographer, and he has pictures behind the scenes pics from rehearsals, TV appearances and film sets but he has lost them.

"I don't know where they are," he says. "I wish I did. There's been several moves and things happen."

He says that he still hopes to one day stumble across them. A decade ago he came across a box of postcards from his bandmates and he published them in 2004 as a book called Postcards From The Boys.

"I found a box on my shelf and was like, 'What the hell is that?'" Starr recalls. "And it was full of the postcards. At the time we were moving house yet again, and the secretary I had at the time decided to put them all in envelopes and put them in a shoebox. That's how I found out I still had them. So you never know – one day I may find another box with all my photos."

Keith Won't Appear With Jagger on ‘SNL’

Last week rumors suggested that the Stones would reunite on TV as Mick Jagger hosts the final Saturday Night Live of its current season.

However, those rumors were unsubstantiated and are now dead after Keith Richards revealed that he won't be appearing on the show.

"I spoke to Mick and he said it's something that he said yes to many months ago, so he's just doing it," Richards told Rolling Stone Magazine. "He's on his own."

When asked if he'd be tuning to watch his partner perform, he laughed and said: "Probably."

Mick won't be lacking in musical backing on the night, though. The Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire and Jeff Beck are all thought to be playing with the Stones frontman.

House Where Brian Jones Died for Sale

Cotchford Farm, a piece of property that has historical significance for fans of both morbid rock 'n' roll deaths and Tigger's honey-obsessed best friend, is for sale.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Cotchford Farm was put on the market last week for £2 million ($3,220,000 US). The home, located in East Sussex, England, is perhaps best known as the site of Rolling Stones' guitarist Brian Jones' death in July 1969, where he was found in the swimming pool. Prior to Jones owning the property it was the home of author A.A. Milne, who wrote the Winnie the Pooh books.

Lee Talks Rush’s ‘Clockwork Angels’

With a new album coming out, Rush are ramping up their publicity machine. On Thursday (May 10) bassist and vocalist Geddy Lee appeared on U.K. radio to talk about ‘Clockwork Angels,’ namely, why it took so long for it to come to fruition.

Lee explained that the genesis of the album came about in 2010 when they were planning the ‘Time Machine’ tour. “We didn’t feel good about going out without anything new,” Lee said. “It feels to us that we need new material to stay contemporary in our view. So we…started writing some material based on an idea that we had discussed the previous winter for a potential album featuring a single story line. So we wrote four of those songs and two of them, we recorded very quickly, one called ‘Caravan’ and the other called ‘BU2B.’”

Rush was able to include the songs on the ‘Time Machine’ tour, which began in June 2010 featured the band playing their 1981 album ‘Moving Pictures’ in its entirety. But the tour, which was only supposed to last three or four months, was so successful that they took it around the world. The tour’s last show was July 2, 2011.

“Long story short,” Lee continued. “In the fall of this past year, 2011, we finally got back together to continue writing and putting the rest of the album together, and finished it in February.”

‘Clockwork Angels’ is coming out on Roadrunner Records on June 12.

GN’R: Weiland Says He's Back With Velvet Revolver

There's a couple of contrasting stories coming out of the Velvet Revolver camp.

First up, Scott Weiland has announced in a radio interview that he's due to reconvene with his former bandmates to start working on a new album and to head out on the road for a handful of dates later this year.

"We’ve all grown a lot,” said Weiland. "We’re able to put egos and differences and old...conflicts aside and so that’s really cool.”

Weiland added that VR has already begun the writing process for their third studio album. "They gave me a couple of songs and myself and [guitarist] Dave [Kushner] and [bassist] Duff [McKagan] are gonna be getting together for a song writing session next week,” he said.

"Slash’s solo album gets released [on May 22] and so he’s gonna do some touring on that and then we’re gonna go and do some [Velvet Revolver] shows in the later part of summer into early fall.”

HOWEVER, Slash was later told by Minneapolis radio station about Weiland’s statement.

"He did not (say that)! He’s out of his mind,” he said jovially.” There’s been a common rumor going around, I know that he’s been positive on that subject.”

"I have absolutely no intention of going back to that... I'm on tour all year,” he responded. "I'll call Duff, but I seriously doubt [there is any truth to Weiland's comments]. We have no intention of going backwards."

Bad Company: Free Pondered Kossoff Hologram

Andy Fraser tells Classic Rock Magazine that the surviving members of Free were approached to play at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, and one option they considered was using a hologram to replicate guitarist Paul Kossoff, who died in 1976.

"I always figured we would re-marry our ex-wives before getting back together. But the event was such that I felt I should put aside my personal demons,” explained Fraser. "We considered many guitarists. I suggested Mark Knopfler, Ron Wood, Dave Gilmour. I was looking into a Kossoff hologram by the Tupac people, so we would actually be playing with his track.”

Ultimately, Fraser says, the talks didn’t pan out. "The million-dollar price tag didn’t go down too well with others — or suggestions about guitarists,” he admitted. "I don’t see it coming together now.”’

Kiss Unveil Multiple Covers for First Issue of ‘Dressed to Kill’ Comic Book

Kiss Comics Issue #1 will have six different covers available. The issue is titled ‘Dressed to Kill’ and will land in stores on June 13th.

For more info you can visit Kiss’s official Facebook page.

Ramones: Alan Rickman To Portray CBGBs Owner

A new biopic of the famous punk club and Hilly Kristal is on the way

Billboard.com reports that the club's famous history and its owner will be fictionalized in a new film by Randall Miller and Jody Savin.

The movie will star Harry Potter actor Rickman as the club's owner and it is due to film this summer, before Miller and Savin move on to film a new biopic of Dennis Wilson in the winter.