A roundup of some of the top news in the world of hard rock and classic metal including Metallica & Megadeth at The Grammy Awards, Ozzy Osbourne and Sammy Hagar’s Rock and Roll Road Trip.
Metallica perform with Lady gaga at The Grammy Awards
Metallica‘s performance with Lady Gaga at the 59th Grammy Awards on February 12 suffered from a dead microphone during the first minute of “Moth Into Flame.” James Hetfield‘s microphone wasn’t working and it wasn’t until he walked over to Gaga‘s microphone that viewers could hear him.
At the end of the song, a visibly angry Hetfield hurled his guitar at a road-crew member while kicking over his mic stand.
“There was a slight technical snafu, but that’s not really something you can do much about,” drummer Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone. “You just learn to live with that side of it. It happened to Adele last year; I guess this year it was our turn.”
Check out footage of the performance with correct audio below
Megadeth Wins Best Metal Performance for “Dystopia” at 59th Grammy Awards
Megadeth won their very first Grammy Award (after being nominated a dozen times) on Sunday, taking home the honor for Best Metal Performance for the title track to their Dystopia album.
Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine laughed off the fact that the Grammy house band played a Metallica classic following their acceptance speech on Sunday night. Some fans noted that the house band began playing Metallica‘s “Master Of Puppets” following Megadeth‘s acceptance speech. Mustaine took to Twitter to address the controversy. He tweeted, “Ah, you can’t blame ’em for not being able to play Megadeth.”
Megadeth won over the other nominees: Baroness‘ “Shock Me,” Gojira‘s “Silvera,” Korn‘s “Rotting in Vain” and Periphery‘s “The Price is Wrong.”
Frontman Dave Mustaine said, “Fantastic! Only took twelve tries to get this. Last time we were here, we were talking to Kenny G, and he asked me how many times we were here and he goes, ‘Well, eleven isn’t that bad.’ I said, ‘How many times did it take you?’ And he said, Twenty-one.’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, my god. If it takes twenty-one times… I don’t know if I’ll live that long.'”
He then offered his thanks, “I want to thank Jesus Christ, I want to thank my wife, my children, all the band’s wives and kids. I want to thank our management, our label, our agent, our attorney, our crew, all of you, especially the metal community. It’s a little weird that we ended up being category 69, but somebody’s got a sense of humor.”
Ozzy Osbourne Confirmed to Headline Night of Total Eclipse at the 2017 Moonstruck Music Festival
Ozzy Osbourne is confirmed to headline the final night of the 2017 Moonstruck Music Festival, taking place August 18 – 21 in Carterville, IL. The festival’s website says: “On August 21st the US will witness a Total Solar Eclipse. An estimated 200,000 tourists will travel to southern Illinois to observe the point of greatest duration. On that day, at 1:20 PM, you can experience the light turn to darkness as Ozzy Osbourne kicks off his concert with “Bark At The Moon”. Moonstock 2017 – a 4 day music festival celebrating the Total Solar Eclipse is taking place at Walker’s Bluff, a picturesque vineyard located in beautiful southern Illinois.”
The only other act currently confirmed for the festival is Five Finger Death Punch, who will perform on Sunday, August 20.
Sammy Hagar Reveals Guests and Promo Video for Season 2 of “Rock and Roll Road Trip”
Season 2 of his show Rock & Roll Road Trip will follow Sammy as he travels the U.S. to interview and jam with artists including John Mellencamp, John Mayer, James Hetfield, Mick Fleetwood, Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick), Joe Satriani, Melissa Etheridge, Pat Monahan (Train), Toby Keith & more!
The first episode of Season 2 will air March 5 on AXS TV. The special hour-long show (the rest of the episodes are 30 minutes) focuses on Acoustic-4-A-Cure, the annual benefit concert founded by Hagar and Metallica‘s James Hetfield.
In case you missed Season 1 of the show, AXS will be running a marathon of Rock & Roll Road Trip on February 19. Hagar will also be answering fan questions that day during a Facebook Live stream on his page.
Visit www.redrocker.com/rockandrollroadtrip for the Season 2 schedule.
Check out the promo video for Season 2, here.
The 69-year-old Hagar slows no signs of slowing down. On March 16, he’ll speak at the annual South By Southwest event in Austin, Texas, discussing his music career along with his businesses and charity efforts.
